Board
Bettina Dornics
- Chairperson of the Tantra Massage Association.
Wiebke Heuchert
- Vice-Chairperson
Smita, Birgit Stehle
- Vice-Chairperson
- voluntary Managing Director of the Tantra Massage Association
Mission Statement
Preamble
The use of touch during the tantra massage contributes to the process of making the guest's senses more sensitive and intensifying their perception of their body. In turn, this helps them to develop a happier, deeper and more peaceful contact to themselves and other people.
Tantra massage allows for the rediscovery of flowing, powerful breathing, one's own lust and the untainted expression of one's feelings.
Aims and Objectives of the Association
The Association works towards the cultivation, development and proliferation of tantra massage as a culturally and socially valuable proficiency in ritual sensuality.
In addition, the Association promotes professional training and supports trained tantra massage practitioners in all issues surrounding their professional practice of tantra massage.
Of equal importance to the Association's Members are: mutual support in professional issues such as team-work, management and future planning; quality assurance for tantra massage; and further development of the massage.
The Association also aims to participate in the shaping of cultural opinion-forming processes with regards to sensuality and sexuality.
Ethics and Values
The Members of the Tantra Massage Association (TMA) share a basic assumption that affirms sexual energy as a primary force within humans and essential to life itself. The foundation of the TMA's work is a full acceptance and appreciation of the nature of women and the nature of men. TMA Members assume that human beings are capable of self-healing and self-development.
The Tantra Massage Association works to ensure that our society creates and cultivates economic, social and cultural opportunities for a fulfilled sexuality.
Fulfilled sexuality is part of a successful and good life. The following aspects are helpful for this: thorough knowledge of the biological aspects of human sexuality; affirmation of personal lust and joy; perceptive ability, sensitivity and skilfulness with regard to sensual contact with oneself and other people. Tantra massage honours humans in their entirety as body, mind and soul. Its ethos teaches joy, dignity, being considerate, attentive and careful, taking care of others and showing them respect, openness, and also our ability and courage to decide for ourselves what is good for us.
Core Competencies
Members of the Association have a comprehensive knowledge about tantra massage including essential aspects such as intimacy, safety and revering and awakening the senses.
The Members' work is characterised by regular exchanges of ideas and feelings, continuous professional development and spirited teamwork.
This ensures that working as a tantra massage practitioner remains exciting, challenging and versatile.
TMA Members are aware of the healing effect of holistic touch when the whole body is included.
Every Member enriches the working atmosphere with their own tantric and spiritual experiences and personal growth.
We are aware of our own limitations and strengths and cultivate integrity when dealing with the limits of massage guests.
Quality Management
Members are committed to behaving with integrity, to full transparency surrounding the services they provide, and to compliance with the quality guidelines prescribed by the Association.
Members supervise and support the tantra massage practitioners working in their institutes, both in the practical aspects of the tasks they have to perform and in their attitude to their massage work. An important aspect here is to ensure participation in regular further training and professional supervision.
The quality guidelines also cover the massage rooms and fittings, hygiene, advertising and the public image of the institutes.
Definition of Tantra Massage
The tantra massage is a comprehensive ritual during which the whole body, including the genital areas, is massaged and honoured in a harmonic and natural way. It offers the massage recipient the chance for a direct experience and further unfolding of the potential of their sensual-sexual life force. The aims of the tantra massage are an overall feeling of relaxation and an inclusive, whole-body experience of orgastic energy, which is awakened right from the beginning of the massage, maintained and distributed throughout the body. A tantra massage should last at least one hour and can be extended to last two or three hours. It can also be performed by two tantra massage practitioners simultaneously.
A professional tantra massage is and shall remain a massage. Therefore it shall take place within a clearly defined framework:
The massage practitioner shall act authentically in the presence of the massage guest.
The massage practitioner is committed to sexual ethics. This means they do not take advantage of any possible sexual longing felt by the massage guest nor do they express their own sexual needs during the massage.
