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Future of Massage?

After 20 years of saying massage therapists shouldn't have to take more than 100 hours of training I am starting to think from all I am seeing and reading online that it should now be a 3-4 year program like in Canada. With more younger massage therapists entering into the field I think that they need more training than just 6 months to a year of massage school.

It just seems that the franchises are putting such a demand on the massage schools for people who will accept low rates of pay and low benefits. The massage schools are looking to the younger crowds to fill their class rooms.

More insurance companies are starting to accept massage therapists. Here in WA we are already contracted providers and have been since 2000. To me insurance billing has always been a mixed blessing. I now have client who are shocked to find out that we are the only state that allows it (and FL). They just assume that it is a given that insurance companies will pay for their massage. I find them wanting to come in just once a month for maintenance massage which is not covered on insurances.

There are lots of things happening in the profession currently that will lead us to some big changes. The NCBTMB is stuggling to find out what to do and figure out who they are. The Federation is charging ahead with their exam and other projects. The latest Alliance for Massage Therapy Education (http://www.afmte.org/) is creating new avenues in the education world.

While I would like to see massage have more respect as a profession and enter the world of more education I also think that we are losing touch in mainstream society. When I studied the History of Massage in the book of the same name by Robert Calvert, he told stories of massage being taught to sons so that they could massage their pregnant wives and how touch was used in families and communities. With more people having their major communication through texting and email we are losing touch with each other. I for one would like to see more classes for the general public to teach them about massaging each other.

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Comment by Mike Hinkle on September 8, 2009 at 12:26pm: Both show great insight!

Comment by Gerry Bunnell on September 7, 2009 at 7:22am: One place to focus on would be the schools that are producing would be massage therapists. Looking around in my area, the ones making money from massage are not the therapists, but the schools themselves.

Most of them are private schools that are teaching only what is necessary to prepare students to meet the criteria needed for licensing/certification. There is nothing in place to assure a certain level of success for the students attending the schools. When I went through my MT course, out of 17 students I was the only one who successfully became licensed to work. My training was a 600 hour program.

As Julie and Mike have pointed out, great changes are taking place. I'm glad to see it. Regulation has its positives and negatives and usually comes about only when great abuses come to light. Even though I tend to shy away from the politics of organizing, I believe it will require a grass roots style of organization to facilitate the appropriate changes that our industry needs to gain more credibility.

I am very grateful to ABMP for this community. I believe we have the opportunity here to organize, identify changes that should be made and how we can make them as a group. Thanks for starting this blog Julie. I agree with Kelly, massage training should at least be on an A.S. level.

Peace

Comment by Rosalinda Huck on September 5, 2009 at 8:09am: I agree with all! I went through training in CA seven years ago, and I didn't go to just one school. Back then depending on what city you wanted to work, you could have only needed 200 hours of training and not every school was strictly a 500-hr program. I got a basic 125-hour training at one school, then went to a few others to get my collective training and get the 500 hours needed for national certification. In a way, I'm glad I didn't go through just one particular program, because I had the opportunity to learn from a lot of different instructors with different backgrounds. It took me about a year to do all of it, choosing specific classes. It really made a difference. But I think because of the broadness and complexities in our profession, schools should be tougher on students and not just passing anyone who will pay tuition, or for that matter, accepting just anyone. Curriculum should be more like university-level, and yes, I agree with Kelly about it being an actual degree. I guess like most professions, there are people who belong and people who clearly don't. But if standards are higher right from the beginning, I think our profession overall would be more credibly viewed, justified, and appreciated.

Comment by Kelly Grounds on September 3, 2009 at 8:59am: Julie,
I really think massage therapy needs to be an A.S. or actual B.A degree. I am teaching at a 1-year program, and most students 'cram' for tests, which means they are not retaining. Also, fitting subjects like Business Management, which includes ethics and finances, into 4 weeks is crazy! I traveled to Canada to take a breast massage class because the US frowns upon 'breast massage'. I was almost lost in this 4 day workshop because the other UK therapists had far more knowledge on the subject coming into the workshop than I did. Fortunately, some kindly souls gave me 'crash courses' and kept me up to speed. I plan on taking this workshop again though because I was struggling to keep up with the information.

Comment by Gloria Coppola on September 1, 2009 at 3:33pm: Julie
I love and agree with what you have to say. I am an advocate for longer trainings for sure and I totally agree the "healing" aspect of our profession is getting lost or not taught. Yes more classes for the general public, which I tried to get going here in Asheville at a local community center at Privai Academy. Unfortunately no takers this time around. I used to do this all the time and have 50-60 people sign up. So yes, you are correct our society is loosing "touch".

Comment by Mike Hinkle on September 1, 2009 at 3:19pm: Hi Julie,

Robert Noah Calvert hit it right on the head. He tried to keep costs down for therapists and he wanted therapists to remember their "History of Massage". That is why we honored him as a Charter Member of the Massage Therapy Hall of Fame in 2006. He also wanted to educate the public and along with his wife Judi, they created "Massage Magazine".

I agree with you! There needs to be more education and it is coming. We offer classes at the Festival for the public to attend. I don't know any other convention doing this for the public. Therapists need to stop being protectionist about massage and "teach". This can and will change the world. If you stop learning, you stop growing!