Laura Allen’s Blog

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AMTA Pledges $100,000 in Matching Donations for MTs Affected by Hurricane Sandy

The American Massage Therapy Association announced today that the organization is pledging a matching donation of up to $100,000 to help massage therapists who were affected by the storm in NY, NJ, and CT. In the press release issued earlier today, in addition to the matching donation, member therapists will also be given a payment plan for their membership dues, and provided with free continuing education.

In the next few days, there will be a page on AMTA’s website where you can make a donation electronically. In the meantime, donations should be sent to AMTA, 500 Davis Street, Evanston,IL 60201 and mark on the check that it is for the Hurricane Sandy Account.

AMTA chapters throughout the U.S. are encouraged to provide assistance to massage therapists through AMTA’s Hurricane Sandy account.

AMTA members and all massage therapists also can contribute to this account. (Note that contributions to AMTA chapters or to the Hurricane Sandy account are not tax-deductible, as AMTA is not a charitable organization)

Contribute directly to those agencies and groups established to accept charitable contributions and ensure that they reach those most in need. http://www.serve.gov/sandy/

For several days after the hurricane, AMTA reached out to learn more about the impact of the storm on massage therapists. Lack of electricity and communications in most of the area dramatically slowed the ability to learn who was affected. Once we established contact with chapter presidents in the Tri-State area, the AMTA Board was better able to determine what it could do as a professional association to benefit massage therapists and the profession.

There have been some grassroots efforts going on in the interim, and no one is minimizing those efforts. Friends have helped friends–and perfect strangers–and neighbors have helped neighbors. I’d like to say, though, that double the money is double the money–so I encourage you to give where it’s going to be doubled and do twice the good. AMTA has the safeguards in place of having a bank account strictly dedicated to this cause set up, and complete accountability of the funds coming in and going out.

Blessings to all those who have been affected, and all those who are doing what they can to help. Now let’s get this $100,000 raised so we can turn it into $200,000.

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My Thoughts on the Election 2012

I’m taking a break from talking about massage this week.

I’ve always hated election time. All the constant television ads, telemarketing phone calls from political action committees, and all the rest of it. And now that we have social media to vent our opinions on, it just seems to be magnified a thousandfold.

I have always mostly stayed out of the fray. I don’t discuss politics (or religion) with clients at my office. If any of them bring up those subjects, if it’s in a general tone, I let it pass. If they start with specifics, I usually say “You’re here to relax, and a debate is not relaxing. Let’s focus on your (neck, back, whatever) instead and see if we can help you feel better.”

I haven’t said a word about my choice of candidates until a couple of weeks ago. I have several thousand massage therapists on my social networks, and other friends from all walks of life as well. I have seen some of them nearly working themselves up to a heart attack with their political rants on FB. I no longer see them posting pictures of their kids or their dog or talking about their day; it’s all politics, all the time.

Then one day, I thought to myself, I just can’t be quiet any longer.  I’ve worried about offending people, but then again, in the past five years, nearly every blog I’ve ever written has offended people. I’ve had people un-friend me on social networks on account of my blog. I’ve ticked off not only individuals, but entire companies and organizations with my revelations and opinions about the politics of massage, and in the general scheme of things, I’m not known for keeping my mouth shut. So in the past couple of weeks, I’ve been letting my opinions be known, and like other people who are doing the same on FB, facilitating some juicy arguments.

For every piece of sensationalism regarding either of the candidates that make it to the news, the opposing party always has an answer:”That was taken out of context. This is what he REALLY said.” “He doesn’t really mean that, what he really means is THIS.” “Shame on the biased media that printed THAT.” It just goes on and on. And yes, both parties do it.One is just as guilty as the other. It’s our task, as voters, to muddle through the hyperbole, the half-truths, the outright lies, the edited videotapes, and the photo-shopped pictures in order to make the right choice…for us. And to bear in mind that what’s the right choice for you isn’t the right choice for me.The reason that you vote for someone will be the very same reason that I don’t.

On my FB page, my political affiliation since the day I signed on has been “Sick of the whole damn thing.” That’s still pretty accurate. The first time I voted, I voted for Ronald Reagan. In the ensuing years, I have come to believe that his opponent at the time, Jimmy Carter, is one of the most admirable people on the planet. Some years ago, I stopped voting for the party, and started voting for the person.

One of the biggest factors at election time is always the economy. Here in my corner of North Carolina, the economy sucks. In fact, here is a photographic essay I did about that. But I can’t blame that on the current administration. It didn’t happen on his watch.

Personally, I’m not rich. I’m not poor. I’m just a middle-class, small-business owner trying to survive–and thrive. If I lost my business tomorrow, I don’t think I could blame that on the president, no matter who that is. So for me, the economy is not the deciding factor in who to vote for.

The deciding factor, for me, is the equal treatment of all human beings. I don’t believe Mitt Romney views women as equal. I’m busting my butt at my business every day, and I’m not one of those women who usually gets home in time to cook dinner, but how nice of him to be concerned about that. And I’ll state just for the record that I’m heterosexual and been married to the same man for 20 years. Romney’s statements on and treatment of gay people have been atrocious.

I cannot remain silent on this issue. Gay people are not more than, or lesser than, me or Romney or anyone else. If YOUR religion teaches that homosexuality is wrong, that’s between you and your higher power. The people of the United States are guaranteed the separation of church and state. The government shouldn’t equate “sin,” or the president and his idea of it, or any political party’s idea of it, and the law. If your religion teaches you to be intolerant of someone because they were born different from you, and to deny them the same rights as other human beings, that’s the reason I don’t belong to your organized religion.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, and that’s why I support Barack Obama.

