Compared to most other massage therapists, New York massage therapists looking to relocate to Florida will encounter an extra step in the transfer process.
The education requirement is not the problem. At this time, the state of New York requires 500 hours more hours of massage training than Florida.
The licensing exam is where you likely will find a delay in the transfer process.
New York State is one of the few remaining states that still administers its own state massage licensing examination. Any massage therapist that leaves the state of New York will find that having your own state exam can be a problem for reciprocity and license portability, especially those moving to Florida.
The New York State Massage Therapy Exam (or any other state massage licensing exam) is not an approved licensing exam for obtaining a Florida massage license. Before qualifying for a Florida massage license, you will need to pass a Florida Board-Approved Examination (MBLEx, NCETMB, NCETM, or the NESL).
To help make this process easier, follow this step-by-step guide to the Florida license by examination process. I will guide you through the entire process, and hopefully make your move a little less stressful.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below, or you can email me at ivy@advancedmassagetechniques.com.
I would be happy to help!
About Ivy
My wife is an experienced massagist and healer. ashe has a gift to diagnoze (by feeling subtle disbalance in energy and pain that hasn’t been manifested yet) she can as well inadvertantly magnetize metallic objects (forks ,spoons ,knives etc) by strange magnetic power in her hands. Her problem is that she speaks English not so fluently ( we had come from abroad to USA 4 years ago) and she won’t pass exams for licensure, requiring a high speed in answering numerous questions. My question is: is it possible for her to work under any licensed massage therapyst, herself being unlicensed?
Roman, I have had others in your situation before with English being their second language and having difficulty passing the exam. I wish I had better information for you.
What state do you live in? That will help me figure out what the laws and regulations are for massage therapists in your area.
I graduated from the Swedish Institute in New York and received my NYS license for Massage Therapy. I moved to Florida the beginning of last year and am ready to get out of my current job and into my licensed profession. On top of the National Board Exam I was told there was another course I needed to take to become licensed in Florida. Do you know the name of the course? It has to do with medical error prevention or preventative care?
Hi Augustus!
Here is the link to my other site. This page will have all of the information and courses you need to get your Florida license.
Since you are from NYS, you most likely took the NYS state massage exam and not the NCETMB, NCETM, NESL, or MBLEx – right? You will need to follow this checklist.
If you have any other questions, let me know!