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Here is an interesting discussion on turf wars from Massage Therapy:

Read subsequent discussion here.

 

I was a deep tissue/myofascial technique massage therapist (hospital, home office and integrated practice) for 14 years. California, to my knowledge, does not have a state license to define nor defend the practice of massage therapy. It is a vast expanse of land and money where one can hang a shingle with the minimum of training, though to credit the general public, those "practitioners" don't last long in the trade. There is no way to define the practice of massage for a state without a licensing board, whether or not it restricts one's definitions. In my home state of NC, the physical therapist lobbyists, funded by insurance payment and MD association, made it impossible for massage therapists to form a state board in NC until 2000. We fought them for 9 years in order to gain autonomy. I helped do that and I'm proud of it, but like the nursing board has control of massage therapists in VA, I think it's idiotic for another profession to attempt to regulate what they consider to be an "aspect" of their own profession. I don't recall pretending to be a nurse in my practice, nor do I remember my mother, a nurse for 37 years, complaining about all of the massage she had to do in the ICU. None, to wit.

I am a chiropractic student, now, with a BA in lit, a BS (conc. in human biology and human osteology), a massage career behind me and an interest in foot health. I'm also about to turn 40 so I'm quite a bit older than my fellow students and my interests are, thank God, different from theirs. I looked into podiatry school, but as a chiropractor I will feel more comfortable if I decide to teach gross anatomy. I'm enjoying the other forums, however am disturbed to see derogatory remarks about chiropractic on this site. Were it not for the mention of podiatry in the articles, one might think he was reading a chiropractic page - we seem to have many of the same identity issues as specialists and are likewise regarded askance by the medical community. I chose chiropractic because I do not care to deliver a baby, cure strep infections, nor repair hernias. I do like to restructure. I am not a surgeon. I can read an ECG and perform neurological assessments. I do not correct a deviated septum. I do adjust the cuboid. Do you see? We are specialists, as was pointed out about podiatrists in a previous post, like ophthalmologists, like podiatrists, like the most highly trained technician in the world, perhaps -the dentist! Persistence will see each of our professions through.
~and now back to paretic gait analysis...