So you vote as your conscience dictates, and I’ll vote mine. The day after the election is over, we’ll all still be here on the same planet, in spite of our differences. And we can all rest peacefully, secure in the knowledge that whomever wins, the administration that follows them will blame everything that is wrong on them, because that’s the American way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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North Carolina Rocks the AMTA National Convention!

My husband Champ and I attended the AMTA National Convention in Raleigh this week, and a good time was had by all! Congratulations to all our colleagues in the North Carolina Chapter for pulling off a fabulous event! I’m not going to take any credit because other than teaching and sitting in the House of Delegates, I am afraid I didn’t have the time to do much else. Champ was all over the place helping out….lifting and toting, working in the massage room and whatever else he could do to be useful. Thanks, honey!

On Tuesday, I attended the Board of Directors meeting. Those are open to everyone, and I wish more members would attend so you can see the Board at work. It’s worth the effort. I sat beside Leena Guptha, a past National President, and one of the funniest and warmest people in the world. We had a nice little visit.

Wednesday morning, the Opening Ceremony was fabulous. President Cynthia Ribeiro is a very engaging speaker and her Portugese accent just makes her more so. The keynote speaker was Molly Barker, founder of Girls on the Run, and she was one of the best speakers we’ve ever had, in my opinion. Wednesday afternoon, we had the preliminary meeting for the House of Delegates. I have been honored to serve as a delegate for the past two years, and it is a wonderful experience. During the preliminary meeting, there is always a mock position statement and mock recommendation put forth so new delegates can get the gist of what goes on during the actual meeting. Ken Swenson, Iowa delegate, facilitated the fake recommendation that we should be required to sing a song before every massage, by performing “Rub it In,” and it was the high point of the meeting. You can watch that here.

Wednesday evening, Champ and I attended  the annual author’s dinner hosted by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, my publisher. We sat with the ever-entertaining Diana Thompson, former President of the Massage Therapy Foundation, and Mary Beth Braun-Hanson, former President of National AMTA. Also present was Ruth Werner and her husband Kurt, Celia Bucci, Joe Muscolino, Leslie Young Giase, a bunch of LWW folks, and I hope I am not forgetting anyone but I probably am! Ruth shared that someone had called her husband Champ earlier that day–they’re both good-looking, so it was an honest mistake!

Thursday was the House of Delegates meeting, ably facilitated by the awesome Dan Barrow, and John Combe of Oregon did a great job as the leader of the House. Ann Blair Kennedy of SC authored three position statements that passed muster and were officially adopted by AMTA. They are: 1) It is the position of the AMTA that massage therapy can be effective in reducing low back pain, 2) It is the position of the AMTA that massage therapy can be a beneficial part of an integrative treatment plan for those who suffer with fibromyalgia syndrome, and 3) It is the position of the AMTA that massage therapy can help improve sleep. Congratulations to Ann!

Thursday night, the Bloggers had a meetup thanks to the organizational efforts and generosity of Allissa Haines, author of Writing a Blue Streak. Michael Reynolds, Kelli Wise, Katherine Mayerovitch, Lisa Santoro, Christopher and Xerlan Deery, and Champ and I had a big time eating, drinking, and being merry.

Friday morning, I taught Using Research to Market Your Massage Therapy Practice. Friday afternoon, I taught One Year to a Successful Massage Therapy Practice. It was my first time teaching at the National Convention, and I totally enjoyed both classes. Both were very interactive with students sharing a lot, so it was just a great experience.

Friday night, I attended the reception for the Massage Therapy Foundation. I had to duck out early, but I did stay long enough to see the awesome Tina Allen receive the Humanitarian Award sponsored by Biofreeze and Performance Health. A $2500 donation was made to the MTF in Tina’s name. If you haven’t met Tina, she’s dynamite in a small package and the founder of the Liddle Kidz™ Foundation. Please watch this video about her work in Japan, and you’ll see why she is deserving of this award.

I left the MTF reception and went to the NC Chapter BBQ and Beach Music Blast! The National Shag Champions were there demo’ing how to do the shag. The food was good, the music was good, and the fellowship was good. People were dancing out on the sidewalk! I had a great time visiting with friends from all over.

The one black mark on my visit was the fact that Friday morning, I woke up with terrible low back pain, something I actually never have. Usually my aches and pains are in my shoulders, but I was in terrible condition, and I had to teach all day wearing a happy face! Saturday morning, Kathleen Gramzay of Kinessage® Massage through Movement worked on me for about an hour in the exhibit hall, or I probably would not have made it to the dinner dance. She was a great help!

We sat with the other NC folks but of course I had to get up and socialize. I saw a lot of my favorite massage people this week and only got to spend a minute or two with most of them, but I’m so grateful to have seen them all and to have met so many FB friends, a lot of whom were in my classes.

I ran into Jaime Huffman, former President of the North Carolina Board of Massage & Bodywork Therapy. I served on the Board with her for five years and she is the newly elected President of the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards. I also took the time to stroll up the street to the North Carolina Board offices, since my last Board meeting was in 2010 and I hadn’t seen my friends there in a long time. I had a good visit.

I also spoke with Bob Jantsch, the delegate to the Federation from Pennsylvania, who attended the FSMTB annual meeting in New Orleans just before coming to AMTA. Bob introduced the amendments to restore the original bylaws–and subsequently the balance of power–and although the were defeated this time around, I personally applaud Bob for having the guts to get up and start the ball rolling. The opera ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings, and I can just about guarantee that this one isn’t over. Bob is also in the AMTA House of Delegates, and I must say he knows the drill! Bob has served this profession in many ways over the years and kudos to him.

