Posted to CentralTexasMassage <<Please, get involved. Ask questions. Be part of the solution.
There is a large ad hoc group already formed who is meeting with each
other and the state on these issues. You should know who they are,
where they came from, what organizations they represent and who those
oraganizations represent, and especially their different agendas.>>

 

I took Doug’s advice and crashed the meeting.  I was nearly an hour late but I think I got a lot of valuable information to pass along.

 

The guests from DSHS were Heather Muehr, her superior, Stephen Mills and the department’s lawyer, Dan Meader.  The usually involved school reps were present (many of whom, I am delighted to report, are active members of the Central Texas Massage group.)  It appeared that the majority of attendees were schools.  Several of the associations and many of the bodyworker/movement educators were represented.  I did not know about half of the people in the room, so it is possible there were reps from yoga and other non-bodywork therapies that use “physical contact”.  If you guys are out there in one of the groups, please comment.

 

I was delighted to see Michael Abedin of Austin All Natural (he arrived at the same time as I, so I didn’t feel so bad crashing in late!)  It is about time more of the public knew about our birthing process – maybe we would gain their respect and help if needed.   It is certainly about time that we define our role as therapists - as it is dramatically changing in this century.  All of healthcare is dramatically changing, now that we have birthed the wellness industry. I attended a lecture by Paul Zane Pilzer about 7 or 8 years ago – right after he launched his best seller, “The Next Trillion Dollar Industry.”  It is certainly here!  As we know, there are great growing pains in the entire industry.  Michael covered the nutritional broo-ha-ha in his last issue of Austin All Natural (you can still pick up a copy at our office).  I expect he will include this subject in the July issue.

 

Because of the nature of the beast, I feel a need to bring this up.  There are people who have been so against licensing since the beginning of time, they continue to operate from that same fear now that it is a moot point.  I also know that in some minds, anyone who holds more than one license is often suspected of having a “questionable” personal agenda, as if a person can’t be a school owner and a therapist or a teacher and a therapist; as if school owners, establishment owners and corporations have no right to protect their interests and the jobs of their employees as well as their personal income.  WhatEVER!  This is America.  Everyone, even the most altruistic, has a personal agenda that is based on their belief system. It takes all kinds of people to make the world work and we will find the gamut in our industry.  From every political opinion to every religious observation, from the pious to the care-less, from the greedy to the needy, those who use bodywork for a spiritual quest and those who are body scientists (and those of us who are both ;0)  and those who think some modalities are “of the devil”.  Let’s just GET OVER it and get on with reality.  There is a new law in effect and we still have an opportunity to affect what will happen come September 1^st.  As moderator, school host David Lauterstein was able to keep the meeting in focus pretty well and a lot of beneficial discussion took place.  (The history of the bill was discussed at length before I got there.)

 

Here is some background that was revealed by the DSHS crowd:

 

The massage therapy program, which administers 5 licenses (therapist, instructor, CE provider, school, establishment), is only one of 21 licensing programs that Heather oversees. According to Heather’s memory, the massage therapy program alone with its 5 licenses brings $1.8 million in revenue to the “general state fund” each year.  The majority of the money is used to build roads and schools, etc.  The massage therapy program has a mere 700 thousand dollar budget.  90% of the operating expense is staff related.  Heather’s staff for 21 programs includes (I’ll be close, anyway…) 4 investigators, 1 compliance inspector, and 4-5 administrative techs who process all complaints, open records and compliance issues for ALL 21 professional licensing programs.  Remember that of the 21 programs, massage therapy has 5 licenses.  I don’t know how many of the other professions have multiple licenses.   (I admit it is challenging for me to see this turn of events as anything less than a money making proposition for the state...I know, MOOT POINT!)  Now this law has passed and DSHS is looking at how to deal with it.  From what I can tell, the department is even less happy about it than we, because…

 

In addition to being understaffed with no hope of a budget increase, there are two other compounding factors: Heather is leaving her post and a replacement has not yet been named and, the building that houses the professional licensing division was recently flooded and the offices have been temporarily moved.  The two items most in question are: the new law allows for licensing of non-massage therapists, but the law does not make it a requirement for DSHS to implement a new license; and, physical contact was not defined.   Oh, and there is a September 1^st deadline for defining the rest of the content for the additional hours – if that is even necessary.  I personally believe it would be beneficial for future students if the schools could just decide for themselves what to do with those extra hours. 

 

It seemed to me that DSHS would be absolutely THRILLED if we gave them what we wanted, provided we can be in agreement about it, and took the pressure off the department.

 

Two more things to report:

 

1) The new school coalition, TCMSI (Texas Coalition of Massage Schools & Instructors) passed out a rules proposal they came up with.  They said it included input from the AMTA and the original school coalition, TAMSA.  I was able to get a copy of that (haven’t read it yet).  Raul Flores of San Antonio had another proposal for consideration, but I was unable to get a copy of that one.  These proposals were given to everyone for review and comment at the next meeting, scheduled for one month away.

 

2) The non-massage crowd contributed that:

 

a) Some of their modalities already have strict standards and ethics, most far exceeding the massage therapy requirements (for instance, Alexander Technique requires 1,600 hours to be accredited).   

 

b) several of the modalities (Including Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method and Trager Approach) are not even allowed by their trademark’s to use the words bodywork, therapist or massage with their clients or in their advertising.

 

Since the non-massage crowd was not interested in listening to us hash out our massage issues, a decision was made that the bodywork/movement folks would have their own off-line ad hoc committee.  They agreed to appoint someone to go back and forth between them and the massage ad hoc committee so their requests would be represented and we would have a united front.

 

And, the last I heard, Alex Matthews talked with Dan Meader (DSHS lawyer) after the meeting and found out that it would be allowable to write exemptions in the rules!  Alex is now formatting the language to exempt the movement educators (including the registered trademark modalities, yoga instructors, etc. and hopefully the energy workers) for everyone’s review and comment.  This would be the perfect solution to relieve the concern of most of the non-massage modalities.

 

This being my experience, I am confident that everyone is working together and no one is trying to “sneak” anything by any of the communities that are now affected by the new law.  I’m sure I have more to report – just busy in my practice, running my business and teaching.  I hope that others who were at the meeting will add to the comments and clarity.

 

Thanks for listening.  Stay posted – keep active – get involved when/where you can.