What a year is was! In September I decided to create the Massage Therapy Nexus as I outgrew my other project that I had started in the pandemic- www.massagechangeslives.com which is a directory of massage therapy schools that I was using as the name of my Facebook Page and Group. My initial goal was to capture stories of how massage therapy changes lives. My passion for advocacy always took over though as I came across the so many things in our profession that were lagging behind or bottlenecked in politics of our professional associations.
I have long been involved in politics chats since the early days of YahooGroups- who remembers those days?
I started out the year working with AMTA-WA as their GR chair working closely with their lobbyist watching bills in the legislature and promoting our bill for provider compensation.
May 2024
In May of 2024, knowing that the Coalition of Massage Therapy Associations was convening, I started a petition asking for more transparency in our professional associations.
RE: The Reckoning
(Definition: a time or act of being accountable; the settlement of accounts between two companies; calculation of a ship’s position; a summing up)The massage therapy profession has been growing and thriving for over 80 years in the US, yet the profession lacks education standards, consistent licensing requirements, license portability, CE standards and professional development standards. The lack of standards and consistency has led to a confusing narrative about what massage therapy is or isn’t across the US. Is it healthcare or a service profession? Is it a profession or industry? The number of illicit sex businesses disguised as massage businesses continues to grow and drive the narrative. The confusion puts massage therapists’ lives at risk everyday.
It is time for a reckoning. We ask that our associations start accounting for their actions and start working TOGETHER. We are at a crossroads with dwindling numbers of people joining the profession and many leaving it, yet a growing demand for massage therapy in every sector: Clinical, Spa, Hospitals, Healthcare and more.
ABMP was the only organization that replied: The Change.org Massage Therapy Petition: ABMP’s Thoughts 06/20/2024
July 2024
In July 2024, I attened the Alliance for Massage Education (see Facebook post) Conference in Kansas City MO in which the most interesting process. My good friend Sandy Fritz provided a thought provoking keynote that she reproduced afterwards so everyone could hear it.
She did more calling out of our professions. Two of the AMTA Presidents were in attendance at the conference because they were a large sponsor of the event but they also took advantage of the opportunity to make their message clear about the Interstate Massage Compact (IMpact) which is still on everyoned minds. They even sent a follow up email to attendees stating their views.
I am still shaking my head about that convention. I had a chance to speak with many of the leaders in our profession and got caught in the middle of one of the largest games of “telephone’ – you know…that kids game where you whisper something in one person’s ear and they whisper it in the next and the next until the last person says outloud what was said and it is usually something far from what was initially said. Yes that game. There is soooo much miscommunication between our profession associations I wonder how we got this far.
Meanwhile…
In the spring, I had written and co-written about 5 different topics for the AMTA Assembly of Delegates proposals and ALL of them were rejected for various reasons. One was a request with my good friend Kirby Clark Ellis in Arkansas for AMTA to work on preserving the history of the massage therapy profession – rejected.
Hi Julie,
AMTA’s internal operations cover the activities, processes, and procedures that are carried out by staff and national leaders. Preserving and honoring the profession’s history falls squarely in this portfolio and will continue to be included in AMTA’s ongoing work.
Thank you,
AMTA Chapter Relation
Then I followed up with an email in which they directed me to my own website where I have collected many documents and created many timelines on history – smh.
An email to the AMTA CEO asking for a list of their ongoing projects so I could help write my next proposals ended up nowhere. A list like that could not be produced. OK.
So Kirby and I started our own organization to preserve and present the history of our profession. The Society of Massage Archives is now a for profit company working towards our non-profit 501c3 status to do just that.
My other AOD proposals were: a request to define Medical Massage, a request to take a deeper look into the organization, a request to look at the IMpact and take it more seriously, a request to get massage therapy covered by Medicare/Medicaid. Denied.
My request to define Medical Massage was denied with a response that said:
Dear Julie,
Thank you for your submission of the Discussion Topic Proposal related to defining “Medical Massage” for consideration for the 2024 Assembly of Delegates (AOD) Meeting.
The Assembly of Delegates Advisory Committee, along with AMTA staff and legal counsel, have carefully reviewed the proposal. After thorough consideration, we regret to inform you that it will not be included in the agenda for the 2024 AOD in-person meeting.
The Term “Medical Massage” is not an accepted term within the healthcare provider community. Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, and Physicians do not recognize the title of “Medical Massage” as it insinuates that Massage is a form of medicine. The words “clinical” or “therapeutic” massage are the correct terminologies.
Ultimately, we need to recognize those with a higher level of education in the massage therapy profession. AMTA advocates for the Board Certification in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (BCTMB®) as the credential that represents advanced education.
Once again, we appreciate your dedication to the profession, and your work with AMTA.
Sincerely,
Debra Kilty, Chair
Assembly of Delegates Advisory Committee
Not accepted? Hmmm… then why is your magazine full of ads by companies who teach and provide something they are calling a medical massage certification? Inquiring minds want to know.
Hence my work here to educate massage therapy on the long history of the confusion of the word medical massage and figure out what do to with it all. I also have written extensively on the topic of so called Medical Massage Certifications.
The discussion topic that was chosen was a proposal to clarify the definitions of massage therapy which did include clinical massage.
I started my many posts here from my old websites: www.massagepracticebuilder.com and www.massageschoolnotes.com and www.massagechangeslives.com and also www.lookbeforeyoubookamassage.com but in Sept/Oct 2024 decided to change my Massage Changes Lives Facebook page into Massage Therapy Nexus and started looking into membership software but came across substack that can do everything all those software packages can do but it manages everything in one…so we are here.
In 2025, I will be adding montly virtual chats on all of these issues and writing more on the history of all of these issues and getting YOUR input on what is happening in your state/city on these issues and what is being done about these things in YOUR area and developing resources for everyone to continue working on these issues with support from the Nexus.
pl: nex·us·es or: nexus [-səs, -süs]
[Latin, bond, tie, from nectere to bind]
: a connection or link between things, persons, or events esp. that is or is part of a chain of causation
The word nexus refers to a central point or connection where multiple elements converge. In the context of massage therapy, the nexus is where the many issues, challenges, and opportunities in our profession intersect.