All in all, this was one fabulous week. I’ve attended about ten national conventions, and this was one of the best. Thank you so much to all the folks who came from far and wide to attend–we hope you enjoyed North Carolina, and we all enjoyed having you!

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Politics and Cliques

This week’s blog is about the elections at the upcoming Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards annual meeting in New Orleans on September 27-29. Who gets chosen to serve on the Board of Directors of this organization is important, because FSMTB controls the administration of the MBLEx– the primary licensing exam in our profession, and is in the process of trying to adopt new national standards for continuing education.

These upcoming elections are shaping up to be a joke, and a bad one at that. I reported last week on the bylaw changes that have resulted in handing over all the power that should belong to the Member Boards to a 3-person Nominating Committee, removed the Delegates’ rights to nominate anyone from the floor, took the power of choosing officers out of the hands of the Delegates and put it into the hands of the Board of Directors, and extended the total length of time a Board member can serve to three 3-year terms.

I don’t know who the Nominating Committee has chosen as their “slate” candidates, but I can tell you some of the people they have overlooked. Two of them are sitting members of the FSMTB Board of Directors: Phyllis Salyers of Tennessee and Billie Shea of Nevada. Both are eligible, and as far as I can tell, both are qualified. Shea was in fact just reelected as the Chair of the Nevada State Board of Massage Therapists for the seventh time. Salyers has been off the Tennessee Board of Massage Licensure for about a year, but still acts as a consultant to the Board and under the Bylaws of the FSMTB is still eligible to serve two more terms. Since they were elected the first time, one assumes that they both still possess the skill sets necessary to the job. Since both have been faithful servants to the organization, you have to wonder why they have been passed over for another term.

Another person who didn’t make the cut is Mark Dixon, currently serving as Vice-Chair of the California Massage Therapy Council. Dixon has been a massage therapist for almost 25 years and his list of qualifications and past service to massage organizations would be another whole blog. He is genuine leadership material, yet he was not even granted the courtesy of an interview by the Nominating Committee.

I actually have the biggest issue, not with the candidates, but with the Bylaw change allowing the Board of Directors to serve three 3-year terms. Since Board members can continue to serve after their service to their state massage board is over, this could effectively result in the entire Board of Directors being composed of people who are no longer on their state boards. I don’t think that was the intent of this organization when it was started–and their very name indicates that.

The issue, to me, is that when you are no longer on a state board, you are no longer obligated to follow the agenda of that board, whatever it may be. In fact, as a non-board member, you are in all likelihood not even privy to the goings-on behind closed doors when there is an executive session.  You can have your own little agenda, and that’s what I find disturbing. Due to the various election schedules of the FSMTB Member Boards, I am not suggesting that anyone should be thrown off in the midst of their term, but I think serving out that term is the way to go–and then let another sitting board member have that position.

So, here we have no nominations from the floor; a 3-person committee deciding who is best for the job instead of all the delegates from 42 Member Boards getting to put forth someone they might like to nominate; two sitting members denied another term in spite of their service and qualifications and bylaws that currently allow them to serve; a well-qualified applicant denied; and bylaw changes that are totally contrary to what is in the best interests of the state boards.

Out here in the heartland of the massage therapy profession, we’re counting on our colleagues who do the usually thankless job of representing state boards to do the courageous thing here. I will make another plea for the Delegate Assembly to stand up at the annual meeting, say that this is not acceptable, and to propose amendments to the FSMTB Bylaws that restore an appropriate balance of power and authority.

 

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Absolute Power Corrupts

It’s election time, and we’re being subjected to the usual rounds of propaganda, false accusations, half-truth mudslinging, and other shenanigans that accompany campaigns. It’s also election time at the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, and I’ve been watching their shenanigans with the same sense of “did they really say/do that?” I’ve felt about the politicians.

Just to remind you: FSMTB is a non-profit that exists to serve its “Member Boards” – the various state boards that regulate the practice of massage therapy. This organization has a lot of clout in the field, because its member agencies are the ones that regulate massage at the state level, and in some cases, massage schools and massage establishments as well.

Non-profits have a governing Board of Directors (BOD) that sets policy and controls the hiring of key professional staff. In the case of FSMTB, there is another body within the organization that has the power to set policy and shape the strategic direction FSMTB should take: it’s called the Delegate Assembly. This group, comprised of one representative from each state board, typically gathers each year at the FSMTB Annual Meeting—which is coming up on September 27-29 in New Orleans.

You might be thinking, “What’s her problem here? Sounds like regular stuff to me!” Well, I’m clanging the alarm bell because the control of FSMTB has been shifting into fewer, and tighter hands. I’m talking about the FSMTB Board of Directors (who are elected), and the Executive Director (who is hired by the Board). It’s hard to believe that this shift has happened in plain view, and with the consent of the Delegate Assembly.

What has happened is that the Member Boards have given up their power, seemingly without a fight. Over the past couple of years, there have been changes made to the Federation Bylaws that I find unacceptable, personally. I’m a former delegate to the Federation myself, and I would never have rolled over for such a thing.

From Section 5. Nomination and Election of Officers and Directors, the FSMTB Bylaws have changed to prevent any nominations for seats on the Board of Directors coming from the floor during the Annual Meeting. They have also changed the method of electing the FSMTB officers–President, Vice President and Treasurer. Originally, officers were elected by a majority vote of the Delegate Assembly, but that has been changed so that the officers are now elected by the Board of Directors themselves.

