Massage Therapist being sued for unnecessary touch
- Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 17:12
- In the News
- 456 views
- 2 comments
Every now and again I see things like this in the News headlines and it just makes me want to scream.
For one, surely there is no reason for this outcome from any Massage Therapist.
A massage therapist is being sued for allegedly unnecessarily touching two female patients in sensitive areas.
The action against Mark Douglas is being taken by the Director of Proceedings, under the Health and Disability Commissioner Act in front of the Human Rights Review Tribunal in Auckland.
It is alleged Douglas touched the breast of one complainant when it was unnecessary.
In the second case, he was said to have needlessly touched a 14-year-old girl near her genital area.
Source: TVNZ News
The bit that really got me wondering was the quote
“As to the touching of the breast, however, he explains that he was trying to hold the breast out of the way so that he could carry out the massage he was doing."
I’m sorry, any professional Massage Therapist would explain to their client where they need to massage and then ask the client to cover regions or hold areas out of the way, That is if the client was comfortable with having massage done so close to the area in question in the first place.
It will be interesting to see the outcome of this case.
What are you thoughts on the subject?
About the Author
Kimberly has written 17 stories on this site.
I am a qualified Massage Therapist, I qualified in 2006 from UCOL. I work in Palmerston North and I am the producer of the Massage Therapist Central Podcast.
2 Comments on “Massage Therapist being sued for unnecessary touch”
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In one respect I don’t like the fact that the therapist has been named before guilt has been proven. His career is basically over even if he’s only guilty of poor communication.
But I suppose if he wasn’t named this news article would only place a shadow of suspicion over other male therapists in the Auckland area.
This just goes to show that gaining informed consent and educating the client is crucial, cause if you don’t do it you can lose everything like this guy..
I am against such charges. Erotic Massage is one thing ordinary massage is another.
You cannot just expect to ignore breasts if they are shown fully.
Anyway an touch isn’t big thing and i think suing is just because of clients ego problems.