Massage Therapy Foundation

Massage Therapy Foundation

The Massage Therapy Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, public charity that promotes research, community service and education in the field of therapeutic massage and bodywork.

Foundation mission: The Massage Therapy Foundation advances the knowledge and practice of massage therapy by supporting scientific research, education and community service. Each year, the Foundation awards grants to promising researchers and to practitioners partnering with community service organizations to bring massage to those in need.

Foundation goals:

• Strive to make massage therapy accessible to the broadest spectrum of society.
• Support well-designed research AbOUT massage therapy.
• Help the massage therapy community to become research literate.
• Provide an online source of current research findings of importance to the massage therapy community, health care professionals and the general public.

In 2005 the Massage Therapy Foundation embarked on several new initiatives - the most EXCITING and challenging being the Highlighting Massage Therapy in CAM Research Conference. This conference was the first of its kind to be held in the United States. The Foundation received a $30,000 grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to help support this event.

Nearly 200 massage therapists, researchers, educators and healthcare professionals traveled from 35 states and 6 countries to Albuquerque, NM for this research conference. Thirty three conference presenters shared their knowledge and their most recent research findings that advance the understanding of therapeutic massage and bodywork - and did so at their own expense. The Foundation Officers, Staff, Board and Committee members spent over four years strategizing, organizing and coordinating this first massage therapy research conference to be held in the United States.

In addition, in 2005, the Foundation officially launched the Student Case Report Contest.

All efforts and initiatives of the Massage Therapy Foundation are made possible by charitable donations.