Listening Field: Trauma-Informed Ethics for Massage Therapists

Listening Field: Trauma-Informed Ethics is a 5-hour, fully online, interactive course bundle that weaves trauma stewardship, nervous system awareness, practical ethics, and cultural competency into everyday massage practice.

Participants will explore how trauma shows up in the treatment room, how to honor clients' stories without taking them on as their own, and how to protect their own well-being while offering safe, skillful touch.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define trauma stewardship and explain its relevance to massage therapy ethics, professional boundaries, and scope of practice under Oregon law.

• Identify early indicators of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue as ethical risk factors that may impair judgment, boundaries, or professional conduct, and evaluate appropriate scope-consistent responses.

• Describe how trauma exposure may affect client safety, trust, informed consent, and regulation within massage therapy sessions, and articulate the ethical responsibilities of the massage therapist in these situations.

• Apply trauma-informed principles—including safety, choice, collaboration, empowerment, and cultural humility—within ethical, legal, and scope-appropriate boundaries of massage therapy, without providing trauma treatment or mental health intervention.

In Module 5 — CENTER (Cultural Competency), participants will also be able to:

• Demonstrate cultural humility through reflective inquiry and increased awareness of power dynamics, bias, and ethical responsibility in therapeutic relationships.

• Integrate cultural competency and trauma-informed ethics into a personal ethics action plan that supports client safety, professional judgment, referral responsibility, and sustainable, lawful practice.

CE Hours Breakdown

• 4 Ethics CE Hours

(Modules 1–4: Earth, Water, Fire, Air)

• 1 Cultural Competency CE Hour

(Module 5 — CENTER: Reflective Practice & Cultural Humility)

This course fulfills ethics continuing education requirements and does not qualify as self-care, personal growth, or wellness education.

All hours are NCBTMB approved. Meets Oregon supervised ethics CE requirements and ethics/cultural competency CE hours accepted nationwide.

All modules must be completed to receive full credit.

This downloadable guide provides everything you need to access Listening Field: Trauma-Informed Ethics for Massage Therapists, a 5-hour continuing education course that includes 4 Ethics CE hours and 1 Cultural Competency CE hour.

Inside this PDF, you’ll find:

• Your Canvas enrollment link and course join code

• Clear instructions for starting the course immediately

• An overview of course format, supervision, and completion requirements

• Information about certificate issuance and technical requirements

The course is fully online, self-paced, and delivered through Canvas, a secure learning management system used by colleges and professional training programs.

• Each course is completed separately

• CE certificates are issued upon completion of each course

• Certificates reflect the specific CE category and hours completed

• Certificates are delivered electronically, typically same day or within 24-48 hours (excluding holidays)

This course is designed for:

• Licensed massage therapists fulfilling ethics CE requirements

• Practitioners seeking clarity around boundaries and professional conduct

• Therapists navigating complex client dynamics or ethical uncertainty

• Bodyworkers committed to ethical integrity and reflective practice

• Practitioners renewing licensure who prefer structured, thoughtful CE coursework

No prior coursework is required.

This course is a professional ethics training for licensed massage therapists. It does not train therapists to diagnose, treat, or process psychological trauma, nor does it provide mental health counseling or psychotherapy instruction.

All discussion of trauma-informed awareness, regulation, or practitioner response is presented strictly in service of ethical decision-making, scope-appropriate practice, informed consent, referral responsibility, and client safety.

This course emphasizes professional judgment, boundaries, and lawful practice—not personal self-care or therapeutic intervention.

Melissa Haeckel, MA, LMT

Melissa Haeckel is a licensed massage therapist, somatic educator, and nurse with over 20 years of experience. Her work integrates clinical training with ethical awareness, somatic education, and professional development for bodywork practitioners.

Through Listening Field Training, she offers continuing education focused on ethics, professional boundaries, and thoughtful therapeutic practice.

Enrollment in this course constitutes agreement with Listening Field Training’s Course Policies, including digital access, refund, intellectual property, and professional conduct terms.

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