Why do massage therapist and alternative health and wellness practitioners feel they need to have a license? Isn't a license nothing but a fee that is paid to the government to allow you to work in the field you have  received training in.

The license is the guarantee that you've received that training, backed up by force of law. It protects practitioners who have received training from those who practice without having received the training. This cuts into their earnings and makes patients wary of the entire practice, further reducing available clients. There is usually more to a license than paying a fee. You are usually required to have undergone a certain training and have a set number of hours in supervised practice, and perhaps to keep up with additional training. If anything, people in licensed fields are accused of being too fond of them, keeping out people who are skilled in the art but haven't jumped through hoops required to receive the license. Those hoops are sometimes designed by the members of licensed fields to set the bar too high and reduce competition, higher than the level that could be reasonably set to protect the public.

People who believe they need a license are of two kinds. Some know they need a license. That is, they believe it correctly. Others mistakenly believe they need a license. It's not a matter of how they feel. It's simply a matter of what the law is in a certain place. States require a certain standard of training, and verification of compliance with a code of conduct (usually called "ethics"), before they'll allow you to do certain things. When you meet those criteria (and pay a small fee for the cost of administration to support the operation of the regulatory system), you can get a license. If you fail to meet those criteria (e.g. you get caught violating the code) then you get your license taken away. That's what a license is. Almost everywhere in the world, this is true of driving a car. In most parts of the world, it's true of certain professions, such as surgery. It's also true in some places of some activities like recreational hunting and fishing. And in much of the U.S., it's true of massage. There are many different "alternative health and wellness" trades. Some are more regulated than others, and in some places, the regulation is done by licensing. In view of one of the other answers to this question, I want to make something very clear: The purpose of government regulation of trades or professions is NEVER for the protection of members of the trade or profession. The purpose is ALWAYS the protection of the public. Members of the trade or profession benefit indirectly, as another respondent has mentioned, when the government restricts the actions of incompetent or unethical would-be practitioners who would have been economic competition for them. However, that is just a side-effect of regulation--not its intention. As far as feelings go, some people who have licenses to do massage therapy are happy and proud to have the license, because it distinguishes them from people who either don't know what they're doing or don't live up to the state's ethical standard. (This is what the licensing system is intended to do in the first place.) Others dislike the licensing system, and submit to it grudgingly. Perhaps they don't like paying the fee (even though in most places in the U.S. it's under $100 per year), or they feel that it constrains their freedom to practice as they please, or they would prefer for ideological that access to the trade be completely free of regulation.

Massage therapists do not feel that they need a licence everywhere. This depends on the country. In the US massage is quite strictly regulated, but there are countries where massage is practiced without or with less strict licencing requirements. Before you say that this is risky and dangerous, let's look at massage more from a historical perspective.  For example, I live in Thailand where massage is extremely popular. Every village has at least one therapist who is treating the locals. None of them have been licensed. In the olden days the monks in the temples fulfilled the role as therapists and healers, and none of them had a piece of paper to document their abilities. Massage has been practiced in Thailand in this manner for many hundreds of years.  Licensing has become popular in the western world for several reasons. First of all it can keep unqualified people out of the profession and maintain standards. Second it is a good money maker for a number of organizations and schools. Third it is part of an overall trend to regulate and legislate more and more aspects of life and society. This can have good and bad effects. I did mention the good effects already. The bad effects are that there can be a tendency on the part of the massage profession to get so involved with legislation, certification, licensing, scientific evidence requirements which are controlled and managed by people who have never done a hands on massage, that the actual spirit of massage, the feeling, the energy exchange, and the empirical perception of it can pushed to the back seat. It can be a two sided sword with pros and cons, and once you take it out of the context of the US system, there are very different cultural systems with very different interpretations that influence this discussion. Here is an article which attempts to look at this topic in a humorous way: http://www.thaihealingmassage.com/curious-double-standard-in-thai-massage/

Having a license ensures that you are a qualified professional in your field. An unlicensed massage therapist may not have a set standard in terms of hygiene, using appropriate pressure, and applying certain techniques or stretches safely. You put yourself at risk by choosing to see an unlicensed practitioner.

