Arizona MT's

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Comment by Steve Ibach on December 12, 2009 at 10:03am

Aloha Andrea - Lomi lomi is an ancient and very sacred form of massage. The style tought by Tom Cochran is considered the origional "Temple Style" as performed by Shaman and Kahunas in Hawaiian temples. I found that I use the techiques in nearly all massages I perform now. Hope you can make it.

Comment by Andrea McCully on December 12, 2009 at 9:47am

Thanks Steve for the info! I understand that there is MUCH more to Lomi Lomi massage than most people think. I would love to check that out!

Comment by Steve Ibach on December 4, 2009 at 8:48am

Hi Everyone - I just wanted to let everyone know that a four day Lomi Lomi training course with Tom Cochran and Sacred Lomi is coming to Tempe, AZ in March 2010. The training it immediately proceeding the Aloha Festival in Tempe so if you can get the time off you can attend both and really get into the Hawaiian spirit. I attended this training twice and really learned alot. Read about the training and details.

Comment by Maria Troia on September 26, 2009 at 6:14pm

Deadline for early registration discount for AMMA Therapy Basic I in Sedona is this Monday, September 28th. A second discount is offered to those registering with a friend.

Total of 32 CE hours. AMMA Therapy is 5 Element based bodywork. For more information: http://www.kiraholistic.com/studentseminars/ammatherapyinstruction....

If this link doesn't work, you may go to www.kiraholistic, then click on "student seminars," then "AMMA Therapy instruction."

Comment by Maria Troia on September 24, 2009 at 2:59pm

Brian,

Far as I know, Chandler has no provisional license. I was told quite emphatically that I was not permitted to practice in the space until the permit was issued. The clerk's tone was pretty menacing too. I was handed some information about the various penalties should I attempt to start practicing (fines to jail time, no joke). I decided not to test it.

What I meant in terms of state licensure improving things at the municiple level is that I'd like to think state licensure might eventually "raise our image" at the municiple level, that we might be seen as professionals (which I don't think we are now, at least not with my experiences in Scottsdale and Chandler). Most of these archaic laws are reflections of the prostitituion laws.... they lumped us into that catagory long ago and we've not dug ourselves out yet. Again, coming from NY, where LMTs are treated quite differently within local and state government (most obvious example is we are not fingerprinted), it was a real rude awakening to me coming out here. I'd like to think state licensure could be the first step to enlightening people at the municiple level. Obviously still miles to go.... I like to dream though....

As far as the parlors, back on Long Island we had a task force. They want to clean up the illegitmate places? Best way is to organize a pack of LMTs to get on it. We worked with the police force as a rule and things got cleaned up. Somehow it doesn't work that way here. When we reported the problem in Scottsdale, we were told we had no proof and "must be jealous because they other place was busier."

Comment by Brian on September 21, 2009 at 8:43pm

Maria,

Never believe the realtor or owner of a space. They generally don't know, and once you've signed the lease, you're liable for it even if you find out later that a license was required and can't get one.

The salons are good as long as the major source of business is not massage. Medical facilities are generally no zoned c (which is commercial) although you might find a PT office in a c zoned location.

Why were you not able to get a provisional license in Chandler? That sucks. I would have been working in my space if I was paying rent wether I had the license or not. But I'm just kinda rude that I guess. You're right, there are alot of odd laws and that will not change.

When the state licensure was set up, it was decided that the cities will always control the facility licensure because it is their jurisdiction.

The parlors are all over the valley. Mesa was apparently really easy to set up in because they have an over abundance of them although I saw on the news last week that they started to crack down on them.

Comment by Brian on September 21, 2009 at 8:26pm

Jennifer,

Start talking to fertilization clinics and naturopaths. They could be a goo source of referals for you. The hospitals seem to want employee's and would probably want you to do whatever massage they wanted. Don't think that would be good for you since you want your niche to be pregnancy related.

How much do you think you will be charging? I would concentrate on Scottsdale or other higher income area's to start. Once you build up a good referal system, then you can branch out to lower income folks and cut them a break. Get your base set up first in a higher income area since this is a cash only business. You can't get a doctor to bill for you and give a cut as that is a kickback (in case you didn't already know that).

Comment by Maria Troia on September 21, 2009 at 5:04pm

Brian,

Interesting, and thanks for clarifying. I've never heard this about zoning classifications in Phx. I had sublet within a spa in Ahwatukee (within a medical plaza) and was told there was no business licensing requirement. Looked at a sublet within a PT practice in a high rise downtown and was told no business licensing there either. I had no separate signage at the spa, but we did co-advertise. Also, I know people with practices in private business condos in Phx with no business licensing requirements, so my guess is these were all Zone A situations. None were in shopping malls.

Personally, I found Scottsdale to be a nightmare when I had my office there. I guess it depends on the individual experience. I had a few false starts with getting my business license. And then we had the "oldest profession" move into our complex and had a real hard time getting cooperation from the authorities to clean it up. The situation left me with a real bad taste.

Chandler is also tough for a start-up (up to a 3 month wait before getting city license so you can practice... rent goes out and no income comes in during that time).

A lot of the laws here are maddening. Coming from NY, I've seen a few things that have made my head spin. Our state board is still in its infancy though and so I don't know how much we can expect at the municiple level just yet. Baby steps, I guess. We're ahead of where we were five years ago.

Thanks again for the clarification!

Comment by Liz on September 21, 2009 at 3:17pm

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Comment by Brian on September 21, 2009 at 1:44pm

Maria and Jennifer,

That's not entirely true about phoenix. In phoenix, you can only open an office in a location that is zoned as A, those are industrial areas. In order to open in an area zoned C, such as a shoping center, it will cost you a $600 fee just to submit to the zoning commision with no guarantee (or likelihood) they will give a variance. Massage Envy can do it because they had the money to jump through all the hoops, including lawyers to get it done.

Now, if you work out of a salon in phoenix, you can avoid all of that but the majority of the business must be salon and not massage and you cannot legally advertise that you are there which means no signage.

This might have changed in the past few months but I doubt it, so it is best to call the city of phoenix licensing division and they can tell you exactly what the requirements are and can mail you the zoning laws for phoenix.

Scottsdale is by far the easiest. You are not limited by zoning laws. Yes you have to get an establishment license each year which is about 300 or 400 dollars and a business license for $85 per year (technically but this can be avoided easily). The prices in scottsdale tend to be steep but if you look around, you can find places that are less expensive.

Glendale and Peoria seem to be the worst with idiotic laws. You can't be within a 100 feet of a tatoo parlor in one of them but I forget which one now, how stupid is that? They have other stupid laws as well. Phoenix's zoning laws are archaic.

Once you know the laws of both cities you can figure out the loop holes.

Do you have a clientele or do you need to build it?

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