Therapists & Causes of the Massage Industry

 

How do we achieve this as Massage Therapists?

The first thing we need to do is determine which issues inflict the most misery on massage therapists and build causes around them.

We all have passions for different pains, these feelings form the building blocks of each cause. These alliances can be small, it only takes a couple people to create great change, but every action should be infused with empathy, creative exploration, and humility. We need to look beyond the emotional heat of the moment to help ensure our causes lead to harmony instead of hurt.

These groups must be temporary teams focused on completing specific tasks. They are not lifelong paths; you must step away from time-to-time to immerse yourself in the golden light of life. Walking fiery roads for too long will burn away the cool components of your soul. It will rot your spirit and tear out your ability to give and feel love. As massage therapists we serve as a guiding light to help others with their plight. If we become the element of fire, we will burn everything around us. Remain a nimbus light, explore how it feels to provide a guiding light, and know when to step away.

Burnout in our industry is a serious thing. Far too many are washing out at an early stage. Preserve your precious energy by refraining from giving more than you can grant.

Causes

There are causes that immediately come to mind when we think about the pains ailing our industry. Over time we can find ways to work on resolving them, but each must be approached creatively, empathetically, and with humility. We must see farther than our feet, dig deeper than others have before, and talk about the potential problems our causes may create.

Once we have compiled enough data, we can build educational services to help licensed massage therapists navigate the complex circumstances surrounding each significant issue. These are a few I think are important causes to explore.

• Brothels disguised as massage businesses
• The hands-off approach of sexual solicitation
• New students must be shown how to succeed
• We need great leaders
• The nuances of Chain Massage Schools
• Preparing Students for the Silver Spoon Agreement

We need to ally with each other, unite under one banner and explore this issue as a small community to research this problem in several slices.  The topic slices may include areas of focus such as: Identifying markers of Brothels Disguised as Massage Businesses (BDAMBs), Lingo used by individuals seeking services of BDAMBs, the impact BDMBs have on the massage community, and the consequences of shutting down BDAMBs. Each of these topics have an impact on the public’s safety, and perception of massage. By investigating each topic, we will possess the tools necessary to battle this seemingly undefeatable threat.

Identifying markers of Brothels Disguised as Massage Businesses (BDAMBs)

BDAMBs often have signs indicating the type of services they offer. It is important to teach licensed massage therapists and businesses to avoid using these indicators. A few examples include using the word MASSAGE without a business name connected to its signage, covering the windows with curtains or obscuring visibility of a facility’s interior, and using marketing images sexualizing practitioners.

We need to compile a list of these markers, so we may help the public avoid these places of business and prevent wayward licensed massage therapist from accidently working at one of these horrible facilities.

Lingo used by individuals seeking services of BDAMBs

Individuals seeking the services of BDAMBs use specific phrases and terms to determine whether your facility offers sexual services. It is important to learn these terms to help protect your practitioners before they visit your facility. Some questions are easy to detect, examples of include asking if the licensed massage therapist is attractive, asking what they are wearing, or if draping is required. Others are a bit more obscure like asking whether your facility has a shower. Some sound like red flags but are hard to determine, these include clients who want to schedule an appointment after hours, refuse to put a credit card on file, or seem incapable of defining the service they are searching for.

We need to compile a list of the lingo used by searching for BDAMBs. This information will help teach licensed massage therapists, massage facilities, and receptionists the skills necessary to protect against predators.

Impact BDMBs have on the massage community

In the article written by Deborah Kimmet, M.S., LMT, CETMB, BCTMB titled Untangling Massage, Human Trafficking, and Prostitution she presents this problem as further reaching than most licensed massage therapists consider. As a former chair of the Montana Board of Massage Therapy, former Federation State Massage Therapy delegate, and a co-author of legislation and rules, her knowledge base far exceeds most. In summary she states that the BDAMBs will hurt our industry by influencing how elected officials change and create laws related to licensed massage therapists.  

• Lawmakers will continue to erect regulatory and financial barriers to practice and institute laws with demeaning and derogatory language.

• School enrollments will continue to decline as potential enrollees will note the financial burdens and the connection to the sex trade.

