Certified or Licensed "Medical Massage Therapist" OR "Therapeutic MassaGE Therapist"?
March 102010
Is there a such thing as a Certified or Licensed "Medical Massage Therapist" and I heard of "Therapeutic MassaGE Therapist". what are the differences. How do i get certified or licensed in either one. (I DONT WANT TO BE A REGULAR OR RELAXATION MASSAGE THERAPIST)
I consider myself a medical massage therapist. It goes beyond just rubbing and squeezing muscles. And it is not all accomplished in the massage room either. A medical massage therapist trains and recognizes his/her self to be integrated into the healthcare system; being a viable part in a person’s management or recovery plan as directed by a medical physician or chiropractor. A physician, other healthcare providers, insurance companies and attorneys need medical massage therapists to understand the record-keeping, billing, privacy issues, ethics and, yes, advanced technique training it takes to be considered an ancillary provider within the western, allopathic, medical system. Massage is therapeutic in many aspects, with many different theories, techniques and approaches. But not all of them can fall within the category of medical massage. It is not just a marketing term either. The term was created to force a delineation between those that want to obtain advanced training and practice to evaluate, treat, report findings and summarize progress on patients, and those that do not want to follow that path. In this separation, it is in hopes that the allopathic system finds more focussed and recognizable definitions for necessity of treatments. It is an infant term that is attempting to advance to another level of acceptance.
To answer your question: a massage therapist is either licensed, certified or registered, depending on the regulation agency in your state or municipality. LMT, RMT, CMT are the most common abbreviations for these credentials. There are certifications in medical massage, but it does not necessarily hold a lot of water right now. It just seems to be another title. The most recognizable certification entity for massage therapists is the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork http://www.ncbtmb.org/
You can obtain a certification by taking one of their two certification exams. They are even working on another advanced certification for massage therapists. Even though this is considered a national exam, not all states or regulatory agencies recognize these exams for licensing. If you do not want to be a regular relaxation massage therapist, then worry less about the title, and research more on specific continuing education programs that will gravitate you away from the rest who want to remain relaxation massage therapists. Titles are nice, but most people have no idea what they even mean; especially your potential clientele. Market yourself as something different in the way you work with people, the other healthcare providers you associate with, and the quality of service you provide. Find therapists in your area or even out of your area that you would like to imitate, then befriend them. Experienced therapists often like to share their experiences and how they got where they are. If they don’t, then you probably don’t want to be like them anyway. Look for CE courses from David Kent, Whitney Lowe, Ralph Stephens, Paul St. John, John Barnes, Aaron Mattes and topics on orthopedic massage, sports massage, muscle energy technique, myoskeletal alignment technique, manual therapy techniques, trigger point therapy, assisted stretching, myokinesthetic system, active release technique, etc, etc.
March 10th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Massage is massage. There are different styles and techniques. It just amounts to rubbing and squeezing people.
While getting a massage may feel good, and get you more relaxed, there are no actual proven medical conditions or therapeutic benefits from massage, other than relaxation.
People may label themselves as a medical massage or therapeutic massage practitioner, but that is more of a marketing technique.
References :
March 10th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
There is something called a medical massage therapist that a few people made up and it is just doing massage with the goal of improving a condition or injury. There are some who are making it their technique but in reality most any type of massage is medical -even relaxation massage. I also think that there isn’t any real relaxation massage. I have never had anyone come in in 20 years who didn’t have something wrong with them – some sort of pain or injury or something.
You can take many different types of massage that are geared more towards working with injuries – deep tissue, orthopedic massage, cranial-sacral therapy, structural integration and many others.
You most likely have to go through regular massage school which will teach you swedish massage that can be used for many things like injuries etc. They also will most likely have classes to start you out in deep tissue massage. Most so called medical massage trainings are more for advanced massage therapist so you have to get through massage school to start with.
References :
http://www.massage-career-guides.com/types-of-massage.html
March 10th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
All Licensed Massages are "Therapeutic" and there isn’t any such modality of massage call medical massage.
If you don’t want to be a REGULAR massage therapist, then proficiently learn your chosen modality of massage while continuing to learn other forms of the Art of Massage and if you’re fortunate you’ll aspire to the level of therapist who are consecutively capable of providing massages that are RELAXING : despite the harshness of any particular modality of massage that they are utilizing during the treatment.
References :
Licensed Massage Therapist
March 10th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
I consider myself a medical massage therapist. It goes beyond just rubbing and squeezing muscles. And it is not all accomplished in the massage room either. A medical massage therapist trains and recognizes his/her self to be integrated into the healthcare system; being a viable part in a person’s management or recovery plan as directed by a medical physician or chiropractor. A physician, other healthcare providers, insurance companies and attorneys need medical massage therapists to understand the record-keeping, billing, privacy issues, ethics and, yes, advanced technique training it takes to be considered an ancillary provider within the western, allopathic, medical system. Massage is therapeutic in many aspects, with many different theories, techniques and approaches. But not all of them can fall within the category of medical massage. It is not just a marketing term either. The term was created to force a delineation between those that want to obtain advanced training and practice to evaluate, treat, report findings and summarize progress on patients, and those that do not want to follow that path. In this separation, it is in hopes that the allopathic system finds more focussed and recognizable definitions for necessity of treatments. It is an infant term that is attempting to advance to another level of acceptance.
To answer your question: a massage therapist is either licensed, certified or registered, depending on the regulation agency in your state or municipality. LMT, RMT, CMT are the most common abbreviations for these credentials. There are certifications in medical massage, but it does not necessarily hold a lot of water right now. It just seems to be another title. The most recognizable certification entity for massage therapists is the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork http://www.ncbtmb.org/
You can obtain a certification by taking one of their two certification exams. They are even working on another advanced certification for massage therapists. Even though this is considered a national exam, not all states or regulatory agencies recognize these exams for licensing. If you do not want to be a regular relaxation massage therapist, then worry less about the title, and research more on specific continuing education programs that will gravitate you away from the rest who want to remain relaxation massage therapists. Titles are nice, but most people have no idea what they even mean; especially your potential clientele. Market yourself as something different in the way you work with people, the other healthcare providers you associate with, and the quality of service you provide. Find therapists in your area or even out of your area that you would like to imitate, then befriend them. Experienced therapists often like to share their experiences and how they got where they are. If they don’t, then you probably don’t want to be like them anyway. Look for CE courses from David Kent, Whitney Lowe, Ralph Stephens, Paul St. John, John Barnes, Aaron Mattes and topics on orthopedic massage, sports massage, muscle energy technique, myoskeletal alignment technique, manual therapy techniques, trigger point therapy, assisted stretching, myokinesthetic system, active release technique, etc, etc.
References :
14 yr LMT, BS, NCTMB, CSMT, NCMMT
See: all those titles, and I still have to explain all of them 99% of the time when somebody actually takes interest
March 10th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
To my knowledge, these are not legitimate titles for people, but for varieties of massage, all of which a "regular" certified/licensed massage therapist is qualified to do. If you have an interest in this line of work, seek out lots of continuing education classes on relevant topics and expand your knowledge. Find work in a physical therapy clinic or a chiropractor’s office. Network among other therapists who share this interest and see what opportunities come your way.
References :
March 10th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
massage is therapeutic no matter which technique
recent medical literature shows that heart surgery patients who receive massage after surgery recover much faster and do better after discharge. "medical massage" is a marketing term used by some neurologists who employ LMT in their practice.
References :