In addition to these two changes, the provision specifying the term of office and maximum number of consecutive terms was changed. In the original Bylaws, Directors served two-year terms, with a max of eight consecutive years on the Board. Now, they are elected to three-year terms, with a max span of nine consecutive years. That’s a long time to hang around on a volunteer board — especially when the Board member may no longer be serving on their own state massage board.

So in this new system, a three-person Nominating Committee has full control over naming the “slate” candidiate for a BOD seat, and determining who else (if anyone) may be on the ballot for that given seat. Does that strike you as Inside Politics? Sure does for me.

The combination of 1) taking nominating power away from the Delegates themselves, 2) taking the power to elect officers away from the Member Boards and putting it in the hands of the BOD, and 3) expanding the term of Directors to three years and a total of nine consecutive years on the BOD, has consolidated power in the hands of the BOD to a shocking and unacceptable degree. It is unhealthy, and contrary to the spirit in which Member Boards carry out their commitments to the represent public interest.

With that said, if there can be an uproar and outrage created over this power grab, the Delegate Assembly could change the FSMTB Bylaws on the spot at the Annual Meeting, according to Article XI, Section 3 of the Bylaws:

Section 3. Adoption without prior notice.
These Bylaws may also be amended at any meeting of the Delegate Assembly at which a quorum is present without previous notice by nine-tenths of all Delegates present and voting; provided that the proposed amendment has been distributed in formal written form at the beginning of the meeting.

Otherwise, Bylaw amendments must be submitted in writing to Member Boards at least 45 days in advance of the Delegate Assembly. Now, it’s probably a long shot to get a near-unanimous vote on such a thing, but it’s certainly possible.

Incidentally, the Nominating Committee that is listed on the FSMTB website is not the current committee. I hear that the committee members this year are actually Susan Beam (NC), Cathy Lescak (GA) and Chris Sluss (TN). Somebody should alert the FSMTB webmaster to this oversight.

I strongly urge the Delegates to the FSMTB Annual Meeting to take a good hard look at what has taken place. It’s time to regroup and repeal these ridiculous amendments later this month in New Orleans. You have the ability to bring the power back to the Member Boards to directly choose the people who will represent the organization, and you need to reclaim your ability to set policy. Do what you were charged to do–represent your state board–and don’t be a bunch of sheeple. The state boards are on their way to becoming little more than window dressing at the Annual Meeting if you don’t assert yourselves this time. Absolute power corrupts. We’ve all seen it happen in other organizations in our profession. Don’t allow it to happen here.

 

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Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice

I have never before devoted my blog to a book review, but I’m doing that this time, because (other than my own books, of course) I think this is one of the most important books that has been published for our profession. I’m speaking of Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice, edited by Trish Dryden, MEd, RMT of Centennial College, Toronto, and Dr. Christopher Moyer, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie. This book was published by Human Kinetics and has only been out for a few months. I got my copy about a month ago, and I’d like to see one in the hands of every massage therapist, every student of massage, and in particular, every massage therapy educator.

The contributors to this book are an impressive group of people. Besides Dryden and Moyer, there are contributions from Janet R. Kahn, PhD, LMT, who has one of the most impressive resumes in the galaxy, culminating in a recent appointment by President Obama as a Member, Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health; Diana Thompson, LMP, former President of the Massage Therapy Foundation; Bodhi Haraldsson, RMT, Research Director at the Massage Therapists Association of British Columbia; Albert Moraska, Assistant Professor of Research at the University of Colorado at Denver, and a couple of dozen other highly-educated people with an interest in the evidence-supported practice of massage therapy.

The layperson sometimes panics at the word “research.” People get the erroneous idea that they can’t read, much less conduct, a research project unless they have a doctorate in elementary statistics. Although this book introduces some complicated (at least to me) concepts, they’re broken down into plain enough language that anyone can understand.

The explanations of qualitative and quantitative research methods, as well as mixed methods of research, has enlightened me. I don’t mind saying that while I have supported the Massage Therapy Foundation to the best of my ability, and been a vocal proponent of the evidence-informed practice of massage for the past few years, I realize after reading this book just how in the dark I’ve been about the particulars of what actually constitutes valid research.

The main purpose of the book is to introduce massage therapists to the various concepts of research, and how to apply that information to your every-day practice of massage.  There is a whole section, Populations and Conditions, that contains chapters on working with pediatric clients, pregnant clients, athletes, geriatric clients, and adults with a history of sexual trauma. The conditions that are covered include back pain, headaches, neck and shoulder pain, fibromyalgia, cancer, and anxiety and depression–the things that we are all confronted with on a regular basis.

Ruth Werner, current President of the Massage Therapy Foundation, contributed the Foreword to the book. She states the five crucial things that this book addresses:

1. It makes the compelling case that research literacy is a necessary skill even among entry-level massage therapists.

2. It introduces key concepts in a way that is both simple and accurate. Werner states that “As a teacher of a complex topic, I know how often the tipping point between simplicity and accuracy is narrow indeed.”

3. It emphasizes the application of research by giving clear examples of tying published findings to everyday practice scenarios.

4. By emphasizing the practical application of research findings, it acknowledge the importance of the feedback loop that must exist between clinicians and researchers.

5. It lays the groundwork for its own future development as the mass of evidence about massage therapy continues to grow.

Every time a client comes out of the treatment room and says “I feel better,” yes; that’s evidence. However, resting on those kinds of laurels is a big mistake, in my opinion. There are many massage therapists (other than myself and the contributors to this book) who want to see massage therapy gain the respect we think it deserves. The way to do that is research, research, research, and more research.

