The Massage Pundit

Nationally certified therapists in Pennsylvania received an email from the National Certification Board this week that is full of lies and misinformation.  PA is in the process of moving forward with their practice act, and one of those provisions will allow acceptance of the MBLEx.  The email that was sent to certificants urges them to send a letter, provided by the NCB, to their legislators to try to stop this from happening.

Here is a direct quote from the letter:  “One such exam, MBLEx, is being funded and promoted by ABMP – a for-profit membership organization that is exerting enormous influence across the massage industry with increasing control in many business-critical areas. These already include: Schools, Curriculum, Insurance, Legislation, Association, Publications, and now … the last bastion: the licensing exam.”   The next sentence is the one that really blows my mind:  “This presents a clear and dangerous precedent, with potential monopolizing effects that could be injurious to the entire profession.”

I find it hilarious that the NCB uses the term “monopoly” with such reckless abandon, since their monopoly is exactly what’s at stake here.  They also state that the MBLEx is funded by “special-interest groups”–when in fact it is owned and funded by the member states–currently 29 states belong to the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards.  The NCB likes to make a big deal out of the fact that 32 states accept their exams, and all I can say is, the FSMTB is gaining on them fast.

The NCB has taken the tactic in the past couple of years of acting as if they should be the only massage and bodywork organization that is allowed to exist, and that their tests should be the only tests that are allowed to exist.  The constantly slam the Federation, AMTA, and ABMP, and the falsehoods that they spread about these other well-respected organizations are just incredible and clearly crossing the line of ethical behavior. 

I’ve been nationally certified myself for nearly a decade, and every time I start to have a glimmer of hope that this organization is getting their act together, they seem to stoop to a new low.  I don’t have any delight in this; I find it pathetic, sad, and disheartening that an organization that was originally formed to benefit our profession has fallen so far down that I wonder if they will ever be able to rise above all the subterfuge, outright lies, managerial despotism, sniping and lawsuits between the board members, mass exits of staff members who are too embarassed to keep being associated with them, and other goings-on that have damaged their reputation and destroyed their integrity.

I hope that the therapists in PA will ignore this pitiful attempt to interfere in their state governance.  The MBLEx is a psychometrically sound examination, created after a job task survey analysis that more than 7,000 working massage therapists participated in.  For the NCB to act as if it isn’t a credible exam is totally ridiculous.  It is in fact administered by Pearson Vue, the same entity that administers the NCB exams, and if it wasn’t credible and psychometrically sound, Pearson Vue wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.  For the NCB to spread that word is to perpetuate an outright lie. 

Many states are offering a choice of exams, but the more outrageous the actions of the NCB become, some are opting out of their exams altogether in favor of using the MBLEx exclusively, and who can blame them?  If they continue on their present course of actions, it will someday come to the point that no one wants to be associated with them.  They’re not making any friends.

Incidentally, the NCB continues to give poor service to providers and certificants.  In spite of the fact I had sent in my renewal early this year, I received a form letter stating they had received four times the usual amount of renewal applicants and that my application was going to  be reviewed two months after it expired.  After I pitched a little hissy fit, including sending a letter stating that if the board members would stay home and attend to the business of actually running the board instead of flitting around the country interfering in states that are considering accepting the MBLEx, that they could get things done on time, I received it, but I neither want nor expect special treatment from them; I want everyone seeking their services to receive timely service, and their track record in that area is extremely poor.

This past week the board members of the NCB enjoyed their quarterly meeting, which was held in the exotic locale of Hawaii.  I can’t say it thrills me that my fees (350.00 this year to renew my providership) is paying for them to meet in Hawaii.  What’s wrong with meeting at their board offices, or some centrally located city on the mainland?  I imagine that was an expensive trip.  Add that on to the exorbitant stipend that Donna Feeley recently assigned herself, the money that they are spending on PR, and the lobbyists they are paying to interfere in state governance, and on top of their other problems, they’ll probably soon be having financial difficulties as well.  Their finances have to be made public, and you can expect me to report on that here very soon. 

I keep hoping that Ms. Feeley or one of the other board members will respond to my blog–I’ve invited them on more than one occasion–to explain themselves and offer some reasonable rationale for their actions, but they’ve never taken me up on it.  I don’t expect they’ll respond to this one, either, but of course they are welcome to.

Peace & Prosperity,

Laura Allen