April 22, 2025 • 11 mins
Read our blog post for more in-depth information on why CAMTC should be sunsetted.
California is one of only five states without massage therapy licensing, operating instead under a questionable "voluntary certification" system run by the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC). This system requires minimal education, no continuing education, and no examination, while creating barriers for therapist mobility and failing to protect the public.
• CAMTC is a private, non-profit corporation that has been criticized for lack of transparency and accountability
• The CEO of CAMTC earns over half a million dollars while the organization collects $8 million in fees
• CAMTC has arbitrarily denied certificates to qualified students and operates without due process requirements
• Professional organizations including AMTA and ABMP support sunsetting CAMTC
• A hearing on April 29th could determine whether CAMTC will be dissolved
Show notes:
----> ABMP Template for Writing a Letter to California Legislators <----
ABMP Statement on California Licensing
AMTA Statement on California Licensing
FSMTB Model Massage Therapy Practice Act
Special thanks to Laura Allen for fact-checking this episode. Read her blogs about CAMTC here.
CAMTC Sunset Hearing Background Report
California Business and Professions Code- Mas
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to our first rubdown news alert on this
podcast about massage therapy.
I'm your host, kori Rivera,licensed massage therapist and
correspondent, and today we'retalking about a time sensitive
event, that's.
And then there's California.
There's a push happening rightnow.
(00:46):
So if you're a massagetherapist in California that
supports state licensing, pleasescroll to the link in the show
notes for directions on how towrite your legislators before
April 29th.
That said, here's the abridgedstory of what's Up with
California.
California, along with Minnesota, kansas, vermont and Wyoming,
is one of only five states leftthat does not have state
licensing for massage therapists.
(01:07):
California, however, is uniquebecause it has a voluntary
certification process.
You can earn this completelyvoluntary, not required in any
way certification, by completing500 hours of education and
shelling out 300 bucks.
There's no exam.
There are no requirements forrecertification, which means
there is no continuing educationrequired, but there is a $300
(01:29):
recertification fee every twoyears.
You may ask how did this happen?
Until 2008, massage inCalifornia was not regulated on
a state level.
Individual towns and citiescould regulate or not regulate
massage therapy however theywanted to.
Generally, massage therapy wasregulated as adult entertainment
, which could mean requiringmassage therapists to register
(01:52):
as sex workers and to show aclean sexually transmitted
infection test before beinggranted a city license.
Obviously, this is not ideal.
In 2008, a bill was passedcreating the California Massage
Therapy Council, or CAMTC.
Camtc is a private, non-profitpublic benefit corporation.
The charge of the CaliforniaMassage Therapy Council was, and
(02:15):
I'm quoting here A Create andimplement a voluntary
certification program for themassage therapy profession that
will enable consumers to easilyidentify credible, certified
massage therapists or CMTs.
B ensure that certified massageprofessionals have completed
sufficient training at approvedschools.
And.
C approve massage schools.
(02:35):
By the way, a school must beCAMTC approved in order for
their graduates to qualify for acertificate.
So CAMTC is a private,non-profit public benefit
corporation.
Let's break that down becauseit's a lot.
The non-governmental part meansthat they work with the
government but not for it.
They can be partially funded bygovernment grants.
(02:57):
The non-profit part means theyare tax exempt.
They can also fundraise andaccept donations from the public
.
The private part means they canhave shareholders, but because
of the public benefit piece,they have to take into account
more interest than just theirshareholders.
A public benefit corporation,also known as a B Corp, might,
for example, support farmworkerrights and sustainable farming,
(03:19):
because workers deserve rightsand climate change is real.
In order to increasetransparency, all non-profit
organizations have to file a taxdocument called a 990, which is
publicly available and in theshow notes.
In CAMTC's 990, they stateprotecting the public as their
purpose.
Camtc began issuing voluntarycertifications in 2009.
(03:41):
There are some questionablethings happening at CAMTC right
now.
They have denied certificatesto several hundred students who
have met the requirementsbecause of a dispute with the
school the students attended.
The Superior Court ofCalifornia stated that the
certificates needed to beawarded by April 4th and as of
(04:03):
today, april 22nd, this has nothappened.
Also, if you look at CAMTC'sfilings, you can see that in
2003, the CEO made over half amillion dollars in salary and
the company itself made $8million in application fees.
No-transcript are part of thepublic.
(04:42):
There is a hearing on April 29thto allow CAMTC to be sunsetted.
A sunset provision is when alaw or other regulation will
expire on a set date unless thelegislature chooses to renew it.
