Every year at renewal, RMTs who hold a General Certificate are asked if they have provided a minimum of 500 hours of direct client care in the previous three years (the client care requirement). CMTO’s Direct Client Care Policy provides guidance about the hours that can be counted.

The client care requirement helps ensure that practising RMTs are keeping their knowledge, skill and judgment up-to-date. If a General Certificate holder doesn’t meet the requirement, they cannot practise until they have completed CMTO’s Refresher Course.

CMTO has been asked how to interpret the provision in the Direct Client Care Policy related to conducting or supervising research. Direct client care hours can include hours spent by RMT researchers conducting or supervising a clinical research study in Massage Therapy that involves the treatment of clients. For this purpose, “conducting” means providing treatment to clients as part of a clinical research study and “supervising” means providing supervision to an RMT who is treating clients as part of a research study. The time an RMT spends conducting personal research to better understand or treat a client’s condition cannot be counted as part of an RMT’s 500 hours.

For more information about the direct client care requirement, please contact registrationservices@cmto.com.