These attitudes arise because over time massage, human trafficking, and prostitution have become entangled. The knee-jerk reaction has been to regulate our profession through establishment licensing as an attempt to regulate it out of our profession.
It’s a solution that does not work. In fact, putting such language into law actually links our profession with illicit and illegal activities, rather than separating us from them.
Singling out our profession for regulation, which represents a small part of the entire human trafficking problem (roughly 4.5% to 6%), makes our profession responsible for addressing the problem, rather than acknowledging us as a healthcare profession that is also a victim of the problem. We don’t see these kinds of regulations being instituted for hotels or in the construction and food service industries, which are just a few of the places where human trafficking occurs.
Yet, this type of regulation is popping up everywhere. We see it showing up in Facebook groups, but we certainly don’t see any comprehensive articles in the trade journals. A small mention here or there, but otherwise: Zero, zip.
This lack of information leaves therapists to fend for themselves and form their own opinions about how the issue should be addressed. Yes, the two national organizations, ABMP and AMTA have stated very clearly that the massage therapy profession should not be “responsible for ending human trafficking.” But anti-trafficking groups, like Polaris, have seized the narrative and are educating therapists to buy into the idea that we should submit to regulation to help trafficking victims. After all, we’re a helping profession aren’t we?