We don’t all have to BE researchers. We DO all need to know where to find it and how to make heads or tails out of it. Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice, is the only book that I am familiar with that explains it so that those of us who are not scientists can understand it. I urge you to get this book. And as I mentioned earlier how important I think this is for massage therapy educators, let me go a step further and say that if you are teaching in a school that does not address the need for research literacy, then you be the change in that. It is doing students–not to mention the massage-seeking public–a huge disservice to ignore the subject.

While I’m on the topic, The Massage Therapy Foundation has a free toolbar you can download from their website to keep in touch with the latest research developments. Research costs money. I encourage you to donate to the Foundation in whatever amount you can afford to give. Every dollar helps.

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Report from the World Massage Festival

I just returned from attending the World Massage Festival in Las Vegas, and what a blast! I’ve been attending this annual event for several years, and this was the best one yet. My husband, Champ, accompanied me, and we really had a fabulous time. This event is like a family reunion every year, so I really enjoyed seeing so many people I know and don’t get to see often. The Festival was held at the Tuscany Casino and Hotel, which turned out to be a wonderful place…I think my suite was as big as my house.

We arrived on Sunday and I spent the afternoon helping out at the registration desk with our fearless ringleader, Cindy Michaels. Cindy is Mike Hinkle’s better half; Mike cooks up all kinds of great ideas and Cindy puts them into action.  Jenny Ray and Janelle Lakman, the Sacred Stone Medicine ladies, were also working registration so we all had a big time visiting in between. Sunday night was the Hall of Fame ceremony, emceed by Judi Calvert, and it was very enjoyable. This year’s honorees are Cindy Ballis, Karina Braun, Eric Brown, James Charlesworth, Scott Dartnall, Robin Fann, Irene Gauthier, Sally Hacking, Ryan Hoyme, Andrea Kelly, David Kent, Mark Lamm, Paul Lewis, Rena Margulis, Karen Menehan, Angie Patrick, Donald Peterson, Sharon Puszko, Art Riggs, George Skaroulis, Kevin Snedden, Cherie Sohnen0Moe, Les Sweeney, and Ruth Werner.

Monday morning, I was honored to participate in a Student Day panel with Lynda Solien-Wolfe, Cherie Sohnen-Moe, David Kent, Joe Bob Smith, James Waslaski, David Otto, Ryan Hoyme, Michael McGillicuddy, and Angie Patrick. I hope I didn’t forget anyone! The students were so appreciative; all got a goody bag, there were lots of door prizes, and one lucky soul got a starter kit–massage table, massage chair, rolling stool, bolster, sheets, and all kinds of products.

Monday afternoon, I taught my Educated Heart ethics class, which was well-attended by a great bunch of therapists. Champ and I had dinner with Lynda Solien-Wolfe and Joe Bob Smith and we had a great time.

Most of the day Tuesday, I spent in the exhibit hall. I worked a little in the Sweet Serenity booth–speaking of which–I was determined to win the fabulous quilt so I bought 30 tickets. All the proceeds went to the Shriner’s Burn Center and over $1200 was raised, last time I got the count. Ryan Hoyme and I did a book signing of our new Manual for Massage Therapy Educators. I woke up with a crick in my neck, and James Waslaski and Bruce Baltz both worked on me. We had lunch with Bruce and Ryan and Yvette Hoyme. Tuesday night was the awards ceremony. David Kent was the keynote speaker and he did a fabulous job. David is an emotional speaker. Enid Whittaker jumped up on a massage table and did a Bonnie Prudden warmup and she was great! Vivian Madison-Mahoney received the Legislative Award. ABMP was honored as the Association of the Year (again!). The wonderful Michael McGillicuddy was named Teacher of the Year. I was personally surprised with receiving the Distinguished Service Award. After getting home at 1:30 this morning, I am going blank on the rest of the winners, but I’ll be sure to announce them on FB as my memory returns!

By Tuesday night I was feeling slightly under the weather. I slept in Wednesday morning, and Champ attended James Waslaski’s Pelvic class in my stead. He loved it. I ended up having a late breakfast with Judi Calvert, owner of Hands On Trade Association and the premier massage historian of the world. At noon, when all the classes broke for lunch, the drawings took place. One lucky winner received an Office Makeover package worth over $11,000–and I did indeed win the quilt! I was thrilled to death!

I would have to say that the highlight of my trip this year was meeting Mark Lamm of Bio Sync, and his beautiful wife Leah. Mark has been my FB buddy for several years, and I was shocked to find out that he is 84 years old. He looks at least 20 years younger than that and is just one of the most vibrant people on the planet. He did some work on my aching shoulder and it was amazing. HE is amazing. Leah and I snuck out to the restaurant for a little while and I felt as if I’d known her my whole life. They are both just beautiful people. Mark is committed to teaching at the Festival in 2015. I’ll be there!

Other highlights, and there are just too many to name, but I was glad to see my buds Scott Dartnall, Eric Brown, Christopher and Xerlan Deery, catch up with Lori Ohlman of the NCBTMB, Dari Lewis, Stephanie Beck, the totally awesome Judith Aston, and all the other folks I only get to see once or twice a year. The vendor hall was jumping this year…I got a few goodies myself! I also met a few of my FB buds: Andrea Lipomi, Bert Davich, Rob Flammia and saw some of my NC peeps, too, like Jake Flatt.

Wednesday night, I attended the Board meeting of the Massage Therapy Alliance of America. I’m not on the Board; I just take care of their website, but I love this group of dedicated people. They are stewards of the Hall of Fame and advocates for the rights of massage therapists. Then we had a late dinner with Mike and Cindy, Darcy Neibur and her husband Dennis, and Mike Hinkle’s parents, who are always helping at the Festival.

