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We’ve all felt the frustration. How can we make therapeutic massage accessible? On top of that, how can we do that while maintaining professional value and sustainability? Many well-intentioned practitioners turn to volunteerism as a solution, offering free services at community events, for hospital staff, at health fairs, and just about anywhere else we’re invited.

While this impulse comes from a genuine desire to help, massage therapy volunteerism may actually perpetuate the very systemic problems it seeks to address. Bonus: it artificially depresses the entire profession’s worth. It's like a coordinated effort to undermine ourselves, except nobody planned it.

The solution to massage therapy access issues doesn’t lie in an increase in free services. It lies in reframing massage therapy as a public health necessity rather than a luxury service.

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