Ohio Massage Therapy Licensure

As of January 2012, the State of Ohio Medical Board, which licenses a person to practice massage therapy, will be accepting the Massage & Bodywork Licensing Exam (MBLEx) developed by the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, as its "credential" for practicing in the state. It will actually be a two-step process. First, a person will have to apply to take the exam. It costs $195. Secondly, after passing the exam, the applicant will have to apply to the State of Ohio Medical Board for licensing. This fee will be an additional $150.

Currently, the MBLEx is a licensing exam that is recognized in approximately 30 states and the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. It should not be confused with the National Certification Exam for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork that is offered by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (NCBTMB). Passage of the MBLEx exam will permit a person who desires to practice massage in Ohio to APPLY for licensure. The NCBTMB exam will not.

If you are preparing for the MBLEx, you will find that there will be 125 multiple choice questions and you will have 140 minutes to complete the exam. The exam is taken at a PearsonVue testing center and you register to take it based on your available days/times. Twenty-five percent of the questions will be on basic anatomy and physiology content, 13% on pathology, 5% on history of massage, 10% on professional practice, 13% on ethics, and 34% on massage techniques, client treatment plans, etc. You receive your results upon completing the exam.

After passing this exam, you will apply to the State of Ohio Medical Board for a license. The application, once completed and money paid, will take about 10-12 weeks to process.

For more information about the MBLEx, go to http://www.fsmtb.org/index.html

The usual procedure for licensure as a massage therapist in Ohio has been to "sit" for a paper-and-pencil test either in December or June of each year. There have been two sections of this test, one for Basic Science and the other for Limited Branch (massage). If a person did not pass either section, they were not granted a license to practice. If a person did not pass either part of this exam after three attempts, they were required to get additional "schooling", what was known as a certificate of competency. Only after passing each exam part was the person granted a license to practice in Ohio.

For more information about the State of Ohio Massage Therapy licensure, go to http://www.med.ohio.gov/mt_about_massage_therapy.htm