Registered Massage Therapists

Here is our post in full....


The term registered massage therapist is a term used to describe people that have completed a course approved by the so called "College of Massage Therapists" in Ontario or British Columbia. These courses tend to be between 2200 hours and 3000 hours long and cost approximately $20,000 to $30,000. The courses tend to emphasise only the so called "scientific" aspects of massage therapy and neglect the holistic and traditional aspects of massage therapy.

We have no problem with these courses in their particular approach to training massage therapists. We believe massage therapy is a healing art and like any art form there are many different ways to practice that art form. Of course, we personally think it's smarter to also study all the cultures and their massage styles, where massage has had thousands of years of history but we totally believe that these registered massage therapists in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia should be able to practice massage therapy in the way that they think is best.

However, some of these registered massage therapists and their political bodies believe that only their form of the healing art of massage therapy should be able to be called massage therapy. This is what they have done in Ontario and British Columbia. They have enforced a ban on practitioners of all other styles of massage therapy such as Hawaiian massage (lomi lomi), Thai massage, Shiatsu, Tui Na, Ayurvedic massage, Balinese massage, Indian Head massage, Raynor massage, and many other massage therapists from using the term massage therapist or describing what they do as massage therapy.

They have used the oldest saying in the book that what they are doing is to protect the public from harm. Interesting, because no one in traditional Hawaii or China or Japan or Thailand or India or in fact, in almost any other country where massage has a long and established history, has felt that they need to regulate and exert centralized control over this ancient art form that is such an important aspect of primary health care. People have been practicing Thai massage or Hawaiian massage for thousands of years and it has caused so much more benefit to their culture and health of their society than any harm that has been caused, if any.

We can see that in many situations in life especially in politics, people like to take away our freedom to choose by saying that it is for our own protection. It's funny that in most situations like this the people taking away the freedom have a vested economic interest in taking away that freedom, such as we can see here with the interests of the big established massage schools generating huge amounts of money by making the courses extremely long, and we also see the graduates of these schools wanting to keep a monopoly on their profession and keep other practitioners out rather than allow the free market to dominate, which may expose some of the inadequacies of their training or show that some people just prefer a different type of healing art.

Here in this situation the Registered Massage Therapy political lobby and the College of Massage Therapists in Ontario and BC are promoting only one culture's perspective on massage and claiming that that is the only legitimate form of massage therapy. The training that they recognise is basically a Western medical practitioners approach to massage therapy. There is a heavy emphasis on seeing the human being as just muscles, bones and blood etc rather than seeing the human being from a holistic perspective, or Eastern medical perspective, as an integrated mind, body spirit being.

There is no significant history of massage in Western medicine, other than Swedish or classical massage which goes back about 200 years, and this was originally practiced outside of conventional medicine as something similar to gymnastics or physiotherapy. This is very different to the history of massage in countries and cultures like China, Japan, India and Hawaii where massage has thousands of years of history and practitioners in these cultures have treated billions of people safely for thousands of years.

However, in these cultures the philosophy behind their massage therapy has been one of moving the chi, prana or life force in the body and by so doing this one will also relieve the physical tension in the muscles. To understand these forms of massage one must also understand the paradigm of thought behind them and these go beyond the understanding that Western medicine has of the human body.

Western medicine does not accept the existence of chi or life force in general, (although of course there are many exceptions as some more enlightened doctors have sought to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western medicine).

The fact that Western medicine does not accept the existence of the chi, prana, spirit or soul etc is fine as long as they do not try to stop people who do accept these from practicing their healing art. Western medicine is based on science and every body that practices science in a serious manner knows that science has limitations about what aspects of life it can know and not know. the areas that science generally cant understand are generally termed metaphysics. See this article in Wikipedia for more about what metaphysics means.

So basically there are many things that science can't or doesn't understand. Many of these relate to matters such as the nature of life itself. What is the difference between a living person and a dead person? The body is the same but there is a profound difference that science doesn't really explain adequately other than to describe the symptoms of the departure of the life force. It does not understand the nature of the life force itself.

