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January 9, 2008
If History Repeats Itself . . .
We started our first day of official classes yesterday with the history of physical therapy. It is amazing to me how closely the history of massage therapy and physical therapy parallel each other. The onset of polio really made a place for people, especially women, to care for children and adults "crippled" by the disease.
While their respective histories are parallel or a step or two apart, it is interesting that WWII is where the real divergence came. It took more than two decades for massage therapy to begin to recover from the stigma that prostitution put on the industry and it is an issue massage continues to struggle with to this day. Around the war Physical Therapy gained acceptance from the Army and the American Medical Association (AMA) which had a strong hand in the development of its educational criteria.
It wasn't until the 1980s that complete control of the industry was relinquished by the AMA and the industry has since made great strides in education and self-governance. Interestingly, Chiropractic followed shortly after as did the legitimacy of massage therapy and increased availability of quality education. In many ways the legitimizing of the massage industry has followed the blueprint set forth by the physical therapy field. However, massage has continued to lag behind because of its less than unified vision for the direction of its future. I believe that one day massage therapy will find its rightful place in the clinic beside physical therapy assistants, and physical therapy aides, and fitness trainers if it wants to be there.
tags: massage massagetherapy wellness massage therapy bodywork health
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Posted by linda at January 9, 2008 8:49 AM
