Unfortunately, you were misled. It is impossible for one city to grant you permission to work in another city, regardless of the what kind of work you are doing or where. Your Crystal City license does not cover you to for outcalls or on-site work in any city in MN, except Crystal.

The risk is that if you are sued by someone you worked on in an office or house in Minnetonka, your liability insurance would not cover you.

The words “complementary” and “alternative” imply that western medicine is the primary or valid form of treatment and that the other modalities should be considered a back up if western treatments don’t work.

I propose that the therapies that are now called “alternatives” to medicine, should be considered “medicine.” For example, massage, shiatsu, acupuncture, osteopathy, chiropractic would fall under “manual therapies”. An MD might be said to practice “chemical therapy.”

The categories could be
Manual Medicine
Pharmaceutical Medicine
Herbal Medicine
Family Medicine
Meridian Medicine,
and the like.

Not “western” and then “everything else.”

This is all just off the top of my head. But hopefully it will inspire someone to take it further.

Indeed, licensing is not the only answer to my complaints. Just one lock in the dam.

In regards to massage therapy, I think there should be at least 3 levels or categories of expertise. A Level I therapist would be licensed to provide full-body relaxation massage. A Level II therapist would be trained in additional modalities such as pregnancy massage, reflexology, etc. A Level III therapist would be qualified to do precise therapies on deep, specific muscles.

“Western” medicine has similar distinctions between an MD, a PA, an RN, and a midwife.

It would be nice to have some consistent treatment of bodyworkers across the state. It’s difficult enough having differing license rules across states for professions like psychology. Licensing and regulation is not a panacea, though. As seen in many other professions, one can obtain a license and still not be very good at what they do. There are some that advocate for doing away with licensing and promote, instead, enforced disclosure and truth in advertising.

I have mixed feelings about licensing myself. I see both sides. As a professional, I see it as my role, regardless of licensing, to educate my clients about the profession in general and about my qualifications specifically.