FAQs

• Massage Therapy Certificate
• Minimum 650 hours of massage therapy training to include:

1. 1. 165 hours of Anatomy and Physiology (including Kinesiology and 40 hours of Pathology)
   2. 150 hours of Massage Therapy instruction (including Contraindications)
   3. 75 hours of General Instruction (to include 8 hours of Hydrotherapy, 20 hours of Business, 30 hours of Professional Ethics, a minimum of 4 hours of First Aid, and a minimum of 4 hours of CPR).

Yes, from an accredited institution or college. The school should send a completed Form A along with your official transcripts.

Meet the board’s minimum education requirements; complete the massage therapist application; and pay temporary license and other fees. The temporary license is issued for a period of three months and cannot be extended. The applicant for temporary license must not have previously sat for any national certification examination for therapeutic massage and bodywork.

New Mexico requires a national examination, either the NCE/NCETMB, offered by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork or the MBLEx, offered by the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards.

You must contact these agencies to sign up for the exam. The Federation can be reached at 1-866-962-3926 or at mblex@fsmtb.org and the National Certification Board can be reached at 1-800-296-0664 or at info@ncbtmb.com.

A state Jurisprudence examination The State Jurisprudence exam will be provided to you when your application for licensure is received by the board office.

Yes. You may upload the exam score directly to your application under document uploads.

The application approval process may take up 2 weeks once all documents have been received and the application has been deemed complete.

No. You must be licensed by the New Mexico Massage Therapy Board in order to practice massage therapy as a massage therapist in New Mexico.

If you have an account with NM-PLUS, login to your portal and select “My Licenses” from the top taskbar. Your license will populate in a table. Select the arrow under “action,” and “request duplicate.”

Address changes requests can also be made by logging into your portal and selecting on your profile icon to edit your profile information, including your address.

Complete a minimum of 4 hours of ethics training as part of the 16-hour requirement for each renewal period. A minimum of 8 hours of live, in-person training that can consist of massage related live webinars/zooms from approved continuing education. Refer to 16.7.1.7 (L) NMAC).

Licenses and Registrations expire every two years on October 31. Renewal notices are emailed approximately 75 days prior to the expiration date noted on the license. If you do not receive your renewal notice, contact the board office to make sure we have your correct/current email address.

All providers are acceptable for CPR, First Aid, and AED Certification.

Your license is placed on inactive status for a period not to exceed two years. At the end of two years, if the license has not been reactivated, it will automatically expire.