Continuing education is intended to support professional and clinical growth and, yes, to ensure public safety. In the massage profession, the continuing education landscape is a flea market. If you’re willing to dig through the bins or ask to see “what’s in the back,” you may get lucky and find something truly valuable and evidence-based, and that results in new learning, integration of new skills, and perhaps even competency in a new technique. If you don’t have the time or don’t know what to look for, chances are you’ll take what you can get and never know if there’s something better.
Continuing education is an important way for us to get real and professional. Let’s look at two definitions from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Certification
A certification is a credential awarded by a certifying body based on an individual demonstrating through an examination process that [they have] acquired the designated knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform a specific job. The examination can be either written, oral, or performance-based. Certification is a time-limited credential that is renewed through a recertification process.¹
Educational Certificate
An educational certificate is a credential awarded by an educational institution based on completion of all requirements for a program of study, including coursework and test or other performance evaluations. Certificates are typically awarded for life (like a degree). Certificates of attendance or participation in a short-term training (e.g., one day) are not in the definitional scope for educational certificates.²
Please note that certification is time-limited. It is only valid for a specified amount of time and to maintain it, you must re-test and/or demonstrate ongoing competency as measured by the certifying body.
For educational certificates, a test and a performance evaluation are still expected, but I want to draw your attention to the last sentence of its definition: “Certificates of attendance or participation in a short-term training are not in the definitional scope for educational certificates.” That means that massage therapy continuing education courses often don’t pass muster for a simple educational certificate.
Generally, continuing education courses offer a certificate that says you were in the seat for a requisite number of hours while a qualified person shared information and/or techniques with you. The certificate does not attest to your performance or comprehension, nor should it be understood as the end of the road in learning or maintaining the skill or information that was shared.
Let me be clear: There is merit in taking short (one-day, two-day, six-day) courses to learn and expose yourself to certain approaches, techniques, and information. There is equal merit in determining that your investment is a worthy one. Be honest with yourself and with your clients about whether what you learned has materially improved or changed what you offer.
How to Critically Think About CE
Both providers and massage therapists have a responsibility in shaping the CE landscape.
If you are a CE provider:
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Don’t market what you’re offering as “certification” when it’s not.
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Be honest with yourself and your students. A love for a topic does not qualify you to teach it. Teaching is a unique skill in itself. Being amazing at or interested in something doesn’t make you excellent at teaching it.
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Understand that neither the National Certification Board for Therapuetic Massage & Bodywork nor the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards has the infrastructure to vet every provider’s qualifications and what they’re teaching, or ensure that a provider’s course will confer real value to their students. It’s on you as an educator to understand your own motives and qualifications.
If you are a CE consumer:
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Do your homework. What is the instructor’s background? Are they qualified to teach this subject or technique? (Note: Being trained in a technique or subject does not qualify a person to teach it.)
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Understand how you learn best. Reach out to the instructor and ask any questions you have about how the course is structured. Will this course meet your needs and provide you with accessible, valuable skills and knowledge?
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If a course says it will teach you how to work with a special condition or specific population, you should have direct access to actual humans with that condition or who are members of that population during the class, unless it’s a survey course.
When we spend our time and money on courses that don’t truly cultivate skill and competency and then we tell our clients that we are offering something new, we are trading on the lack of education that most massage consumers possess. At best, this isn’t doing our profession any favors; at worst, it’s unethical.
When CE providers offer courses that are poorly designed, poorly executed, or marketed in a disingenuous way, we all lose. Let’s respect ourselves and our fellow massage therapists. Let’s offer honest, evidence-based courses that lift up the profession and prepare us to fully and skillfully inhabit the breadth of this beautiful discipline we call massage therapy.
Notes
1. National Center for Education Statistics, “Working Definitions of Non-Degree Credentials,” accessed October 1, 2024, https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/gemena/definitions.asp.
2. National Center for Education Statistics, “Working Definitions of Non-Degree Credentials.”
