Hear from principal investigators and participating massage therapists as they share insights from AMTA-funded research, including randomized controlled trials and real-world clinical implementation:
- Massage Service Integration in a Military Primary Care Clinic - Tracy Rupp, PhD, MAc, Lac
- Massage Therapy as a Preventative for Post-Irradiation Fibrosis and Neuropathy - Geoffrey Bove, DC, PhD
- Trauma-Informed and Culturally-Responsive Integrated Massage Therapy - Jennifer Esala, PhD & Cynthia Price PhD, MA, LMT
- Massage Impact on Sleep for Hospitalized Pediatric Oncology Patients - Cal Cates, LMT
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:
- Understand how AMTA supports research
- Learn about different research grants supported by AMTA
- Understand the impact of the studies on the massage therapy profession
- Understand clinical implementation of studies
Tracy Rupp, PhD, M.Ac, L.Ac, is the Scientific Director at the Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management and Assistant Professor in Anesthesiology at the Uniformed Services University. With a PhD in Experimental Psychology from Brown University, postdoctoral training at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and a Master’s in Acupuncture, Dr. Rupp bridges experimental psychology, sleep research, and integrative medicine.
Geoffrey Bove, DC, PhD, is a pioneer CAM biomedical researcher and has more than 30 years of clinical experience as a manual therapist. He was the first person considered “post-doctoral” by NIH by virtue of a chiropractic degree and the only chiropractor appointed to the Harvard Medical School faculty.
Jennifer Esala, PhD, is a medical sociologist with expertise in mental health interventions for trauma survivors, refugees, and underserved populations. Dr. Esala’s research has been published in leading journals, including Society and Mental Health, Traumatology, Journal of Traumatic Stress, and the American Journal of Evaluation.
Cynthia Price, PhD, MA, LMT, is a Research Professor at the University of Washington. Her clinical and research expertise is focused on interoceptive awareness training for improved health. She developed Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT), an approach that combines massage, psychoeducation, and mindfulness and is designed to develop interoceptive awareness and related skills of increased self-awareness, self-care, and emotion regulation.
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. Cal has been a massage therapist since 2005 and an advocate for a better world since they lobbied for a National Working Horses Day in 3rd grade.
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)
LCEU0004841
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.