ZMC Videos

Zion Massage College – Outdoor Adventure Base Camp, near Zion National Park in Kolob, Utah.

Rebecca’s graduation message for Zion Massage College’s newest graduates! We are all so proud of you!

Zion Massage College graduates study Watsu in Costa Rica near Arenal Volcano with Natalia Chaverri Madden.

Massage Therapists, Massage Therapy Employers, Massage Educators and Massage Clients stand in opposition of SB 180 for several reasons:

1. This two-tier system has been tried in other states and has failed. People in the lower tier find that they are not employable, especially at reputable establishments. Of course, this makes them vulnerable to illegal and unethical practices. This is one of the reasons Maryland just eliminated their two-tier system and raised educational requirements to 750 hours.

2. SB 180 is not actually deregulation, it’s really just adding new regulation at a dramatically lower standard. It’s establishing poor training as a government standard. This two-tiered system is such a bad idea that I would probably recommend you remove ALL regulations if it wasn’t for one critical issue; massage therapy is frequently used by human trafficking and sexually illicit businesses as a cover for their illegal activity. Massage Therapy is a textbook example of a business that can benefit from cautious government standards.

3. With that in mind, we are obviously concerned about how this lowered standard can create unsafe environments for massage practitioners. At my school, we track our graduates and provide ongoing support to them. We have found that therapists who work in states with minimal or no massage therapy regulations experience considerably more sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by clients. The graduates who remain in Utah, or work in states with similar standards, report fewer such experiences. Careful government regulation can help create a state-wide environment of clinical professionalism in our industry. 4. With multiple tiers of acceptable training, it will be difficult for average citizens to differentiate between a Licensed Massage Therapist and a CMP. Believe it or not, a person can be injured in a massage. And it goes without saying that injuries to clients occur more often with poorly-trained massage therapists. In my visit to the capitol yesterday, I was accompanied by a person who broke his neck in a car accident. Massage played a crucial role in his recovery helping sensitive tissues relax and resituate themselves. Unfortunately, while he was receiving massage treatment overseas, a poorly trained therapist caused impingements that damaged muscles and restricted movement in his arm for several weeks. Unfortunately, his story isn’t unique. To put this in perspective, a CMP, as defined in this bill, would be fully certified with no more training than our entry-level students. Our students don’t even begin their internship until they have reached nearly 200 hours of training. And during their 180-hours of clinical internship, they continue to attend classes. Classes that make them more knowledgeable as a health care provider and confident in their professional and ethical standards.With these obvious and well-documented issues of both health and safety, passing this bill is short-sighted at best.

Massage Therapists, Massage Therapy Employers, Massage Educators and Massage Clients stand in opposition of SB 180 for several reasons:  

1.    This two-tier system has been tried in other states and has failed. People in the lower tier find that they are not employable, especially at reputable establishments. Of course, this makes them vulnerable to illegal and unethical practices. This is one of the reasons Maryland just eliminated their two-tier system and raised educational requirements to 750 hours.

2.  SB 180 is not actually deregulation, it’s really just adding new regulation at a dramatically lower standard. It’s establishing poor training as a government standard. This two-tiered system is such a bad idea that I would probably recommend you remove ALL regulations if it wasn’t for one critical issue; massage therapy is frequently used by human trafficking and sexually illicit businesses as a cover for their illegal activity. Massage Therapy is a textbook example of a business that can benefit from cautious government standards.

3. With that in mind, we are obviously concerned about how this lowered standard can create unsafe environments for massage practitioners. At my school, we track our graduates and provide ongoing support to them. We have found that therapists who work in states with minimal or no massage therapy regulations experience considerably more sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by clients. The graduates who remain in Utah, or work in states with similar standards, report fewer such experiences. Careful government regulation can help create a state-wide environment of clinical professionalism in our industry. 4.    With multiple tiers of acceptable training, it will be difficult for average citizens to differentiate between a Licensed Massage Therapist and a CMP. Believe it or not, a person can be injured in a massage. And it goes without saying that injuries to clients occur more often with poorly-trained massage therapists. In my visit to the capitol yesterday, I was accompanied by a person who broke his neck in a car accident. Massage played a crucial role in his recovery helping sensitive tissues relax and resituate themselves. Unfortunately, while he was receiving massage treatment overseas, a poorly trained therapist caused impingements that damaged muscles and restricted movement in his arm for several weeks. Unfortunately, his story isn’t unique. To put this in perspective, a CMP, as defined in this bill, would be fully certified with no more training than our entry-level students. Our students don’t even begin their internship until they have reached nearly 200 hours of training. And during their 180-hours of clinical internship, they continue to attend classes. Classes that make them more knowledgeable as a health care provider and confident in their professional and ethical standards.With these obvious and well-documented issues of both health and safety, passing this bill is short-sighted at best.

Right now in the Utah state legislature, our representatives are ramming through a bill that you need to know about, especially if you have daughters or if you care about protecting girls from predators.

It’s Senate bill 180, and if you’ve followed national news, you’re going to be amazed that some of our own representatives are trying to pass this in our state.