The World Massage Festival is come as you are. Leave your suit and tie behind and be casual. The instructors and class offerings are top notch, the price is as low as they can possibly keep it, and the atmosphere is all about family and friends. The 2013 Festival is being held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. I will definitely be there!

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I’m in Pain

Yes, I’m in pain. Believe it or not, it pains me to write negatively about the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork. I am personally acquainted with many of the people who work there, from the CEO, Mike Williams, on down, to Board members, staff members and volunteers. I count some of them among my friends. I know for a fact that they are dedicated and hard-working people.

I’ve been NCTMB since 2000 and an approved provider of CE since 2002. I’ve seen the ups and the downs of the organization: the days of great service, and the days of bad service. I’ve seen the leaders who had the best interests of the profession at  heart–and one or two who were on a personal mission to bring down the organization with their wild spending and lack of professional ethics. And I’ve seen–and even been a party to–some of their missteps. A couple of years ago when they announced an advanced certification exam, I signed right on. I even appeared in an advertising campaign for it, along with quite a few other well-known massage therapists, educators, and even some illustrious physicians. The failure of that project, I believe, was because it was a general thing, and not a specialty certification–which the profession has been requesting for quite some time.

CEO Mike Williams responded to my Wish List blog last week. I met Williams at the AFMTE meeting a couple of months ago and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours talking with him one-on-one. I hear (from other folks, he wasn’t bragging) that he has a proven track record of helping floundering organizations get back on track. He even joked to me that he had learned everything he needed to know about the NCB from reading my blog.

You can’t please all of the people all of the time, and I know that just from the comments I receive on this blog. However, distress at their latest action seems to be shared by more than a few people. The NCBTMB sent out an application for a new assigned school code to massage schools this week. Now, the organization has required a school code since the beginning; it’s just a number that students must include on their application to sit for one of the NCB exams, and it is supposed to demonstrate that the school is legitimate. That’s good in theory; and I think the original intent was to keep schools and/or individuals from falsifying diplomas and transcripts.

A number of school owners went up in arms this week when they received the application. True, it is just seven pages long, and that’s way less than what is required for a state board school approval or COMTA accreditation…but therein lines the issue: except for the schools in the few unregulated states, these schools have already been approved by their state boards, and in some cases, one or more accrediting bodies as well.

One school owner on my FB page said “We are opting out. The list of required paperwork is oppressive. Our school is now sending them all off to the Mblex. It’s moves like this that, in my opinion, will seal the deal of completely making the NCBTMB irrelevant. We had a school code with them, we maintain state approval which can be verified easily on the state website. The additional hassle which this organization seems to thrive on is over my tolerance level.”

Another sore point is the human trafficking angle. Now, I don’t think anyone is in favor of human trafficking except the people who are making a living off of it. As background, there has been legislation introduced in a few states requiring massage establishments to post notices about human trafficking–something that isn’t required in a convenience store (in other words, they’re picking on us again, supposedly because massage is a business in which it’s a big problem). On their 2010 990 filing, the NCB reported giving a $5000 donation to the Polaris Project, which fights human trafficking. They also started publishing brochures about human trafficking and selling them (at 2.50 for 25 of them, I don’t think they’re getting a big revenue stream off of that).

On the application that came out this week, school owners are being asked to sign a pledge about not participating in human trafficking, and doing whatever they can to stop human trafficking. I got calls from a few people that were upset about that; they stated to me that the NCBTMB was overstepping its boundaries and giving a false impression of having regulatory or law enforcement authority. Personally, I think any entity donating money to the Polaris Project and doing their part to fight human trafficking is admirable, but as someone on my FB page pointed out, is there really any school actually participating in such a thing that wouldn’t just sign the pledge anyway? It’s like asking people if they use illegal drugs on a job application. No one is going to write down that they have a cocaine habit, are they?

On the NCBTMB website, there are a couple of dozen schools listed as having their school code suspended, revoked, or denied. The reasons are not given, so one doesn’t know whether they were found to be participating in human trafficking, running a diploma mill, or what.

In his response on my blog, CEO Mike Williams talked about the forthcoming improvements from the NCB. Let me say, as much as it pains me: different singer, same song. I must make it clear that I have wanted this organization to survive, and thrive, but I am very concerned. And as Angela Palmier pointed out in her comments, people laughed when there was talk of another entity creating a licensing exam. In the meantime, the MBLEx has proceeded to saturate the market and it will just continue to get bigger and bigger–even if the NCBTMB steps in to challenge the states’ right to choose, like they did last week in Tennessee. They did actually prevail there, but at what cost? The Board members were upset, the GR rep from AMTA was upset, and in the end, the decision for the Board to acquiesce was based on their desire not to see their other impending legislation get scrapped in the crossfire.

In addition to the FSMTB sticking their toe in the water to test the profession’s reaction to their CE plan, I’ve recently been contacted by several people about starting (yet another) CE approval body. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but there’s no reason to think it can’t be done. For that matter, there is nothing to prohibit another entity from starting another certification agency….just like there are numerous accrediting agencies besides COMTA. It could happen.

