September 29, 2008. In mid-July 2008, Maria Spuller, President of the American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia (AOBTA®) and Debra Howard, AOBTA® Past President, attended the first meeting of the Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge (MT-BOK) Consortium Initiative. Spuller and Howard attended to represent the Asian Bodywork Therapy (ABT) profession, and to share the ABT-BOK (compiled by AOBTA) with the various massage groups represented. In addition, they asked that the professional boundaries of ABT be respected as this process unfolds, including the ABT definitions and scope of practice, educational and national certification standards.
Over 30 representatives gathered in Milwaukee with a professional facilitator to discuss the possibilities of creating a body of knowledge (BOK) for the massage therapy profession. At this time, there is no scope of practice for massage therapy, no standards of practice, nor any standard definition. There are the various definitions in the various state laws that regulate massage in over 30 states.
The meeting was hosted by the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA®), and among the 17 or so groups represented were massage therapy professionals from the education, research, accreditation, membership, and regulation aspects of massage. There were also representatives of other professions which sometimes have overlap with the massage profession, including AOBTA, the American Polarity Therapy Association (APTA), the International Association for Structural Integrators (IASI), and The Rolf Institute®. These non-massage groups agree they do not represent massage therapy or massage therapists. Their members do not want to be regulated under massage therapy laws because they do not train for or practice massage therapy. They have their own professional boundaries in place.
The AOBTA ambassadors offered to advise and consult with the massage profession as they continue through this process, and asked to be kept in the loop as things progress. Spuller and Howard offered to answer any questions the others might have, and had copies of their ABT-BOK on disk for the participants to take for reference.
Website:
Email: jingluo@charter.net