So our point here, in relation to massage and its regulation or "registration", is that why should one particular people with a philosophy that believes their form of medicine is better than all other cultures form of medicine because it is based on science, even though science has no understanding of life itself and healing arts are actually totally concerned with the life force in most cases. Why should this one group of people force their limited and narrow philosophy of healing on to every other person in such multicultural provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia, of a great and tolerant country like Canada.

The term "massage therapy" and "massage therapist" should not be allowed to be owned by one select group of people with a limited philosophy. These terms like painter, sculptor, healer, shaman, natural health practitioner, etc etc are terms that have been around for millennium and mean different things to different people in different cultures.

Why should a consumer not be able to choose their own version of massage therapy. Is a person aged 60 who has been trained for 100 generations in Ayurvedic massage in India, and had 50 years of experience in the healing arts, any less of a massage therapist that a 22 year old graduate of an Ontario massage college, who has almost no life experience or maturity. This is ridiculous.

Every culture has emphasised different things in training their massage therapists. In Korea and Japan many blind people became massage therapists because they had an excellent sense of touch. Having an "excellent sense of touch" is hardly even considered important in considering who will be able to use the term massage therapist in Ontario, BC or Newfoundland. Yet having an excellent sense of touch would be considered by most people to be one of the most important aspects of being a good massage therapist.

In Hawaii, being a good massage therapist may mean being a very good kahuna, or healer with a great sense of aloha, or open heartedness, and respect for and connection with spirit world of the elders. Being able to harness the metaphysical energies of the spirit world may be a particular gift for some people and not for others and would not be something that a Board of Massage Therapists would be qualified to recognise, only the people recieving the massage from the person.
It is interesting to look at the history of the regulation of massage and to see that one of the first places to regulate massage in the world was Hawaii. The purpose for this regulation was to stamp out traditional Hawaiian healing methods.
The test to be a massage therapist was a very intellectual one of naming latin names for muscles etc. Many of the best kahunas at the time could not even read or write as it wasn't part of their culture and so could not pass the test even though massage had been in their families for hundred of generations and they were considered the best kahunas in the islands. Again the reasons to suppress the Hawaiians healing methods were one particular group of people's belief, in this case white missionaries, that Hawaiian healing methods were heathen. See this wikipedia article for more information

Another example of one culture stopping another cultures healing methods was when the British invaded India and outlawed all Ayurvedic hospitals. This is something that should be relegated to the past. In today's world we should show respect for all cultures' forms of medicine and allow freedom of choice in health care to prevail which means that let the consumer pick the health practitioner of their choice according to that persons' own tastes, culture, desires and needs and curiosities etc and, of course, the reputation of the practitioner.

There is no need to regulate the practice of massage therapy as the example of countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand show where the consumer has a huge amount of choice and it is the practitioners reputation and the quality of their treatments that influence the consumers choice of a health practitioner not a group of bureaucrats with vested interests to protect.

Canadian Registered Massage Therapists

We have entered a new debate with canadian registered Massage therapists

here is a link to the new blog

Registered Massage Therapists in Ontario and BC

Email from a practitioner in Canada

Hi Brandon,

I am a Holistic Practitioner and I've read a lot of your articles and what I have found here in Ontario Canada is this;

I work at a spa and am booked for massage just as much as the RMT that works there, the only people that don't book with me are the ones who want to be able to get their money back from a insurance plan so cheap people who don't really care about having a great massage, they just want one for free. I get more compliments on my massage I give and return bookings than the RMT does. People leave my treatment room feeling they have had an awesome experience not just a massage.

I also do massage for mentally and physically disabled people, nursing home residents, group home(foster kids), these places have all had RMT's work there prior to me and none lasted for more than a few months, they are not trained to work by intuition, with energy or anything other than a massage by numbers routine that requires very certain and stable positioning which cannot be obtained when working with these people. I have great success with people of all kinds because of my training and natural intuition and love for the work I do.

I feel that the only time massage should be covered by insurance is for rehabilitation after an accident. It should only be allowed to be covered for extreme therapeutic measures, and in only a clinical setting. It urks me to see people come into a spa atmosphere and want a hot stone massage and want it to be written off by the RMT so they can get there money back...