• Practitioners will become more endangered: Since the profession is linked to the sex trade, when a sex parlor closes down, sex buyers go looking for another one, inadvertently approaching legally practicing therapists, thus creating potential safety issues.

• Practitioners will leave the field due to these barriers, safety issues, and loss of prestige of the profession. Continuing to work in a business linked to the sex trade is not what they had in mind. Group practice will become the only viable opportunity for employment. Long time practitioners, not wanting to work as an employee will leave the field, as setting up a solo practice will become untenable (For those thinking that a solo practitioner exemption will address the issue, over time regulators will see solo practitioner exemptions as a loophole and close the loophole).

• Memberships in national associations will decline as there are fewer practitioners

Consequences of shutting down BDAMBs

This topic is rarely discussed in the massage community. I have found when a BDAMB is shut down your facility will feel it for about three months. This is identified when a wave of potential-clientele outside of your primary demographic begin asking sexual charged questions, or even request them directly via text or phone. It is our policy to document each conversation, notify the individual their request will be reported to the police, and they are no longer welcome at our establishment. We take a zero-tolerance policy to sexual solicitation of any kind.

In the article written by Deborah Kimmet, M.S., LMT, CETMB, BCTMB titled Untangling Massage, Human Trafficking, and Prostitution she draws attention to this phenomenon.

“…when a sex parlor closes down, sex buyers go looking for another one, inadvertently approaching legally practicing therapists, thus creating potential safety issues.”

A cause can have catastrophic consequences. We must creatively navigate each task with empathy, and humility to help ensure the public, our therapists, and the industry is enriched by our investment. Failing to do so may result in unforeseen and untenable problems.  If we want BDAMBs to be shut down, we must plan for the displacement of their customers. Their customers are like roaches, they will find a new home. We must have a plan in place to help local licensed massage therapists avoid the inevitable hardship following a BDAMBs closure.     

The Industry Must Protect its Therapists

Facing these situations in the treatment room is unnerving and scary; and is impossible to escape unscathed.  Every time it happens it sears our soul with a terrible burn and leaves a scar behind that will always remind us of what happened.  We need to prevent these situations from ever happening by setting the professional stage and shaping reality to meet our needs.

Once we allow a serpent into our home it is hard to find where they snuck off to.  Instead of allowing them to slide on in and get comfortable we need to close the door so the pests cannot enter.  Creeps are like cockroaches, where one is, others will soon be found.  Likeminded people congregate and share, we don’t want to be their topic of discussion at the water cooler.  To prevent this, we must safely guard our professional palace by presenting our place in a way that makes them feel unwelcome.

Six Ways to Ward off Creeps

There are six areas we can focus on to ward off creeps and protect our professionals: the school administration, our education system, branding, marketing, clinic appearance, and therapist appearance.

The school’s administration:  Our potential is limited by the institution that trains us.  If their values are murky their instructors will be blind and the time, we serve under their tutelage will be saturated with disharmony and hardship.  The school should reflect our best possible workplace.  Students need to see how the system functions so they may emulate it in the professional world.

If an administration is detached and uncaring it encourages the student to believe their workplace will be the same.  They will learn to accept belligerent and disparaging atmospheres, and when they face hard times, they will not have the personal power to overcome them.  We need to cultivate our educational facilities by placing true leaders into positions of authority.  Massage therapists need role models, mentors, and a safe place to open their heart.  If they do not learn and experience this in school, they probably won’t have it in the future.

Our education system:  Teachers must inspire and cultivate their students in the classroom.  They need to be mentors who have been gnawed on by the meat grinder of massage and want to use their hurt to help others.  We need interactive discussions, roleplaying, and creative expression in our classrooms.  Students must be encouraged to find their inner light and burn as bright as the sun above.  When they graduate, they should radiate a personal power that allows them to overcome any obstacle.

Branding:  The branding of a business sets the tone for how it operates and is experienced by the public.  It is the spirit and personality of the company.  The branding is the narrative that guides clients through the story of their spa experience.

When designing the branding of a company we must avoid sexualizing its spirit.  This means refraining from various colors, shapes, and words that may suggest undesirable connotations.  It must be clean, welcoming, and wellness focused.

