Massage therapist protests restrictions

A massage therapist who operates schools in 11 different countries says it's time for states to change laws that he argues discriminate against non-western techniques.

Brandon Raynor, an Australian, brought his protest to Carson City Tuesday, calling on Nevada lawmakers to support a Health Freedom Act that would eliminate the restrictions on required training for massage therapists created by the American Massage Therapy Association.

He said the AMTA requirement that therapists complete 500 hours of training - mostly in anatomy and physiology - is nothing more than a money generator for the association's big schools.

Those schools, Raynor said, charge up to $9,500 to train a therapist and that most of the time is devoted to teaching the names and locations of all the body's muscles and other information therapists don't really need.

"They do very little massage," he said adding those schools are motivated by money.

"The motive should be caring for people."

He said his schools' 10-day course, offered for a third of the cost, actually spends more time teaching massage techniques. And, he said, it recognizes the long history and value of massage techniques from such places as India, Thailand and Japan.

"One cultural view should not dominate," he said. "The basis of eastern healing is different from western. The training should be focused on what makes a good massage therapist."

Raynor plans to visit all 50 states over the course of a year, asking states like Nevada to repeal the 500 hour education requirement.

He said he recognizes many such requirements were created to push the sex industry out of the massage business, but that the extensive anatomy and physiology training isn't needed to do that.

"There are legitimate reasons why we want to separate therapeutic massage from the sex industry," he said. "We're not opposed to police background checks, but it's pretty obvious in ads which massage therapists are offering therapy and which aren't."

Raynor, 37, with 19 years professional experience, said there are good reasons, especially with veterans coming back from the Middle East with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and injuries.

"We need to look after people like that and massage is one of the best treatments for stress," he said.

He said since therapists depend on repeat business and word-of-mouth to build their clientele, the market itself will get rid of bad practitioners. After a while, they just won't have enough customers to stay in business. The good therapists will, he said.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.