Alaska massage licensing record

This record covers Alaska's statewide professional license and massage-establishment registration framework. It does not determine municipal business licensing, zoning, land-use, tax, facility, employer, or contract requirements. Practitioners and establishments should confirm general state and local business obligations for each practice location.

• Official application
• Official renewal information
• Official statutes or rules

Local business, facility, zoning, and professional rules may apply in addition to statewide requirements. Confirm current requirements with the responsible authority before acting.

Credential

Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT)

Minimum education

625 hours

Approved education

The examination pathway requires at least 625 hours of in-class supervised instruction and clinical work from an approved massage school, or satisfactory completion of a Board-approved apprenticeship. An approved school must hold authorization from the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education or a similar agency in another state, or be accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency. Current rules allow qualifying monitored online distance education for non-practical coursework and cap practical application at 20 percent of total program hours. Although the statute and rule preserve an apprenticeship pathway, the Board's current apprenticeship page says the pathway cannot operate until implementing regulations are adopted.

Examination

Applicants by examination must submit direct verification of passing the MBLEx. The legacy National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage or National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork is accepted only when taken before February 1, 2015. No separate Alaska jurisprudence examination was identified in the current statute, rules, application materials, or requirements page.

MBLEx relationship

The MBLEx is the current named national competency examination for the standard examination pathway. The two named NCBTMB examinations are legacy alternatives only when taken before February 1, 2015.

Application

Use the current Board applications-and-forms page to choose examination or credentials, complete the application, pay the required fees, arrange for school transcripts and examination verification to be sent directly by the issuing organizations, document current CPR and recent bloodborne-pathogens training where applicable, submit an FD-258 fingerprint card, and provide all requested professional-history and criminal-history information. The current applications page offers online and paper initial applications; applicants should follow the instructions posted there because the FAQ retains older mail-only wording.

Application fees

The current examination and credentials pathways list a $200 nonrefundable application fee, a $290 initial biennial license fee, and a $75 nonrefundable fingerprint-processing fee, for $565 in state charges. Examination-provider, transcript, card-production, mailing, and other third-party costs are separate. Confirm the current centralized fee rule and application form immediately before filing.

Background check or fingerprinting

Initial examination and credentials applicants submit an FD-258 fingerprint card and the fingerprint-processing fee. The Division forwards fingerprint information for Alaska criminal-justice information and an FBI national criminal-history record check. A license application is not complete until the required criminal-history information is received.

Reciprocity or endorsement

Alaska calls its qualifying out-of-state route licensure by credentials rather than automatic reciprocity. The current application identifies Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington as credential-path states. The applicant must hold a current unrestricted qualifying license, meet the current education and examination conditions stated in the form, provide direct license verification, hold current CPR certification, submit fingerprints, and satisfy professional-history and criminal-history review. Applicants outside the listed path should use the Board's current instructions rather than assume transfer eligibility.

Additional requirements

Applicants must be at least 18, hold current CPR certification from a qualifying course, and have at least two hours of bloodborne-pathogens and universal-precautions safety education completed during the two years before applying by examination. A temporary military courtesy license is a separate 180-day pathway that may be renewed once for another 180 days at Board discretion; current centralized fees total $275 for its $100 application fee, $100 temporary license fee, and $75 fingerprint fee.

Cycle

Massage therapist licenses renew biennially. The next regular expiration after this record's July 2026 verification is September 30, 2027.

Deadline model

A massage therapy license must be renewed on or before September 30 of each odd-numbered year. Failure to receive a renewal reminder does not relieve the licensee of the duty to renew on time.

Fees

The current biennial massage therapist renewal fee is $290. A $75 fingerprint-processing fee applies when the six-year fingerprint cycle requires a new card. The Board states that fingerprints are not required for the 2025-2027 period and will be required for the 2027-2029 renewal period.

Continuing education

Renewal requires at least 16 continuing-education credits during each biennial period plus current CPR certification. Coursework may be completed in person or online through an approved massage school, a qualifying higher-education institution, or a local, state, or national professional organization serving massage therapy, including ABMP, AMTA, FSMTB, and NCBTMB. A hands-on qualifying CPR course may count for up to two of the 16 credits. The controlling regulation awards three credits for attending at least 75 percent of a regularly scheduled Board meeting once per biennium; current Board forms and FAQ use inconsistent lower values and attendance thresholds, so the regulation controls this record pending Board cleanup.

Required subjects

At least two of the 16 biennial continuing-education credits must be in ethics. Current CPR certification is a separate renewal condition, although up to two CE credits may be awarded for a qualifying hands-on CPR course.