Marketing: The images we use in our marketing paints the personality of our company.  Every image and word must be painstakingly selected to ensure it sends the correct message.  Avoid images that inappropriately accentuate or sexualize the body.  This includes photographs that are sexually charged, are rife with innuendo, or teases the viewers a glimpse of the breast and buttock.

Clinic Appearance: Creeps search for specific signals when they are searching for a new lair to slither into.  Design your facility to ward off the serpents who seek to slip passed your guard.

• Place your clinic on a main road, facing the street.  Do not place it in an alleyway, inside a boring office building, within an industrial park, or on the back of a building.
• Use easily discoverable, and readable signage.  Avoid simply using the word massage as your company’s identifying marker.
• Have a spacious lobby that is viewable from the outside and sell products that are professionally arranged.
• Pick a place that has a well maintained and lit parking lot.
• Avoid putting up curtains in your windows and never decorate with lace.
• Build a clean, easily navigable website that clearly describes your prices and services.
• Avoid late evening appointments, require a credit card to book a session, have a strict cancelation policy, and refrain from asking about the client’s gender preferences.
• Have a surveillance system installed in the common area and employ a receptionist.

Therapist Appearance: We cannot control the actions of others but can influence how they react to our appearance.  A massage therapist sets the client’s expectation for every session.  If we look messy and unprepared our client will expect the same from our massage.  First impressions are important.  They set the tone for how others decide to treat us.  Take control of the perceptions of others by presenting yourself in a way that controls the narrative. 

A massage therapist should be in uniform when performing a service.  Their attire should match the team, this shows unity and cohesion.  They need to be clean, wrinkle free and desexualized.  A uniform should be worn to minimize the wandering gaze of a client’s eyes.

If we combine these six areas of focus, we can help protect our licensed professionals from the slithering snakes.  Hopefully it will be enough for them to avoid our facility and if we have effectively addressed the issue of the BDAMBs, they will have nowhere to go.  

The massage industry is a meat grinder, it is fed hopeful souls and it spits out shredded husks.  The outside appears magical and majestic, it shimmers with a radiant glow and exudes hope.  So how could it be so brutal? 

Right now, every clinic needs providers, their customers want massage, but the businesses cannot meet the demand.  Watching revenue slip between your fingers is maddening and over time the desperation has reached titanic proportions.  The frenzied hunger of the mega chains has ravaged our occupational landscape and built a bubble that is about to pop.

The mega chains have a valuable place in the history of massage by helping it gain acceptance across America.  I am thankful for their contributions to our beautiful profession, but they have also destroyed our culture.  As the demand for massage increased, the necessity for more massage therapists followed. 

If our industry could maintain our workforce this would be great.  Effectively everyone would win. Unfortunately, our industry is a meat grinder.  As the demand for massage increases, so does the need for therapists, right now the clinics do not have the ability to meet the demand, so they stop focusing on quality and instead focus on quantity.  This reduces the benefit the public receives from our services.  As more therapists drop from the industry the clinics require more providers, guaranteeing job placement for all therapists.  This lowers the quality of massage and the public’s perception of the benefit it provides.

When the demand outweighs the supply service rates increase.  This results in a price increase even though the quality of said services are decreasing.  Once the price is higher than the perceived benefit of massage the bubble pops.

What happens when the bubble pops?  History repeats itself; our industry collapses and massage will return to its darkest era of all time.  

We are heading in this direction

According to the ABMP the number of massage therapists currently working dramatically fell in Missouri from 2019 to 2020.  In 2019 Missouri had an estimated 6,126 massage therapists actively working in the field, while in pre-covid 2020 this fell to 4,451.  This was a loss of 1,675 jobs or 27.3% of the employment pool.  In addition to this the FSMTB reports a 67% pass rate for the MBLEX which is the minimum state licensing exam required for all therapists to legally practice in the state of Missouri.

The demand for massage therapy has grown over the years and is projected to increase over the next ten years.  The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the demand for massage therapy positions will raise by 21 percent from 2019 to 2029.  This is a significant jump, as of 2019 the industry had 166,700 available jobs for massage therapy, and in 2029 this number is expected to be 201,100. [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/massage-therapists.htm#tab-6] Will there be enough new massage therapists to meet the demand?  It is doubtful, as of May 2020 there were only 85,040 massage therapists in the United States according to The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. [https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes319011.htm] 

Research statistics have shown that the schools are dying, which could be another reason why the mega chains and local massage businesses do not have enough massage therapists. 

