Is it 500? 750? 650? 1200? Which number of hours is the winner?

Comment

Comment by Lisa Santoro on July 16, 2009 at 4:30am

Tim Starkey, I did not address the energetic bodyworkers question because it had nothing to do with my original post. The energetic community decided not to be part of the licensing regulation. It could have been included had that been their objective. Regulation is a thorny issue all around, and it comes with positives and negatives. As a Reiki Master, and Visionary Cranial Sacral person I believe this work is vital to what we do. Should that be the realm of voluntarily taken continuing ed and not part of a basics curriculum? I don't know. Should those who have only studied energetic modalities and not had Ethical communications training, A&P be able to get licensed as a massage therapist? That's another question for another day and again was not addressed in my original post.

Comment by Timothy Starkey on July 15, 2009 at 11:45pm

Ms Santoro: In reading your responses I still do not see evidence that increasing hours benefits the public. Just subjective opinion and not facts. If you review Mr Steckers entry and mine we have listed facts as stated in the industry. The accepted standard is 500 hours. No evidence based need has been shown for increasing the hours over the accepted industry standard. Going from 500 hours to 650 hours is a 30% increase in hours. As a person who has conducted a business I am sure you can figure out that a 30% increase in hours is going to incur increased tuition for students just like if Cortiva or another school were to lower there hours there would be a decrease in expenses and therefore a decrease in tuition.
You mention that this increase helps to level the playing field...this is not the job of the board! In a free enterprise system students should be given choices not be forced to adapt top increased hours because 5 people think it would be a good idea contrary to the industry standards. Even you talk about how you would LOVE to have three more hours a week, why not 5 more hours or 10 more hours a week. As stated before the regulations are not about what people would love to do. It is about what is the entry level standard into the profession to protect the public safety and welfare.
By increasing hours, increasing expenses and potentially decreasing people entering the profession the board is not protecting the public safety and welfare they are putting it at risk. They will be making massage less accessible. The increased expenses will be passed on to the consumer. The decrease in people entering the profession will affect the consumer. I hope that this is just shortsightedness on the part of the board..but based upon their unwillingness to listen to and respond to public and industry comment during the past year I fear there is more than shortsightedness at play here. As you point out in your email. This regulation forces schools that have been able to create successful therapist in less time, with less hours, and for a lower cost to be forced to "level the playing field" for the sake of schools like cortiva that are longer and more expensive. I cannot believe that anyone would support this injustice. No one is trying to force cortiva to lower their hours. But alas that is the problem. As consumers have become more savvy, they were questioning the need to attend a 1200 hour program, thus the program was decreased...likely without the increase to 650 in the regulations Cortiva and other schools would have felt the need to decrease their hours again to meet the demands of the consumer which of course means less income, less teaching hours, and less profits.
The bottom line is. The industry standard by every professional organization in the massage and bodywork industry is 500 hours. 30 states that have state licensure is 500 hours. The accrediting bodies are 500 hours, the certification and licensing exams are 500 hours. I have not been shown any PROOF or EVIDENCE that their is a need for increased hours. All that is given is board ignoring the requests for facts and evidence that there is a need for a change and that the changes will resolve the need.
I noticed you have no comments on the issues around the board completely eliminating MT's studying bodywork, energywork and practicing it under their license as part of their massage work.. Massachusetts will soon be the ONLY state in the country that will have this. Read chapter 135 and then read the definitions the board has written in their regulations. It is appauling what they are doing to our profession by eliminating all these tools that massage therapists routinely study and use as part of their massage practice.

Comment by Lisa Santoro on July 15, 2009 at 9:36pm

Thank you both for your well thought out and detailed opinions. Just to enlighten you Mr. Stecker, by raising the hours, it levels the playing field for all the schools, not just Cortiva. I do not personally gain from every school offering 150 more hours.

