As patient and practice delivery needs grow more complex, understanding where massage therapy fits within healthcare can help guide research, education, and practice. Drawing on evidence and professional experience, hear from three leading massage therapy practice and research experts as they examine how massage therapy aligns with public health, rehabilitation, and palliative care, and what each perspective offers to support continued integration into healthcare.
The Massage Therapy Foundation’s International Massage Therapy Research Conferences (IMTRC) are designed to bring together an engaged massage therapy-focused community of thought leaders, educators, clinicians, and researchers as well as other allied health practitioners to discuss recently completed and ongoing massage therapy research. This session was originally presented at IMTRC 2025. For more information, please visit the Massage Therapy Foundation.
At the conclusions of this session, attendees will be able to:
- Learn about the importance of Palliative Care
- Learn about the importance of Rehabilitation Care
- Learn about the importance of Public Health
- Learn about the integration of all pillars
Niki Munk, PhD, LMT, is Chair and Associate Professor of Health Sciences in Indiana University’s School of Health & Human Sciences in Indianapolis, a long term Massage Therapy Foundation Trustee (since 2018) and volunteer (since 2012), a non-practicing Kentucky licensed massage therapist, and founding steering committee member for the Indiana Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health.
Cal Cates, LMT, is the founder and Executive Director of Healwell, an Arlington, VA-based organization that provides massage therapy for people affected by illness. Healwell teaches massage therapists how to provide care safely and effectively and it advocates for access to that care as well as for a broader role for massage therapists in healthcare.
Ann Blair Kennedy, LMT, BCTMB, DrPH (they/she), has been a massage therapist for over 25 years and is an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. They also hold an appointment in the Department of Family Medicine at Prisma Health. She is also the Director of the University of South Carolina Patient Engagement Studio where they aim to advance health and research outcomes by bringing together patients, community partners, physicians, and researchers to produce meaningful research and innovation that serves the patients.
Course Expiration
Please note that you must complete each AMTA online learning course and pass the exam one year from the date of purchase. If you do not complete the course and pass the exam within one year, you will be required to re-purchase the course.
Online courses expire one year from the date of purchase. When a course expires, you will no longer have access to the course materials and will be required to re-purchase the course.
Course Approval Code(s)
LCEU0004843
Copyright
This course contains information that is proprietary. None of the material contained within this course may be used without the express written permission
of AMTA unless otherwise indicated in the course. As a reminder, before practicing any new modalities or techniques, check with your state’s massage therapy
regulatory authority to ensure they are within the state’s defined scope of practice for massage therapy.
Refunds
Online courses are non-refundable. AMTA will not cover fees incurred from duplicate payments, insufficient funds, stopped payments or credit/debit cards over
credit limits.