NJ Bills Propose New Licensure Qualifications and Energy Work Exemption

Recently introduced NJ Assembly Bill 3469 and identical NJ Senate Bill 1608 propose to make two important changes to New Jersey’s massage therapy licensing law. The current massage law requires that license applicants have either completed 500 educational hours in a massage program or passed a national massage exam.  The new bills propose to require that applicants have completed 500 educational hours in a massage program and passed a national massage exam.  This would apply to people applying for a license for the first time, not to people who already have a license. The bills would also add new exemption language for energy work.  Specifically, the bills would exempt from the state licensure requirement any person who practices “techniques that involve structured touch or resting hands on the surface of the client’s body to affect the energy fields of the body, without delivering pressure or manipulating soft tissue, while the client is fully clothed.” The bills are in the very initial stages of the legislative process. We will keep our members informed of the progress of these bills.