Massage Therapy Journal Fall 2025

Fall 2025 • 83

John Balletto (MTF President 2000–2006) and Diana Thompson (MTF President 2006–2010) joined Asta at the conclusion of the opening session, and Ruth Werner (MTF President 2010–2014) added her reflections to the conversations at the session close of days two and three. These conversations had two primary goals: discussion of take-away points from the day’s talks and, perhaps even more importantly, consideration of how what was learned could be applied to real world massage therapy practice. One of my very favorite IMTRC 2025 moments came at the close of opening session when Asta was surprised to learn she was being awarded the 2025 John Balletto Distinguished Service Award for her 10-plus years of dedicated volunteer work through the MTF. A contributing factor of significant note was Asta’s stewardship of a generous anonymous client donation of $70,000 for IMTRC 2025. The awarding of this recognition was particularly special because it was presented by none other than John Balletto himself. Research and Conversation Take Center Stage Beyond the keynote and plenary sessions, general programming and reflective conversations, IMTRC 2025 included 20 unique and competitively selected or invited encore poster presentations, as well as

eight other distinct one- to two-hour massage therapy research-focused sessions ranging from in-depth research presentation symposiums to an audience interactive “debate” exploring public health, palliative care and rehabilitation as possible disciplinary homes for therapeutic massage research. IMTRC 2025’s concluding activity involved the first convening of MassageNet, the only international PBRN focused exclusively on massage therapy and real-world massage therapy clinical practice. Initially begun in primary care, PBRNs are voluntary collectives of clinician or clinic constituents interested in contributing to, developing or conducting research within practice settings. PBRNs help facilitate the development and conduct of practice-based research, which is extremely important in the development of practice based evidence. PBRNs also seek to address another inherent research challenge within applied, clinical disciplines: the connection between treatment populations, clinicians and researchers, as well as the required human capital and resourced, supportive infrastructure to run clinical practice and conduct research. The MassageNet convening event served several purposes, including orienting and updating current and potential MassageNet constituents

IMTRC 2025 treated attendees to a wide variety of continuing education opportunities, as well as time to network and reconnect.

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