Where I live in Ohio, massage therapists are not required to acquire continuing education at all, unless you belong to a professional membership, like AMTA or ABMP. The State of Ohio Medical Board, through whom I’m licensed, does not require CE hours.

While there are currently efforts for the Medical Board to require 24 hours of massage continuing education every two years with renewals, I’ve seen some interesting reasons why we “shouldn’t” have to do continuing ed:
- The human body doesn’t change, so why should we learn more?
- Classes are too expensive.
- Massage therapists don’t make enough money-the cost is unjustified.
- 24 hours is a ridiculous amount. 12 would be – well, okay.
- I don’t want to waste time on classes that don’t interest me.
- It’s too hard to leave my business to take classes.
- Therapists who have been licensed for 10 years + should be exempt.
This, friends, is frightening to me. Not only do some massage therapists not want live classes, but they don’t want classes at all.
For some time, there has been a push for online learning for massage therapists. On the surface, it seems like a good idea. Therapists can take classes at their leisure, in their own time frame, can save money by not having to take off time and work due to live class time and travel.
Online continuing education classes for massage therapists are typically significantly less expensive too. Don’t therapists may feel like they get their best bang for their buck when fulfilling their continuing education requirements online? Probably.
Is this best for the massage industry or for massage therapists, though?