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Welcome to AMT's wiki!

The Massage Therapy Industry is currently self-regulated in Australia. In essence, what this means is that the profession does not operate under any specifically-targeted government legislation but rather functions within private governance structures established and promoted by professional associations such as AMT http://www.amt.org.au. However, as health professionals, Massage Therapists fall under the umbrella of various public health and related acts, both state and national. For more information on these Acts please go to our page on ExistingLegislation.

By way of contrast, we could look to North America for alternate models of regulation, where various kinds of licensing and professional registration have been established for Massage Therapists. In Canada, for example, Massage Therapists working in British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland, and Labrador are registered as a "Designated Health Profession" under the Health Professions Act. Each of these provinces has its own Regulatory College that monitors and enforces standards of professionalism.

In the US, Massage Therapists are subject to Licensing requirements in 39 states. Although there is variation in the requirements from state to state, the entry level requirement for State Licensure in most states is at least 500 hours in a recognised program of study. Some states set the bar slightly higher than this. For a full list of US states that have licensing arrangements for Massage Therapists please go here http://www.amtamassage.org/about/lawstate.html. For a summary of the Licensing requirements by state, look here http://www.amtamassage.org/pdf/2006_StateLaws.pdf

Neither the US or Canada have a national government regulation system for Massage Therapists.

In Australia, the various professional associations set standards of entry for membership and bind their members to uphold their Codes of Ethics. Since the introduction of the Health Training Package in 2002, we have a national education standard for our profession. However, we still do not have a National Code of Conduct and Code of Practice for Massage Therapists. Currently, each individual association is working independently to guide their membership in best practice policy and procedures.

The AMT Board believes that our profession should be working towards the establishment of a National Code of Conduct and Code of Practice for Massage Therapists. Without these two vital documents, we will be hamstrung in our attempts to lobby government for mainstream recognition of our skill set. Establishment of these National codes would also enable us to promote the profession as safe and ethical to the allied health professions, the general public and key stakeholders such as the private health insurers.

The Board believes that our current self-regulatory model for the profession could be dramatically enhanced if the professional Associations worked together to establish a best practice set of policies that was endorsed nationally by all parties.

This Wiki is a somewhat experimental attempt at creating such a set of national standards. We believe a communal task requires a communal tool and we hope that all educators and therapists with industry experience and a commitment to the advancement of our profession will get involved in developing these critical policy documents.

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