The Massage Therapy Foundation: Focus on Education

KEYWORDS: Massage therapy education, distance learning Greetings, esteemed reader. I have been graciously invited by Executive Editor Dr. Glenn M. Hymel to offer a guest editorial, and he has invited me to speak to one of my favorite topics: education in the massage therapy profession. The Massage Therapy Foundation, as most readers probably know, is dedicated to advancing our profession through scientific research, education, and community service. Publishing the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (IJTMB) is arguably the largest-scale project that the Massage Therapy Foundation has ever undertaken—in terms both of long-term financial commitment and the jour-nal's potential to influence massage and bodywork communities now and in the future. It is my very great honor to contribute to these electronic pages a few thoughts about how the Massage Therapy Foundation and the IJTMB might continue to grow and flourish. was by far the richest and most fully realized issue in the journal's short history, with lively and useful articles in every section. I expect that the volume and value of content will only increase as content from the Foundation's 2010 Highlighting Massage Therapy in CIM Research conference becomes available, and as the IJTMB moves toward being indexed in more research databases (which of course makes it more attractive to contributors). It is an amazing feeling to see the realization of a vision that is generational in scope: the students of the students of our students today will be grateful for the archives of the IJTMB. I joined the Massage Therapy Foundation Board of Trustees in 2007 as a somewhat pie-eyed new trustee and chair of the Education committee. I was given not only freedom, but enthusiastic encouragement to develop a vision for what the Foundation's Education committee could be and do for the profession. Because I came to this position as a teacher with a long history in both core and continuing education classrooms, I carried a certain point of view about what I would like to see the Foundation do in the context of its commitment to education as an avenue to advance the profession. I am now the president of the Massage Therapy Foundation , and my passion for developing strategies and support systems for massage therapy education is unabated. I believe that the future of our profession depends on the seeds of skills that are sown in the classroom, and that massage therapy educators may …