Sunsetting helps legislatorsregularly review laws to ensure
that they are functioningproperly.
Allowing CAMTC to sunset woulddissolve it.
We think that should happen.
(05:04):
So does AMTA and ABMP.
You can read each of theirstatements at the link in the
show notes.
Camtc's sunset has been renewedmultiple times since 2014, and
always under the condition thatspecific changes are made.
This is normal.
However, the next sunset reviewwas scheduled for 2026, but was
(05:24):
moved up a year due to asubstantial fee increase,
transparency and accountabilityissues and a concern that
CAMTC's board of directors wasrubber stamping the decisions of
the staff instead of providingoversight, which is the purpose
of a board of directors.
(05:44):
Licensing is not just for thepublic good.
It is good for the profession.
As we talked about earlier,camtc's certification is
completely voluntary, meaninganyone, with or without an
education, can call themselves amassage therapist.
How does that help the public?
The voluntary certificationrequires 500 hours of education,
which if you've ever listenedto this podcast, you know we
(06:06):
think isn't enough, and we'renot the only ones.
And again, voluntarycertification requires no
continuing education, which hasthe immediate issue of people
thinking 500 hours is enougheducation for an entire career.
And then there are other, moreday-to-day consequences.
I've spoken with people tryingto hire massage therapists in
California and it's impossibleto figure out what kind of
(06:26):
education people have.
One person I spoke to said mostof the resumes they read had no
post-foundational education atall and that was for a position
at a hospital.
Other people have expressed howembarrassing it is to speak
with their healthcare co-workersand explain that certified
massage therapist means nothingat all and is also the only
state credential they haveaccess to.
Massage therapist means nothingat all and is also the only
state credential they haveaccess to, and if healthcare
(06:47):
providers don't know that,clearly the public has no idea,
which means CAMTC is failing inits primary stated goal public
safety.
California, like many states, iscurrently battling against a
large number of humantrafficking groups using illicit
massage businesses as cover fortheir activities.
Camtc claims that statelicensing will make it harder to
police human trafficking, butthat doesn't hold water, because
(07:10):
having a required state licensewill make it easier for law
enforcement to identify massagetherapists and it would create a
statewide database for trackinglicense violations.
As it stands, camtc is notbound by due process, which
means they can arbitrarilysuspend or revoke a
certification as they see fit.
This is, frankly, an insaneamount of power for one body to
(07:31):
have over therapists, schoolsand businesses.
On the same note, c-amtc canoperate in secrecy, while a
state board could not.
C-amtc's defense is that theycan move faster than a state
board could, which is true, butit also means they can move fast
to wield their power.
The voluntariness of thecertification has also caused
problems in municipalities.
(07:52):
Your city might not require acertification because you are a
sole practitioner, but the citydown the road might.
This means that massagetherapists in California have to
navigate a huge variety ofdifferent regulations and
requirements in order to work inmultiple municipalities.
The variety extends to the feesmassage therapists are required
to pay.
In some municipalities it's $50, and in others it's $800.
(08:16):
If you think trying to movebetween cities in California is
bad, try moving out of the state.
Most state licenses have aprovision allowing massage
therapists licensed in anotherstate to automatically qualify
for a license in theirs, whichdecreases paperwork and
confusion.
But because California'svoluntary certification has low
education hours and no examrequirement, most Californian
(08:38):
massage therapists can't get alicense in another state without
passing an exam and takingadditional education, which can
mean taking an entire program.
Basically, being a certifiedmassage therapist gets you
absolutely nowhere, but it willlighten your pocket by $300
every two years.
It's worth noting that 45states and two US territories
(09:00):
have figured out state licensing.
Camtc makes a lot of noiseabout administrative burden and
cost to massage therapists, butthis isn't actually difficult.
There are 47 other pieces oflegislation that California
could use as a blueprint forlicensing, and writing these
kinds of rules is old hat forAMTA and ABMP and FSMTB wrote a
(09:20):
42-page guide called the ModelMassage Therapy Practice Act.
The fact that not all stateshave licensing is a big mark
against the profession for ourparticipation in programs like
Medicare and Medicaid.
When we try to speak to thoseprograms, they take one look at
our proverbial house and say weneed to get ourselves in order
before we can work with them.
So if you're in California,please send a letter to the
(09:43):
Business and ProfessionalsCommittee today using the link
in the show notes helpfullyprovided to us by ABMP.
If you're not in California,please write to AMTA and ABMP
and tell them that you supportthem in supporting California
licensing.
It is good practice toencourage people who represent
you when they do something youapprove of.
