massage and bodywork professionals

a community of practitioners

Laura Allen's Blog (160)

The Financial Health of Our Organizations: FSMTB

Note: For the past few years I have done a series of reports on the financial status of the non-profit organizations that represent the massage therapy profession. I obtain this information from Guidestar, a financial information clearinghouse for non-profits. The organizations can provide their Form 990 (Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax) to Guidestar, and if they don’t, the IRS does it for them. I will state for…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on December 14, 2012 at 2:23pm — No Comments

The Financial Health of Our Organizations: NCBTMB

Note: For the past few years I have done a series of reports on the financial status of the non-profit organizations that represent the massage therapy profession. I obtain this information from Guidestar, a financial information clearinghouse for non-profits. The organizations can provide their Form 990 (Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax) to Guidestar, and if they don’t, the IRS does it for them. I will state for…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on November 29, 2012 at 3:17pm — No Comments

NCBTMB Making Major Changes to CE Provider Approvals

Disclosure: I have agreed to pass along comments, questions and concerns to the NCBTMB on this matter, and the management there reads my blog. They are fully aware that I use this blog to express my own opinion whether it is in line with theirs or not. Your comments here will be seen by the CEO, Mike Williams, and the Board of Directors.

The NCBTMB has announced major changes in the works to their Approved Provider program for continuing education.…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on November 18, 2012 at 7:37am — 1 Comment

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…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on October 28, 2012 at 8:47am — 6 Comments

The Exploitation of Massage Therapists

Ever since my last post about Massage Envy being sold to a giant conglomerate, I’ve been sent dozens of links to message boards and discussions about ME, and many of them contain references to other work places and situations as well. The horror stories outweigh the good by about twenty to one.

There are a lot of places where massage therapists are expected to do…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on October 21, 2012 at 9:46am — 10 Comments

Massage Envy: I'll take an order of wings with that massage, please.

What do chicken wings, magnetic signs, garbage collection, pet food and massage all have in common? They are all products or services offered by franchises that are owned by Roark Capital Group of Atlanta, Georgia. This company has invested $3 Billion Dollars in collections of franchises across the US and around the world. Their latest acquisiiton is the chain of more than 800 Massage Envylocations, which has brought massage to…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on October 15, 2012 at 8:30am — 1 Comment

Politics and Cliques

This week’s blog is about the elections at the upcoming Federation of State Massage Therapy Boardsannual 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…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on September 18, 2012 at 4:20am — No Comments

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…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on September 8, 2012 at 4:31am — No Comments

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…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on August 30, 2012 at 1:49pm — 1 Comment

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…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on August 24, 2012 at 4:27pm — 2 Comments

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…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on August 11, 2012 at 9:04am — 2 Comments

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…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on August 5, 2012 at 5:48am — No Comments

If at first you don't succeed...

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…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on July 30, 2012 at 4:12am — No Comments

The Snake Oil Medicine Show

There’s nothing earth-shaking in the world of massage politics on my radar this week, so I’m just going to make a few observations. I know that I am about to step on more than a few toes here, but it must be said.

I’ve got a few thousand massage therapists in my social networks (FB, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google +). In the mornings, when I’m drinking my coffee, I visit those sites and scroll through to see what people are up to. I like to read that people are having success with their…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on July 21, 2012 at 11:04am — 3 Comments

NCBTMB: Quit the Small Stuff, Take the Bold Step

Nearly two years ago, the Tennessee Board of Massage Licensure voted to change its rule pertaining to the examinations approved for licensure of massage therapists. They chose to adopt the Massage & Bodywork Licensing Examination offered by FSMTB as the only approved exam – and sunset the use of the National Certification Examination for…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on July 11, 2012 at 1:43pm — No Comments

Report from the FSMTA Meeting

Champ and I spent the weekend at the Florida State Massage Therapy Association meeting in ChampionsGate, FL. It was our first time attending this event, and we went there to work in the Soothing Touch booth with Gurukirn Khalsa and his family. The event was held at the beautiful Omni Resort…a lush tropical setting and superior accommodations. It was hot as the devil–but it got up to 108 ° back here at home in NC while we were there, so I really can’t complain about it. The FSMTA meeting is…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on July 2, 2012 at 7:59am — No Comments

Come to COMTA

I just got home from doing a site review from COMTA. It was my third trip as a peer reviewer, and once again, an enlightening experience. COMTA is the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation. Gaining accreditation is a strictly voluntary process. It’s estimated that there are about 1500 massage schools/programs in the US, and less than 100 of them possess the accreditation. Obtaining COMTA accreditation for a massage school is not cheap, and it’s a lot of hard work, so you might wonder…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on June 21, 2012 at 7:45pm — No Comments

Report from the AFMTE Annual Meeting

I spent last weekend in toasty Tucson, AZ at the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education annual meeting, and for the third year in a row since this organization started, it was one of the best things I have ever attended. There were quite a few new people attending this year, and attendance was up slightly from last year. The meeting was held at the El Conquistador resort, a beautiful venue with gorgeous mountain and desert views. I was late getting there and unfortunately missed the opening…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on June 11, 2012 at 1:55pm — No Comments

The ELAP Flap Continues

Earlier this week I received the ELAP (Entry-Level Analysis Project) Description from ABMP. I’ve been blogging about this for several weeks, first because I was upset that it was shrouded in secrecy; then last week because I finally got word of who is serving on this work group. While that information didn’t exactly smooth my ruffled feathers, I was gratified to see that I know some of the people working on it and know that they do the best job they can at whatever tasks they take on. And…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on June 2, 2012 at 7:31am — No Comments

ELAP Work Group Members Announced

Anne Williams of ABMP has confirmed to me today the members of the group that are working on the Entry-Level Analysis Project that I have been blogging about for the past few weeks. Since the secrecy surrounding this project has been my main complaint, about it, I will share that information here. The members are:

Cynthia Ribeiro, President of AMTA (National), educator, and school owner.

Tom Lochhaas, University-level educator, author, editor with 24 years experience in…

Continue

Added by Laura Allen on May 25, 2012 at 6:13am — No Comments

© 2024   Created by ABMP.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service