The ABMP conducts a census of all state-approved massage programs documenting their results every two years and published the results in 2019.  In this pre-covid analysis it showed that the total number of massage schools were at an all-time high in 2008 with 1,600 schools.  As of 2018 it had dropped to the third lowest it had been in 20 years, with only 965 schools.   [https://www.abmp.com/updates/blog-posts/number-massage-program-graduates-continues-decline] 

Why have the total number of massage schools been on a steady decline?  I believe Covid played a huge part in 2020, but that doesn’t explain their gradual decline for the last twenty years.  In a recent survey the number of schools dropped from 965 to 919.

The number of students graduating has also been on a steady decline.  In the same study the highest number of graduates to enter the industry was 71,272 in 2004 and has continued a dramatic decline. As of 2020 only 20,598 massage therapists entered the workforce. [https://www.abmp.com/updates/blog-posts/massage-schools-stay-resilient-during-covid-19-pandemic]

Why have fewer students graduated?  I Don’t know.  Maybe word of mouth has spread in local communities about the poor satisfaction working in the industry?  Maybe the same word of mouth has convinced prospective students to choose another career.  Maybe it is because there were never meant to be as many massage therapists as there are.  Our profession is a calling, you either have the natural aptitude to do it or you don’t.  You must be the kind of person who loves helping people and derives a deep satisfaction from the joy of others.

As our industry continues down this path the mega chains will accept more unqualified service providers into their ranks.  Right now, anyone legally able to practice massage is employable, effectively making quality completely irrelevant.  This is because they must do whatever it takes to survive.  They need to eat, and when resources become scarce, they will eat whatever they can, the hungrier they get the more desperate they grow and the more damage they will do. 

Why must the mega chains have new massage therapists? The simple answer is due to the Membership Domino.

What is the Membership Domino?

Interestingly the most valuable tool of the mega chains is their greatest weakness.  Memberships are the life blood of their business model.  They create a consistent flow of revenue, but they do come with risk.  If a customer cannot enjoy the services, they are paying for they will cancel their membership, this causes more damage than the loss of one client.  It can cause a catastrophic domino effect. 

When a client intends to cancel their membership, they attempt to use as many of their accrued services as quickly as possible.  This limits the number of hours available for other members, resulting in limited or no access to their prepaid services.  Once these members become frustrated, they too will attempt to use all their accrued services so they may cancel their membership.  A common reaction to this trend is for the company to limit how each customer may use their services.  They may also prevent sharing, charge more for sharing them, or limit the number of services a customer can use each month.  When this phenomenon occurs it triggers a snowball effect that is increasingly difficult to stop.  Often this leads to a mega chain lowering their standards of employment to meet their demand.

For many years this is how the industry has operated, especially for the mega chains.  Every new massage therapist must be recruited at all costs.  The mega chains do not care if the student has not been taught effective body mechanics, can pass the MBLEX or can perform a quality massage.

Once hired the new graduate is thrown directly into the fire.  The clinics must survive the membership domino, the demand for massage, and the limited supply of therapists.  This results in new practitioners overworking themselves, leading to fatigue, burnout, and injury. 

What is to become of the profession we hold so dear?  If we continue walking this path, there will be no road to follow.  It will slip between our fingers like grains of rice, and it will die.  This is something I cannot allow.  Massage therapy is one of the most beautiful blessings God has bestowed upon our wonderful world.  It celebrates the light of life and helps us explore the magic of the moment.

Our industry lacks an outlet for massage therapists to vent their frustrations in a healthy and professional way.  Some of us turn to social media to shed our weary thoughts, but these platforms are a dead end for good energy and are cesspools of negativity.

The horrors of our past will haunt us for the rest of our life.  The darkness will always be with us, but we can choose to see the light.  Sometimes in our tiresome nights we need a guide to take our hand and lead us to a better place.  Someone with the wisdom to remind us that when we give purpose to the pain our suffering ends.

We need people in our life who understand the hardships of our trade.  What we need are support groups specializing in the troubles of our field.  Our heart hungers to see, speak, and connect in a safe place away from society’s tendency to cancel those who speak freely.

