1958 – American Association of Masseurs Masseuses (AAMM) becomes American Massage and Therapy Association (AM&TA)
1983 – AMTA removes the & to become AMTA
“The “&” was dropped in 1983, reinforcing the identity of the unified profession as massage therapy. The term therapy was defined generally as promoting good health and encompassed the whole range of applications envisioned by Ling over a century earlier. The title massage therapist was readily understood by the general public, and helped give the field legitimacy as a health profession. ” Patricia Benjamin. Brush up on the history of the massage profession.”
1983 : M. Hungerford, the National Education Director of AMTA at the time, initiated the Membership Entrance Exam (MEE) as a means for people to test into the AMTA. Membership into AMTA required massage therapists to have graduated from an AMTA approved school. At the time there were only 15 approved schools in the US making it difficult to attend. The MME was created to test incoming members who were unable to attend an AMTA approved school. The MEE was not a psychometrically valid exam. It required a hands on test which was difficult to administer as testing was subjective. (From May 1993 Action Item: Examination of the AMTA Membership Entrance Exam submitted by: Kate Jeffery).
1989: The intentions of the exam changed from being an AMTA entrance exam to a national exam. (From May 1993 Action Item: Examination of the AMTA Membership Entrance Exam submitted by: Kate Jeffery).
April 1989: Sixty massage therapists signed and sent a joint initiative to AMTA to halt the certification process until more information could be gathered on its necessity for the profession; this request was rejected by AMTA. AMTA Hands On. Winter 1989
1988: The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) officially authorized and funded the National Certification Program for Massage Therapists. AMTA loaned $150,000 to create the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (NCBTMB) and a steering committee, with the money paid back by the end of 1996. At this time, there was no research conducted to determine if such a certification was needed for the profession. Hands On Fall 1989
December 1989: A Steering Committee was appointed for the National Certification Program for Massage Therapists by the AMTA National Board of Directors. Over 2,000 “Update” report cards, representing a 23% response, were returned by December 5, 1989, regarding interest in certification. . AMTA Hands On. Winter 1989
1989: AMTA creates the Commission for Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA)
1990: AMTA created the National Certification Board for Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB)
January 1990: AMTA voted to have members remove the word “certified” from their membership certificates, replacing it with “this is to verify that (Name) is an active member…”. Hands On. 1990
December 1990: “A National Study of the Profession of Massage Therapy/Bodywork” (the Job Analysis Report) was conducted by Knapp and Associates for the Council of National Certification Program for Massage Therapists. This report aimed to establish a valid national credential, enhance professional respect, and provide self-regulatory guidance.
1990 – Massage Therapy Foundation created by AMTA to further research in the massage profession.
1993: AMTA proposes that they drop the MEE and phase it out by Dec 1994. They sent a survey to 120 members in New Hampshire and 18 people responded. (From May 1993 Action Item: Examination of the AMTA Membership Entrance Exam submitted by: Kate Jeffery).
November 1994: The NCBTMB incorporated separately from the AMTA.
April 1995 The Washington State legislature adopted the every category of provider mandate in RCW 48.43.045. The statute was to be effective January 1, 1996. This set the precedent that massage could be covered by health insurance. It was created because the WA Insurance Commissioner at the time, Deborah Senn made it so. She had an assistant, Lori Belinski now Lori Grassi who was a massage therapist. See the full history of integration and the timeline of events ending in a Supreme Court Decision making it so.
End of 1996: The initial $150,000 loan from AMTA to create the NCBTMB was fully paid back.
August 1999: Representatives from various state massage regulatory agencies met to establish the National Alliance of State Massage Therapy Boards (NASMTB).
2004 -COMTA officially separated from AMTA
March 21, 2006: The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) declared the National Certification Exam of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) legally defensible after another organization (FSMTB) questioned its constitutionality.
January 2007, the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) began hosting a series of four meetings to explore the possibility of the massage therapy profession’s leadership organizations working together to develop consensus around definitional and scope issues – what is typically called the Body of Knowledge (BOK) for a profession. This group, initially started by AMTA, was comprised of over a dozen entities that included bodies from the accreditation, certification, education, regulatory, advocacy and research arenas. In July of 2008, Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP) joined the group along with several organizations representing accreditation and other bodywork, movement and somatic disciplines. Today, key stakeholder organizations have chosen to move forward. The others elected to not participate in subsequent meetings. The groups that elected to discontinue participation have been kept apprised of the group’s progress and will have further opportunity for input at a later time.
