Starting and running a local network can be a great way to connect with other massage therapists in your community/state while promoting your business and the massage therapy profession. Local networks know what is best for them. You can research and understand the issues in your community like brothels disguised as massage businesses and work to change the language so that the community understands that they have brothels in the area; not massage parlors. There are also other things to look into like keeping track of what your state boards are doing, changing the CE requirements, getting massage covered by health insurance and other things.
- Start where you are at. Call a few friends you went to massage school or contact the massage businesses around you and ask to meet for coffee to talk about forming a network.
- Start a Facebook Page and Group where you can post events and organize.
- Create a website around the whole network and have it so people can pay to be a member or list a CE class.
- Create monthly meetings around a CE class and potluck/lunch or other social event.
- You can charge a low monthly fee to be a member or charge for individual meetings.
Hands off our Name: Massage is Therapy
Study the issues and learn about what is happening in your area and around the US. You can learn more about the use of our name on this post — Massage is Therapy. The word massage is being used by brothels diguised as massage therapists (often called parlors). Massage Establishment licensing is arbitrarily being added to licensing laws without any research or evidence that they work. We have a very long history of being tangled up with sex work. Associations are formed and laws made, yet the problem persists.
The Handsoffourname Initiative offers suggestions for correcting language used by the media, legislators and others.
Some examples:
WA State Massage Networks and Facebook Groups/Pages
Bellingham: North Cascades Massage Connection: https://www.facebook.com/NCmassageconnection/
Bremerton: Massage Network Solutions :
https://www.facebook.com/Massagenetworksolutions/
https://www.massagenetworksolutions.com/
Montana
Business League for Massage Therapy & Bodywork,. a not-for-profit organization, acts as an advocate for and promotes the furtherance of the profession of massage therapy and bodywork.