Life, and especially massage therapy is a baptism by fire.  The heat is so strong our soul shutters from the sundering power of the pain, but we can choose to remain stalwart and refuse to break.  Our hardships can help others heal, to see the light of life, and avoid strife.  The burdens we have been forced to bear can be shared by others who carry the same heavy load.

Without an avenue to vent we cannot escape the monster’s grip.  Our tales have tremendous value, sharing them sheds our toxic vibes, and encourages others to let go of theirs.  We can lengthen our career, avoid burnout, and live our highest quality life by joining together and listening to each other’s hell.

How do we build communities capable of supporting our professionals?

We need Lantern Bearers

Lantern bearers are mentors, guides, and passionate people who live with love, search for ways to help others, and are committed to the enrichment of our industry. They are massage therapists and wellness professionals who actively listen to their peers, search for ways to help, and volunteer their time to the service of others.  They value the importance of mentorships, strong communities, and professional organizations who are willing to hear our plight as professionals.  They are people who have walked challenging, and heart-breaking roads and have emerged as guides, teachers, and people who live to share their love with the world.  They give more than they have received, offer guidance for the sake of goodness, and live with humility and purpose.

We can all be lantern bearers, we all have experience to offer, and wisdom to learn. We can come together as a community and inspire meaningful change.  Together we can help those who feel like they are lost in the darkness, who feel alone, and without a voice. We can mentor those who need help.  We can build communities to help remind each other why we chose to become massage therapists. We can turn away from the darkness and become a golden glowy light that encourages others to explore the delightfulness of life.

Asking others to join the cause is easy, to make meaning change we must individually invest in the success of others.

In the past I have spoken a lot about what we should be doing. Everyone has ideas on what should be changed. Rarely is an idea offered, or a plan implemented. When I say something should be done it means it is what I am doing, it is something you could do too.

If we want to create meaningful change it starts with our individual investment in others. Rather than talking about what we could, or what others should be doing, we can make it something that is happening. 

The Broken Machine

The schools have the responsibility of creating a safe, ethical, and effective workforce.  The state boards exist to help protect the public by investigating allegations of misconduct and pursuing disciplinary measures when appropriate.  They are also responsible for license approval, renewal, and revocation.  The associations are supposed to represent the professional interests of its members.  They achieve this with lobbyists, insurance coverage, and professional guidance.

The machine was designed well.  The people who dedicated their lives trail blazing its design accomplished a great achievement with its creation.

Many years have passed since its initial inception, entropy has set in, and this amazing machine has begun to decay.  Why has this happened? A part of me believes it is because our profession was not taught how to upkeep its mechanisms. If we look at what we are taught it is easy to see this information is rarely offered to us. For example, how many massage therapists know how the industry is organized, its power structure, their own state’s regulatory policies, the role of the massage board, or the function of the professional associations? Out of all the massage therapists I have met very few know the answers to those questions. Truth be told I did not know the answer myself until I crossed paths with the USOLMT in 2021. But just because it appears to be crumbling doesn’t mean it hasn’t always been crumbling. Additionally, just because the schools are often ineffective it doesn’t make them solely responsible for everything that is happening to our industry.

Sure, the schools are responsible for providing us with an education, but as it is stated everywhere massage schools are supposed to provide us with the minimum to practice massage. If we empathize with the people who designed the infrastructure of our industry, would you consider the above-mentioned machine an essential aspect of practicing massage professionally?

In all honesty I don’t think they did. I think they were just trying to do whatever they could to protect something they loved. In Missouri during the 1990’s massage was under attack and a lot of livelihoods were on the line. They did what they needed to ensure they could provide for their families. As massage therapists we do not typically come from backgrounds with a lot of formal education, and the founders of our industry were trailblazing something that had not existed before. Many of the schools were created by therapists who wanted to see our profession survive and had to somehow build programs with far more requirements than before.

In the past I would have described the schools as a cancer, and the mega chains as their necrotic waste. This was during a time when my existence was pushed forward by the winds of entropy. I moved with the fiery force of a jet engine because my heart had been hurt by too many forces to feel the ambient love of the universe.

What can we do?

