After hundreds of Asian “massage therapists” with certificates of completion from a California massage school were approved to work in Las Vegas neighborhood massage parlors, the National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, the federal agency that oversees accreditation of all U.S. massage schools, has issued a strong rebuke to the Nevada Board of Massage Therapy.
In 2007, I interviewed Lisa Cooper who is the Executive Director of the Nevada Board of Massage Therapy while she was attending a UNLV forum on the sex industry.
Upon being asked why her agency does not police neighborhood massage parlors, Cooper nervously explained to me and Dr. Melissa Farley that the “massage therapists” employed at the dozens of neighborhood parlors do not need Nevada state certificates as long as they have a certificate of completion from a massage school in California.