therapist to provide an environment that is secure and safe. Clients put trust in the therapist to always act in the client's best interests. A safe environment is a central goal in developing a therapeutic relationship. The therapist creates a place where any client is safe enough to be vulnerable, to be open, to release, to relax; a place of trust or a safe haven in which to unwind. The client assumes 5 there is safety from physical, emotional, or sexual impropriety. If the therapist respects these client rights, ethics are respected and both the client and the practitioner are protected. With Informed Consent massage clients need to be able to make a decision as to whether they want you to work on them and what they want you to do. This is informed consent. They must be given enough information, such as: what are the goals and purpose of the session, what are the possible consequences of the treatment, what risks are involved, what are the possible benefits of a treatment, how much time will the treatment take, how much money will the treatment cost and how will it be paid for. With this information, a client will be able to determine if they want the treatment for themselves or do they refuse the treatment. Patients have a fundamental right to direct what happens to their bodies, grounded in the principles of autonomy and respect for persons. In turn, health care professionals have an ethical obligation to involve patients in a process of shared decision making and to seek patients’ informed consent for treatments and procedures. Good informed consent practices, thus, are an essential component of ethics quality in health care. The goal of the informed consent process is to ensure that patients have an opportunity to be informed participants in decisions about their health care. To achieve that goal practitioners must inform the patient (or authorized surrogate) about treatment options and alternatives, including the risks and benefits of each, providing the information that a “reasonable person” in similar circumstances would want to know in making the treatment decision. A key element of the process is that the practitioner must explain why he or she believes recommended treatments or procedures will be more beneficial than alternatives in the context of the patient’s diagnosis. Massage clients have the right to refuse the service for any reason at any time. If they determine that the session should be stopped right in the middle, their needs must be respected. Be aware that a session interrupted before completed may also cause a problem in the financial agreement. Does the client owe for the whole time? This same right also applies for the practitioner. You can end a session at any time, for any reason. The bottom line is to work on only people who are nurturing to you and do not drain your energy. If your mother just died of lung cancer it may not be advisable to work on someone who smokes. Scope of practice refers to massage therapists’ area of competence, usually obtained through formal study, training, and/or professional experience, and one for which they’ve received certification or other proof of qualification. Unlike other standardized training programs or fields of study, schools of professional massage therapy and state requirements vary significantly in the number of necessary hours of study and curriculum. Some schools provide substantial training in specialized procedures, such as lymphatic- drainage techniques or hydrotherapy, while others may only touch upon these subjects, if they are discussed at all. 6 Massage therapists who choose to provide services they are not appropriately trained or competent in is a dangerous personal decision that undermines the profession and may carry weighty legal implications. Personal level of discretion and ethical standards will largely determine the manner in which massage therapists advertise their services, describe their education and professional experience, and list credentials. Therapists must decide if they can rightfully claim substantive experience in a discipline for which they’ve attended a three-hour workshop or watched a series of instructional videos, or when they can properly call themselves an expert in one modality or another. Misrepresenting one’s educational achievements, credentials, or abilities is a serious breach of responsibility that endangers client safety and reflects poorly on the massage profession as a whole. If a subject is outside massage therapists’ area of expertise, they should not hesitate to say so. The therapist should then direct the client to the appropriate informational resources or professional services. Massage therapists should make sure any information or suggestions they pass along are supported by the professional community and recent research findings, and are appropriate and safe for the client. Confidentiality in the therapist/client relationship is the foundation of safety, protection, trust, and respect. A massage client’s information, both written and verbal belongs to the client. It helps to provide an environment for the client to relax, open, release, transform, and heal. The obligation to ensure patient privacy is rooted in the ethical principle of respect for persons. Massage Therapists convey that respect in a few ways with regard to privacy. They respect patient’s informational privacy by limiting access to patient information to