{"id":1471,"date":"2013-06-16T00:13:10","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T00:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/?p=1471"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:00:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:00:30","slug":"elap-first-draft-and-call-for-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/16\/elap-first-draft-and-call-for-com\/","title":{"rendered":"ELAP First Draft and Call for Comments Released"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first draft of the ELAP (Entry-Level Analysis Project) <\/a><\/strong><\/span>has finally been released. It’s been more than a year since I first blogged about it. <\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This research project proposal was introduced by ABMP<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and has come full circle from the first statements put out about it, which put me<\/em> out quite a bit. The initial proposal stated: There is no step in this proposal to obtain input from the broader massage profession or from other health-care or bodywork organizations during this project. The reason is simple\u2014the work group is simply performing a work task in writing learning outcomes and objectives for job tasks defined by surveys already conducted by FSMTB<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>and NCBTMB<\/a>.<\/strong> <\/span>It doesn\u2019t matter what stakeholders, or other groups think should be taught or shouldn\u2019t be taught. The work group would be responding to what therapists report they do, on a day-to-day basis, in their massage-related environments as part of their jobs. <\/em><\/p>\n

They had to back up and punt on that. The ELAP<\/a><\/strong><\/span> website now contains the following statements clarifying the purpose and scope of the project:<\/p>\n

The Entry-Level Analysis Project (ELAP) is a research project that defines the minimum number of training hours necessary to acquire knowledge and skills essential for safe and competent practice as an entry-level massage therapist. The project was initiated through conversations between the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, American Massage Therapy Association<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, the Massage Therapy Foundation<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork<\/strong><\/span>.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

ELAP aims to obtain and use research data and analysis of findings from other massage profession projects to inform the creation of an entry-level curriculum map. The map will define the essential elements of an entry-level curriculum necessary for safe and competent practice in a massage career, as well as the number of hours deemed necessary to teach these learning objectives and outcomes. The project outputs will be used to inform the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) Model Practice Act designed to promote interstate portability of credentials in the massage profession. The recommendations of the ELAP project will be available to the massage profession as a resource to enhance consistency of entry-level curricula in massage and bodywork training programs.<\/em><\/p>\n

The ELAP website now contains five webinars explaining the various facets of the project, and numerous surveys to complete. You do not have to complete all of them; the option is to pick and choose those areas that interest you the most.<\/p>\n

I urge everyone to give feedback. It happens too often in our field that there is either no opportunity to give feedback, or the opportunity is presented and ignored….the MTBOK<\/a><\/span><\/strong> (Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge) was a prime example of that. Only a smattering of people responded to that, and then it came under all kinds of criticism when it was released. If you don’t take the opportunity to express your opinion, then don’t gripe when it comes out and you don’t like it. Visit the website<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and take advantage of your opportunity to participate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first draft of the ELAP (Entry-Level Analysis Project) has finally been released. It’s been more than a year since I first blogged about it. This research project proposal was introduced by ABMP and has come full circle from the first statements put out about it, which put me out quite a bit. The initial … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ELAP First Draft and Call for Comments Released”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,273,5,3,9],"tags":[16,17,15,51,231,21,35,18],"class_list":["post-1471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-legislation-of-massage","category-massage-associations","category-massage-therapy","category-politics-of-massage","category-research","tag-abmp","tag-afmte","tag-amta","tag-comta","tag-elap","tag-fsmtb","tag-massage-therapy-foundation","tag-ncbtmb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1471"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3678,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions\/3678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}