Stop  S261, An Act Regulating Alternative Healing Therapies
(Formerly S191 & H282)

This is the seventh time Senator Montigny has filed legislation to license Reiki and alternative health practitioners. This year’s bill, S261 is almost identical to the bill he filed in 2023, S191 and H282, which died in the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure after a public hearing and strong opposition. 

S261 requires the state to establish standards and licensing for the practice and teaching of holistic modalities under the control and direction of a board predominantly populated by massage therapists, and to restrict the teaching of the holistic modalities to schools licensed by the state.

The modalities include but are not limited to: Reiki, Asian Bodywork Therapy, Reflexology, Structural Integration, the Feldenkrais Method, the Trager Approach, Ayurvedic Therapies, Polarity or Polarity Therapy, Qi Gong, and Body/Mind Centering.

These requirements would create significant hardships and force alternative healthcare practitioners and teachers of these modalities to close their practices. The bill also eliminates freedom of choice in alternative healthcare for the people of Massachusetts.

Detrimental aspects of this bill: 

• Threatens the public’s ability to access the alternative health practitioners of their choice;
  
  
• Seeks to have holistic modalities taught only at state licensed schools with curriculum meeting state established standards at a cost of more than $8,000; 
  
  
• Creates an unnecessary and burdensome level of compliance for Holistic Healthcare Practitioners.
  
  
• This bill will put tens of thousands of practitioners out of business.

Please oppose S261

Thank you!