Letter to the Editor: Resident Welcomes Massage Regulations

I have been a resident of the City of South Pasadena for 67 years and have seen many things change for both the good and the bad. I, too, am a Certified Massage Sports Therapist with a practice in San Gabriel working with youth, high school and college athletes from schools all over the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire—and as far away as Manhattan Beach.

My reputation in this field is such that parents know that this is a safe, secure and non-sexual environment for them to bring their athletes of both genders as young as 9 and 10 years of age with sports muscle problems. They know they will be treated with professionalism and respect. My office is also associated with the "Stop Sports Injury" Keeping Kids In The Game For Life campaign which is sponsored and controlled by the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine.

As a legitimate alternative healthcare provider, I am appalled at the number of untrained and unlicensed massage businesses that have opened under the guise of "foot massage" parlors with their garish Christmas and neon lights and darkened window fronts. For the most part, these individuals are using a loophole in the cosmetologists license with in most cities to operate their businesses, the owner has the license and trains the people working for them to do foot massage and reflexology without any of the state required 650 hours of school massage training along with the 150-hour reflexology course.

I have brought this problem up in the City of San Gabriel asserting that these establishments cast a bad light and name on the true professional, trained and hard-working massage therapists who are providing a legitimate service to their clientele. The city is now beginning to work on their codes to reflect this problem.

I welcome individual cities in controlling regulations for massage establishments to ensure that they are legitimate and operating in a safe manner to eliminate the types of businesses that tend to give our profession a black eye and unsavory reputation. I have been involved in the process for over 10 years within this state to put together the regulation that is now in place as the California Massage Therapy Council and can finally say that the State of California now accepts and provides the necessary resources to prove to the citizens that massage therapy is truly a profession.

I am all in favor of a moratorium and of individual cities having individual codes and restrictions on massage businesses. But I would like them set up in the same framework as the current state law with the same educational and other requirements so that there is continuity and uniformity in the individual ordinances.

Sincerely, 

Wally  Colburn