Entry requirements
Education, examination, and application
- Credential
- Massage Therapist, Bodyworker, or Touch Professional Registration
- Minimum education
- 0 hours
- Approved education
- Current chapter 105 requires registration but does not impose a minimum education-hour or curriculum prerequisite. Students in a professional massage or bodywork education program and apprentices acting within their programs are exempt from registration.
- Examination
- Current chapter 105 does not require MBLEx or another competence examination for individual registration.
- MBLEx relationship
- MBLEx is not required for the current Vermont registration. A registrant's voluntary credential must not be represented as a state competence standard.
- Application
- Apply through the Office online portal, disclose the information required by the Director, and pay the statutory application fee.
- Application fees
- Current 3 V.S.A. §125 sets a $90 application fee for a massage therapist, bodyworker, or touch professional and the default $275 biennial renewal fee.
- Background check or fingerprinting
- Current chapter 105 and the Office credential-specific authority do not require a routine criminal-history report or fingerprint submission for massage registration.
- Reciprocity or endorsement
- Section 5422 authorizes registration by endorsement when an individual holds a license, registration, certification, or other authorization to practice massage therapy or bodywork from a U.S. or Canadian jurisdiction.
- Additional requirements
- Registrants must make the required client disclosures and comply with professional-conduct law. No statewide practitioner professional-liability insurance mandate was identified.
Renewal
Renewal and continuing education
- Cycle
- Individual registrations renew every two years.
- Deadline model
- Renew on the biennial schedule assigned by the Office through the online portal.
- Fees
- The current fee statute applies the default $275 biennial renewal fee to the individual registration; Act 119's reduced establishment fee does not change the individual renewal amount.
- Continuing education
- Current chapter 105 does not impose recurring CE hours for individual registration renewal.
- Required subjects
- No recurring CE subject minimum was identified for this registration.
- Documentation
- Submit a completed renewal application and fee through the Office; no recurring CE certificate submission is represented.
- Carryover
- Because the registration has no recurring CE-hour requirement, no carryover or online-hour limit is represented.
- Late renewal
- A lapsed registration renews with the biennial fee and applicable late or reinstatement penalty under chapter 105 and the general OPR statutes.
- Inactive license
- No separate elective inactive status was identified for this registration in chapter 105.
Practice information
Scope, titles, and local requirements
- Scope of practice
- Chapter 105 defines massage and bodywork as structured touch offered for consideration and establishes the registration boundary.
- Protected titles
- An individual may not offer the regulated practice or use the massage therapist, bodyworker, touch professional, or related titles without registration, subject to statutory exemptions.
- Restrictions
- Registrants comply with disclosure, acknowledgement, display, consent, privacy, and professional-conduct requirements.
- Municipal or local requirements
- The state registration coexists with generally applicable local business, zoning, premises, health, and safety requirements.
- Establishments and other regulated activities
- Act 119 of 2026 requires registration of nonexempt massage establishments beginning December 1, 2026; solo-practitioner locations and other defined locations are exempt. That future change is not represented as currently effective on July 29, 2026.
- Practitioner notes
- Use the Office public lookup and complaint resources. Registration is a mandatory conduct and accountability credential, not a state finding of massage education or examination competence.
Change history
Public record revisions
Future verified changes will be listed from this Git-backed record.