We Get Letters: Separation of State, the Two Types of Massage

By Editorial Staff
January 30, 2018

We Get Letters: Separation of State, the Two Types of Massage

By Editorial Staff
January 30, 2018

Editor's Note: Although this letter indicates that "Asian bodyworkers" are exempt from licensing, they are not. The mention of "Asian bodywork" in this case refers to Asian-type massage being performed at other establishments.


My name is Sarah DeMar and I'm a state-licensed therapist owning and operating a business in Novi, Michigan. For 15 years I have fought with my city government regarding public perception of massage and the resulting licenses which have accompanied those prejudices. This year, I finally won. Sort-of. I won 80 percent and even though I'm a 100-percent-kind-of-individual, I will call it a win.

After the state took over therapist licensing, Novi and other communities in Michigan kept the Massage Therapy Business License and extracted $250 per year for administrative costs, criminal background checks and bogus inspections of tiny, rented offices. I wrote my city a letter in October 2017 regarding the bogus inspections and followed it up with a speech at a recent City Council meeting regarding the following:

There is now a separation at the state level between massage therapists and Asian massage bodyworkers. MTs are trained, licensed and insured while Asian bodyworkers are exempt from licensing. I believe this is due to the efforts put forth by the trucking industry because along Interstate 94, there are several billboards advertising "Asian Massage," which I believe that truckers and other similar motorists tend to patronize for sexual purposes. If the state did not exempt Asian massage the billboards would have to be changed or the sex-workers would need to go to a certified massage school for training. This would not work for either industry. Therefore, an exemption had to be made.

This had unintended consequences on the massage therapy industry that can be considered detrimental and dangerous. When forced to define "Asian massage" in state licensure, lawmakers targeted legitimate and effective modalities that originated in Asia such as Thai, Shiatsu and Reiki. Thai massage, for instance, can be very aggressive with intense stretches and the usage of feet and knees for added leverage.

This is not a modality that should be practiced by untrained, uninsured or unlicensed bodyworkers. This can actually be dangerous to public safety, which is the exact opposite of what the therapist licensing law tries to achieve. In fact, massage schools no longer offer these modalities as supervised weekend courses because they do not count toward graduation requirements. This is a severe injustice to some very good massage modalities.

Back to the city license. I pointed out to the city council that the state now differentiates between licensed massage therapists and Asian massage bodyworkers and so too must the city. By naming the business license the "Massage Therapy Business License," the city is effectively exempting Asian massage establishments operating within city limits from having to apply for a business license, while at the same time double licensing legitimate businesses. There needs to be two separate business licenses. The Massage Therapy Business License should have far less restrictions and scrutiny, while the Asian Massage Bodywork License would have far more scrutiny and fees.

The point of the matter is that the state says we are different from unlicensed bodyworkers and thus, all of Michigan's City Business License must reflect this separation by creating two separate licenses as well, or at least eliminating the Massage Therapy Business License and apply the requirement for a business license only to Asian massage.

This is the platform we must now fight from. Novi reduced our yearly fees from $250 to $50 and has not yet drafted separate business licenses but I feel that they must. We need to educate and mobilize the massage community to demand similar action of any municipal government who requires business licenses and fees for massage therapy businesses. We should not have the same guidelines for businesses which employ unlicensed bodyworkers and we need to make our city governments understand that they must separate us just as the state has separated us.

Finally, we should revamp our state license language. I have a Chinese client who takes great offense to the legal usage of Asian in relation to unlicensed massage for sexual purposes. The law is discriminatory toward Thai, Shiatsu, Reiki and similar modalities while endangering the public by exempting them from training and legitimacy.

We are at a juncture in time where we should demand that the usage of "massage" to mask sexual activities be deemed illegal.  We must demand total separation. We need to think of a new phrase to apply to establishments which offer sexual activities which does not denigrate the honorable Asian culture or our upstanding massage industry.

Fierce proponent for justice,
Sarah DeMar, LMT
Novi, Michigan


Editor's Note: Sarah DeMar is a University of Michigan Alum and the owner of Ivy Garden Therapeutic Massage.