For a very long time, the massage therapy profession has been plagued with brothels doing business under the name of massage. My look down the history of the massage profession shows how the profession has even tried to stop it by starting licensing laws back in the early 40’s/50’s. The laws did little to nothing to curb the use of our good name of massage therapists.
Massage therapy is NOT prostitution. Massage therapists are educated healthcare providers who work with pain, stress, injuries and more and are an important part of health and wellness.
What is being done about it?
I have written about the issue of brothels doing business as massage on my other site www.massagepracticebuilder.com and found a few things that are being done to try to combat this. Massage establishment licensing laws in some states are an attempt to make it so massage is separated from brothels doing business as massage therapists. See also: Untangling Massage, Prostitution and Human Trafficking Scoping Project.
ABMP also states:
This has been the biggest issue that I seem to work on in the post-licensure world, and it is that the massage therapist should not have to pay for the establishment licensing, you’re already paying for your own personal license to practice massage. You’ve gone to school, you’ve gotten your hours in, and you passed a national exam in most states, and so why should you have to pay for going after illicit sex businesses? ABMP Government Relations
Another answer is to start creating laws that make it a crime punishable with jail time when someone uses the words massage/massage therapy in a business name without having a massage license.
Not in our good name
One of the main problems is the lack of edcuation and community awareness around this issue. It became clear recently when I found a brothel doing business as massage in my suburban area and the community worked to take it down. It was investigated and shut down but it of course reopened.
A community campaign of Not in our Good Name would help bring awareness of the issue from a more postitive aspect.