Bodywork and SB412

[moonrise]

I wrote about this a few times before at the old Wacco site. Well it's still going and gathering steam. They are supposed to be talking to those bodyworkers, etc. who would be most impacted by having to have 500 hours approved certified training to be paid to touch another for the purposes of massage (includes evernthing including feldenkrause, reiki, hot stones, shiatzu, breema, you name it). Most people I've talked to have not even heard of this. But when if it does pass, along with whatever license or permit one might need to practice now, they will need this state one too, and many are going to find they don't have the criteria of education requirements this will mandate (i.e. an AMTA style of certified training).

Here's a forward from a friend of mine in Berkeley: I'm glad to provide more info or information/action groups to those who are interested.



Dear Colleagues, Friends and Clients,

Please write the Assembly Appropropriations Committee and your Assemblyperson
to Say NO to SB412! If the (real) people lead, the leaders will follow. You
and I are the real people.

Rumor had it we would not be hit with the bill until September. So much for
rumors,
https://tinyurl.com/zsmtt">https://tinyurl.com/zsmtt is where you will find the bill...

SB412 is NOT about the consumer or practitioner (real people). SB412, simply put, is the advancement of a longstanding political agenda to institute licensing of touch in every state. The true beneficiaries of licensing are those
who would collect the monies from those interested in laying hands/touching folk
for cash income.

The schools, especially those who have already instituted obscene high houred
curriculums to comply with federal requirements enabling them to plug into
student loans, are the true beneficiaries of SB412. Knocking off programs that
allow for folk to start doing massage with as little as 100 hours does not
benefit anybody but the larger institutions.

----------------------------------------------------------
All of us who are concerned for peace and the triumph of reason and justice
must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert
upon events in the political field.
-Albert Einstein

Are you really going to buy the bill of goods for licensing presented by the
Amta especially their Amta government relations committee (See https://www.amtamassage.org/news/GRoverview.html">
https://www.amtamassage.org/news/GRoverview.html) ?

From the above link comes: AMTA believes that the following benefits come
from professional licensure: Protection of the public through the establishment
of high standards for entry into the profession

There has been no proof presented that the public needs protection.

As a consumer and practitioner, just that fact is enough of a reason for me
to try and stop the state from being involved in the regulation of touch. For
those who need to see more of the two sides of the coin regarding licensing
when, in fact, it is about the consumer and practitioner, visit: https://iscaaty.blogspot.com/2006/02/licensing-two-sides-of-political-coin.html">
https://iscaaty.blogspot.com/2006/02/licensing-two-sides-of-political-coin.html

https://theflammiatouch.blogspot.com/2005/12/stop-state-from-regulating-touch.html">https://theflammiatouch.blogspot.com/2005/12/stop-state-from-regulating-touch.h
tml is where you will find my personal thoughts and feelings about state
involvement. I will stop here and leave it to you to ask more about SB412. Feel
free to read the other writings at both blog sites....

https://tinyurl.com/phcnh">https://tinyurl.com/phcnh is where you will find a site to write the Assembly
Appropriations Committee pro or con for SB412. Yes folks, the bill is back
in the Appropriations Committee before going back to the Assembly floor.

Be sure to copy your Assembly-Person with the letter you send to the
committee. Save a copy for your Senator in case it goes that far and of course, if
necessary, the governor later on.

In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues
are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly,
hatred and schizophrenia.
- George Orwell

We are the people, not those doing the politicking.

[Dixon]

Well, Moonrise, I didn't read any of your links and probably won't make the time to do so, so I'm coming from a position of considerable ignorance on the issue, but wanted to share my initial response anyway. Take it with however many grains of salt seem appropriate...

You said "...political agenda to institute licensing of touch...". This phrasing seems propagandistic, in that it elicits an emotional response by distorting the reality of the situation--or do you really believe that licensing professional bodywork equals licensing touch? That would be like saying that requiring a driver's license equals licensing movement.

Would you prefer to live in a world in which doctors, dentists, mechanics, building contractors, drivers etc. weren't licensed, and therefore not held to appropriate standards? I wouldn't. I reserve the right to save some $$ by risking going to unlicensed practitioners, or to seek out the licensed ones, but licensure does serve a protective function.

