The CAMCT Certification regulation has been problematic for several reasons. Two of those reasons include:
1. Practicing massage therapists who've been working in the industry for 10+ years have already many more than 500 hours of massage experience; however, in order for them to legitimately practice their trade now, they must return to school and pay $8,000-$16,000 just to get a certificate stating what they already have achieved. Many experienced therapists are now having to leave the profession altogether because they can't afford to go back to school or to only work in cities that haven't yet implemented the regulation—which are becoming less and less. Unfortunately, many of these therapists are also women* and often times single mothers. Thus, it's effectively putting people out of work.
2. The new regulation is also problematic for legitimate spas in being able to hire enough massage therapists who hold this new CAMTC Certification. For any City, like Paso Robles, that has chosen to implement it, spas have no choice but to hire individuals from the state-approved massage schools with the CAMTC Certification. And yet, there is only one massage school in the San Luis Obispo County. Even though it is a good school, due to their limited capacity, they graduate less than 20 people per year. This is not enough for the demand among spas that are needed in our County alone. Additionally, this new regulation translates in to forcing spas to hire therapists who are recently graduated and often less experienced than therapists who have been working 10+ years but who don't carry the new CAMTC Certification title. Most people want experienced therapists working on them because it tends to be a much better overall massage when someone knows what s/he is doing.
We demand that Paso Robles withdraw their support of the CAMTC Certification until the State either end or modify the CAMTC Certification to be more fair or allow massage therapists who had received schooling from a 200 hr program in the past and had continuing education credits to get grandfathered in, as many were never informed.
