I have a family member that is interested in becoming a certified massage therapist. He asked if there are any distance learning massage therapy programs out there. Any suggestions?
Massage therapy WEll DETC now accredits at home proffesionals who offer a massage therapy program. It states it will prepare you for national boards, there is also an optional on campus portion. I have not been able to find any proffesionaly accredited massage therapy programs, detc is the best accreditation I can find. There are a few state approved programs around but if you were try to learn massage therapy I woudl recomend some form of accreditation it may make it easier to obtain state licensure or certification.
Massage therapy may only be learned through hundreds of hours of hands-on training, according to the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) -- the oldest and largest of the professional massage therapy associations. I have worked with the AMTA extensively over the years in my consulting work helping communities draft rational, fair-minded, practical, effective massage professional licensing legislation that not only protects the public from untrained "professionals" who hang out "Massage Therapy" shingles even though the closest they've ever been to "training" is a book they picked up at B.Dalton; but -- and perhaps most importantly -- it also protects communities from nefarious operations which are mere brothels of one type or another and which masquerade as "massage" establishments. One is no more able to be adequately trained in massage by distance learning than one may be adequately trained in dentistry or chiropractic or optometry or medicine. It's a largely experiential craft that must be learned in an AMTA (or equivalent) certified school. If said AMTA-certified (or equivalent) school also happens to have some form of USDOE/CHEA-approved accreditation, all's the better. But the AMTA (or equivalent) methodology is key. LINK: What are Certification, Licensing, and Accreditation? LINK: Credentials Used for the Massage Therapy Profession When I say "or equivialent," I'm referring to any of the very small number of legitimate massage and/or bodywork professional associations or organizations out there... ...like, for example, in addition to the AMTA, organizations like the American Association of Bodywork Therapies of Asia (AOBTA), or the International Somatic Movement Education & Therapy Association, and others of their ilk which require hundreds of hours of both classroom and hands-on, supervised bona fide training, which certify schools (using rigid, rigorous standards), which have codes of ethics which they actually enforce, etc., etc., etc. Don't be fooled by any other types of programs. Begin by consuming the AMTA web site and go from there. If you're interested in USDOE/CHEA-approved accreditation, then look for an AMTA-approved massage school which also happens to have such accreditation. But AMTA (or equivalent) is your first minimum requirement. USDOE/CHEA-approved accreditation, after that, is gravy. Trust me on this... I know what I'm talking about in this area.
What about just FYI courses to use personally? Are there any legitimate distance-learning ones for those not interested in licensure? Steven
Good Morning, I have read about massage therapy included in RN training for a more holistic treatment. You might suggest this. I have not found an appropriate link yet. Hille