One time I had a fellow booked in for appt, he canceled because he couldn't write the massage off and get his money back, but as he waited in the lobby for his wife, he heard one of my clients come from my massage treatment, just raving about how it was the best massage he had ever had, felt amazing, couldn't believe a massage could be this unbelievably relaxing and therapeutic at the same time, that I had magical hands and could feel the energy through my hands on his body and in different places then where my hands were actually touching him.... so he booked another appt for the next day he loved it so much... so he left and went on his way and the fellow that had canceled his appt says to me, can I please book in with you for later today or tomorrow,(he was from out of town) please I want to have this experience, I shouldn't have canceled my appt..he even offered to pay a little more than the regular price, if I could fit him in... well I turned him down, told him I did not have availability for him, even though I did, because I thought you were too cheap a few hours ago to try my treatment, but now you want it and will pay more.... NO you are not going to get this great experience from me.....he was quite disappointed.(but I felt good)(I didn't say that last part to him, but I thought it).


You have massage because you want it and need it regardless of the cost, not just because you can get it for free.....

I have had RMT's in with me for massage and they say that my massage is incredible and that the only thing that separates them from me is a piece of paper and over $20,000 dollars in debt.. that there experience with me is better than any RMT they have been too.

Its because my heart is in my work, I absolutely love what I do... being paid for my job is simply a bonus... Its amazing to be able to work at what you love... I'm sure you feel the same way!

Anyways, I hope your freedom ride continues on with great success and if I can be of any assistance, let me know.

talk to you soon

Name withheld by request so she doesn't upset the RMTs that work with her

Massage Laws in the US and Canada

Massage Laws
Here are some good links to some really well written articles about massage regulation


http://www.healingandlaw.com/Massage_Law_Newsletter/MLN_Vol.17/MLN_Vol.17__No.3/mln_vol.17__no.3.html#mln%2017/3

http://www.healingandlaw.com/Massage_Law_Newsletter/MLN_Vol.17/MLN_Vol.17__No.2/mln_vol.17__no.2.html#MLN%2017/2

http://www.healingandlaw.com/Massage_Law_Newsletter/MLN_Vol.14/MLN_Vol.14__No.4/mln_vol.14__no.4.html#MLN%2014/4

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Some thoughts on Health Freedom

Heres an email I got today from Scott Schumacher

Hello Brandon and others.

I wanted to share what I wrote on the Freedom for Bodyworkers Yahoo group lately. My thoughts were in response to the new California regulations that have happened, and my feelings of "what have we built as a viable alternative to licensing or regulation?" and the fact that we're not as organized as the AMTA, ABMP, etc, and we've not developed anything for others to plug into that would halt the craze for licensing and restrictive regulation in the United States.

I believe it's going to happen everywhere eventually, because we've not organized ourselves on "Building" any other alternative institution to take it's place.

I'm wondering what you think. Below is a portion of the email I sent to this list on my ideas (though I feel like a very lone voice in this as everyone else is just bent on complaining or only acting "defensively" when legislation comes around).

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With regard to "new institution building" in massage and bodywork, I've had a few ideas that I've shared with a few folks, but not with a larger audience. Some of these are more radical in their approach, and might require lots of US even twisting our own paradigms about massage and bodywork. I also see these as potential "exit strategies" and "underground" institution-shifting models to counteract the licensing/specialization movements.

Here are some musings:

1) Aligning with the Energy Bodywork and Quantum Physics Science (or Spirituality)

All states but Florida last I counted, have exceptions in their laws with regard to the "human energy field" to exclude practices like Acupressure, Reflexology, Reiki, Healing Touch, etc. There's a push toward "medical massage" and more "science-based" training and certification. According to quantum physics, when we touch the body, we are not touching the body, but touching energy. Theoretically, and based on quantum theory, we never touch anyone. All bodywork is energy work. The quantum physics paradigm stretches into the boundaries between science, spirit, and consciousness. Institutions would need to be built alongside this philosophy. Learning centers, certifying groups, non-profits, member-associations, etc. And perhaps even a court case would need to happen to give credence to this philosophy of science being applied.

