Or do they???
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Massage therapists warn state: Hands off our rights!

A group of health-care providers are suing state officials over a law prohibiting relationships with former clients.

For once I am agreeing with the law in some respect. Massage therapists are in the role of power whenever anyone makes a phone call to make an appointment that person is looking for help - whether it is for stress reduction, to help with pain or an injury - whatever the reason for visiting a massage therapist - the client is automatically placed in a role where they look up to the massage therapist as the one who can help them or solve their problem. The act of looking to others often is hidden with many agendas and projections. Clients look to the massage therapist as if they were their parents. It is a very unconscious process and many would say that it just isn’t true. The thing is you don’t really know when it is true or not.

Dating a client who is in the state of transference would be like dating your child. The client sees the therapist as their parent who never gave them what they wanted or met their early childhood need. The client who finally gets seen by the massage therapist projects their feelings onto the massage therapist.

This is a common law for psychologists and doctors who are engaged in therapeutic relationships.  While it is a case of the law getting into your personal business, it does bring up the fact that massage schools do not teach boundaries or the therapeutic relationship effectively. I am sure the client/therapist who married don’t think it is a problem and it may work in some relationships to keep projecting parent figures onto each other, it is really something to consider carefully and not take lightly.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 9:02 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.