The AMTA National Convention is NEXT WEEK – October 3-6.

We have enjoyed blogging on the Statements. Thank you very much to Delegate Allissa Haines who organized and posted the blogs.

We appreciate the support of the AMTA, both National and Mass Chapter. Congratulations to the authors of these Statements and the HOD Committee for the amount of work and effort that goes into developing the Statements for the Convention and House of Delegates. As many of us massage therapists seek further validation from credible sources, it is much appreciated that these Statements are written.

It is our hope that other states will introduce blogs on the Statements to their Chapters and that once members further develop their appreciation of the Statements, there will be even more discussion about them. Delegates represent their members and we look to hear from as many members as possible.

With the discussions among us Delegates, with Chapter members, and Board members (both national and state), we have opened up our views about all the references given. Even though we feel that some of the references distract from the Statement, since some of them cite bodywork that is not massage therapy, should that actually stop us from supporting the Statement? We feel that if there are enough strong massage references, then those could be enough to support the Statement. After all, many AMTA members practice a variety of bodywork techniques and the additional references can support those practices as well. Therefore, we will look more closely at those massage references to see if they do, indeed, show a strong evidence for the Statements they represent.

Thank you!

With this entry, we look at the final Position Statement. It is an ambitious statement and the authors are to be applauded for their efforts. Because of the scope of the statement, I have included much of their rationale. I have left out the standard rationale about meeting the AMTA Core Values and the portions of the vision statements as those are in all the statements. I want to focus on their rationale for this particular statement.

POSITION STATEMENT

It is the position of the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) that massage therapy can be good for health. You can read the full text here.

RATIONALE

Peoples' health would benefit from utilizing and incorporating massage therapy given by professional massage therapists working within their scope of practice. 53

The position statement supports the portions of Goals and Objectives of the AMTA, as follows:

ADVOCACY AND INFLUENCE

Goal: The health care and wellness industry accepts the value of massage therapy.

Objective: Increase understanding of the benefits of massage therapy through education of the health care and wellness industry.

INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIPS

Goal: AMTA is a respected leader within the health care and wellness industry.

Objective: Increase collaboration between AMTA, its members and other health care and wellness industry leaders.

RESEARCH

Goal: AMTA members are aware of the importance of scientific research to the massage therapy industry.

Objective: Increase the opportunities for members to access massage therapy scientific research through AMTA sources.

Our Thoughts about the Statement:

As mentioned above, it is a bold statement that I think, in many ways, is something that many massage therapists say. It will be very interesting at the Convention’s House of Delegates to hear the opinions of the other Delegates.

Is it too broad a Statement? Can it really be this simple that “Massage is good for health”? There are many excellent references that show the many benefits for many health concerns. So massage is good for many aspects of health. We mostly feel that it is too broad in its scope but we’re open minded and will see if what the authors intend for this Statement can be accurate and something we feel that the AMTA should state.

Thank you to the members who voted for us to be Delegates. We will let you all know what happens! Stay tuned to our reports from the National Convention. You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook for real-time updates!