2) The "friends and family" exemption

Many states exempt from licensure, those who use massage in educational workshops, or on family and friends without payment. Another way to dilute the "specialties" of a licensed profession, is to make the education "common knowledge" or part of our "commons" of knowing and learning. Imagine that all of us could become consultants and educators to place this knowledge of touch in the hands of EVERYONE. We teach families and individuals the skills to use touch in their daily lives with their friends and family. People begin buying $300 massage tables instead of treadmills, and effleurage becomes a household word, as do meridians, chi, and trigger points. We teach the world, and the world uses the knowledge to use touch appropriately for their friends and family - apart from licensing, credentialism, accreditation, etc. We in turn dissolve the current "specialization" model, and become teachers and consultants.

3) The Open-Sourcing of bodywork education

It's happening in almost all forms of learning. College and University tuition is skyrocketing. Consumer debt is out of control, and yet, more avenues for "learning" in a free and supported environment are popping up as we speak. Universities are sharing courses through an OpenCourseware (google it!) model. Social Networks are defining and framing our interactions and are creeping into "learning". As our economy flattens, so does education. Showing work and proficiency would need to happen, and organizations that could "certify, credentialize, or verify" experiential and individualized learning OUTSIDE of our current Massage-Schools-ONLY paradigm would need to spring up.

I'm currently studying to take the FSMTB test, and I'm confident I could pass it, hence giving me complete passage to licensing in Wisconsin for the first year of their licensing, without their educational hours or schools requirement. I bet that FSMTB would have their eyes widened by this possible paradigm of showing proficiency. I hope.

4) The formation of LOCAL "Guilds" for bodyworkers

Just like the organic food labeling standards with the FDA, massage therapists, just like farmers, have tougher "entry points" into the market. Some areas in the country are forming "local organic standards" and are marketing them as a "local trust system." You know the farmer or bodyworker because of an alternate system of standards that is shared and supported locally. Infrastructure exists to have bodyworkers rated and commented upon (like your ebay or amazon.com positive or negative ratings percentage). Networks of trust happen organically when we can say "rate my service" to EVERY client, and this information is held by third-party organizations - feedback is confidential but OPEN for all to see. Think of it - would you choose a massage therapist with a 25% approval rating or a 99% one? A local (or even national) "guild" organization could begin to measure our CLIENTS' feedback, input, and feelings of protection. And we would have REAL DATA that speaks to who is protected by certification or not, and how a diversity of training and paradigms of massage and bodywork could provide the same protection across the board for the consumer. REAL DATA! think of it!

5) Massage Therapists and Bodyworkers shed their FEAR of spirituality

A lot of us already know that when we massage a person, that we're not just touching a body, but we're connecting with memories, emotion, SPIRIT, past and present, and maybe even THE DIVINE within the person on our table. We are so cautious to talk about these things, that schools, certifying bodies, states, and organizations have taken us completely down the rabbit hole of ONE VARIANT of science, and a Western medical model that is ONLY about 150 years old (that's NOT a very long time compared to much of our bodywork foundations and traditions). There's been very little or NO movement in concretely establishing a platform for legitimate SPIRITUAL Massage that could very well, with some work, infrastructure, unified voices, and a great liability insurance option, be a viable and crashing EARTHQUAKE to give a paradigm SPLIT that could work very well in our industry - In my opinion.

or..the last option.. not so certain..

6) We just wait it out - Let our economy collapse as we face healthcare crises, climate change, and the shift to a more localized economy post-peak-oil, and perhaps these current models will not hold societal weight. Perhaps our licensing model, along with our learning and specialization model, will simply crumble, and we'll need a new paradigm anyway.

Personally, I'd rather see us BEGIN doing items 1-5 BEFORE this happens, and then maybe we'd be a lot more poised to "change the story".

Feedback?! I'd love to hear what others think. Praise me, criticise me, or show me different possibilities.

-Scott Schumacher


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Scott Schumacher
Holistic Practitioner, Web Designer, Person
scotts@holisticgeek.com

http://www.holisticgeek.com/
http://www.holisticgeek.com/riverbetween/
http://www.apeacefultouch.com/

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