Seasons Greetings!

Hello, Everyone.

Sometimes it seems as if we are so busy that we forget the important, everyday things.  It can be hard to take the time to tell those you love how you feel or to remember to be grateful for the routine things in our lives. 

This may seem a strange forum to share these thoughts, but the NCBTMB would not be here without the many practitioners and affiliated individuals who wish for the profession to continue to grow in respect and who wish to see practitioners acknowledged for the services and skills they offer to individuals across the globe.  We are here because of you.

I am not a massage therapist, but I am proud and thankful to be a massage client.  I can attest to the difference massage therapy has brought to my life.  My massage therapist kept me walking through two pregnancies when I had had to use a walker or cane for the previous two pregnancies (before I found the wonderful Carla – thanks!!).  An old back injury sometimes makes me walk crookedly, and massage provides relief and helps me to return to ‘normal’.

So… thank you for doing what you do.

Since this is the Advanced Certification blog, let me add in a little update.  The data from the Needs Assessment survey is currently being collated and reviewed for accuracy by an independent psychometric consultant.

Have a wonderful winter holiday season, and rest assured that we are keeping busy and continuing to work on the advanced credential.

Liz 

Comments

[Tom Caton LMP]

If I may comment on the concept of creating an Advanced Certification. I have been an actively practicing massage therapist now for 4 years in my own office working in close conjunction with a chiropractor. What I have noticed is how unified the Chiropractic profession is compared to massage. Chiropractors are considered health care professionals and can accept medicare due to the fact that they have a unified lobbying effort. Chiropractors were on the fringes of being accepted as true health care providers for many years just like us massage therapists are now.
Ask any massage therapist if they feel if their treatments benefit their clients on a medical level and I am sure the answer is a resounding YES, Now ask that same question to a surgeon or MD and they will 9 times out of ten laugh at the thought that massage is a medical necessity.
So my question is do we really need to fragment our profession even more by confusing the certification process in the eyes of the medical community. The standard of ncbtmb is already one of excellence. Do we really want to water it down. What we need is all this effort to be spent lobbying the insurance companies and medicare as well as sound research to educate the doctors and public as to the benefits of massage not creating a hierarchy of certification further fragmenting our image. If we unify instead of fragment maybe someday we can treat the up and coming baby boomer retirees who will have medicare and we all can have consistent thriving means of income. The chiropractors have something to teach us. Thank you for your ears, Tom Caton lmp