The massage therapists,business schools and generally
(10:09):
the people of california deservebetter than voluntary
certification, which isessentially an expensive
participation trophy with cheapguilt covered in dust.
This has been your rubdown newsalert.
Thank you for listening.
If you found this news updatehelpful, consider donating.
Donating to HealWell athealwellorg slash donate or
click the link in the show notes.
This podcast works hard tobring you timely news and
(10:31):
underexplored issues in themassage therapy profession.
Even small donations make a bigdifference.
We're starting theconversations that matter to you
and your work, and we need yourhelp to keep doing it.
Once again, thank you forlistening.
Welcome to our first rubdown news alert on this
podcast about massage therapy.
I'm your host, kori Rivera,licensed massage therapist and
correspondent, and today we'retalking about a time sensitive
event, that's.
And then there's California.
There's a push happening rightnow.
(00:46):
So if you're a massagetherapist in California that
supports state licensing, pleasescroll to the link in the show
notes for directions on how towrite your legislators before
April 29th.
That said, here's the abridgedstory of what's Up with
California.
California, along with Minnesota, kansas, vermont and Wyoming,
is one of only five states leftthat does not have state
licensing for massage therapists.
(01:07):
California, however, is uniquebecause it has a voluntary
certification process.
You can earn this completelyvoluntary, not required in any
way certification, by completing500 hours of education and
shelling out 300 bucks.
There's no exam.
There are no requirements forrecertification, which means
there is no continuing educationrequired, but there is a $300
(01:29):
recertification fee every twoyears.
You may ask how did this happen?
Until 2008, massage inCalifornia was not regulated on
a state level.
Individual towns and citiescould regulate or not regulate
massage therapy however theywanted to.
Generally, massage therapy wasregulated as adult entertainment
, which could mean requiringmassage therapists to register
(01:52):
as sex workers and to show aclean sexually transmitted
infection test before beinggranted a city license.
Obviously, this is not ideal.
In 2008, a bill was passedcreating the California Massage
Therapy Council, or CAMTC.
Camtc is a private, non-profitpublic benefit corporation.
The charge of the CaliforniaMassage Therapy Council was, and
(02:15):
I'm quoting here A Create andimplement a voluntary
certification program for themassage therapy profession that
will enable consumers to easilyidentify credible, certified
massage therapists or CMTs.
B ensure that certified massageprofessionals have completed
sufficient training at approvedschools.
And.
C approve massage schools.
(02:35):
By the way, a school must beCAMTC approved in order for
their graduates to qualify for acertificate.
So CAMTC is a private,non-profit public benefit
corporation.
Let's break that down becauseit's a lot.
The non-governmental part meansthat they work with the
government but not for it.
They can be partially funded bygovernment grants.
(02:57):
The non-profit part means theyare tax exempt.
They can also fundraise andaccept donations from the public
.
The private part means they canhave shareholders, but because
of the public benefit piece,they have to take into account
more interest than just theirshareholders.
A public benefit corporation,also known as a B Corp, might,
for example, support farmworkerrights and sustainable farming,
(03:19):
because workers deserve rightsand climate change is real.
In order to increasetransparency, all non-profit
organizations have to file a taxdocument called a 990, which is
publicly available and in theshow notes.
In CAMTC's 990, they stateprotecting the public as their
purpose.
Camtc began issuing voluntarycertifications in 2009.
(03:41):
There are some questionablethings happening at CAMTC right
now.
They have denied certificatesto several hundred students who
have met the requirementsbecause of a dispute with the
school the students attended.
The Superior Court ofCalifornia stated that the
certificates needed to beawarded by April 4th and as of
(04:03):
today, april 22nd, this has nothappened.
Also, if you look at CAMTC'sfilings, you can see that in
2003, the CEO made over half amillion dollars in salary and
the company itself made $8million in application fees.
No-transcript are part of thepublic.
(04:42):
There is a hearing on April 29thto allow CAMTC to be sunsetted.
A sunset provision is when alaw or other regulation will
expire on a set date unless thelegislature chooses to renew it.
Sunsetting helps legislatorsregularly review laws to ensure
that they are functioningproperly.
Allowing CAMTC to sunset woulddissolve it.
We think that should happen.
(05:04):
So does AMTA and ABMP.
You can read each of theirstatements at the link in the
show notes.
Camtc's sunset has been renewedmultiple times since 2014, and
always under the condition thatspecific changes are made.
This is normal.
However, the next sunset reviewwas scheduled for 2026, but was
(05:24):
moved up a year due to asubstantial fee increase,
transparency and accountabilityissues and a concern that
CAMTC's board of directors wasrubber stamping the decisions of
the staff instead of providingoversight, which is the purpose
of a board of directors.
