Continuing education guide

Is My Course NCBTMB Eligible?

Before you apply to teach at WMF, check your class topic against NCBTMB's acceptable and unacceptable course content guidelines.

The guidelines

What counts, and what does not

Acceptable Course Content

Massage modalities, techniques and manual forces

  • Applications of massage and bodywork therapy for specific needs, conditions, or client populations
  • Use of massage therapy tools and their specific needs
  • Working with the muscles within the oral cavity for specific treatments
  • Use of external agents such as water, heat, cold, or topicals
  • Energy work that includes professional therapeutic hands-on applications

Applied sciences

  • Anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology beyond core massage school curriculum
  • Pathology beyond core massage school curriculum
  • Body-centered or somatic psychology
  • Psychophysiology
  • Theory or practice of ergonomic science as applied to therapist or client
  • Advanced science courses that go beyond the massage therapist's scope of practice and help explain body systems in more depth
  • Hygiene, infectious disease control, and organization and management of the treatment environment
  • Research literacy
  • Self-care Max 4 CEs
    • Nutrition or diet, only as it enhances knowledge of massage therapy practice
    • Yoga or yoga teacher training (therapist's self-care only)
    • Active strengthening or physical training (therapist's self-care only)

Professional communications

  • Strategies for communicating and collaborating with care providers
  • Interpersonal skills, including communication, boundaries, transference, counter-transference, and projection

Laws and business practices

  • State laws
  • Marketing for massage and bodywork therapy practices

Professionalism and ethics

  • Standards of practice and professional ethics

Assessment

  • Client assessment protocols
  • Client record keeping

No acceptable topics match that search.

Unacceptable Course Content

Core and medical scope

  • Core curriculum content: basic anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, pathology, and Swedish massage
  • Allopathic-based diagnosis of clinical conditions
  • Implementation of allopathic medical or surgical procedures
  • Physically invasive modalities such as ear candles, intra-anal, or intra-vaginal work
  • Chiropractic or osteopathic techniques (ballistic, thrust oriented) and any service needing extra licensure, such as Yoga or Pilates Instructor Certification, Physical Therapy, Personal Training, or Weight Training
  • Prescribing herbs, nutritional supplements, or pharmaceuticals
  • Psychological counseling
  • Dry needling and acupuncture
  • Breaking or removing tissue from the body
  • CPR and First Aid

Devices, aesthetics and fire

  • Hypnosis
  • Aesthetician facials or exfoliation of cells from the body
  • Electrical stimulation, electrical devices on clients, or ultrasound of any kind
  • Light therapy in any form
  • Fire cupping or any procedure that works with fire
  • Moxibustion
  • Tongue reading

Energy, spiritual and movement practices

  • Energy work without professional therapeutic hands-on applications
  • Limited hands-on contact, guided meditation, clearing energy blockages, spiritual guidance, or similar energy healing (for example Holy Fire Reiki, Integrated Energy Therapy, Access Bars, Healing Touch)
  • Aura techniques
  • Crystal healing
  • Psychic, clairvoyance, telepathic, astrology, or religious practices
  • Qi Gong or Tai Chi

Course design issues

  • Courses based on use of specific products
  • Misleading or unclear modality titles (add a description to the title if the topic is not obvious)
  • Breast massage Conditional
    • Accepted only as part of physician-prescribed medical procedures, when it meets state board requirements, or when learning about oncology (breast cancer procedures)

No unacceptable topics match that search.

Rules instructors miss

Three things to check before you submit

  • Self-care is capped at 4 CEs

    NCBTMB accepts only four self-care CEs per renewal period, and self-care is not required. Every self-care course must state this 4 CE limit when it is promoted.

  • Self-care exceptions are narrow

    Yoga, yoga teacher training, and active strengthening or physical training only qualify when the course is designed and titled strictly for the therapist's own self-care, not for teaching others or working on clients.

  • It has to be advanced

    Anything covered in entry-level massage training does not count. Continuing education must be advanced, with more specific approaches.

Good to know

The fine print

NCBTMB may reject any course that does not follow federal law and regulation, puts participants or instructors at risk, or lacks sufficient research support.

Therapists are responsible for confirming that course content falls within their own state or local scope of practice. Finishing a course earns a Certificate of Completion or Achievement from the Approved Provider. It does not make a participant certified in that topic, and real proficiency takes more training.

For course categories and advanced science courses, download the Continuing Education Course Categories and Advanced Science Course Forms from the NCBTMB website. State CE rules vary, so also confirm with your state or provincial licensing board.

Source: NCBTMB, Acceptable & Unacceptable Course Content, last updated October 14, 2024. NCBTMB content is subject to change, so always check the official page for the current version. Questions: NCBTMB at 1-800-296-0664.

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