This bill creates a lower-tier category for massage therapists who can be hired and trained on the job, circumventing formal education and normal protections. If this idea sounds familiar it’s because this is exactly how Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell coerced low and middle-income women and teenage girls into sex trafficking right here in the United States.

This is same Jeffrey Epstein who killed himself in jail two years ago, and the same Ghislaine Maxwell who was just convicted of sex trafficking crimes a few weeks ago and who is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

With these issues in the news right now, our representatives are creating an infrastructure that would have made Epstein’s crimes even easier for him to get away with.

Massage therapy is a unique profession that has the power to help people relieve pain, prevent injury and to truly heal . And consider the fact that a massage therapist touches your body more than your doctor does. The words “Try it for a few hours and see if you like it!” sound almost crazy in that context.. Once again, the amount of training and prep currently on the books is there for a reason.

I spoke with SB 180’s sponsor, Senator Bramble about this earlier today and he justified his support of this proposed bill by saying he wants to create a pathway where people can try out being a massage therapist before committing to a full education. Interestingly this is exactly what Maxwell said to get girls to follow her to Epstein’s mansion.
The formal education and protections for massage therapy in Utah were put there for a reason by people who understand the industry and the history.

But like a lot of naïve people, our representatives seem to think this kind of thing doesn’t happen in real life. Even as we are seeing the devastating effects of this in the national news right now.

What we need to do is make sure the public knows that these laws exist; not take them away.

To our legislators, just because you weren’t there when the protections were created, doesn’t mean you should stop protecting vulnerable populations.

This bill is being rushed through the legislature right now and could be finalized within the next few days. Giving citizens very little time to react.
So, here’s what you can do to make a difference, right this second, your phone is probably in your hand. Before you do another thing, make the call to your local legislator, don’t let another moment go by. You can find your representative at this link. Call right now, leave a message and tell your representative that you oppose SB 180.

We’re asking law enforcement, licensed Massage Therapists, Massage Therapy employers and citizens who want to make a positive difference in our state to Please contact your representative and tell them to stop SB 180.

Licensed Massage Therapists have worked hard to develop high standards so that we can help our clients to reduce pain and stress, prevent and recover from injuries, and receive healthy, therapeutic touch.

A few spa owners have lobbied Utah’s legislature to create a lower tier of massage practitioners that would receive only 125 hours of training instead of the state’s minimum requirement of 600 hours.

These few spa owners do not represent the larger number of ethical spa owners and massage employers who support LMTs and value the standards and education in our industry. Unfortunately, these few individuals seek to create a dependent class of poorly trained and poorly paid massage practitioners to fill the positions at their spas.

Massage Therapy is an industry that requires a high level of professionalism and high standards so that the public can differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate businesses.

Please support Licensed Massage Therapists, law enforcement, and the many people that are helped through therapeutic massage. We want to continue to improve our industry, fight human trafficking, provide a professional safe, and reliable experience for our clients and have livable wages for massage therapists. SB 180 undermines many of these goals.

Thank you for your support.

Please call and write to your local legislator to oppose Senate Bill 180, which would reduce Massage Therapy education to less than 25% of the current minimum requirement for Massage Therapy education.

You can find your legislative contact information at www.http://le.utah.gov/

A small group – Utah Massage Employers, LLC – is attempting to alter the Utah Massage Therapy Practice Act during the 2022 legislative session. UME seeks to create an additional bottom tier of massage licensing of just 125 hours of training to the already short 600-hour educational requirement for Licensed Massage Therapists, and the 1,000 hour requirement for Licensed Massage Apprentices.

The UME group represents less than 1% of all massage employers in Utah. They want to create an additional level called Certified Massage Practitioner or CMP wherein massage employers could hire unlicensed workers to perform massage with only 125 hours of training in massage-related duties. Additionally, this group wants to increase the amount of apprentices-in-training from the existing 2 to 6 at one time, again to have more workers to line their pockets with more money.

Their false premise is this proposed legislative change is in line with Governor Cox’s challenge to create easier pathways to employment in as many professions as possible. Inadequate training is not in line with this challenge. Massage schools and apprenticeships take less than 1 year and are easier pathways to employment than traditional 4 year colleges and universities, which is in line with Governor Cox’s challenge. Allowing a low-tier certification of only 125 hours of massage training creates hidden hazards, such as: (1) suppressed wages for workers in the field, (2) greater risk of harm to massage consumers by inferior training, (3) unregulated education without proper training credentials, and (4) conditions conducive to prostitution, human trafficking and illicit sexual exploitation.

The current Utah Massage Practice Act provides a bottom tier/entry level pathway of a minimum of 600 hours of education. This is already a very short training and provides the minimum recommended amount of education for entry into the unique field of Massage Therapy. If anything, we should be working to raise, not lower standards and training requirements in Massage Therapy education.

There are many unintended consequences to this proposed legislation, which reduces educational requirements and creates a lower CMP tier in the Utah Massage Therapy Act

Rebecca Farraway from Zion Massage College visits Wat Bupparam during her visit the Chiang Mai, Thailand under the Thai Pass system in December- January of 2022.

Produced by Robert John Hadfield