I don’t doubt that the NCB has good intentions–but as we all know, good intentions are sometimes misguided. Placing an additional and very unnecessary burden on school  owners is misguided and the perception is that it’s one more example of duplicated efforts in this profession. Challenging state boards is misguided. The NCB needs all the public support they can get, and that isn’t winning them any friends. It is creating ill will, period. Hanging on to entry-level licensing instead of focusing on  becoming the one true certification agency is misguided. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

 

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It’s All About Me

It’s all about me, so here’s my wishlist for the profession. It’s difficult to place these in order of importance, because some of them depend on each other, and in my little corner of massage, they’re all important. It’s election time–aren’t we all just about sick of hearing about it–candidates mudslinging and making campaign promises? If I was the President of Massage Land, here’s what I’d do:

The Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards would sit down at the table with the National Certification Boardand hammer out an agreement to a) help ease the NCBTMB out of the entry-level test market, b) contract with them to collaboratively administer continuing education instead of trying to take it over and c) forget their MOCC-ERY plan.

The NCBTMB would a) graciously accept that it’s time for them to get out of the entry-level test market, b) focus on cleaning up the CE approval program, and c) get it together with their new plan of raising standards of certification.

Both of these entities would cease and desist in sending out Job Task Analysis Surveys that are flawed from the get-go….they both supposedly pay psychometricians to help them out with these things, and still they are falling way short of the mark in ascertaining what they really need to ascertain. Stop worrying about how many times a week we give a massage, and stop ignoring the relaxation benefits of massage as if they don’t exist.

There will continue to be Leadership Summits. They will stick to the agreed-upon agenda at their meetings and not allow major surprises  to slide in from any of the organizations, and they will practice complete transparency and stop sending out press releases that contain no more information than an invitation to a baby shower.

Every one who is involved in massage therapy education will join the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education.

The profession will come to a consensus on what constitutes required core competencies for entry-level education, while still giving school owners the autonomy and individuality to rise over and above that.

All unregulated states will get state-wide regulation and all localities will honor those and not place ridiculous additional burdens on licensed therapists.

All massage schools will be required to teach research literacy to their students, and will only hire instructors who are capable of doing so.

The NCBTMB will stop approving woo-woo courses for CE credit, and all entry-level massage schools will stop teaching it. I don’t care if you study Interplanetary Voodoo with the Archangels, but you don’t deserve any credit for doing that.

Our professional associations will conduct annual surveys that have NOTHING to do with a Job Task Analysis–the sole purpose of it will be “Tell us what you think we are doing wrong and give us your suggestions for how we could do it better.”

The Alliance for Massage Therapy Education will develop a program to offer instructor training to the masses that will be accessible and affordable–perhaps online.

Board members of all representing organizations will recognize their responsibility to not blindly follow the leader; to avoid not only conflicts of interest, but the appearance of conflicts of interest; will not put up with any cover-your-ass type behavior within their organizations; will hold their hired leadership accountable, and will have enough gumption to get rid of them if and when such behavior occurs.

All massage schools would seek COMTAapproval. If your school can’t afford that or doesn’t qualify because of not meeting the hour requirement, may I say that their standards are on their website for all the world to see for free, and you could still go about the self-study process and getting things up to snuff, even if you don’t formally seek the accreditation.

All school owners would be bound to have their school bonded, so that no school goes bankrupt and leaves students in the lurch in the middle of their program.

All schools would be required to post their pass rates on the licensing and certification exams on their websites and in their catalogs.

No school owner will be allowed to say to a potential student “Don’t worry, your criminal record won’t keep you from getting a license.” It should be mandatory for it to be disclosed that they may not receive a license. The state of Texas has a non-binding review, where for $50 a person seeking a career in any licensed profession can submit their criminal record for review prior to spending their time and money on pursuing education. Every state should do the same.

There should be a national exam for instructors to prove they are competent in teaching methodology and a subject matter expert in whatever area they intend to teach.

Each state should require a jurisprudence exam. Your licensees can’t adhere to the law unless they know what it is, and the percentage of applicants who actually read your practice act in its entirety is probably less than 5%–I’m basing that on asking that question in all the classes I teach. Hardly anyone reads them, but if they had to pass a test on it, they would.

The Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge would be about massage.If you want to have an energy work body of knowledge, create that.

Everyone involved in the profession would give financial support to the Massage Therapy Foundation. Give $100. Give $5. Give $1. Give whatever you can afford to give, just do it.

 

I could probably go on for days, but I have other chores to get to today. I invite my readers to add what they will. What’s on YOUR wishlist? What’s on mine that you object to, and why?

 

 

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If at first you don’t succeed….

Try, try again. That’s what the regulatory board in my home state of North Carolina is recommending when it comes to getting the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards to do something about the confusing status of continuing education approvals.

Two years ago, the NC Board of Massage & Bodywork Therapy introduced a resolution at the Annual Meeting of the FSMTB (which was held in Puerto Rico). This document instructed the Federation’s Board of Directors to “begin the process of developing a new national approval program for continuing education providers and courses.” The organization’s leadership responded positively to the resolution, and announced to the profession in the Spring of 2011 the launch of a comprehensive project to do just that. They also invited AFMTE, AMTA and ABMP to work with them to provide input that would help shape the project.

In spite of this clearly stated intention to develop a “centralized quality assurance process for all courses taken by massage and bodywork therapists for the renewal of State licensure or State certification” (quoted verbatim from the FSMTB press release dated 3/29/11), the outcome of this process missed the mark by a country mile. The MOCC Proposal, which stands for Maintenance of Core Competencies, failed to deliver what the state boards asked for, and what FSMTB promised.

To remind you, the MOCC Proposal was based on a new (and unproven) concept of separating continuing education that relates to “public protection” from all other CE that is taken for “professional development”. MOCC recommended that only CE related to “public protection” be required by state boards for renewal of licensure, and everything else be put into the voluntary category, to be regulated by… well, the proposal didn’t even mention NCBTMB. If this all weren’t bad enough, FSMTB would become the exclusive provider of coursework needed to maintain “core competency” in the subjects related to “public protection”.

