a community of practitioners

MTBOK 2ND Draft

Hi,

You've had time to print and review. What changes are needed?

This is the last draft, before the presentation!

The effort by MTBOK, funded through the Massage Therapy Foundation, to keep everyone one the same page is discussed on this thread - You can see the funding for the feasibility study grant at http://www.massageprofessionals.com/forum/topics/massagenet-to-keep...

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Darcy Neibaur on March 3, 2010 at 9:42am

I thought I read in the MTBOK 2nd draft that Massage was Energy Work, but that Energy Work was not necessarily Massage. I finished reading it just yesterday.

Permalink Reply by Mike Hinkle on March 3, 2010 at 12:24pm

Hi Rick!

I hear you, there is an image (perception) problem in the profession. If these modalities, you sighted (and others) are not massage, why is NCBTMB certifying them, the instructors and acknowledging the CEU credits for these courses? If they are, part of the profession, why are massage researchers and medical related fields attacking them?

And we wonder why the medical field isn't accepting us. We have not defined who we even are. And we surely are not all on the same page.

NCBTMB in Laura's article said they are setting the highest standards and yet, are they confusing the profession by promoting these modalities, just for profit. They seem to want it both ways; give us your money but you are not part of the profession. Until this issue is settled... we will flounder.

Permalink Reply by Nancy Toner Weinberger on June 13, 2010 at 11:07am

The big influence here is the Eastern-based massage therapies. These are taught in many schools and are, in some cases, very close to the practice of medicine. Actually many of the Western-based energy work modalities,such as Therapeutic Touch or Barbara Brennan energy work, are medically oriented. These approaches are quite different from energy work such as Reiki, which is religious in origin, and therefore a bit of stretch to include in the MTBOK. IN my humble opinion, of course.

It seems to me that there is a difference also in how physically intrusive the energy work approach is. I am thinking here of all the problems in NC due to unlicensed and foreign practitioners practicing oriental massage in malls and salons. So in NC we have an exception to MT licensing for energy work, but we do not define oriental massage as energy work. Yet when you learn how to do Shiatsu, what you learn about is energy meridians and how to manipulate them.

Maybe we need to define further which energy work modalities fall under the auspices of massage and bodywork.