Over the past year, I have been actively engaged in advocacy and policy-focused work within Ontario’s massage therapy profession, with a particular emphasis on practitioner safety, trauma-informed regulation, and institutional accountability.

What began as a personal effort to understand and address gaps in safety protocols, discharge guidance, and reporting pathways has evolved into broader public-interest advocacy examining how regulated health systems respond to practitioner harm, sexualized patient misconduct, and power imbalances within professional governance.

In early 2025, I launched a public petition calling for clearer alignment between regulatory expectations and the Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA), including explicit recognition of practitioner discharge rights, accessible reporting processes, and safeguards to prevent harm from being transferred to other practitioners. As this work progressed, the petition was updated to reflect a wider focus on systemic prevention, transparency, and accountability, rather than isolated policy changes.

During this period, the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario implemented updates to its Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice that clarified a practitioner’s ability to refuse or discontinue treatment in cases of abusive or sexualized behaviour. While these updates represent an important step forward, meaningful safety requires more than permissive language alone.

This ongoing advocacy now focuses on ensuring that regulatory change is proactive rather than reactive, trauma-informed rather than discretionary, and supported by clear guidance, education, and transparency so that practitioners are not left to navigate safety risks in isolation.