They should try to speak well of one another in conversation and to uphold one another’s professional reputations, if the facts justify this. Bear in mind, criticism of your peers can reflect poorly on the industry.

The massage therapist world is fairly small. As of this writing, the American Massage Therapists Association has 50,000 members. There are 60,000 therapists certified by the NCBTMB.

In the therapist community, word gets around quickly. Everybody eventually knows what everyone else is doing. Sometimes this leads to strained relations and feuds. Price cutting and bad mouthing the competition is an example of things that can cause problems.

However, fostering relationships with others can lead to special friendship bonds that last forever. Building collegial relationships suggests therapists should engage in a courtesy which overcomes minor irritations. Practically, there may come a time when the local therapist community will need to stand together, as when a jurisdiction holds hearings for new massage legislation. Being united in time of need will be easier if the community has been building bridges all along.

Recently a bill was before legislature to initiate a certain state’s licensing of massage. This is generally held to be desirable by the massage industry (many states have state licensing.) But, according to the bill’s sponsor, squabbles between the various massage interests and groups and their inability to decide on what the bill should contain caused the bill’s sponsor to withdraw the proposed legislation. A more congenial behavior might have given everyone what they ultimately wanted; state licensure. The absence of a state license for that particular state means many therapists will continue to be chained to lengthy and often expensive application procedures conducted by cities that are free to devise all sorts of difficulties for the applicants; whether intentional or through ignorance of the industry. In a state with local licensing, changing jobs to another town usually means a therapist must go through a whole new licensing procedure, something which usually is not required or at least considerably streamlined in a state-licensed jurisdiction.

Mutual support is necessary to grow a business. Therapists should not solicit one another’s clients. Therapists should not use underhanded means to obtain clients from others. This sometimes occurs when therapists are working for an employer; they may attempt to move a client away from the office into a more private practice in their or the clients home. This poses an ethical issue. Not only is the employer taken advantage of, so are any other employees who then do not have an opportunity to serve that client. Loss of business may ultimately affect others’ salary or jobs. In the massage bodywork industry more income is generated when therapists support each other in building the business.

A therapist may be told of another therapist’s problems or issues. While there may be no legal grounds to keep this information to oneself, doing so enhances collegial relationships. This confidentiality does not apply when the other therapist is doing something which violates the law; in that case, the therapist has an obligation under the NCBTMB Standards of Practice to report this.