Do you really need to go back to school?

From my research and understanding , Indianas licensure is to take effect in january of 2009. grandfather clause usually require you to be an established practioner which usually means at least 3-5 years of practicing massage therapy. As an RN i thought the same until doing the research. The school and experience was all worth it. This is not just a rubby dubby job we're doing here and require some extensive knowledge base in anatomy and knowing(memorizing) all the 650 muscles , their insertion points and their attachments. which is not fully covered in nursing school. Also not covered was the ethics, business practices and techniques for specific sports injuries and contraindications to massage. In Illinois we may not need a license and it is within our scope of practice but per state requirement for the safety of all we are required to still have minimum 500 hours of education in massage therapy. Will anyone hire you or take you seriously as a massage therapist without that massage therapy license- sorry no. That is the purpose of the licensure. National certification is even better. for more info follow your chapter from AMTA(American massage therapy association) or www.ncbtmb.org for more info on national certification. Also required are continuing education credits yearly to maintain your license but I won't get into that in this forum. Good Luck and go to school! There is never an easy way out unless you win the lottery and even then you have to pay tax.

here is an additional article pertaining to Indiana massage license http://www.massagemag.com/Resources/USCan/inlaws.php

Yes, you really need to go back to school. My style, Zen Shiatsu, is definately not covered in nursing school. A few years ago when I was in Texas, we could practice under our nursing license ONLY if you were trained in the modality. Other states require you get a massage license.

Hello,
I am a LPN and decided to go back for Massage Therapy, and unfortunately you do have to go back to school to practice massage therapy. I believe it has to be at least a 500 hr Massage Therapy program to be considered a Nurse Massage Therapist according to http://www.nanmt.org/about.html. Massage Therapy has its own State Board division.

The National Exam for Massage Therapy and Bodywork is now required by most states not all and the Exam is a completely different ball park than nursing, your knowledge of muscles their origin insertion and actions in a must.

In my opinion its worth it, I'm actually considering working full time as a L.M.T. Its so relaxing and stress free!


Good Luck,
Raivon