Every massage therapy student should have to read at least one textbook.

I was required to take a minimum of 750 hours of schooling to become a licensed massage therapist in the state of Arizona. Roughly translated, that’s nine months of school four full days a week. Most of the curricula focused on anatomy, pathology, practical application, and ethical considerations. In order to maintain my license,  I need to take 25 hours of continuing education classes every two years.

If I had still been living in San Francisco when I decided to get a license, I could have been granted a “General Practitioner Permit” with 100 hours of training, or an “Advanced Practitioner Permit” with 200 hours of training.  In other words, if I go back to California and prove that I meet those minimum requirements, I would basically be a   General+Advanced-Advanced-Advanced Practitioner.

Somehow, I don’t think I qualify to be considered a massage therapy superhero. I also don’t think that each California school hour is twice as educational as an Arizona school hour.

What’s even more confusing: California, like some other states, doesn’t have set of statewide regulations. Even worse is that some states do have a set of regulations, but they allow their cities to impose separate regulations that therapists must adhere to. If a massage therapist wants to move over to a neighboring city, she might have to change her policy or even take an extra exam. (Of course, if that therapist moves to a different state, she might have to take an extra 900 hours’ worth of classes.)

Certain cities’ regulations are downright offensive. While I was sitting in a Scottsdale, Arizona cadaver lab to learn the ins-and-outs of human anatomy, some California would-be massage therapists were submitting to STD tests in order to become certified. Massage licensing regulations are all over the place (or for some states, nonexistent.)

The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) estimated in 2008 that there were between 265,000 and 300,000 massage therapists and massage therapy students in just the United States. The U.S. Department of Labor estimated that the massage therapy field would see a rapid 20 percent increase in employment from 2006-2016.

I think it’s laughable, yet also sad, that such a booming industry hasn’t yet found a way to establish a cohesive set of strict regulations. I don’t necessarily think that massage therapy should be formally standardized across the United States, but I do think that all states should establish their own regulations. I also think that all states should set similar standards.

It just doesn’t seem right to me that, while I provide injury treatments and while therapists in New York are working to obtain 1,000+ hours of training, massage therapists in some parts of the country are still called “masseuses” in the way that strippers are called “exotic dancers.”

Regulating massage therapy will:

1. Help ensure that all clients are safer because all therapists will have been background checked.
2. Ensure that all therapists have met a minimum set of educational requirements so that clients will be able trust who is treating them.
3. Set ethical standards and allow the law to apply appropriate punishments to those who break those standards.
4. Increase the amount of clinical studies performed in regard to massage therapy and encourage insurance companies to cover massage as a result of proven results.
5. Encourage massage therapists across the country to feel more united as a team.

It’s time to get the ball rolling.

If you’re interested in finding out more about regulations in your state or city, check out the following links:
Massage Therapy State Boards and Licensure
Massage Laws and Legislation in the United States and Canada

Massage therapy students are sometimes required to give out free chair massages.

Do you want a massage therapy license? Here are some steps you need to take to get one, whether the idea of becoming a massage therapist is just a passing thought or it is your lifelong passion.

1. Find massage therapy license regulations for the state you live in. If you live within the United States, massage therapy license requirements vary state-to-state. In some states (Arizona, for example) they have been regulated across the entire state. However, if you live in a state like California, massage therapy license requirements vary by city. Go here to find a list of requirements by state. To gather more up-to-date information on your state, use a search engine and enter a term such as “massage therapy license Texas” (or replace ‘Texas’ with the state you actually live in.) Sites created by your state government are the most accurate. Decide right now if you can truly commit to the hours, cost, and work necessary to complete a full program.

2. Visit a website  like this one to find nearby schools that will cater to your needs as a potential student massage therapist. You may also want to type “massage therapy schools” and the name of your city into your favorite search engine to make sure you’ve located all of your possible options. What you find will vary greatly depending on where you live. If you live in a more rural area, you will probably have to travel a bit to find the school you’re looking for. If you live in a bustling, modern metropolis such as Seattle or New York City, your main predicament will be sifting through all the available massage schools in order to find the one that suits you best.

3. Call the massage therapy school(s) you’re interested in attending to schedule an interview. Most schools will have an admissions counselor/specialist whose job it is to show you around the school and answer any questions you may have. Be aware that this person isn’t necessarily a massage therapist.  Her job is to recruit new students.

4. Ask a lot of questions at your interview, including:
-Is the school accredited?
-What types of classes will you take?
-What are the qualifications of its instructors?
-Does the school help students obtain their massage therapy licenses by providing the necessary paperwork, etc.?
-What kind of job placement assistance does the school offer?
-What is the school’s reputation?
-Do classes prepare students to take any massage therapy license-required state and/or national exams?
-What is the cost of tuition and who do you talk to regarding financial aid?

5. Choose a school and get ready to sweat. Because massage therapy is being looked at as a legitimate form of complementary and alternative health care, more and more rules are regulating it and making a massage therapy license more difficult to obtain. Expect to take in-depth anatomy courses and ethics classes. Also expect to give away a lot of free massages before you obtain your massage therapy license. Extra work is a good thing because it means that massage therapists are increasingly being respected as legitimate practitioners rather than as “masseuses” and “back rubbers”.