There are massage laws in Georgia that prohibit people from practicing as a massage therapist unless they have completed 500 hours of training at a government regulated massage school. We actually used to hold our massage classes in Atlanta before they introduced these insane regulations. We don't agree with these regulations and Brandon Raynor, the President of the International Natural Therapies Association is currently travelling around the United States speaking out against these massage laws that prohibit people from practicing the various art forms of massage unless they are registered with a state board and undergo one philosophical approach to massage training. It's like a music school regulating that nobody can practice playing a guitar unless they attend their music school first. No other musicians can practice in that state. It's a great way for a few massage schools in Georgia to make a lot of money by forcing students to have more training than is actually required, thereby making the schools more income.

Massage has its origins in many cultures of the world such as Thailand, Hawaii, Japan, China, Turkey, Nepal and India just to name a few. Each of these cultures has a different approach to massage training and massage therapy. The people of Georgia would best be served by people having access to all these different therapies as well as new and innovative therapies such as Raynor massage that draw upon all these different approaches. A massage board that dictates that only one philosophy of training is the right one merely restricts innovation and creativity and reduces the freedom to choose a health practitioner for the people of Georgia.

It is also very wrong that troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder don't have the ability to access the best forms of therapy to help them with their conditions. The bureaucrats that are stopping massage therapists trained in Raynor massage and other forms of massage therapy should be ashamed that they are not doing what they can to offer internationally acclaimed therapies that are the best for stress to our returning soldiers.

For more details of Brandon Raynor's attempts to deregulate massage laws across the US and to promote good massage therapy to help our troops please see www.thefreedomride.org