American Massage Therapy Association - Georgia

Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge Consortium Executive Summary March 2008

The massage therapy profession has been asking the profession’s leadership organizations to work together to develop consensus around definitional and scope issues – what is typically called the Body of Knowledge (BOK) for the profession. Since January 2007, the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) has convened and hosted four meetings to explore this possibility. The long term goal is to advance the profession through collaborative action around a common definition of the BOK for the profession. This involves developing a deeper, shared understanding of the profession, including how it’s already changing and needs to keep changing in response to a changing massage therapy marketplace. This strategic view of the profession will serve as the basis for identifying and managing projects to develop or select specific, common definitions of the massage therapy BOK, prioritized and time-phased based on their relative importance in advancing the profession.

The criteria used to identify initial participants in this collaborative effort was nonprofit, public-interest, 501c3 and 501c6 organizations that are mission driven, have charitable or educational purposes recognized by law, whose earnings do not benefit private individuals or shareholders and who represent cornerstones of the profession and generate much of the profession’s body of knowledge. Based on these criteria, the following organizations were invited to participate in the first four meetings.

Accreditation – Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA) and National Accrediting Agency for Cosmetology Arts & Sciences (NACCAS)
Certification – National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB)
Regulation – Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB)
Research – Massage Therapy Foundation (MTF)

These initial meetings focused on exploring the possibility of working together on the BOK for the profession, the desired outcomes of the collaborative work, and how best to approach the profession to produce them. The group was very clear that their job was not the actual work of defining a common BOK, which would require an expanded set of participants, but to form as an organizing "committee" or group to help get this effort off the ground and to the point where this common BOK definition work would be feasible, especially since this type of multi-organization collaboration is a big first step for the profession.

At their last meeting in January 2008, the group made significant progress and:

Discussed and identified key aspects of what the future of massage therapy is likely to be, so the BOK effort is aimed at what is likely to emerge in the future not just at what exists today. One likely future direction, that will figure prominently in this BOK effort, is the evolution toward career paths for the profession. Like most other professions as they mature, massage therapist’s will likely be able to follow career paths based on levels of competence within the massage therapy core or within massage therapy specialties, with specific standards and credentials for each stage of professional development.
Drafted a map of all the key entities involved in the delivery and support of massage therapy, outlining the value relationships between them and the standards, requirements, and guidelines used to define each of these relationships. Collectively, these would make up a “total quality management system” that could begin the process of defining the massage therapy scope of practice and quality standards, which are essential for legitimizing and elevating the profession within the external environment in which the profession operates.

Three of these organizations agreed to move forward with this collaborative effort to organize a profession-wide BOK initiative, now being called the “Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge Consortium (MT BOK Consortium) – AMTA, FSMTB, and NCBTMB. Other organizations may join the consortium when their governing bodies approve their involvement or for BOK definition projects requiring expanded participation.

The consortium developed the following guidelines for moving forward with the next steps in testing the concept of working together to organize the BOK effort:

The MT BOK Consortium provides a solution coming from the community themselves. The intent of the Consortium is to maintain a small core group to efficiently organize, coordinate, and guide the BOK effort and to tap into the larger massage therapy community for the knowledge and expertise needed to integrate or create common BOK definitions that reflect the best practices of the profession.
A first cut at a prioritized plan of BOK projects. The consortium agreed it is critical to demonstrate a short-term success working across these organizations, before attempting something more expansive. So the group picked a small test project – to develop a common code of ethics – to learn from and to test this concept. It is the consortium’s expectation to widen the circle of inclusion once the test project has been completed and more complex projects are undertaken.
An initial set of agreements on how the group will continue to work together effectively and efficiently as a multi-organization consortium focused on advancing the profession, while still representing the specific needs of each organization in the consortium, including: monthly phone calls; an online group work space; and objective, third party project management and facilitation.

The MT BOK Consortium is beginning to address many of the issues raised by those in the profession, but the process does take time to integrate the various positions massage therapy organizations have and to develop, test, and fully implement the process by which they reach out to the full profession. The consortium would greatly appreciate your support as they move forward with this effort we all agree is so important to the future of the profession!