Q:Please define the terms "bodywork" and "body worker"? Are they regulated?

A:"Bodywork" refers to any specialized body therapy. Many of these therapies aren't message, so it's handy to just call them "bodywork". It 's a truly big category. My trade manual lists over 100 types of therapy available from "acrosage" to "zero balancing".

Q:Who is the Body Worker?

A:The Person doing this wonderful work is often licensed as a massage therapist. For some, massage is a big part of they do in their work and the name fits. Others may find it limiting or misrepresentative of what they do. You're not gong to get massage from someone who only does cranio-sacral therapy, though you may receive something wonderful that you didn't expect. So, those more encompassing concepts, "bodywork" and "body worker", with their vagueness, offer an alternative to the more specific category of "massage".

Q:Is this Massage Too?

A:Some therapists also may want to distance themselves from the word "massage" because of the baggage that clings to the profession from massage parlors. I saw two of these images in the media recently. First, there was Kurt Russell exiting a Tokyo Massage "parlor", while the tabloid proclaimed guilt and marital problems.

That same evening on Boston Hope, a female calling herself a massage therapist was apparently doing some reflexology on a man's ears while he was dining at a restaurant. Instead of using her fingertips as it's usually done, she was using her lips and teeth. Of course, it's easy not to take the media too seriously. Hey, that's entertainment.

Q:How Do Regulations Vary?

A:Regulation of the massage profession varies across the country, with 29 states and the District of Columbia having statewide regulation. Throughout the rest of the country, laws are set by city and county regulations.

The typical training time required is 500 hours, though the range is from 100 to 1000 hours.

Subjects covered in training include: anatomy, physiology, techniques, business, ethics, medical considerations, lots of hands-on practice and much more. Massage school is a great experience, whether it becomes a career or not.