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Washington State Guide

Massage Therapy in Washington

Explore Washington massage licensing requirements, education starting points, professional organizations, insurance considerations, continuing education, workforce data, and official resources, with links to official sources.

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

Regulator
Washington State Department of Health, Board of Massage
Verified
Credential
Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT)
Verified
WA · main-state atlas plateWashington
WAOR
100 mi
Locator · same geometry as the atlas
Albers equal-area · 120.8°W · SP 46.1/48.4°NCanonical 1 MI ≈ 1.0 PX · footprint 273 px · MASS-limited

01 · Licensing

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

VerifiedOpen the full record →

This record covers Washington's statewide practitioner credential. A city, code city, or county may require a license to operate a massage business, but state law limits the fee and bars additional therapist-licensing requirements not imposed on similar health care providers. Separate general business or tax obligations are not determined here.

Review needed

Minimum education

625 hours

Reviewed official sources conflict or include superseded wording; confirm the current detail in the licensing record.

Verified

Renewal

Massage therapist licenses renew annually.

Renewal cadence only; deadlines, fees, and mechanics are in the state's CE and renewal requirements.

Verified

Continuing education

24 hours

Continuing education is reported over a two-year period even though the massage-therapist credential renews annually.

Compact legal CE orientation only; subjects, documentation, and renewal mechanics are in the state's CE and renewal requirements.

Details worth confirming

2 reviewed licensing details should be confirmed before applying or renewing in Washington. Each is summarised from the licensing record, which keeps the full caution and its official context.

Review needed

Program-duration wording differs

Official materials describe the minimum approved program duration with differing week and month language. Applicants should verify current program approval directly.

Detail worth confirming · Education requirement

Bounded

Education and endorsement rules are active

Washington lists active rulemaking for endorsement and education requirements. Recheck the official rule-progress page before relying on those fields.

Upcoming change · Licensing update

Review Washington licensing details worth confirming →

Entry

Verified

Examination — Board-approved national examination; Washington massage jurisprudence examination

Required examination categories from the canonical licensing record.

Renewal and continuing education

Verified

Carryover — Continuing-education hours may not be carried over from one reporting period to another under WAC 246-12-230.

From the licensing record

Read these in the Washington CE and renewal requirements →

02 · Education

Massage education in Washington

Review needed

Legal education requirements, official starting points, and selected MassageData program records are distinct.

See the Washington school records and official lists →
Bounded

Selected program record

Discoverypoint School of Massage

The published program spans four 11-week quarters over approximately 12 months, with daytime and evening cohorts and one required weekend per quarter.

This is one verified starting point, not a complete Washington directory. Confirm current cohort dates, total cost, admissions terms, and program approval directly before enrolling.

State approval context — Discoverypoint appears on the Washington Department of Health list of currently approved massage schools, last updated June 30, 2026.

Appearing on a state list is not a finding that this programme satisfies that state’s licensing requirement.

Reported program length
750 hours
Location
Seattle
Format
Campus-based
Published tuition
Not established in reviewed materials
Visit official program →

Verified October 6, 2026

These are selected records, not a complete school directory.

Legal entry requirement

625 hours

Review needed

Reviewed official sources conflict or include superseded wording; confirm the current detail in the licensing record.

Review the detailed licensing pathway →

Official starting point

Washington Approved Massage Schools

The Department of Health's current list of Board-approved massage schools and programs, including transfer and somatic-education sections.

Open official resource ↗

Before enrolling

School approval is not the same as massage licensure, accreditation, or a guarantee of outcomes.

03 · Organizations

Professional organizations

Bounded

These are selected governed organizations, not a comprehensive state directory.

State chapter of a national professional association

American Massage Therapy Association — Washington Chapter

AMTA identifies Washington as one of its volunteer-led state chapters for member connection, education, networking, and advocacy.

Massage therapists and massage-therapy students eligible for AMTA membership.

AMTA published a current Washington-specific advocacy update on reimbursement legislation enacted in 2026.

AMTA states that chapter participation may include on-site continuing education; no current Washington event inventory is asserted here.

Member support

  • State chapter connection
  • National AMTA member resources
  • Education, networking, and volunteer opportunities
Visit the official organization →

Verified October 6, 2026

04 · Insurance

Insurance considerations

Bounded4 sources

The reviewed Washington massage licensing chapter and current massage rules do not state a general statewide professional-liability-insurance requirement for each individual massage therapist. This limited finding does not address employers, contracts, health-plan participation, facilities, landlords, events, local rules, or other business obligations.

Limits of this finding

The reviewed sources do not support a universal legal conclusion. General information only—not legal, financial, or coverage advice.

