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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!
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American Massage Therapy Association®
