Have you read the entire Massage Therapy Practice Act. How can you abide by the law when you don't even know what it is?
The term "scope of practice" is starting to come up again.
Working within our scope of practice is not only key to professional practice, it's essential to the health of the profession as we continue to work toward recognition as health-care providers.
Making false claims and inflated promises to clients about our work is unethical, sets the client up for unreasonable expectations, and can come back to haunt us. We'd all like to think we can help every client who comes through the door, but that simply isn't true. Promising a client you can "fix" their issues can backfire on you, in spite of your best intentions.
Massage therapy is an admittedly diverse discipline. So many techniques. So many perspectives. But it's also health care, and here's what I mean.
As massage therapists, our product may not be sofas or lamps or fancy lingerie, but we are selling a product. Every time a person comes into our clinic or practice or spa or gym, they are buying a product from us. Simply put, they are buying massage therapy. So while it may seem odd to see us arguing that massage therapists are salespeople, we are. Let's unpack why this is important.
I frequently hear about employers who do not give therapists time to conduct proper intakes or fill out post-session notes, or worse, they do not require them at all. But these practices are the law. Here are some good guidelines to keep in mind.
What does it mean to be "essential"? How can we call ourselves health-care providers if we're not able to provide care in times of obvious suffering?