Professional risk context

Professional liability coverage addresses claims arising from professional services. Compare covered modalities, defense costs, exclusions, occurrence versus claims-made terms, consent-to-settle provisions, and prior-acts coverage.

General liability commonly addresses third-party injury or property-damage risks outside the professional service itself; confirm whether it is included or separate.

  • Washington treats massage as a licensed health care service and preserves limited local massage-business authority; insurance does not replace a credential or local compliance.
  • Verify insurers and producers through the Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

Questions for an insurer

  • Which modalities and locations are covered or excluded?
  • Are defense costs inside or outside the limit?
  • Are employees, contractors, students, products, premises, mobile work, and prior acts covered?
  • What incident-reporting deadlines apply?

05 · Continuing education

Legal orientation and official starting points

Bounded

Legal CE orientation

24 hours

Continuing education is reported over a two-year period even though the massage-therapist credential renews annually.

Verified

Compact legal CE orientation only; subjects, documentation, and renewal mechanics are in the state's CE and renewal requirements.

Use official starting points to explore continuing-education resources in Washington. Legal renewal and continuing-education requirements are on Washington's CE and renewal page.

See detailed Washington renewal and CE requirements →Compare Washington CE and renewal with other states →

06 · Workforce

Washington workforce outlook

Bounded

May 2025 federal OEWS data estimate 3,740 wage-and-salary massage therapist jobs in Washington. The median wage was $42.00 per hour or $87,360 annually. These are survey estimates, not license counts or a census of all practitioners.

Employment

Bounded

3,740

Estimated wage-and-salary jobs

Washington · May 2025 OEWS estimate

Definition, limits, and sources
Definition
BLS OEWS estimate of wage-and-salary massage therapist jobs in Washington in May 2025.
Method
Reported by the BLS OEWS state series for SOC 31-9011 using the May 2025 survey methods and estimation process.
Limitation
OEWS excludes self-employed workers and is an estimate of jobs, not an active-license count or practitioner census.
Comparability
Suitable for comparison with the same federal OEWS occupation, measure, area level, and vintage; do not blend with differently covered Washington ESD series.
Observed or accessed
October 6, 2026
Uncertainty
7.9 percent: BLS reports a 7.9 percent relative standard error for the Washington employment estimate.

Compensation

Bounded

$42.00/hr

Median hourly wage

Washington · May 2025 OEWS estimate

Definition, limits, and sources
Definition
BLS OEWS median hourly wage estimate for Washington massage therapist jobs in May 2025.
Method
Reported by the BLS OEWS state median-hourly-wage series for SOC 31-9011.
Limitation
The statewide median describes wage-and-salary jobs, not self-employed receipts, and does not represent every community or schedule.
Comparability
Suitable for comparison with the same federal OEWS median measure and vintage; no mean-wage uncertainty statistic is attached to this median.
Observed or accessed
October 6, 2026

$87,360

Median annual wage

Washington · May 2025 OEWS estimate

Definition, limits, and sources
Definition
BLS OEWS median annualized wage estimate for Washington massage therapist jobs in May 2025.
Method
Reported by the BLS OEWS state median-annual-wage series using the survey's standard annualization method.
Limitation
Annualization does not imply that every practitioner works a full-time schedule and excludes self-employed business income.
Comparability
Suitable for comparison with the same federal OEWS annual median measure and vintage; no mean-wage uncertainty statistic is attached to this median.
Observed or accessed
October 6, 2026

Population universe

Federal OEWS measures wage-and-salary jobs by occupation. Annual wage estimates use the survey's standard annualization method and do not imply full-time schedules for every practitioner. Washington ESD also publishes a differently vintaged state series; the two are not blended.

Self-employment

OEWS excludes self-employed workers. Because self-employment is material in massage therapy, the estimate is not a count of all people practicing in Washington.

Workforce source set

07 · Resources

Official resources

BoundedEvery route leaves MassageData.

A selected official starting set, not a complete source ledger.

08 · Method

How this guide is made

Every field on this page carries a knowledge state, and every state is written as a word before it is drawn as a colour.

Verified
We checked the cited source on the stated date and the requirement exists as published. The date is the claim: it says when we looked, not that the rule is permanent.
Bounded
We know part of the answer and can say exactly where our knowledge stops. The boundary is stated in words and the fuller source is linked. A bounded finding is the edge of what we know, never an error.
Review needed
Published sources disagree, or a source carries superseded wording. Both readings are cited with their retrieval dates and neither is shown as fact until the current rule is confirmed. Review needed never means hidden; it means honestly uncertain.

What this guide does not determine

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

Sources and reviewReview needed

This guide projects 45 distinct official or first-party source links from the governed records. Reviewed October 6, 2026.