For more background on the MOCC issue, refer to my blog posts of 3/14/12 and 4/15/12. It’s also illuminating to read the press release AMTA issued on 4/23/12 which contained a complete repudiation of the Federation’s proposal.

In a friendly game of golf, you can take a “mulligan” every now and again–a “do-over”. My colleagues at the NC Board are giving the FSMTB leadership an opportunity to take a mulligan on this vitally important CE approval issue. They have recently submitted another resolution to be discussed by Member Boards at the upcoming FSMTB Annual Meeting in New Orleans on September 27-29. This resolution is much like the original from two years ago, and its appearance at this point in time indicates that the need for a single-source national CE approval program has not gone away.

The primary rationale is contained in this statement from the new resolution:
“Reliance upon the NCB Approved Provider program has been problematic for state boards because (a) NCB is a private, non-profit corporation that lacks oversight from and accountability to state regulatory boards; (b) its program has not adequately evaluated the quality or relevance of CE courses; (c) administration of this program has had notable service delivery problems over an extended period of time.”

That’s all true, but the opera ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings. The NCBTMB has the infrastructure already in place–and this will be nothing more than another case of duplicated efforts if the Federation steps in and tries to take it away without consideration of the NCB’s position in that marketplace. I think a collaboration would be more appropriate; by contracting with the NCB to administer CE approvals, FSMTB could establish the accountability structure that state boards must have with NCB, and FSMTB wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel. They could just improve upon it.

Yesterday, I conducted one of my Scientific Facebook Polls, and asked the questions: How many MTs REALLY care what is happening with our professional organizations and what they are doing? How many people care about the MTBOK, the ELAP, the MOCC (don’t y’all love all these acronyms) or even know what they really are? How many people care about the legislation and regulation of massage? How many people care that there are initiatives to raise standards for teachers of massage therapy and for massage education in general? Do you care about all those things, or would you rather just be left alone to do massage?

I got 75 replies in a 24-hour period, and one thing is apparent: to the average massage therapist trying to make a living, many perceive our organizations to be all about politics and all about money. To some extent, that’s true…the one with the most money wins. The perception is also that they all have their own agendas. Actually, recently some of them seem to have the same agenda, but they’ve wasted time and money in duplicating efforts, or opposing each other’s efforts, and scrapping over turf wars. In a recent blog I urged the NCBTMB to take themselves out of the entry-level exam market and suggested that the FSMTB assists them financially in return for their doing so. Earlier this week, in a piece published in Massage Today, Ralph Stephens called on AMTA and ABMP to offer “substantial and ongoing financial support” to COMTA and AFMTE, to further their important efforts to improve the quality of massage therapy education.

FSMTB and the NCB have recently conducted new Job Task Analysis surveys, both of them seriously flawed, in my humble opinion. These surveys show a strong bias towards the clinical/medical side of massage therapy, and contain virtually nothing about the KSA’s related to delivering massage therapy as a primary means of facilitating well-being and integration. From my perspective, the latter is of equal or greater importance.

In addition, the FSMTB survey has a special add-on section to gather data for the Entry-Level Analysis Project (ELAP). This dual-purpose survey does ask lots of questions about specific medical conditions, but it contains nothing about the client/therapist relationship. The word “relax” does not appear anywhere, and the word “relaxation” shows up just once.

There’s also an over-focus on the huge number of modalities that are marketed in this field. Many of these listed are obscure and little-understood. It’s wrong to ask a therapist to define themselves by a single named modality. Practitioners typically use a broad range of methods with clients. The modality is not the treatment — it’s the totality of what a practitioner brings to the session.

Finally, this Federation JTA is similar to the recent JTA from NCBTMB: another duplicated effort that still falls short of giving an accurate picture of what happens in the real world of massage therapy. You can count how many times a week we give a massage or take SOAP notes, but that’s not what it’s really about. It’s about our rapport with the client, and what kind of results we are able to produce, and what kind of trust we can inspire in our therapeutic relationships. The MTBOK generally missed the boat on this as well, although I have high hopes that the line-by-line analysis and re-mapping of the MTBOK that was conducted by AFMTE will give us a usable body of knowledge.

As a result of these large-scale projects, it’s likely that the kind of incomplete and disjointed training that is typical in our field will get further enshrined as the baseline for education. Skewed survey questions produce skewed data. Using that data to build a new standard for the entire field is not just wrong, it’s a crime against the lineage of massage therapy. Just look at what has happened to the other health care professions who have organized themselves around the mechanistic/reductionistic model. People are treated as parts, and no discipline ever looks at the whole person. Massage therapists still have the ability to treat holistically. Relaxation is being relegated to a lower-class status of therapeutic effect, when it’s one of the most valuable aspects we offer with this work.

This whole scenario illustrates one thing: the time has never been more ripe for getting our act together, and that isn’t going to happen while there’s all this push and pull and one-upmanship going on with the organizations. When the leaders of the seven primary stakeholder groups sat down at the table for the first time last September, the ELAP proposal appeared out of nowhere–it wasn’t even on the agenda and it got slid in anyway. I would like to see them sit down again, and take a serious look at these issues. Put ego and profit aside. Take a real look at the flaws in your information-gathering processes. If you want to see what massage therapists really think, sign on to my Facebook page and you might get a rude awakening at their opinions of you. You wouldn’t exist without us, and what we think does matter. A Job Task Analysis survey asks what we do--and frankly, it isn’t near as important as what we think. Consider that.

 

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