Re: Legalising "Massage"

[longitude]

Just throwing my experience into this one.
Dazzakoh said---
As Candie has mentioned time and again, we truly only start learning after we get the basic qualification. And from what I have seen so far, when it comes to Swedish massage, I have yet to see someone in the US perform Swedish with the classical form that ITEC still insists on. So one up for ITEC there.

I trained in the US in Florida and I was trained in Swedish, Therapeutic, Sports and Remedial massage. My basic training was similar to Esalen massage I did a 625 clock program of which 350 was nothing else but hands on techniques. I have never yet found any course here in the UK that can offer the level, quality and length of course that is on offer in the US.

I have a friend who is doing an ITEC right now and it is basic, and I mean basic. It will get her started and as someone said you only start learning after you finish college. All the 5 basic element strokes are there but she has been taught a set routine... does everyone seriously want to put tapodement into a relaxation massaeg???

Too be honest you have to take into considerationthe therapist as well. I have had massages whilst living in the US from therapists whom I know have trained in states requiering 1000 hours and their massage was nothing wonderful. My neice can give a brilliant massage, she is 9 years old!!!

Also.... where I studied in Tampa there were as many massage parlours as there was state therapists, you are never going to change that, no matter what you try to do.

I have to be honest I would like it regulated purely because I am sick to death of folks doing Reiki in 2 days then doing an Indian Head massage course in 2 days and then calling themselves a massage therapist. They are giving the profession a poor image.

In saying that. I have over 1000 hours of training in MFR and Massage. I have done a Sports Therapy course with Premier Training here in Glasgow and when I try to get insurance I am only accepted on my Premiere Training qualification because they do not know how to compare my US qualification to the UK ones.

In the US a Massage Therapist is as respected as a GP, Chiro and many hospitals have Massage Therapsist, it is part of their national healthcare and can be insurance billed.

I would like that same recognisation here. That a GP will send me clients. They will not be able to do that if they dont know the standard and level of our training. I am lucky, I lhave contacted all my local GP'S and Dentist and told them what my trainign involved and I do get referrals. I have been told that they would not refer a patient to a therapist who has done 100-120 clock programe. Maybe many do refer but we need to accept that if we want to be part of the antional healthcare we need to be regulated.

Heck I found out that they are ralking about putting Personal Trainers into the NHS...... yikes..... what level of training do they have????

If you read the Massage Magazine it shows you which states are regulated and which are not. Only in those few states that have Freedom of Access Laws could someone work who was not US trained, in other words these states have no qualification requirement. You can only work, as someone previously said, as a Massage Therapist in a particular State if you have studied the minimum required ammount of hours at a registered college. Some of the states also require you to sit the national exam too.

The laws are all ove rthe place, in some parts of Canada its ony several hundered and others over 2000 hours. I know a Canadian girl who has 2300 hours of Massage training and she also does chiro adjusting to level 4 as well as other allied health modalities, so her training is not simply massage.

Whatever happens is going to happen and it wont suit everyone. If I look att he ammount of Masssage Therapists I know in the US, the UK training is simply the poor relation to what is on offer over there... it is not the be all and end all.... but we do have a way to go yet.

 

[HitmanHart]

Leon Chaitow wrote this article..... http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Regular/chaito36.htm
Standards in Massage Therapy.
by Leon Chaitow


