North Dakota Massage Therapy Law: Statutory Framework
What Chapter 43-25 Governs
North Dakota Century Code chapter 43-25 creates the Board of Massage Therapy and makes massage therapy a licensed profession. The exam tests the statutory layer: who must hold a license, what the license authorizes, who is exempt, and what conduct triggers discipline. The Board adopts administrative rules, but the statute supplies the definitions and penalties.
Core Rules
- A person may not practice massage therapy or use the title "massage therapist," "licensed massage therapist," or "LMT" without a current North Dakota license. Practice without a license is a statutory violation, not merely a rule infraction.
- "Massage therapy" means manual soft-tissue techniques - stroking, kneading, friction, pressure, vibration, percussion - applied for therapeutic purposes. It does not include diagnosis, prescription, spinal adjustment, joint manipulation, or invasive procedures.
- Exemptions are narrow: physicians, nurses, chiropractors, physical therapists, and other licensed health professionals acting within their own scope, and students enrolled in an approved program while under supervision.
- The Board may deny, suspend, or revoke a license for fraud in application, unprofessional conduct, practicing beyond scope, impairment, or certain criminal convictions.
Worked Example
A licensee advertises "chiropractic adjustments and massage" and tells a client she has a "subluxation." The massage itself is within scope, but diagnosis and spinal adjustment are not. The exemption for chiropractors does not apply because the licensee is not a chiropractor. Reasoning: the conduct is outside the statutory definition and constitutes unprofessional conduct; the Board can discipline, and the advertising is misleading.
Traps
Do not treat a local business license as authority to practice. Do not assume the word "massage" in another profession's statute creates a broad exemption. Do not confuse the Board's rulemaking power with the statute's penalty provisions.