Documentation

Licensees attest at renewal to current CPR and CE completion, retain adequate and detailed CE records for four years from the date earned, and provide verification if audited. The centralized audit rule requires a selected licensee to respond with the requested documentation within 30 days unless the department extends the deadline.

Carryover

No provision authorizing carryover of continuing-education credits into a later biennium was identified in the reviewed current massage rules or centralized audit rules.

Late renewal

The massage rules do not provide a practice grace period after expiration. A license lapsed for less than three years may be reinstated after satisfying the current renewal, fingerprint, CPR, CE, and fee requirements. A license lapsed for three years or more may not be reinstated and requires a new initial application. Practicing before the renewed or reinstated license is effective is not authorized.

Inactive license

No inactive massage therapist license status was identified in the reviewed current massage statute, massage rules, centralized fee rule, or renewal materials.

Scope of practice

Alaska defines massage therapy as compensated systematic manipulation and treatment of human soft tissues, including muscular and connective tissues, to enhance tissue function and promote relaxation and well-being. Included techniques encompass pressure, friction, stroking, percussion, kneading, vibration, muscular assessment by palpation, limited range-of-motion demonstrations, nonspecific stretching, and superficial heat, cold, water, lubricants, or salts. The definition excludes diagnosis, prescribing drugs or medicines, physical therapy, attempts to manipulate body or spinal articulations, and thrust mobilization of those articulations.

Protected titles

Without a valid license, a person may not practice massage therapy or use representations including massage, massage practitioner, massage therapist, massage therapy, therapeutic massage, massage technician, massage technology, massagist, masseur, masseuse, myotherapist, myotherapy, another traditional European or contemporary western massage term, or a derivation implying a massage method. A licensed therapist and a registered massage establishment must display the applicable license or registration number on each Internet advertisement.

Restrictions

The statutory scope excludes diagnosis, prescribing, physical therapy, articulation or spinal manipulation attempts, and thrust mobilization. Licensees must follow the Board-adopted code of ethics, standards of practice, and establishment standards, including professional boundaries, record and client-log duties, sanitation, lawful conduct, and prohibitions on sexual misconduct and unethical care. Disciplinary grounds include fraud, misleading advertising, substandard care, statutory or rule violations, unsafe impairment, unethical conduct, and sexual misconduct.

Municipal or local requirements

Alaska's framework is statewide professional licensure. A nonexempt fixed or mobile massage therapy establishment must also register with the Board under 12 AAC 79.930, maintain a current Alaska business license, complete the required self-inspection material, and renew in odd-numbered years. The reviewed professional-licensing sources do not preempt general municipal business, zoning, land-use, tax, or facility requirements, which must be checked separately.

Practitioner notes

AS 08.61.080 exempts: other Alaska licensees acting within their licensed scope; federal employees acting officially; qualifying out-of-jurisdiction practitioners temporarily teaching or consulting with an Alaska licensee; clearly identified, supervised, uncompensated students completing clinical requirements; family-only massage; no-contact techniques; surface hand-resting without pressure or soft-tissue manipulation; specified beautification services without direct soft-tissue manipulation; qualifying publicly funded or Board-approved school athletic-department work; recognized structural-integration practitioners; light-touch, words, directed-movement, or energy-system work fitting the statute; Native American traditional healing; and soft-tissue manipulation limited to hands, feet, or ears without holding out as a massage therapist. Each exemption has statutory conditions and should be read in full before relying on it. Establishment registration, the Board code and standards, six-year fingerprint renewal, advertising-number rules, and general business requirements may apply independently.

• Alaska Board of Massage Therapists — Official Home · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Board of Massage Therapists — Statutes and Regulations · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Massage Therapist Statutes AS 08.61 and Regulations 12 AAC 79 · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Centralized Occupational Licensing Regulations — 12 AAC 02 · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Board of Massage Therapists — Frequently Asked Questions · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Board of Massage Therapists — Applications and Forms · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Massage Therapist License by Examination Application 08-4659 · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Massage Therapist License by Credentials Application 08-4756 · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Board of Massage Therapists — Apprenticeship · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Massage Therapist Reinstatement Application 08-4846 · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Professional Licensing — License Expiration Dates · accessed 2026-07-13
• Alaska Board of Massage Therapists — Code of Ethics, Standards of Practice, and Establishment Standards · accessed 2026-07-13

Future verified changes will be listed from this Git-backed record.