You question whether there's anything in the realm of bodywork that the public needs protection from. Here's what comes to mind for me:

1. Some bodyworkers have a bad habit of betraying their professional trust by inappropriately sexualizing the bodywork. Many Wacco readers will remember the guy in Sebastopol who got busted for that a few years ago.

2. Every year some unknown (to me) number of people are injured, sometimes killed, by various kinds of bodywork. See, for instance,

https://www.neck911usa.com/

https://www.quackwatch.org/01Quacker...irostroke.html

https://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_p...m?storyid=9845

One webpage ( https://www.lgcsc.org/touch.html ) gives a positive overview of massage, with this caveat: "There are a few places on the body that only licensed massage therapists, physicians, chiropractors or other licensed professionals should work. The reasons for this vary, but usually it’s because organs, major nerves, or other specialized tissue is close to the surface and could be injured by massage if you aren’t an anatomy expert. The following is a list of areas to avoid...(etc.)".

Plain old massage and some other gentle techniques apparently have very low injury rates, but are not without danger. Other, more intense or invasive techniques, including chiropractic, are more dangerous.

Other relevant links can be found at https://amr2you.blogspot.com/
as well as at various skeptical websites.

3. There are hundreds of kinds of bodywork making lots of different claims about how the body works and how to heal it. Not all of these claims can be true, especially since some of them are mutually contradictory. Licensing, if done right, could help protect the public from techniques that have no apparent basis in fact. I think it's reasonable to expect that people who offer their services to the public for money should be able to point to some proof that those services really work (and by "proof" I don't mean anecdotal evidence, poorly designed research, people's spiritual beliefs, or their naive interpretations of their personal experience). Of course, with all the snake oil purveyors in Sonoma County, I will catch flak for demanding proof.

4. There are various problems that come up in any profession which would apply to bodywork as well, such as if a practitioner physically assaults or rips off a client, falsely advertises the benefits of their service, violates confidentiality, etc.

At least in principle, licensure could address these issues. Whether in practice it actually effectively does so is another question which I haven't seen the research on. Perhaps you could make a case that when licensure is instituted, it doesn't decrease instances of injury, fraud, or other problems. If that's true, maybe we should stop licensing doctors, nurses, drivers etc.?

Of course, licensing wouldn't make unlicensed practitioners disappear, but, done right, it would give people an option of selecting practitioners who would be more likely to help them without hurting them.

Just my $.01 worth;
Dixon

I wrote about this a few times before at the old Wacco site. Well it's still going and gathering steam. They are supposed to be talking to those bodyworkers, etc. who would be most impacted by having to have 500 hours approved certified training to be paid to touch another for the purposes of massage (includes evernthing including feldenkrause, reiki, hot stones, shiatzu, breema, you name it). Most people I've talked to have not even heard of this. But when if it does pass, along with whatever license or permit one might need to practice now, they will need this state one too, and many are going to find they don't have the criteria of education requirements this will mandate (i.e. an AMTA style of certified training).

Here's a forward from a friend of mine in Berkeley: I'm glad to provide more info or information/action groups to those who are interested.



Dear Colleagues, Friends and Clients,

Please write the Assembly Appropropriations Committee and your Assemblyperson
to Say NO to SB412! If the (real) people lead, the leaders will follow. You
and I are the real people.

Rumor had it we would not be hit with the bill until September. So much for
rumors,
https://tinyurl.com/zsmtt">https://tinyurl.com/zsmtt is where you will find the bill...

SB412 is NOT about the consumer or practitioner (real people). SB412, simply put, is the advancement of a longstanding political agenda to institute licensing of touch in every state. The true beneficiaries of licensing are those
who would collect the monies from those interested in laying hands/touching folk
for cash income.

The schools, especially those who have already instituted obscene high houred
curriculums to comply with federal requirements enabling them to plug into
student loans, are the true beneficiaries of SB412. Knocking off programs that
allow for folk to start doing massage with as little as 100 hours does not
benefit anybody but the larger institutions.

----------------------------------------------------------
All of us who are concerned for peace and the triumph of reason and justice
must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert
upon events in the political field.
-Albert Einstein

Are you really going to buy the bill of goods for licensing presented by the
Amta especially their Amta government relations committee (See https://www.amtamassage.org/news/GRoverview.html">
https://www.amtamassage.org/news/GRoverview.html) ?