I have one question for the both of you. Why would adding 150 hours to a curriculum raise the price of a school's tuition? That adds up to effectively one course. I think the attitude that it would add to the tuition gives credence to my thoughts that the problem with adding 150 more hours has to do with money and a short sightedness in the future of our profession. I too have travelled around the country and have seen massage therapists working in my continuing ed. classes. I have been worked on by many students/grads from other schools other than Cortiva/MTI grads. I've had the worst massage ever by someone who had graduated from a 1000 hour program. I had a thoughtful and solid massage by a person who studied in a 250 hour program. Did the person know their anatomy? No. Were they able to work with my complex health history? No. Did they take notes? Not really. Could they have caused me harm because of their lack of knowledge? Yes. I would still vote that massage as being good because of the therapists presence and intent. Had I not known the contraindications of my conditions (and most of the general public do not know contraindications for massage) I would not have been able to advise her. Would that person have benefitted from having a more detailed and thorough education? Pardon the pun, but YES hands down. And that, esteemed colleagues, is about protecting the public. (Mr. Starkey, I am the most frequent flyer with a Spa Tech grad). Any comments that misinterpret my utmost respect for graduates of other schools are an interesting and misinformed twist on what I originally said.

Through your very interesting opinions, it made me wonder what would 150 additional hours actually cost a school? To the consumer one class is maybe 3 hours more per week. How much more curriculum would I love to cover with 3 more hours per week? I'd be thrilled with the opportunity! For me, and this is my personal opinion only, I would choose to go to a massage therapist who had solid training. As a business owner, I would want to hire a massage therapist who had the training and knowledge to work with a wide variety of people, and be able to construct a treatment that was safe and effective for my clientele.

Part of how I was able to found a successful medical practice was being able to present a well thought out business plan with research statistics on the efficacy of massage. I was also able to speak to an esteemed panel of high level medical practitioners in an informed and accurate manner. When introducing energetic and other modalities I could explain in succinct terms why and how they worked. Being able to do so was due to excellent training.

Comment by Kris Stecker on July 15, 2009 at 2:05pm

Let's start with full disclosure. Lisa Santoro is a teacher at Cortiva Institute and she stands to benefit from the state requiring more hours. The hidden agenda of the board as well as the schools that stand to benefit from increased hours has been behind the drive to raise the hours and eliminate all bodywork from the program. Just like the board members who are ramming the new standards through despite extensive objections from employers, future students, the public and several of the schools, Lisa will benefit if people are forced to attend longer programs which will give her more job security.

I'm not making this up. In a recent email from the director of Cortiva there was a plea for an increase in the hours due to the school suffering from competition from shorter programs that cost less. One of the issues was that Cortiva needed to reduce their hours because they could not compete. Many of the people, when faced with the option of taking longer and paying more or getting done sooner and paying less, chose the latter and attended schools other than Cortiva.

Of course, if you can force people to take longer programs through regulation, that will benefit the schools that already offer longer programs. That is the hidden agenda that is driving the process.

The point that Lisa is missing is that the board is supposed to be establishing the "Minimum Entry Level Requirements" for people to safely practice massage therapy. The national standard for massage as put forth by AMTA, ABMP, NCBTMB and MBLEX as well as all insurance coverage for massage is 500 hours. The board of massage was unable to produce a single study or report that demonstrated that going from 500 to 650 hours made any significant difference in protecting the public. The insurance companies, having the most immediate data on the subject, would be the biggest advocate for increased hours if they saw any advantage, and as of now they do not.

So why raise the hours? There is no legitimate reason to do it. Schools can still offer programs of any length they want and people can choose if they want the minimum or more. Additionally, assuming that the length of the program determines the quality of education is incorrect. Depending on curriculums, teaching materials, teacher quality and many other factors, the number of hours is not an accurate measure of how much is learned or how proficient the practitioner is when they graduate. To think otherwise is very antiquated.

In fact, Spa Tech offers programs of anywhere from 200 hours to 1500 hours and many of our students do more than one program. We have seen that students in the full-time and mother's-hours programs who complete in 6 months are frequently more successful than the people who have to take the 1 year program. This is because their rate of learning accelerates when they are taking classes more intensely. We also find it prepares them better for the "production" environment that is required by most professional spas and other massage related businesses.

But is 500 hours enough? The reality is that as an entry level practitioner, 500 hours can be adequate. our shortest massage programs are 600 hours which are now 650 starting in September. But 500 hours is enough. To require more hours simply increases the cost of education and will prevent many people from being able to enter the field. Sure, for the people who are already licensed, many who were grandfathered in with 500 hours of training, raising the hours and lowering the number of people entering the field is a good thing. The fewer the practitioners, the more you can charge. Or for those who feel that raising the hours will give the profession more credibility, it's a sad statement of how far the industry has fallen into reliance on outside authorities to establish credibility instead of doing superior work. And to see the need for regularory credibility take precedence over creating a path for people who have lost jobs, are struggling in lower income professions or are not academically inclined, is a major disappointment. It appears that compassion has been replaced by self-interest. Very sad indeed.