(05:44):
Licensing is not just for thepublic good.
It is good for the profession.
As we talked about earlier,camtc's certification is
completely voluntary, meaninganyone, with or without an
education, can call themselves amassage therapist.
How does that help the public?
The voluntary certificationrequires 500 hours of education,
which if you've ever listenedto this podcast, you know we
(06:06):
think isn't enough, and we'renot the only ones.
And again, voluntarycertification requires no
continuing education, which hasthe immediate issue of people
thinking 500 hours is enougheducation for an entire career.
And then there are other, moreday-to-day consequences.
I've spoken with people tryingto hire massage therapists in
California and it's impossibleto figure out what kind of
(06:26):
education people have.
One person I spoke to said mostof the resumes they read had no
post-foundational education atall and that was for a position
at a hospital.
Other people have expressed howembarrassing it is to speak
with their healthcare co-workersand explain that certified
massage therapist means nothingat all and is also the only
state credential they haveaccess to.
Massage therapist means nothingat all and is also the only
state credential they haveaccess to, and if healthcare
(06:47):
providers don't know that,clearly the public has no idea,
which means CAMTC is failing inits primary stated goal public
safety.
California, like many states, iscurrently battling against a
large number of humantrafficking groups using illicit
massage businesses as cover fortheir activities.
Camtc claims that statelicensing will make it harder to
police human trafficking, butthat doesn't hold water, because
(07:10):
having a required state licensewill make it easier for law
enforcement to identify massagetherapists and it would create a
statewide database for trackinglicense violations.
As it stands, camtc is notbound by due process, which
means they can arbitrarilysuspend or revoke a
certification as they see fit.
This is, frankly, an insaneamount of power for one body to
(07:31):
have over therapists, schoolsand businesses.
On the same note, c-amtc canoperate in secrecy, while a
state board could not.
C-amtc's defense is that theycan move faster than a state
board could, which is true, butit also means they can move fast
to wield their power.
The voluntariness of thecertification has also caused
problems in municipalities.
(07:52):
Your city might not require acertification because you are a
sole practitioner, but the citydown the road might.
This means that massagetherapists in California have to
navigate a huge variety ofdifferent regulations and
requirements in order to work inmultiple municipalities.
The variety extends to the feesmassage therapists are required
to pay.
In some municipalities it's $50, and in others it's $800.
(08:16):
If you think trying to movebetween cities in California is
bad, try moving out of the state.
Most state licenses have aprovision allowing massage
therapists licensed in anotherstate to automatically qualify
for a license in theirs, whichdecreases paperwork and
confusion.
But because California'svoluntary certification has low
education hours and no examrequirement, most Californian
(08:38):
massage therapists can't get alicense in another state without
passing an exam and takingadditional education, which can
mean taking an entire program.
Basically, being a certifiedmassage therapist gets you
absolutely nowhere, but it willlighten your pocket by $300
every two years.
It's worth noting that 45states and two US territories
(09:00):
have figured out state licensing.
Camtc makes a lot of noiseabout administrative burden and
cost to massage therapists, butthis isn't actually difficult.
There are 47 other pieces oflegislation that California
could use as a blueprint forlicensing, and writing these
kinds of rules is old hat forAMTA and ABMP and FSMTB wrote a
(09:20):
42-page guide called the ModelMassage Therapy Practice Act.
The fact that not all stateshave licensing is a big mark
against the profession for ourparticipation in programs like
Medicare and Medicaid.
When we try to speak to thoseprograms, they take one look at
our proverbial house and say weneed to get ourselves in order
before we can work with them.
So if you're in California,please send a letter to the
(09:43):
Business and ProfessionalsCommittee today using the link
in the show notes helpfullyprovided to us by ABMP.
If you're not in California,please write to AMTA and ABMP
and tell them that you supportthem in supporting California
licensing.
It is good practice toencourage people who represent
you when they do something youapprove of.
The massage therapists,business schools and generally
(10:09):
the people of california deservebetter than voluntary
certification, which isessentially an expensive
participation trophy with cheapguilt covered in dust.
This has been your rubdown newsalert.
Thank you for listening.
If you found this news updatehelpful, consider donating.
Donating to HealWell athealwellorg slash donate or
click the link in the show notes.
This podcast works hard tobring you timely news and
(10:31):
underexplored issues in themassage therapy profession.
Even small donations make a bigdifference.
We're starting theconversations that matter to you
and your work, and we need yourhelp to keep doing it.
Once again, thank you forlistening.
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