Massage Therapy Classes
One of my gripes about the massage profession and the process of professional massage licensing is the fact that the National Certification Board of Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) requires that massage students take classes in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and understand how the meridians work in the body. Just a few years ago there was only one test and that required knowing the meridians.
While I am all for TCM and go to acupuncturists myself for many various ailments - can you really learn enough about the meridians in a weekend workshop to be able to know what to do to work with them? Is it really necessary for massage therapists to know about meridians to have a successful massage practice?
To me TCM is a lifestyle and lifelong learning process. It takes a few years to be proficient in something like this. I personally do not anyone working on my meridians after taking a weekend workshop.
While the NCBTMB also has another exam where they don’t require having to know meridians they call the other exam - the National Certification in Therapeutic Massage. You don’t have to know about meridians but you do have to know about posture and alignment. That to me is what a bodyworker knows since most of my extensive training (about 6 years of my 20 years in the massage profession) were spent learning structural integration. I became a bodyworker after that. The test that requires knowing the meridians is called the National Certification in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork. So apparently just because you know the meridians you can call your self a bodyworker.
The whole thing is very confusing because the profession has no clear definition of what the terms massage or bodywork even mean.
Now here is the thing - If you want to study meridians and TCM please so so and study it with all of your heart. But don’t make me learn it or have anything to do with it. I have no interest in it or have the time (1 year or more) to put into learning something like that. It is not needed to practice massage successfully.
Yes it can help you if you are interested in it but making it a requirement is beyond ridiculous. If you are a TCM practitioner I am not saying your work is not valid or important so please don’t take this personally.
The whole problem lies in the not knowing what is really needed to be a successful massage therapist. From what I understand the NCBTMB does do surveys on what classes people have taken and they ask if people have studied meridians. Of course they have studied it because they made it be a requirement! Is it necessary? NO.
Basic massage skills do not require knowing the meridians or anything about them or any branch of traditional Chinese medicine.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Hello there, I am currently a student in a massage therapy program in Ontario our program is 2200 hours long. We are not required to take TCM. However,courses in TCM can count towards our Continuing Education Units that are required once we complete our registrations exams. That way if someone is interested to go this route they can if not they can certainly focus on many other avenues available to them.
I agree with you that it should not be a requirement for students but rather an elective.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:27 am
I agree wholeheartedly! What upsets me is the idea that perfectly good (or even excellent) therapists could be denied their certification due to not knowing this stuff. If someone doesn’t know their acetabulum from a hole in the ground, sure, make them study longer. But if they don’t know squat about the spleen meridian? I’ve been a massage therapist for 1.5 years, and I gotta say, it’s never come up. NCBTMB is doing themselves, and massage therapy, a disservice by blurring the lines like this.