{"id":1805,"date":"2014-02-16T17:49:43","date_gmt":"2014-02-16T17:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/?p=1805"},"modified":"2025-09-14T16:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T20:52:09","slug":"elap-now-that-ive-read-the-whole-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/16\/elap-now-that-ive-read-the-whole-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"ELAP: Now that I’ve Read the Whole Thing…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent most of my spare time during the past week reading the Final Report and the Entry-Level Education Blueprint of the ELAP<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span> Again, I will offer my appreciation for the collaboration of the Coalition and the team that actually performed the work on this. It was a big project and obviously, people took time away from their own pursuits to participate in it.<\/p>\n

Now that I have read the whole thing in its entirety, I have a few observations on it. I quote from the Coalition statement:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We aspire to have this report influence several profession audiences:<\/p>\n

\u2022 the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards<\/a>,<\/strong><\/span> which can use The Core as it builds guidelines for a model practice act;<\/p>\n

My comment on that:<\/strong> The press release announcing that the FSMTB <\/em>was going to create a Model Practice Act first appeared on April 1, 2011. In a letter I received dated Jan.31, 2014, FSMTB Executive Director Debra Persinger stated that the Task Force is currently completing the final revisions before releasing it for public comment. <\/em><\/p>\n

It’s just my opinion that the ELAP will be a last-minute inclusion in that, if it does in fact get included.<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 state licensing boards, which can use The Core in setting education requirements for licensees;<\/p>\n

My comment on that:<\/strong> What is the Model Practice Act doing, if not that? It seems very possible that this is a duplication of efforts. While there are of course other things included in a practice act, one of them is spelling out the hours of required education. I don’t know any state board that goes much beyond setting the total number of required hours, and how that should be broken down in a general list of required<\/em> subject matter<\/em>. Not to mention changing a practice act requires legislative action.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 The Alliance for Massage Therapy Education<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, which can refer to The Core in creating teacher training standards and curricula;<\/p>\n

My comment on that: <\/strong>Aha! And therein lies the clincher and the biggest issue I have with it. Since I couldn’t say it any better myself, I am going to share the comment that Rick Rosen left on my FB page<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“The critical missing element that will prevent the ELAP Core Curriculum from being implemented on a wide scale is the lack of teacher training in our field. <\/span>

I simply cannot fathom why the cash-rich organizations in our field (AMTA<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, ABMP<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, FSMTB<\/strong><\/span><\/a>) would spend significant sums of money on a curriculum development project, while they continue to turn their back on providing the financial support needed to carry forward the Alliance’s National Teacher Education Standards Project.<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Without this long-term investment in teacher development, educational outcomes and the quality of massage therapy services delivered will remain inconsistent at best.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>“<\/em><\/p>\n

My comment on Rosen’s comment: <\/strong>Nailed it on the head<\/em>. And it would be another interesting research project to determine what the average training is of teachers in massage schools across the US. <\/em><\/p>\n

I will repeat Rosen’s sentiments by saying I would like to see all the organizations give this kind of support to the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education and their National Teacher Standards Education Project.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Alliance is the youngest organization out there, and does not yet have the kind of cash reserves built up to move this project along at a better pace. The fact is these kinds of projects do require money in order to come to fruition. <\/em>The Alliance membership is made up of educators and industry partners, and will never have the kind of membership numbers enjoyed by the other organizations by virtue of that fact. I can visualize the ELAP being very useful to the teacher training project–but they need the money to make it happen. I urge our other organizations and industry supporters to put your money into this project.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, which can use The Core as it identifies beginning vs. advanced knowledge and skills for its Board Certification credential;<\/p>\n

My comment on that: <\/strong>The Board Certification exam is already out there and is still practically new. I don’t see any major revisions taking place on it any time soon. T<\/em>he NCBTMB is using their “old” certification exam for their entry-level licensing exams, and has been for years. As a certification exam and a licensing exam should require two different job task analysis surveys and one should not be interchangeable with the other, they are already <\/em>in muddy water, and I don’t really see how this will clear it up. <\/em>And, as is the case with the MBLEx, the exams that the NCB is using for entry-level licensing are geared to a 500-hour education requirement. Again, this would require major changes to that as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 professional membership organizations, which can use The Core in shaping membership criteria;<\/p>\n