I know the problem from Denmark. There is a quite important difference, when you have a license. A doctor can for example refer to a treatment by a masseur or another therapist. You also get the opportunity to educate others. A masseur with license has in most countries a status as a professional, not as a quack. These are some of the most significant differences between a therapist with or without a license.http://www.amazon.com/Reflexology-learned-quickly-easily-Healthtips-ebook/dp/B012OSCZBM

It's not that practitioners feel they need a license, they are made to have one by the jurisdiction in which they practice. This is no different than a lawyer or a CPA practicing their professions. One can be very good at tax law and tax compliance, but the State requires them to be licensed.Have a look at the link below which explains that licensing requirements are driven by individual state boards:http://www.massagetherapyschoolsinformation.com/massage-school-requirements/

As per usual, Kate has throttled the answer with a visionary and highly detailed approach, but I thought I could add insight as to the barebones of the argument from a broader perspective. In my professional massage journey, I have worked in both medical clinics and hospitals as well wandered the Earth seeking medicine men and healers in indigenous communities alike. That being said, I could never comprehend medical terminology, or the intricate workings of the Western medical side of massage without extensive hours learning anatomy and physiology in addition to the core manual therapy principles, as well as pharmacology and contraindications. Understanding post operation surgical work as a gateway for massage for example would never be offered if I not only didn't understand what the surgery entailed, nor would I know the fundamentals of how to work with the muscles/fascia/scar tissue aspects of the work. In prior posts I've always stated that massage schools and therefore a certification would be how one learns the fundamentals and able to extend that into rather advanced techniques, but it is the real life application and the confidence inherent with any training, that would push an MT to become truly great. With all that being said, I have recieved wildly transformational work from healers and body workers in remote areas in countries of the third world. They generally learn from a teacher, grandparent, elder or are born into the work but I would also call this intuitive healing because they do not have a breadth of anatomical knowledge demanded in the West. In China, one must attend a 3 or 4 year school in a several story hospital setting to begin working as a massage therapist because there is so much history and complexity to advanced work. That being said many people in rural areas simply learned by working with the town healer and no certification is issued. Here's the real deal: You can permanently injure or even kill people if you are not trained. Also, in America especially, you cannot purchase insurance for massage without licensure, which means if you are sued for hurting someone or even dripping oil on a $10,000 carpet that's on you. Plus it's a felony to practice bodywork without a license so the law doesn't allow payment for services rendered, if it involves touch without a license. I have heard stories all over the world about local healers permanently injuring people in a variety of ways. The most common story I've heard is when the pelvis is pressed on with force and the pubic symphasis is injured resulting in the inability to walk for months and subsequent rehabilitation is needed. But it doesn't end there by any means. People are stretched or contorted in ways that cause over extension injuries. Further injury from bones being set improperly. Tendons being snapped from overt force. Neck muscles being over lengthened causing loss of ROM. Bones being pushed on that we're thought to be muscles. Eastern medicine that defied reason or science at the very least and a fulcrum of unprofessional genital touching that was grievously intended from a guru healer or local practitioner. Surely, you get where I'm going with this. The point being is that without some degree of oversight there is no recourse for individuals who have recieved bodily harm from healers of all kinds. For the most part it's pretty harmless, but I've had ribs injured in Thailand and had a woman almost dislocate my jaw in Vietnam by stepping on it with a great deal of weight, amongst all the terrible and nearly injurious work I've recieved from untrained students while supervising in schools. Even recently I've heard a story about a long trained professional injuring a teacher at one of the schools from getting a bit too ambitious with an elbow. None of this work is meant to be taken lightly and despite everyone's best intentions to heal or be healed, an indepth knowledge of anatomy and physiology can prevent most inadvertent side effects. With all that being said, I'm headed to the jungles of Mexico to work with a group of Mayan bone setters who are famous for some crazy indigenous manual therapy techniques. Wish me luck!

I have looked into being a massage therapist and in most states you need a license. However I think it is a scam to require 500 to 700 or more hours of school at a cost of several thousand dollars to give a massage. In my state a license isn't needed and I have had great massages from every place I've been. I give massages and have had no formal training and am told I have magic hands. I've had massages from trained therapists that are terrible. I would think a 100 hours would be sufficient. Just another way for schools to overcharge.