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California Massage Therapy Council
I am writing on behalf of a limited English Laotian Massage Therapist who is trying to secure her California certificate. Many communities in California require this certificate before a license to practice will be issued, Fresno is one of them. She made her application to the State and documents were submitted in January 2014. Her school is an acceptable school. At some point her app was forwarded to the Professional Standards Division for review. That was 7 months ago. In the meantime she has provided authorization for me to communicate with Council on her behalf. First, they will not provide any explanation as to why the app was sidelined. When I offered to provide any additional information that would help speed up the process, I was told that none was needed. In my last communication I asked for a time estimate as to when she might receive her certificate I was told it could be anywhere from 3 months to a year. What is going on here? Any ideas?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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CA's state license is voluntary; with it, the MT can practice in any locale in the state w/o having to pay the huge fees and being subjected to STD testing, etc, that some communities require. Note that to be state certified, the applicant must have 500 hours of education in an approved school and pass either MBLEX or NCETMB exam. You affirm that all that has been done, correct? According to the state website, they will still acccept 100 hrs from approved school, but the MT community is pushing hard to require a minimum of 500 hours and state-wide true licensing, as in 38 regulated states.
The sidelining may be due to her alien work permit. Is hers up to date? Regrettably, CA communities are inundated with Asian "massage" parlors, which, it is understood by all, are sex shops. I suggest gathering signatures on her behalf--individual letters even better, and at least a couple from business owners who testify to her legitimacy.
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Permalink Reply by John Crenshaw on
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The 2009 Senate Bill that established the California Massage Therapy Council was designed to make this certificate a voluntary certificate. However, many communities require this document before a business license will be given. Practicing without a proper license can rack up a fine close to $500. Her work permit is not in question. What is, is why her app was sidelined to their Professional Standards Division in the first place and why it may take potentially a year and a half for someone to make a decision. No reason has been given for their action. Quite frankly, this kind of behavior from a State sanctioned agency is unacceptable. In my opinion they are out of control and do not seem to be accountable to anyone or any agency. Not all shops are "sex shops". Our local police are responsible for reviewing and authorizing the licenses. The California Massage Certificate needs to be presented to them before one can receive a business license. Here's another opinion-they are doing a very poor job of monitoring the illegal activities and in the last 5 years have approved shop licenses from a little under 100 shops in a city of 500,000 to about 225 shops to date. The last closure that hit the newspapers was of a known "sex shop" and it took them 6 months of under cover work to close that one down. The California Massage Therapy Council does not respond to letters of testimony. I was hoping that someone might have had the same experience and could forward a solution. Without a stated reason for their action it, at best, seems to be arbitrary and punitive.
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I agree. The problem in many states is money (lack of). Board members are unpaid volunteers; the only nominally paid employee is usually the Board Director-- IOW, no clerical personnel to do the work.
I'm licensed in MS and GA. GA, all professions are regulated through the Sec of State office-- about 200 professions, everything from lawyers to plumbers. Each has its own board, but EVERYTHING goes through the SecState office. Clerks handle all correspondence for all professions, and know nothing about any of them. MS's application process was a simple affair, but it still took me three months to get the license in hand. GA's license took about 8 weeks-- and I applied for "licensure by endorsement" (already holding a license in a reciprocal state).
John, with all the publicity lately about the flood across our borders, her Asian/non citizen, race may be her roadblock. I sure as hell don't think it's fair, but that may be it. And you say that Fresno has 225 MT shops???? Maybe they are trying to tighten down on the numbers of massage therapists in competition in the community. Board members are probably all practitioners themselves?
Good luck. Oh, could you take her on as apprentice, allow her to work that way?
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Gary W Addis, LMT said:I agree. The problem in many states is money (lack of). Board members are unpaid volunteers; the only nominally paid employee is usually the Board Director-- IOW, no clerical personnel to do the work.
I'm licensed in MS and GA. GA, all professions are regulated through the Sec of State office-- about 200 professions, everything from lawyers to plumbers. Each has its own board, but EVERYTHING goes through the SecState office. Clerks handle all correspondence for all professions, and know nothing about any of them. MS's application process was a simple affair, but it still took me three months to get the license in hand. GA's license took about 8 weeks-- and I applied for "licensure by endorsement" (already holding a license in a reciprocal state).
John, with all the publicity lately about the flood across our borders, her Asian/non citizen, race may be her roadblock. I sure as hell don't think it's fair, but that may be it. And you say that Fresno has 225 MT shops???? Maybe they are trying to tighten down on the numbers of massage therapists in competition in the community. Board members are probably all practitioners themselves?
Good luck. Oh, could you take her on as apprentice, allow her to work that way?
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Thanks for the input. However, without a Fresno license she literally can not be near a massage table. One lady I know of was basically a receptionist in a shop, primarily because of her English skills. The police did an impromptu visit one day and I found out about the questions they put her through even though she did not do massage and clearly stated this up front. She did have a beauticians license on the wall which the police took. To this day they have not returned it and that happened about a year ago. The only thing wrong with this scenario is that the shop the city PD visited was in the County and the City license rules do not apply. However, that did not stop our "boys in blue". Sound like something out of a Keystone Cops movie? If anyone should be cracking down on the numbers in Fresno, it should be the police. The fact that this is a State certificate,means it's good anywhere in California. Where the applicant lives at the time should not be a factor. I agree with you regarding our borders, but the "transplants" are not coming from the east. Since my son is a Border Patrol Agent, I get an earful in just about every conversation. The facts still remain that her application has been stalled for an unknown cause and information coming from the Massage Therapy Council has been virtually nil. Thanks again for your input.
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you're welcome. Wish we all could do something to help her. I don't hang my original licenses; I hang copies, for that kinda reason.
Just recently became licensed in GA. Paid for what I thought would be second originals of my pocket card and wall certificate. Now, I was permitted to download a copy of the pocket (mobile) card off the website, but waited an extra four weeks for them to finally mail the wall certificate and the "official" pocket card. Lo and behold, the wall certificate was merely an enlarged copy of the pocket card-- since I had paid twice, they sent me two copies in separate envelopes of the same blankety thing. Nothing official looking about it...the board name at top, my name and license number and dates, no state seal no ornamentation, nothing else. We are required to post a copy of the license wherever we work: the enlargement of the pocket card. Cheap bastids. In MS the fee was $200, but that included everything; here in GA the fee is $125 for the application, $75 for background check, $25 for the "wall certificate" and $25 for the pocket card-- and I paid for an extra copy of each.
I don't have a problem with the transplants. Hardest working people I've met are Mexicans and Asians. Mexicans for the labor, Asians for their business sense. Locally, in a two of 50,000, the Indian Paatel family dominate the medical community-- they are dentists, DCs, neurologists, heart surgeons, about 15 of them in a websearch of Valdosta, GA. Man, what a determined family.
I wish you well, John.
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