My comment on that: <\/strong>Pay the money, show proof that you are either a student or a licensee or a practitioner in an unregulated state<\/em>, and boom! you’re a member. Within the past few months, myself and others made well-documented complaints about <\/em>an unethical practitioner who was scamming fellow massage therapists and try as we might, we could not get her removed from the membership rolls of AMTA or the massage listing service. <\/em>She has now finally been removed, after it was reported that she was also scamming her clients.<\/em> Or she just didn’t pay her membership renewal fee. Either way, she’s no longer listed, but it took months to get any action on that front. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, which can use the Core in evaluating massage and bodywork curricula for programmatic accreditation;<\/p>\n

My comment on that: <\/strong>COMTA has had their competencies spelled out for years. The basic difference I see is that ELAP is spelling out the number of hours to be spent in each subject matter area. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 other accrediting organizations, which can use The Core in shaping their accreditation criteria;<\/p>\n

My comment on that: <\/strong>COMTA is the only accreditation organization devoted to massage therapy (and they now also include aesthetic programs). The other accreditation programs I am aware <\/em>of approve of all kinds of schools and programs and use the same evaluation criteria for a massage program as they would an engine repair program. <\/em>I don’t <\/em>realistically see it having impact on these types of accrediting agencies, although it would be nice if it did.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 school owners, administrators and faculty, who can use The Core to strengthen or validate curricula and to adopt consistent learning outcomes;<\/p>\n

My comment on that: <\/strong>I wholeheartedly agree. I encourage all school owners, administrators and faculty to read this document…and I know the majority won’t take the time. I have seen the prevailing attitude of “I’m not going to let anyone tell me what to do at my school,” when I have tried to promote COMTA accreditation (disclosure: I have been a COMTA peer reviewer). It doesn’t matter if it would vastly improve their existing program. Stubbornness is hard to overcome. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 and potential massage therapy students, as they consider where to enroll.<\/p>\n

My comment on that: <\/strong>I would be shocked to know that any potential student is ever going to read the 527- page document to help them choose a school. Just my opinion.<\/em><\/p>\n

More of my unsolicited opinion: <\/strong>I am not critical of this document on the whole. I think it spells out a good foundational education for entry-level massage therapists as it was meant to do, and it requires 625 hours to do it in.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

There are still 26 states here with a 500-hour minimum requirement. While it is very true that there are many schools that exceed their state’s hour requirement, there are also a large number of school owners that are determined they are not ever going to do more than the state requires. <\/em>Neither do I see it having much effect, if at all, in states that already have higher requirements for education.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The ELAP report states that a 2012 survey showed schools are teaching an average of 697 hours. Still, if this were to be legally adopted, which I think is a long shot at best, it would undoubtedly put some schools in the position of “cooperate or close down,” which in the general scheme of things, might not be a bad thing, if their students are not truly well-prepared. <\/em><\/p>\n

I am just of the opinion that being prepared to pass an entry-level examination, and being prepared for the real world of massage, are two very different things. It also isn’t about hours, per se, but about competencies–a statement, in fairness, made in the ELAP–but it does take a certain number of hours to teach those competencies, and this is what the work group decided on. <\/em><\/p>\n

Bottom line: I like it, but I do think that in spite of the Coalition statement of support, that there has been some unnecessary duplication of efforts on some of their parts here, and that a good curriculum can only be effective with good, well-trained teachers. I’d like to see an equal amount of time, money, and effort spent on the <\/em>National Teacher Standards Education Project.<\/em>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent most of my spare time during the past week reading the Final Report and the Entry-Level Education Blueprint of the ELAP. Again, I will offer my appreciation for the collaboration of the Coalition and the team that actually performed the work on this. It was a big project and obviously, people took time … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ELAP: Now that I’ve Read the Whole Thing…”<\/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],"tags":[16,17,15,51,99,231,21,101,18,76],"class_list":["post-1805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-legislation-of-massage","category-massage-associations","category-massage-therapy","category-politics-of-massage","tag-abmp","tag-afmte","tag-amta","tag-comta","tag-debra-persinger","tag-elap","tag-fsmtb","tag-mblex","tag-ncbtmb","tag-rick-rosen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805","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=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3630,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions\/3630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}