One of the other major issues is that the board has incorrectly interpretted the statute to mean that Bodywork cannot be taught as part of the curriculum. This would make Massachusetts the only state in the country that has eliminated bodywork from the programs. There are far reaching implications to this that will affect employers of massage therapy for many years to come if it is not corrected. If people need to take a 650 hour massage program first before they can take additional classes for reflexology, craniosacral, shiatsu, polarity and many other forms of bodywork, it will significantly reduce the number of people who can do the work. Again, this is going to have an adverse effect for future employers as well as the general public as it will be increasingly expensive to get bodywork, an often critical component for people with injuries or illness.

Which brings us back to the issue of what is happening with this board and the regulations that they are forcing on the public. Unfortunately the board was incorrectly selected which created a bias within the process. The board was only supposed to have 1 school member and it has three and it has no members from the public. As a result, the school members have been allowed to ram through an agenda that benefits the schools and is detrimental to the general public.

Now for my full disclosure. I'm the owner of Spa Tech Institute http://spatech.edu and we offer programs of 650 hours as well as 660 hours for Polarity therapy. The school has Title IV financial aid for qualified students which means we will benefit from the increase of hours. We will also benefit because it will force the programs with fewer hours to increase their hours and charge their students more money. Some of them will go out of business and it will be harder for new schools to start. So why am I opposed to the new regulations? In a word, personal integrity. I have seen how entering this profession has changed people's lives for the better. Whether it was a well to do person who could pay cash or a struggling single mother who struggled to get through the program, the results are equally impressive. However, I know there are people who cannot afford our programs until they have done a shorter, faster and less expensive program. I also know that if the board continues to restrict the teaching of bodywork, it will have an even more severe impact on the future of the profession in the state. There are many people who do not want to study only massage. They want to learn bodywork as well. However, if they have to take 650 hours of massage first, they simply won't do it. It's also going to create a complete mess of the licensing process for bodyworkers and virtually eliminate many holistically oriented massage therapy practices and spas.

The bottom line is this, the board is not acting in the best interest of the public but in the interest of licensed practitioners and schools. This is bad for the profession and it will come back to haunt us. All the board needs to do is comply with the national standard of 500 hours that includes bodywork, and everything will be fine. The schools can offer however many hours they feel their customers want and the buying public will decide which practitioners are worthy of their business.

When I read the disparaging statements about the other schools that Lisa made, my first thought was, what is she thinking? Of course, it goes to the heart of the issue. It is the hidden agenda behind using regulations to create a market. It's very sad when businesses use regulations to kill competition instead of just offering a superior product.

Comment by Timothy Starkey on July 15, 2009 at 1:09pm

Hi Lisa and others:

Thanks for your interesting comments. I have been working in the massage industry for many years and was one of the participants who helped to craft the legislation. The AMTA, ABMP, several schools, and interested parties participated in the group that worked to write the draft of the bill. You raise to issues here. Cost of license and number of hours.
First Cost of license. While it is great that we now do not need town licenses..you may want to learn the full story of what is going on here. To get the initial license in MA it is 225, plus an annual renewal fee of 150.00 This is one of the most expensive massage licenses of any state with the state that are licensing massage. Compared to other licenses in our state it is about 4 times the cost as well. For example nursing, pt, ot, cosmetology, aesthetics, pta....none of these do an annual renewal. They renew every other year and their fees are between 60-100 every two years. The board could have chosen a two or even three year renewal cycle, they did not. The board could have chosen not to approve the fees that were recommended to them from the state, they did not. Instead they basically said that massage therapists should be happy that they do not have to have more than one license. Now comes the interesting part. Do you practice ANY bodywork or energywork. Guess what..based upon the definitions and scope of practice defined by the BOARD, not the legislature, these are no longer part of your massage license. This means that if you do reiki, polarity, thai massage, cranial sacral, active isolated stretching, shiatsu, accupressure, etc.. you now need to go back to your town and get a license for that because the board has said that massage therapists cannot study these things as part of their education and they have thereby said that a massage therapist cannot do these things as part of their massage license. Massachusetts will be the only state in the country where this exists that massage therapists will not be permitted to study these things as part of their initial education nor will they be able to practice them in a massage session with only their massage license.
Second issue. Hours. Wow, i have been around for a long time. Have heard many reasons for increasing hours. But in all tht time have heard many opinions but seen no evidence to back it up. The job of the board is to set the entry level standards to protect the public safety and welfare. The state legislature and the coalition that wrote the original bill agreeed with the 30 other states, the AMTA, COMTA, ABMP, IMA, NCBTMB, FSMTB, and NACCAS agreed that 500 hours is the starting amount for entry into he field. There are a few states that are higher than this and some that are less. If more education were going to "improve" things and "raise the bar" it should be pretty easy to show evidence of this with the differing standards that exist. There is no proof. In fact Florida recently discussed raising their hours and when they studied the issue they realized there was no proof to back up the claim that more is better. Do not get me wrong, i love education and believe in people getting as much as possible but the regulations are about setting the base standard for safety and welfare of the public. Otherwise, what is to prevent the board form raising the hours again next year and the year after.
By raising the hours we raise the cost of education and thereby decreae the number of people who look at this field as a potential career. A large number of people entering the massage industry are single mothers with fixed incomes or people who are looking for a small part time career. Increasing the cost will increase the barrier for these people. It is great that you chose to do a longer program, shouldn't someone else still chose to do a shorter one that meets the standards of the profession. Increasing the costs of education will decrease the number of people entering the field, increase difficulty of spas and other businesses from highering and increase the end cost to the consumer of the massage services. This is not protecting the public safety and welfare!

A second reason people give for rasing the hours...it will raise the image of the profession. Sorry, it won't ask the physcial therapist industry..they are now looking at going to a doctoral degree to try and gain "respect." Respect comes from inside. There is a VERY small percentage of people who want to work as massage therpaists in an allied medical capacity (estimates are about 5%). Great, let them. Let them become licensed as a Clinical Massage Therapists. Most people practicing massage are doing relaxation based massage using massage and holistic bodywork techniques. Most are not looking to increase the level of respect given to them. They have the respect from inside..they do not need to raise the bar. By the way, i love that phrase, "raise the bar". I have sat in at the board meetings and heard the board members use that term. What bar? why does it need to be raised? what are the problems we are trying to resolve and where is the evidence that more hours will solve the problem? The board has never adressed the issue of what is the problem that is currently existing with licensure at 500 hours and what proof do they have that going to 650 and eliminating all bodywork will solve the problems. 500 hours was the average standard when we had town licenses. It is the standard in 30 states. If there is a problem with therapists at 500 hours don't you think the liability insurance companies would stop insuring therapists with only 500 hours. I have travelled the globe and had massages from people with 500, 750, 100, and even 2500 hours for their license. Exceeding the entry standard of 500 hours rarely made the difference. The quality of the education does make a difference. I have looked at schools in New York state that in 1000 hours are teaching almost the same thing that i have seen taught in 600 hours. Does this mean the person who went to the 1000 hour school got a better education?..no, but they did get a bigger tuition bill and a bigger profit for the school that said the 1000 hours was essential.
The job of the board is to set the entry level for protecting the public. Then let captitalism drive individual decisions about starting with 500 hours or 1200. You decided on 1200, should someone else have the right to decide on 500? The board is lookijng to eliminate diversity of education, diversity of options for people looking at careers, and forcing everyone to adopt their limited belief systems. They ignored the public comments that have been voiced on this for the past year. People are getting upset that 5 people are making decisions based on personal opinion and not on idustry standrads or on fact based evidence. Three of these 5 people are school directors/owners. Tell me who profits with increased hours??? While it may not be their intention, increased education can mean increased tuitions and increased profits.....
Lisa, i am happy that you have a successful career and that you made the decision to go to a school that gave you 1200 hours. There are MANY of the 6,000+ licensed massage therapists in this Massachusettse who did not make that decision. They instead studied 500 or 600 hours. They have very successful careers as massage therapists. The board is taking that option away from future people. That is not right!
I hope the board's motives are good, but Regan had a saying "trust but verify." I want the board to PROVE that raising the hours is necessary and will accomplish more than increasing the cost and time of education. Until i see proof, i have a hard time with the trust.
Best Regards,
Tim Starkey, LMT, LPN
On Site Director and Director of Education
Spa Tech Institute, Westborough MA

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page