The Thinking Practitioner

🎙 The Interstate Massage Compact (with Deborah Persinger)

Deborah Persinger is the Executive Director of the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB), and she joins Whitney on The Thinking Practitioner to break down one of the most significant regulatory developments in our profession’s history: the Interstate Massage Compact.

If you’ve ever moved to a new state and had to navigate a whole new set of licensing requirements — or if you live near a state border and can’t legally work on the other side — this episode is for you. The compact would create a multi-state license allowing eligible massage therapists to practice across state lines without meeting separate requirements in each state. It’s already been adopted by five states, with two more needed to stand up the commission and make the license a reality.

But there’s more at stake than portability. Deborah explains how the compact was carefully designed to address human trafficking in the massage profession — a daily reality for regulatory boards — and why the details of how the compact is written matter enormously for keeping bad actors out while making life easier for legitimate practitioners.

✨ Topics discussed include: Whitney and Deborah walk through the compact’s origins, the 625-hour education standard, the role of the Department of Defense, and the current obstacles to getting it across the finish line.

• What the Interstate Massage Compact is — and how multi-state licensing works
• The 625-hour education standard: where it came from and why it was chosen
• Home state vs. remote state — how the compact defines where you practice
• Why the Department of Defense supports the compact (military family portability)
• The five states that have adopted so far: Nevada, Ohio, Arkansas, Virginia, and Montana
• Human trafficking provisions unique to the massage compact
• The national massage therapy licensing database and its role in tracking bad actors
• Over 20,000 illicit massage businesses in the U.S. — and why that matters for compact design
• Rule vs. statute: the key disagreement holding things up
• Why 97–98% of surveyed practitioners support the original compact
• What individual practitioners can do to stay informed and have their voice heard

✨ Resources:
• Interstate Massage Compact: https://www.massagecompact.org
• Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB): https://www.fsmtb.org
• Massage Compact Practitioner Survey: https://www.massagecompact.org

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• Academy of Clinical Massage – Grab Whitney’s free Assessment Cheat Sheet at https://academyofclinicalmassage.com/cheatsheet

✨ Watch the video / connect with us:
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AdvancedTrainings/podcasts
• Til Luchau – https://advanced-trainings.com | https://facebook.com/advancedtrainings | https://instagram.com/til.luchau
• Whitney Lowe – https://academyofclinicalmassage.com | https://facebook.com/WhitneyLowe | https://twitter.com/whitneylowe

📧 Email us: info@thethinkingpractitioner.com

The Thinking Practitioner Podcast is intended for professional practitioners of manual and movement therapies — bodywork, massage therapy, structural integration, physical therapy, osteopathy, and similar professions. It is not medical or treatment advice.