Instead of being angry, and wishing the world was better we must individually offer goodness to the world for the sake of goodness. If something isn’t working the way we want it to, then we, as in I (or you) must make the sacrifice to make it change.

It doesn’t matter if everyone else isn’t doing their job, if you want something done, do it yourself. Really this sums up the real problem of our industry. Many massage therapists feel they deserve more than they have earned, they want what others have worked for, and they want it now. I see this time and again. People are prone to embrace their ego, and in our industry, it is the root problem of our profession.

The machine may be broken, but it doesn’t matter. We don’t need a machine to make our dreams come true. So then, what must we do?

As I mentioned earlier, we need great leaders who lead by example. This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. We all have flaws and make mistakes. Everyone does dumb stuff, but that shouldn’t stop you from taking the reins when no one else will. The people who have made the most mistakes are often the best to lead. They know the acidic burn of regret, what it feels like to fail, and cry at the end of the night.

We also need great followers. As massage therapists we are a roving herd of wolves, but when we come together into packs, we can tackle huge tasks. As followers we can uplift our leaders, be by their side when the tides attempt to knock them into the sand or drown them in the sea. As a leader I need my team. Without them who would I be? What purpose would I have?

We need each other. This is one of the most obvious and greatest lessons of life. When others hurt, we want to help them, and when we hurt, we hope someone is there to offer us a helping hand.

We need to learn from our mistakes and offer forgiveness to those who have hurt us. We need to look to the people who taught us poorly and grant them the gifts of assistance. How in the world can anyone get better if no one is offering suggestions for them to improve?

If we want our industry to open the doorway to our dreams, we must make a doorway for others too.

The nuances of Chain Massage Schools

Preparing Students for the Silver Spoon Agreement

Instructors often advise their students to practice massage on as many clients and body types as possible. This instructional approach places an emphasis on quantity over quality, and often manifests in the school’s tendency to steer recent graduates toward the massage chains instead of LMT owned facilities.

If this is the direction a school wishes to take with their business model their curriculum needs to be adjusted to ensure their graduates have the skill, endurance, and personal willpower required to navigate the franchise work environment.

To ensure new massage therapists can have a successful, safe, and fruitful career while performing back-to-back massages the schools need to:

• teach students how to live a healthy lifestyle. The students need to be taught healthy eating and sleeping habits; how to properly stretch and incorporate fitness & exercise into their lifestyle.
• teach students a greater degree of personal awareness and advocacy. An LMT needs to have the awareness to identify when they are at risk of injuring themselves, and what to do in these situations. Additionally, students must be taught how to effectively communicate with management when they are overworked and stressed.
• offer leadership training classes to local massage businesses to help management protect LMTs from injury and burnout.
• teach students more relevant and applicable aspects of business in regard to franchise chain operation. This business knowledge will help students empathize with their employers, and creatively navigate their work environment. Some of these areas of focus should include the company’s break-even analysis. This will help LMTs determine the viability of their employer’s future and assist in wage negotiations.
• explain the unspoken Silver Spoon agreement between LMTs and the franchise facility. This knowledge will encourage a positive relationship between management and employees.
• provide each student the opportunity to build up their endurance so they may perform several massages back-to-back without hurting themselves or burning out.

The Silver Spoon Agreement

Though I would rather direct recent graduates toward LMT owned facilities, some people need the Silver Spoon agreement provided by the chains.

What is the Silver Spoon Agreement? This is an arrangement where a massage facility agrees to provide a therapist with a steady flow of bookings. In exchange the therapist will receive lower pay, no influence over their environment, and limited professional growth.

If you work for a chain there is an unspoken understanding that your role at the company is a job, not a career. You are a factory employee working on a conveyor belt, nothing more, and nothing less. Other than flipping your room, folding some sheets and towels you are expected to clock in, do your massages and clock out.
This reduces your negotiating power as an employee, but it allows you to avoid the responsibilities and hardships associated with running your own business or working at a smaller LMT owned facility.

If you are a recent graduate considering employment at a chain take some time to evaluate what you want out of your career. Then determine if your school has provided you with the entry level skills necessary to enjoy practicing massage while avoiding injury and burnout. The first place you work has a huge influence on your path as a massage therapist. Select one that is a perfect fit for you, rather than what is alright for now.