About Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals

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Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP) serves the massage, bodywork, somatic therapy and esthetic professions. ABMP is a professional membership association devoted to promoting ethical practices, fostering acceptance of the professions and protecting the rights of legitimate massage, bodywork and esthetic practitioners. (Massage therapy is used throughout this site to describe the whole of massage, bodywork, and somatic therapies.) ABMP competes effectively for members by providing the best value and most responsive, knowledgeable service. Our business philosophy is summed up by our credo: expect more.

ABMT is an acronym for Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals.

Why We’re Here

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Massage rapidly gains converts and social acceptance each year and is now a therapeutic leader in the burgeoning field of alternative therapies. More than 240,000 trained therapists provide massage and bodywork in the United States. Another 144,000 actively practice skin care. More than 1,500 state-approved schools provide massage and bodywork training. Consumers receive more than 120 million massage sessions annually, for which they pay more than $5 billion. Though a growing number of therapists work in spas, salons, health clubs and chiropractic and medical offices, a majority still are independent proprietors.

ABMP History

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In 1987, ABMP was founded by Sherri Williamson to provide massage and bodywork practitioners with an effective service organization. Started out of her home, ABMP outgrew three different offices in six years. In April 1996, ABMP was sold to a group of four people who now comprise the core of the company’s management team. In early 2006, more than 57,000 practitioners belong to ABMP.

We were not the first massage membership association in the United States. Indeed, we began a full 44 years after the industry’s first professional organization, the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), was founded. AMTA’s worthwhile focus during the past 10 years has been the recognition of massage therapy by the medical profession, opening the door to respect for practitioners and eligibility for reimbursement by health insurance companies.

Why We Are Different

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There was a market need among practitioners for wider acceptance and support of a broader array of massage, bodywork and somatic modalities — to keep abreast of new theory and practice ideas, to learn how to market their services, to build working relationships with professionals in allied fields and to protect their investment in training by having appropriate liability insurance protection. Partly because leaders of some of the newer modalities saw their specialty as not fitting under the traditional massage banner, ABMP, in its early years, took positions opposing the creation of new state licensing standards and questioning the value of practitioner certification in the context of particular standards, procedures and fee structures being proposed. ABMP was, however, consistently encouraging to schools working to upgrade their curricula.

Additionally, a need was felt among the practitioner community to have its concerns addressed as part-time service providers. For many years, AMTA tried to keep focused on practitioners occupied full time in their field, believing that image was important to gaining acceptance in the medical profession, even though most of the members did not fit that full-time profile. (The majority of U.S. practitioners — and even of AMTA members — devote fewer than 20 hours a week to massage. Many have other part-time work, creating a unique set of needs in promoting and conducting their businesses.) By contrast, ABMP, from its beginning, worked to promote respect for all massage therapists regardless of their respective choice of working hours or form of practice.

ABMP also works to support the diversity of massage and bodywork, encouraging acceptance of massage by other healthcare practitioners, while remembering that massage is about ‘heart and art’ as well as science. We advocate choice — for individuals selecting training institutions, for schools designing curriculum and deciding whether to seek accreditation and from whom, for practitioners in shaping their practice parameters, and for consumers in having a wide variety of practitioners from whom to select a therapist matching their needs and preferences.

ABMP Grows to Largest Membership Association for Massage/Bodywork Professionals Despite our 44-year later start, ABMP has grown to more than 57,000 members and now is the country’s largest massage membership organization. We believe our membership growth reflects our ability to connect with member needs and to quickly develop high-quality products and services that meet those needs.

Also a promising sign — 57 percent of respondents answered “ABMP” when asked, “Which association best serves the interests of its membership and the profession?” (The second-place association received only 15 percent of the votes — June 2001 poll conducted by Massage Today). Though more recent independent polls have not been taken, it’s a reasonable presumption ABMP’s more rapid membership growth than AMTA’s in the subsequent five years reflects a continuing perceived difference.

With the emergence of a growing spa industry and its partnering of skin care services with massage therapy, an increasing number of our members are becoming dual-licensed. ABMP is accommodating their needs by also offering insurance for skin care professionals. The result is peace of mind for professionals with multiple talents.

Leadership continuity, quick decision-making, a strong service ethic, an appealing lack of bureaucracy and an attitude of openness to new ideas and somatic modalities allow ABMP to live up to its “expect more” promise. Some prime examples:

Responsive Committed Staff It is our staff members who animate our beliefs and commitment, who actually deliver prompt, responsive service to each member. ABMP has been fortunate to attract a warm, enthusiastic staff that embraces service to our members and enjoys working in the foothills community of Evergreen, Colo. We pledge to our members that they will talk with a real person or receive a callback within an hour from someone 90 percent of the time they call our toll-free number during normal business hours.

Customer Service is our Reason for Being From the first day they join ABMP, staff members are apprised of the high standards they are expected to meet in working with our customers — ABMP members. As part of their orientation, they are briefed on the importance of handling member concerns and questions competently, quickly, respectfully and with pride. Teamwork is an important part of the ABMP culture, and we actively solicit ideas from staff on how we can do better in serving our customers and working productively together. In this sense, we believe our culture matches the essential nature of the profession we serve — high-touch, positive and humane.

Employee Ownership ABMP is owned directly by 24 individuals, each of who works for the organization, and indirectly by all other staff members, who are afforded an opportunity to own shares of ABMP after completing a base period of service.

Lean Centralized Operation We believe our lean organizational form offers advantages in being able to make decisions quickly, to be within earshot of our members at all times and to respond aggressively to an opportunity or a challenge to the profession.

The above information is reprinted from ABMP's "Media Corner." In most cases, ABMP does not require prior copyright permission for Media Corner articles.