Massage Politics: D.D. Eisenhower missed the mark.. Jack Amta must be smiling with this coup. Jack Amta was given a rose in December

Beware the military industrial complex is what Eisenhower said. He missed the mark because he may not have had as big a clue as he could have making him aware just how powerful corporate/industrial entities would become. He should have said beware the government corporate structure complex.

It bothers me to see so strong a case in point of that, related to our field, found at the federal level with the following. Amta's networking at all sorts of conferences and becoming a resource by marketing itself as the biggest and best organization representing our trade certainly has paid off. The whole piece at the link is an enlightening read:

Massage therapists can specialize in over 80 different types of massage, called modalities. Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, reflexology, acupressure, sports massage, and neuromuscular massage are just a few of the many approaches to massage therapy. Most massage therapists specialize in several modalities, which require different techniques. Some use exaggerated strokes ranging the length of a body part, while others use quick, percussion-like strokes with a cupped or closed hand. A massage can be as long as two hours or as short as five or ten minutes. Usually, the type of massage therapists give depends on the client’s needs and the client’s physical condition. For example, they use special techniques for elderly clients that they would not use for athletes, and they would use approaches for clients with injuries that would not be appropriate for clients seeking relaxation. There are also some forms of massage that are given solely to one type of client, for example prenatal massage and infant massage.

The above must be orgasmic for a few of our colleagues and friends at the American massage therapy association and a few at Massage Today.

Folk that are members of the Amta brainchild federation beware...Rolfing, Feldenkrais and Trager "modalities" could easily fall into a rewrite of the above passage. Fortunately, it's only the bureau of labor statistics doing the writing.

So far, we, in CA have not subscribed to massage therapy as being the umbrella for all touch. Or have you?