I have been interested in the licensing and legislation issues that are always going on in the massage profession and just recently started thinking from the point of view of the “Law of Attraction” or the movie “The Secret”.
The main issues are around protecting the public from harm and from separating our work from prostitution. Massage therapists use the massage front for bringing in illegal activities.
While I am not sure what the answer is – more licensing requirements or more freedom of health laws, what I finally started realizing is that we are all creating this by focusing on it!
What could we focus on to make things better for the profession and the public?
The only thing I see is to focus on defining ourselves as a profession. What is massage and what does it entail? Is there a difference between massage and bodywork? What is medical massage? Is medical massage just being able to bill insurance companies or does it require a certain level of training and education above and beyond basic massage school?
I wonder what we can do to protect the public from harm and help massage therapists create successful practices and have more opportunities for jobs and work?
When we get so caught up in making people right and wrong it only creates more right and wrong – more stress, more anger, more separation.
We seem to forget what our basic message is to the world and what massage does – it is really the basis for learning how to feel which is the key to living.
What do we fear when we get into these political arguments over how much education is needed and what exactly the schools need to teach and what does a massage therapist really need to know to be competent and safe.
If the premise of what we think becomes our reality (which I believe in and think is true),
How has are thinking and worrying about prostitution and harming the public actually created it even more?
I don’t really know the answer to this, but know what we are doing is not working.
