How do I find a licensed massage therapist?

That varies from state to state. Some states do not have what you call licensing for massage therapists. There is just no classification that requires a license. In Colorado, everybody is certified, not licensed. And so it depends on the state. There aren't actually that many states that have a license as their requirement. When that happens, that's simply a function of the state's laws. It has nothing to do with someone being better than somebody else because they have license. So you have to know what your local state's requirements are to know whether you are going to find a certified person or a licensed person. The way to find somebody nowadays is through websites. Most massage therapists belong to one of two large organizations. There is the ABMP and the AMTA. They both have websites that will list their members. That doesn't guarantee the person knows what you want them to know or that they will even be the quality that you want. But that's a general approach to finding people. I think it's much more useful to find people through local referral. If you were to go to the Yellow Pages you could find people who have advertised there and that's good too. If you could talk to a chiropractor or go to the health store in your local community and ask around there if anybody knows a good massage therapist, that would be a good way to find one. To know who is good and who is not is a hit and miss situation, unless you happen to be able to connect with a therapist through reputation or word of mouth. I used to work at a spa that had a really great reputation, and lots of people could ask just about anybody who lived in that town where they could find a great massager in the spa; they would often recommend that place.