The continuing participant organizations transitioned into an autonomous Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge Stewardship group comprised of representatives from each of the following six organizations: American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), AMTA-Council of Schools, Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB), Massage Therapy Foundation (MTF) and National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB).”
2008 – Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge created which is a compendium of what an individual must know and/or be able to do, to successfully work in a specific field – massage therapy. Welcome to the Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge Project. This effort has been guided under the direction of the Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge (MTBOK) Stewards. The MTBOK Stewards consist of representatives from the American Massage Therapy Association, AMTA-Council of Schools, Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals, Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, Massage Therapy Foundation, and National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork.
See also: Developing, Maintaining, and Using a Body of Knowledge for the Massage Therapy Profession. A Body of Knowledge needs to be updated regularly.
June 30, 2009: News broke that the NCBTMB was launching a membership organization called the USA Massage Resource Association (USAMRA) to “strengthen the value of NCBTMB” by offering insurance and other benefits, automatically including its 91,000 certificants. They were also offering discounts on pizza and oil change services.
July 2009: The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) expressed “disappointment” in the NCBTMB’s decision to create a membership organization, stating it was not in the profession’s best interest and would erode the value of certification. The NCBTMB clarified that the news of USAMRA was “prematurely disclosed” and changed the name to USA Massage Resource Alliance (usaMRA).
Jan 2009 -AMTA – Announced view that Massage & Bodywork Licensing Exam (MBLEx), developed by the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB), is the best choice for a licensing exam that can lead to portability of massage practice… NOT the exam from the company they started and recommended, NCBTMB.
2010 : Section 2706 of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 promises “non-discrimination in health care.” The provision was lobbied by the American Chiropractic Association and the Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC) and championed by U.S. Senators Tom Harkin and Barbara Mikulski, MD. The intention was to honor citizen choice by broadening access to non-MD providers. Of greatest interest to Harkin and the duo lobbying organizations are those classified as licensed complementary and alternative medicine practitioners. AMTA fails to act.
2014 -Entry Level Analysis Project recommends minimum required competencies for entry level massage therapists. www.elapmasssage.org The Entry-Level Analysis Project (ELAP) is a research project initiated by the Coalition of National Massage Therapy Organizations in March 2012. The project goals were to define knowledge and skill components of entry-level education and recommend the minimum number of hours schools should teach to prepare graduates for safe and competent practice in the massage profession. Completed in December of 2013. AMTA
Except now AMTA says this about the ELAP:
“While AMTA continues to support the general content of the ELAP report, we have never endorsed or supported the 625-hour recommendation. As FSMTB is aware, having also participated in ELAP, the original findings recommended well over 625 hours of massage therapy education. AMTA strongly objected to this number, as it disregarded the evidence-based findings, which conflicts with our core values and even in the words of the ELAP work group, “We encourage interested parties to focus less upon the total hours and more on recommended subject matter and subtopics.” We do not believe that there is an empirical basis for the 625-hour threshold.” AMTA OK Website article.
2013: AMTA eliminated chapter fees thereby reducing the abilities of the chapters to work autonomously.
June 5 2014 : AMTA signs letter from IHPC with other people/organizations on the 2706 issue.
Section 2706 was one of the strongest federal footholds massage therapy ever had for insurance integration — and it was underutilized.
It could have been:
- A coordinated national credentialing campaign
- A state insurance commissioner pressure strategy
- A data collection enforcement effort
- A stepping stone toward Medicare inclusion
Instead, it became largely dormant.
October 3, 2014, NCBTMB and FSMTB signed a collaborative agreement. This agreement stated that, as of November 1, 2014, NCBTMB would no longer offer its NCETM and NCETMB licensure exams to the public. Moving forward, NCBTMB supports FSMTB’s MBLEx as the country’s entry level licensure examination.
2017: AMTA Fact Sheet reports: “Massage therapists and consumers favor the integration of massage into health care.
- Nearly two-thirds of adult Americans (64 percent) would like to see their insurance cover massage therapy.4
- The vast majority of massage therapists (97 percent) believe massage therapy should be considered part of the health care field.”