Some Arizona massage therapists can’t work due to paused state services - KOLD

[Jason Barry]

ANTHEM, AZ (AZFamily) — There’s a lot of anger and outrage from massage therapists and their clients over a state board’s decision to shut down services for almost a month.

The Arizona Board of Massage Therapy isn’t processing any licenses, complaints or public records requests, and that’s having a direct impact on local businesses and their staff.

Lori Comer has been a massage therapist for 15 years, but her career has suddenly been put on hold.

Comer can’t see any clients right now because she can’t get her license renewed, making it tough to pay the bills.

“I can’t pay for anything,” said Comer. “I can’t pay house payment, can’t buy groceries. We only get paid if you have a client and obviously I can’t have clients right now because I am out of work.”

The Anthem woman is one of many massage therapists across the state who took an unexpected hit over the holidays.

The Arizona Board of Massage Therapy recently posted on its website that all its services have been suspended until Jan. 21, and that includes the renewal of licenses, which means if someone’s license has expired, they can’t work until the state gets around to issuing new ones.

Ski Kobylanski is the director of the Hand and Stone Spa in Anthem.

He says what’s happening with the state massage board is directly impacting businesses across Arizona, with clients being turned away and some massage therapists feeling like they have to work without a license.

“There are going to be a lot of independent people who are going to be forced to work without their license because they have to feed their family, their private practice, and God forbid, they have an incident,” said Kobylanski. “They’re not going to be covered by insurance, and the government won’t back them.”

So why exactly is the state Board of Massage Therapy shut down for four weeks?

The website states it’s “to convert to a new licensing system.”

Some business owners have reached out to board members and the governor’s office to see if they could create some kind of waiver where massage therapists up for license renewal could keep working until the new system is set up.

No formal announcement has been made.

Comer is just hoping the state will do something so she can get back to work

“Most of us live paycheck to paycheck,” said Comer. “I need to make a living.”

An online petition has been started to pressure the Board of Massage Therapy to help therapists get back to work.

For more details on the Change.org petition, click/tap here.

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