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United States Licensing Atlas

Alaska Massage Therapy Licensing Requirements

Alaska generally requires a massage therapist license for compensated massage practice and protected massage representations. The examination pathway requires age 18, 625 hours from an approved massage school or a Board-approved apprenticeship, an approved national examination, current CPR certification, recent bloodborne-pathogens and universal-precautions training, fingerprints, and state and national criminal-history review. The statute contains specific exemptions, and massage establishments may have a separate registration obligation.

Statewide requirements and local regulation are identified separately. This record is general information, not legal advice.

Alaska Board of Massage Therapists, Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing
AK · licensing record1 PX ≈ 2.8 MI
Albers equal-area · 158.8°W · SP 54.6/68.0°N · footprint 273 px · MASS-limitedFull Alaska plate on the state guide →

Overview

State license required to practice massage therapy for compensation or represent oneself as a massage therapist

Last verified 2026-07-13

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.

Before you act

Details worth confirming

Requirements can change, and some official materials differ on narrow details. Use the current official instructions when applying or renewing.

Current filing instructions control

The current applications page offers online and paper filing, while an older FAQ retains mail-only wording. Follow the current Board instructions when applying.

Board-meeting credit sources differ

The controlling regulation awards three credits for at least 75 percent attendance once per biennium. Board forms and FAQ contain lower, inconsistent values; the regulation controls this record.

Apprenticeship is not operational

Statute preserves a Board-approved apprenticeship pathway, but the Board states it cannot operate until implementing regulations are adopted.

Regulatory authority

Alaska Board of Massage Therapists, Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing

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

Entry requirements

Education, examination, and application

Credential
Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT)
Credential requirement
A valid Alaska massage therapist license is required statewide for compensated massage practice or protected massage representations unless a statutory exemption applies. General local business, zoning, land-use, tax, or facility rules may apply separately, but no separate local professional credential was identified in the reviewed statewide sources.
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.

Renewal

Renewal and continuing education

Cycle
Massage therapist licenses renew biennially. The next regular expiration after this record's July 2026 verification is September 30, 2027.
Continuing education
16 hrs
Renewal fee
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.
Required topics
At least two of the 16 biennial continuing-education credits must be in ethics …

Practice information

Scope, titles, and local requirements

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.
Establishments and other regulated activities
Nonexempt fixed and mobile massage therapy establishments register separately with the Board under 12 AAC 79.930 and must maintain an Alaska business license. Other licensed professions remain governed by their own scopes, and general business, zoning, land-use, tax, facility, employer, and contract rules remain separate from the individual massage license.
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.

Authoritative sources

Official record evidence

Change history

Public record revisions

No revision to this record has been published yet. Its current review dates are in the overview above, and its official sources are listed below.