DOWAGIAC — Sitting at a corner table inside downtown’s Baker’s Rhapsody, Dowagiac resident and massage therapist Kirsten Bugy pulled out a pile of papers about the benefits of massage therapy.

Pulling a piece of lined paper from the center of the stack, Bugy goes through the step by step process of how to confirm that a massage therapist is licensed, which can be done through the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs website. 

“If you are looking for a massage therapist, you want to make sure that they are verified and safe to go to,” Bugy said. “All massage therapists should have a card and a number. If they don’t, they are not licensed with the state of Michigan. … This is very important.”

Bugy said she has a passion and dedication to promoting licensing and professionalism in the massage therapy field. Because of this, she recently won an award from the American Massage Therapy Association.

Bugy was recently awarded the inaugural Dolly Wallace Professional Member Scholarship at the spring 2019 conference for the Michigan chapter of the AMTA. Named after AMTA President Dolly Wallace, the award is meant to honor the work of an individual to advance the professionalism of massage therapy.

“I’m very humbled,” Bugy said. “This means a lot to me as I care a lot about licensing and professionalism.”

Today, Bugy is a self-employed massage therapist with nearly 20 years’ experience under her belt. However, before she could get to that point, she was a student.

As a massage student in 1999, Bugy went to take her first exam to find her male instructor naked on top of the sheets in the exam room. She decided not to complete the exam and reported her instructor, feeling his behavior was inappropriate and unprofessional.

Though Bugy said the experience shook her, it inspired her to study professional massage therapy in Chicago and become an advocate for massage therapy licensing and professionalism.

“I thought, ‘this is really scary, and this isn’t how it should be,’” she said, recalling the incident. “After this, I decided I really needed to go and get a proper education in massage therapy. I decided I was going to do things right and be an outstanding citizen that people can trust. We are proud to be licensed so that these things don’t happen to people out in the world. These people give [massage therapists] a bad reputation.”

Now working with corporate clients and organizations such as the Cass County Council on Aging, Bugy said a large portion of her work is to promote the benefits of massage, which can include stress and pain relief, professionally. Through conferences and other events, Bugy said she always works to learn more about her trade and inspire other aspiring massage therapists to become licensed and certified.

“We are very serious about making ourselves legitly recognized in the community,” Bugy said. “There are a lot of people out there practicing that are not licensed. There people out there like [my former instructor] that give massage therapy a bad name and make people scared. [Massage therapists] want to get away from that and show that this is a professional environment. … That’s why I’m so honored by this award, because it’s really fighting for what we do and being professional.”

As she goes forward, Bugy said she would remain committed to promote professionalism in the massage therapy field and work to make massage therapy a form of treatment recognized by insurance companies and hospitals.

“There are so many benefits of massage,” Bugy said. “We will continue to promote the art and science and professionalism of massage.”