Defining Your Role as A Massage Therapist

As a certified massage therapist, it is important to offer assurances to your clients that you are a qualified professional. Giving this impression begins with the very first time you meet a client and continues to be vital in how you engage with them in every interaction after that. How you put yourself out to the world can greatly affect the kind of clientele you draw in. However, it is not always possible to control who comes to you for a table or chair massage session. Therefore, it is important to treat every client and potential client with respect and professionalism. Maintaining clear boundaries and understanding the client/therapist roles will greatly enhance the quality and safety of the client/therapist relationship.

The client/therapist relationship can be defined clearly as giver of therapy and receiver of therapy. In the case of bodywork, "therapy" refers to anything that the therapist has been trained and certified to perform as a massage therapist. The massage therapist should not attempt anything that is outside of the scope of their certified practice, nor should they falsely give the impression that their capabilities extend beyond the limits of what they have been trained to do. The client has come to you, the massage therapist, in order to receive the specific kind of bodywork that you have advertised. The client should not expect or request, nor should the massage therapist try to perform any work that is not within the massage therapist's limitations or within legal appropriateness.

Examples of a massage therapist practicing outside their scope of practice include:

- Practicing chiropractic work.
- Practicing physical therapy.
- Practicing acupuncture.
- Offering medical diagnosis.
- Advising or prescribing medication, herbs or vitamins (state laws vary, stay up to date on yours)

Examples of a massage therapist practicing within their scope of practice include:

- Referrals to other healthcare professionals.
- Helpful suggestions of what a client might try.
- Anecdotes of things that have helped others.

The relationship between a client and massage therapist can be very vulnerable and intimate. The client offers the massage therapist a great deal of trust, which should be honored and respected. Thus, the massage therapist must take special care not to abuse the power of this relationship or inappropriately use their influence over the client for personal or other gain.

Examples of a therapist abusing their power include:

- Attempting to sell products.
- Using scare tactics to convince client to schedule with you again.
- Asking extraordinary favors.
- Sexualizing the relationship through inappropriate comments.
- Pursuing sexual relations with client.