From the above link comes: AMTA believes that the following benefits come
from professional licensure: Protection of the public through the establishment
of high standards for entry into the profession

There has been no proof presented that the public needs protection.

As a consumer and practitioner, just that fact is enough of a reason for me
to try and stop the state from being involved in the regulation of touch. For
those who need to see more of the two sides of the coin regarding licensing
when, in fact, it is about the consumer and practitioner, visit: https://iscaaty.blogspot.com/2006/02/licensing-two-sides-of-political-coin.html">
https://iscaaty.blogspot.com/2006/02/licensing-two-sides-of-political-coin.html

https://theflammiatouch.blogspot.com/2005/12/stop-state-from-regulating-touch.html">https://theflammiatouch.blogspot.com/2005/12/stop-state-from-regulating-touch.h
tml is where you will find my personal thoughts and feelings about state
involvement. I will stop here and leave it to you to ask more about SB412. Feel
free to read the other writings at both blog sites....

https://tinyurl.com/phcnh">https://tinyurl.com/phcnh is where you will find a site to write the Assembly
Appropriations Committee pro or con for SB412. Yes folks, the bill is back
in the Appropriations Committee before going back to the Assembly floor.

Be sure to copy your Assembly-Person with the letter you send to the
committee. Save a copy for your Senator in case it goes that far and of course, if
necessary, the governor later on.

In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues
are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly,
hatred and schizophrenia.
- George Orwell

We are the people, not those doing the politicking.

[moonrise]

Hi Dixon,
My name is Dorothy. My email is Moonrise.

In what capacity to you offer your comment? Are you a recipient? A Practitioner? An interested party? Are you an AMTA party liner?

Please read the bill. When you are ready I have some more reliable sources of information for you, if you want to be informed. In the meantime you should know that insurance for this work is about the lowest cost of any profession - and the insurance companies know well how much a risk a line of work might be. But please read the bill.

It applies to all kinds of touching for the purposes of tissue manipulation and somehow reiki is included. This started as the AMTA line of wanting to bring uniformity to all 50 states. The AMTA and AMBA iare the driving forces behind it. It has taken some nics and cuts from more allfuent counties and various industries (the spa industry especially) and other special interest groups (thus now the double licensing possibility instead of uniform as originally sought). There has however been very little comment by massage therapists and their clients - outside of those "organized"

It originally began including a requirement for a 500 hour AMTA approved course (which includes hydrotherapy - one of the modalities that is causes the injuries). There are many practitioners who started on a 50 or 100 hour ticked and continued their education and learning and honing their technique without the AMTA telling them they needed to. But since they are not AMTA members with that initial 500 hour ticked they were cast as "dangerous", "inept", "unqualified", etc. I happen to believe this is wrong as I know MANY who are far better than the AMTA bread maker massage could ever be. Many here in our community. They don't teach intuation or other things. These folks are being overlooked and so are the people they help.

Please read the bill. And if you're concerned, please write your representative expressing your concern whatever it may be. We have a lot of massage therapists who aren't affiliated with AMTA, etc. here. They do great work and they do it because they believe in helping others. I want to support them in being able to continue their work without being hauled in and cited for it.
Blessings,
Dorothy

[Dixon]

Hi, Dorothy!

Sorry it took me so long to respond. My big mouth gets me into a lot of discussions and I don't have time to respond as much as I'd like.

You asked me:
"In what capacity to you offer your comment? Are you a recipient? A Practitioner? An interested party? Are you an AMTA party liner?"

Dorothy, I'm just an interested person. I couldn't very well be an "AMTA party liner", as I don't even know what the AMTA is!

You say "Please read the bill." Sorry, I have neither the time nor the interest to do so. That's why I didn't take a position on the bill; it would be unreasonable of me to take a position if I don't know what the bill says. You may very well be right that it's a bad bill; I don't know. The position I took was that, whether or not this particular bill sucks, licensing is a good idea for many professions, probably including the bodywork field. I gave the reasons in my previous email on the subject. That continues to be my position, regardless of whether this particular bill (SB412) is a good one or not.

I hope that clarifies my position.

Regards;
Dixon