AMTA's Massage Therapy for Pain Management Campaign Wins Multiple Awards

We are proud to announce that AMTA has received a 2023 Gold Hermes Creative Award and an APEX Award of Excellence for our Massage Therapy for Pain Management Campaign! As a mission-driven association, AMTA is committed to advancing the massage therapy profession and creating meaningful opportunities for massage therapists through impactful, award-winning initiatives.

The Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition that recognizes excellence in traditional and emerging media. Administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), the competition receives over 6,000 entries annually from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising and PR agencies, design studios, production companies, and freelancers across the United States, Canada, and more than two dozen other countries.

The Apex Awards for Publication Excellence attracts over 1,000 entries every year with only 100 Grand Award Winners Selected. This compeittion is sponsored by Communications Concepts, Inc.

About AMTA's Massage Therapy for Pain Management Campaign

Promoting Massage as a Non-Pharmacological Option for Pain Relief

As the United States continues to struggle with the opioid epidemic and its devastating effects on our larger society, individual lives, and the economy, this campaign highlights the important role of non-pharmacological treatment options, including massage therapy, in integrative approaches to pain relief.

AMTA built this advocacy campaign to enhance the reputation and acceptance of massage therapy for pain management and promote health equity by increasing affordable access to massage therapy for pain through the expansion of coverage and removal of economic barriers. As massage therapy gains recognition as an important part of integrative healthcare, more opportunities will be created for massage therapists and the profession will be elevated.

Advocating for Legislation at the State and Federal Levels

A major part of AMTA's campaign involved supporting legislation that regulates the prescription of opioids and highlights non-pharmacological options for pain management, including massage therapy. One of AMTA's biggest successes was advocating for the NOPAIN Act, which aims to increase access to non-opioid approaches to acute pain management and was enacted in Decemeber 2022. AMTA collaborated with our key partners Voices for Non-Opioid Choices and the U.S. Pain Foundation to achieve this huge win for the profession and the public.

AMTA also supported the CARA 3.0 legislation, offered guidance to the CDC on their draft of the 2022 Clinical Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids, submitted a letter to the FDA encouraging stronger provider education for opioids, and met with congressional staff, including the House Addiction Task Force, to voice our concerns and share research on the efficacy of massage therapy. We also continued to support legislation in states like Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and New York, who recognize massage therapy as a vital, non-pharmacological option for pain relief.

Supporting Educational Outreach

In addition to our legislative efforts, AMTA shared information to our membership and the general public throughout the year through an educational outreach campaign. These initiaves included informational social media posts, targeted emails, and a massage for pain website hub.

AMTA also published a National Press Release focused on massage therapy for pain, a Special Pain Issue of Massage Therapy Journal, and numerous CE courses to help educate massage therapists on how to work with clients who have pain. These resources serve to inform the massage therapy community as well as the general public about the benefits of massage therapy as an important alternative to opioids for pain relief. 

Winning the Hermes Gold Award and the APEX Award of Excellence demonstrates the powerful impact of AMTA’s advocacy and our ongoing commitment to promoting massage therapy as a non-pharmacological option for pain relief.