A question which I am regularly asked deserves an honest answer. "How do you find the standard of massage therapist here compared with elsewhere?" A diplomatically evasive answer usually (depending on where I am when the question is asked) allows an escape from what could prove an otherwise embarrassing response. The truth is that standards of training in the UK compare badly when contrasted with some European countries and more notably with what is found in North America.
In the USA itself standards also vary, since individual states demand quite large differences in their training requirements (ranging from 900 hours to none at all), and almost none of the US standards equate with what is generally agreed to be the highest standard of all - the Canadian (which itself is not uniform but which is uniformly better than anywhere else). In Canada (British Columbia at any rate) there exists a 2200 hour training requirement (with plans in place for over 3000 hours of class time).
Think about that as you ponder your training choices in the UK, where several hundred hours in class to learn massage is regarded as a pretty intense level of training and many courses function on under 100 hours!
Now it is true that there is massage and massage, and that training requirement for what can be termed 'wellness (relaxation) massage' (where the therapeutic intervention component is either totally absent or minimal) does not need to be as lengthy or broad as a massage training which focuses on preparing the therapist to handle specific problems (recent trauma for example). In the latter case a high level of clinical expertise is needed both in assessment, evaluation and diagnosis as well as in the acquisition of a wide range of bodywork skills which extend beyond basic traditional, or Swedish, massage methodology.
Canada seems to have sorted itself out in this regard and their standards of training and practice are second to none, and should be examined by legislators and all UK schools teaching massage – as well as by prospective massage therapists.
Other initiatives deserve mention, for example the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB), which has been established in the USA and which evaluates a core level of knowledge in therapists (initially a voluntary process but slowly becoming a requirement). NCBTMB does not assess current skills but helps to weed out those whose training in core subjects (anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, etc) is inadequate.
In the UK what do we have? There exists the possibility of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) standards becoming a benchmark. This is the nearest equivalent to the US model, and it is to be hoped that its standards will be high and not reduced to the lowest common denominator, although this remains to be seen.
The example in the UK of osteopathic and chiropractic regulation should inspire the leaders of the massage profession to action. They might consider defining a scope of practice, along with a well thought out set of competencies (standards) which all therapists should reach. This would help define a basic core of knowledge and abilities which schools would have to teach. We might then begin to see the true value of massage therapy which has potentials beyond the imagination of many of its practitioners.
The bottom line, of course, comes down to safety and efficacy, the ability to recognise what not to treat, what conditions and patients to refer (and where), and the competence to safely and beneficially handle neurological, or inflammatory, or post-surgical, or acutely traumatic, or chronically painful or fibrotic or psychologically induced conditions, among others.
Research in the US – largely by the Touch Research Institute at the Miami School of Medicine – has validated the benefits of massage in a host o

 

[JohnnyK]

I agree with Ruth (and Leon Chaitow). My experience is also that the standard of massage in the UK is more uneven (and generally lower) than other Western countries where I’ve experienced massage.

Reviewing this thread, I think that TracyAnn’s original post was potentially misleading. Her statement


could be construed as implying that ITEC qualifications are accepted throughout the USA. As Ruth has indicated, this is not the case. The regulation of massage in the US is left to the 50 individual States, rather than to the Federal Government. Many of the states require massage practitioners to have completed a course approved by the American Massage Therapy Association. These courses comprise at least 500 hours of training, which is far more than the standard ITEC course provides. And in Hawaii (for example) student therapists are assessed for their practical exam by the person they are massaging – ie they have to massage the examiner. This is more demanding than the ITEC protocol whereby the examiner merely observes the massage, and many ITEC colleges allow their students to take their practical exams massaging someone whom they already know.

Finally, TracyAnn’s initial post appeared to be prompted by the Home Office’s Review of Prostitution, which was announced by the former Home Secretary David Blunkett in July 2004. The Review was published on 17 January this year. Those who are interested can read it at
[link=http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-paying-the-price/]http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-paying-the-price/[/link] . But, as I hope to explain in more detail on a separate thread, there appears to be nothing in the Review which supports TracyAnn’s statement that


So those practitioners who have a non-ITEC qualification (such as BTEC or VTCT) do not have to retrain !!

Alan

 

[The Baron]

Hey everyone. I'm a new member and have a question for those of you in the know
I am qualified in UK in Sports Therapy and numerous holistic therapies all in either VTCT and IIHHT. I also taught the same courses there in colleges of FE for 4 years. I recently moved to California, U.S. and want to teach privately. I understand i cannot work on clients yet without my licence, and i have read the licence requirements by an earlier post (Foz I think). Will my UK quals be recognized by CA state law? Also, can i practice maybe using alternative wording in my advertising while still remaining legal, whilst I am going through licence process.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Shaaaawty(:]

You need to go to visit the local County governmentheadquarters (not State - things vary from county to county), to talk about bodywork licensing. When I lived in Northern Virginia in the early 90's none of my UK quals were recognised. I had to start again, and do an intensive training course, then sit the national examination board exams. I believe that California is yet to legislate to licence massage therapists - check out the Association of Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP) or Americal Massage Association - and have a look at [link=http://www.massagemagazine.com]www.massagemagazine.com[/link] - they used to list the States that required licensure -mostStatesalso expect quite a large amount of in-class traininghours - it used to be 1000 hours when I was there.

Be careful, and make sure all your T's are crossed and I's are dotted - don't try and cut corners!

 

[whiteferns rule...]

CA still isn't regulated and a bill to regulate has just been defeated.Read this string from another discussion forum. Also you might find it useful to post your question there because it's a US-based forum.

[link=http://www.bodyworkonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7047]http://www.bodyworkonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7047[/link]


xx
Henry