Occasionally I get a phone call or an email of someone wanting to know if I provide 'other' kinds of massage. I don't judge people who provide that service for money or the people who go to them. But NO, I do not.
I do get a bit tired of addressing this issue. Probably how a pharmacist would feel if people kept asking if they sold street drugs. But I'll assume some people might genuinely not know the difference, so I will explain.
When you see RMT after a massage therapist's name, it signifies that they are a Registered Massage Therapist. It means we are health care providers. Compare it to a Physiotherapist or an Occupational Therapist if you must, in order to understand. It means we have successfully completed a rigorous, two year, full time college program consisting of studies in anatomy, pathology, orthopaedic testing, therapeutic massage, hydrotherapy and clinical practice. We learned how to use massage therapy as a means to treat symptoms resulting from cerebral palsy, whiplash, muscle spasm and plantar fasciitis and many more conditions. It means we learned how to do a relaxation massage to decrease the effects of stress from working all day at a desk or walking around a hospital all day. It means once we graduated from our program, we became members of a professional association. In my case, this is MTANS, the Massage Therapists Association of Nova Scotia, " a self governing body of massage therapists dedicated to protecting the public, serving its members, and promoting the highest possible quality of the practice of massage therapy."
No, I do not provide the 'other' type of massage.
But equally important: If a massage therapist does not have RMT after their name, do not assume they provide 'other' massage services. I know many skilled Massage Therapists who offer massage therapy but who do not qualify to join a professional association and earn the designation RMT, usually because they were trained in another country and cannot attend massage school in Canada or join an association, due to language barriers.
TO REVIEW:
1. If a Massage Therapist has RMT after their name, they are a health care provider and they will NEVER provide 'other' massage services.
2. If a Massage Therapist does NOT have RMT after their name, it does NOT follow that they will offer 'other' massage. Do not assume anything.
DO NOT make an appointment with any Massage Therapist of any kind and ask for 'other' massage in person or worse, in the middle of a treatment. If you absolutely cannot tell from their advertising, it's a simple question you can ask by phone or email ahead of time. If you ask in person and they are a professional Massage Therapist, you will make them feel startled, uncomfortable, confused, threatened and probably angry. If you ask for that type of service in person or during a treatment, your RMT or Massage Therapist might phone the police and report you. So figure it out ahead of time and make a well informed decision.
