Indiana to Certify Massage Therapists

When it came to signing a bill to provide for certification of Indiana’s massage therapists, the deciding factor for Gov. Mitch Daniels was state law enforcement’s battle against prostitution.

But that doesn’t diminish the relief many of Indiana’s massage therapists feel after more than a decade of work toward state regulation.

Gov. Daniels said in a written statement that despite his reticence to sign a bill to create another state regulatory board, testimony by law-enforcement officials that regulation of massage therapists could be used to combat prostitution in their communities convinced him to sign the bill into law May 10.

The new law, which was scheduled to go into effect July 1, calls for at least 500 hours of supervised classroom massage instruction, among other requirements. Indiana joins 37 states, the District of Columbia and four Canadian provinces in the regulation of massage therapy.

According to a spokesperson for the American Massage Therapy Association’s Indiana Chapter (AMTA-IN), which was instrumental in lobbying the state’s legislators for passage of the law, compromise was key to legislative success.

“For many, many years prior to this particular act, over 10 years, we’ve been pushing for massage licensure in the state of Indiana,” said AMTA-IN First Vice President Michael Reynolds. “Some changes we made were going for certification as a starting point instead of going straight for licensure.”

Reynolds admitted it will be possible for prostitutes to earn massage certification, and that the law is not an all-powerful tool against vice. But, he added, he does believe the law will give the public a definite sense of qualifications and what to expect of massage therapists.

“Quite frankly, most people you talk to in the state of Indiana would say, ‘Oh, massage therapists aren’t licensed or certified?’ They’d just expect it,” Reynolds said. “So what this does is it adds credibility to the profession and says we are a group of trained professionals who do deserve title protection, if not more.”

—Karen Menehan