Massage therapists taking themselves way too serious?

[Arroz con pollo]

I am a massage therapist, 5 1/2 years' experience, many long term professional relationships (clients), take my work very seriously, myself not so much. I belong to several professional groups to discuss our business, and I'm running across soooo many taking themselves waaaay too seriously, and displaying "my shyt don't stink, but yours needs to be dealt with" attitudes that I'm not at all comfortable with. Mostly it seems to come from people who have been doing massage for 10+ years. Even getting political about various massage issues. I'm curious where the heck the aggressive attitudes come from, in a profession that's supposed to be about providing healing. And taking tasks on themselves, I'm not comfortable assuming. Clients come to me telling me things about therapists giving medical diagnoses and advice? Please? Get the 8 years' education, THEN be doing this? One therapist even discussing ways to prosecute people who practice w/o a license, and preaching they should be "properly qualified", and he had to suffer through it and pay $$, then so should they. But this same idiot started when he only had to put in 100 hours and pay some little fee. Ok, regulation is good and bad, but that's not my point. I just wish I could find a good group of therapists to develop a professional relationship with, online or off, who were entirely professional, but didn't act like wannabe doctors who didn't finish training.

 

[CHRISTINE S]

From my experience therapists are a strange bunch of people.

Most of them seem to come from an injured past.

They seem to feed their own egos from eating (psychologically) their clients.

They also seem to be people who are unable to fit into the normal life graph.

 

[Lightning]

I am Inclined to agree that Massage therapist do sometimes have a tendency to big their profession up and their knowledge. However i do support regulation its good for the profession and the public.

A definition of competence is working within the boundaries of your knowledge abilities. if you step outside this you are getting into deep water.
I have had suitable training in musculoskeltal conditions and can diagnose many of these quite well.
I was also trained to listen to hearts and lungs etc but i wouldn't diagnose a heart murmur or emphysema for example because Although i would recognise the sounds weren't normal it isn't my place to make a formal diagnosis so I would refer them on to someone suitably qualified.

Massage therapists should do the same. Unless they are suitably trained in Neuro and Orthopaedic tests or other Specialisms in medicine they shouldn't be diagnosing