Does this “certified massage therapist” thing contain a whiff of hooey to anybody else?
First of all, it seems REAL trendy right now. It seems like there’s a lot of people going into it just on a whim. They even did it on the Sopranos. I think there’s a bit of “become a certified massage therapist” marketing going on.
Regardless. . .
Do these certifying organizations really do anything? If I have a good “massage giver”, who gives a crap if s/he’s not certified. It’s not like s/he’s a doctor or even a physical therapist.
Are the certifying organizations the same ones profiting from the schools?
Are the accrediting organizations the same ones profiting from the schools?
If no. . .are you SURE?
Are the organizations just set up to protect their numbers, because they know that anyone can just set up a massage parlor?
33 states require a license. Not 50 – as if you were a pharmacist, or something. Are the government licensers really just set up to collect a few extra licensing fees (and the accompanying renewal fees), and were those laws set up because the massage certifying groups lobbied for it?
Would they really enforce someone practicing massage without a license?
When did these certifying organizations first pop up?
What problems were they addressing?
Now, I’m not knocking massage here. Or people who want to go into it. It seems to me that massage can exist just fine on its own, and that all this certifying stuff is just private enterprise and government trying to skim their piece off the top.
Trunk, as I said earlier in the thread, “certified” means you went to a school approved by the state board of education and took a series of classes approved by the state board of education in order to recieve a certificate (in some cases, a diploma) stating that you are a massage therapist.
The “certifying agencies” are the schools, under the supervision of the state board of education.
Programs vary, as I said before. In my case, that included a bit over 500 hours of training, including 100 hours of anatomy and physiology, 300 hours of hand-on body work in Swedish massage, Shiatsu and other forms of tissue manipulation, 30 hours of practice management and ethics and a 100 hours or so of counseling and therapy for people who aren’t psychotherapists.
Accrediting organizations are independant bodies. They are paid by the schools that wish to become accredited. This is true for schools that teach massage, schools that teach auto mechanics or schools that teach liberal education. All school accrediting bodies are independant, multi-state agencies that make their money in fees from the schools.
Yes, as I said, I ran a college for 5 years. We taught programs in massage therapy and other healing modalities. All approved by the state. I am very aware of the red tape and burocracies in place. I researched and considered accreditation very carefully before deciding against it.
Accrediting agencies are set up to protect students - to help assure students of the financial viability of a school, first and foremost. After financial concerns are met, educational guidelines must be met. Fianlly, attending an accredited school offers up some additional financial aid options. Some very good schools are not accredited, because it’s a very expensive process. Small schools without lots of up-front capital often run for years without seeking or recieving accredidation. My Junior College (Moraine Valley Community College) was not accredited until it had been in business for 50 years. Once again, ALL colleges and universities have some sort of accredidation process open to them, not just massage schools.
Here’s a list of state’s that require licensure, and a quick outline of some of their requirements. The only one I have enough knowledge to speak of is Illinois. Bringing licensing to Illinois has been a long and difficult task. I’d say that, yes, legitimate, well-trained people in any profession welcome licensure, although the red-tape it creates can be annoying to deal with at first. Much of the work to bring licensure to Illinois was in fact done by massage therapists and their professional groups. Bringing licensure into a state weeds out exactly those people we are (rightly) disdainful of: illegitamate or poorly trained people, prostitutes or quacks with no training, understanding of anatomy or the very real dangers and contraindications of massage.
Here is an excerpt from the Illinois Masage Licensing Act, detailing the requirements to recieve a license in Illinois. Other states may vary, some with more stringent requirements, others with less. Illinois is about in the middle. If you’d like to read the whole thing, which includes penalties for breach of ethics, the formation of the State Massage Board and other truly dull stuff, click here:
Yes. The City of Chicago (who has had a massage license for decades) regularly assesses fines and jail time for unlicensed therapists (usually in connection with prostitution stings). The Illinois Massage Licensing Acts states that penalties for someone practicing without a license include cease and desist orders and actions “including limiting the scope, nature, or extent of the person’s practice or the imposition of a fine, without a hearing, if the act or acts charged constitute sufficient grounds for that action under this Act.” So you probably won’t go to jail, but you can be fined and if you continue to practice in violation of a cease and desist, you will likely be found in contempt of court and have to deal with the fallout from that.
I don’t know when the first massage school opened. Here’s a list of some (but not all) the massage schools currently running.
I don’t know what this means. I think it means you were unclear on the concept of “certified.” If you mean why did people think it neccesary to start teaching massage formally, instead of just liking the ol’ backrubs, then I’m not sure where to start. Therapeutic massage does more than just relax. Here’s some of the benefits of massage therapy. It can also be dangerous, if you have certain conditions, or if the person doing it doesn’t know certain things about anatomy, especially vascular structure and weak body protrusions. Plus, it can be dangerous to the person doing massage to do it for many hours a day, every day, without learning proper body mechanics to minimize body strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, bursitis and other banes of the massage therapist.
Some days I totally agree with you. Well, about all except certification. I do think people should go to school and learn to do it right if they want to do it a lot. It’s the only safe thing to do. I get really annoyed with accredidation and licensure, though. My school wasn’t accredited, and while it made it harder to pay, it also made it a better school, IMHO. There were hoops they didn’t bother with because they didn’t serve the student - hoops that accreditation would have forced them to jump. Licensure, I’m torn on. I do think it’s a good way to “clean up” the profession. I’ll be glad when the day comes when I don’t have to explain that I’m not a prostitute to people doing :dubious: . It’ll be nice to be recognized as a professional who spent lots of time, energy and money to learn how to do something really well and very safely that makes you feel like a pile of mush.
So, here I am looking through the yellow pages. Nobody uses the term Wholistic, thank goodness (WhyNot, I’ll remember you forever… I hate it when people intentionaly use these silly what-ever-you-call-these made-up words)
I notice that several of the listings feature the person’s name, rather than a business name. I’m leaning towards those. There’s one that lists: Muscle therapy, deep tissue massage, Pregnancy, elderly, disability and relaxation massage, and what really grabbed me… pet and animal therapy. I’m such a sap for animals, anybody who helps them gets extra points.
There’s a different one that lists: zone therapy, myofascial release, cranoe-sacral therapy, dowsing/divining. Dowsing/Divining? isn’t that searching for ground water with sticks?
Just curious–I have no connection to either field–but what are the key differences between massage therapy (licensed, certified, etc.) and physical therapy? I realize that physical therapy is usually associated with recovery from an injury, but is there overlap in the techniques used? How far apart are the educational and licensing requirements? Could a licensed physical therapist practice massage? Could an massage therapist who is tired of explaining her profession transition to physical therapy, or is that a whole different field?