The massage practitioner creates a space which enables the massage guest to experience their own sensuality and their own sexual feelings. The practitioner holds this space during the massage and observes its borders and limits with mutual respect.
The Sources of Our Skills and Knowledge
Tantra
The most significant ideas in Tantra can be traced back to the core ideas within Indian philosophy. However, they are less concerned with abstract speculation; rather, they elaborate and explain practical paths and methods that lead to enlightenment.
A human's sexual energy is honoured and respected as a natural expression of divine, spiritual, creative forces and the human body is accordingly honoured and respected as the temple of the soul.
Tantra accepts the person in their entirety.
It weaves together the apparent opposites of good and evil, spirituality and sexuality, body and spirit. In this regard it is a non-dualistic approach.
Neotantra
The term 'neotantra' was coined in connection with the Indian mystic Osho. In the 1970s, Osho was one of the first people to establish tantric ideas in the West by making them accessible and comprehensible for Westerners.
He explained and interpreted the ancient Indian and Tibetan scriptures, which even in Asia had previously only been accessible to a few insiders.
Neotantra is a creative blend of Eastern wisdom teachings and Western approaches from pyschotherapy and body-centred therapy. Its aim is to enable a direct experience of the connection between spirituality and sexuality.
The tantra massage was created by Andro Andreas Rothe in the 1970s. His massage was extended and further developed by various neotantra schools.
Further influences came from the theologian and sexual researcher Dr Joseph Kramer from Oakland, California (1984). Kramer created a form of spiritual, erotic bodywork based on tantric and taoist teachings. Its primary focus was breath and massage work, with the lingam massage being an important component (i.e. the massage of the male genitals). Working together with Annie Sprinkle, he then developed the female counterpart: the yoni massage. Further theoretical roots of the tantra massage can be traced back to the work of Wilhelm Reich, Alexander Lowen and Mantak Chia.
Further sources:
Knowledge of anatomy and the ways the human mind and body work is essential and should be incorporated into the massage. In addition, various other holistic teachings provide inspiration, e.g.:
- the system of meridians from TCM (traditional Chinese medicine)
- Quodoushka (shamanic, spiritual sexuality)
- Taoist teachings on sexuality as a foundation for health, creativity and spirituality
- character / body types according to Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen
Training
Responsible professional work requires a high degree of specialist skill.
Tantra massage practitioners have all completed training that fulfils the Training Guidelines of the Tantric Massage Association and are obliged to undergo continuous further training.
Membership
Any natural or legal person may become a Member or Supporting Member of the Association if they have completed a course of tantra massage training recognised by the Association and / or agree with the Aims and Objectives of the Assocation.
Every voting Member is obliged to actively contribute to the work of one of the working groups within the Association.
top ˆStatutes
The TMA is a registered charitable association with the official German name Tantramassage Verband e.V. (TMV). Its statutes are only available in German.
top ˆStandards
General Standards to be Upheld by the Members of the Tantra Massage Association
Preamble
Tantra massage practitioners have a duty to increase their knowledge about people and use their skills and knowledge to benefit both their individual guests and society as a whole. They respect the dignity and integrity of the individual and are committed to the respect and protection of fundamental human rights.
Responsible professional work requires a high degree of specialist skill. Tantra massage practitioners are therefore obliged to engage in continual professional development and ensure they are up to date concerning relevant specialist knowledge. They offer only the services which their training or specialist experience qualifies them to deliver. Our business takes place in a field of activity for which scientifically recognised standards are not yet available. So tantra massage practitioners base their work on general principles of scientific integrity, regularly checking the success of their interventions. At the same time, they take all necessary measures to ensure the well-being of all the people they work with.
The TMA guidelines are binding regulations to ensure the professional behaviour of tantra massage practitioners. They apply to more than just the professional context in a narrow sense. Rather, they should be understood as general guidelines for how to behave in all of life's situations as a tantra massage practitioner.
The joint guidelines of the TMA are an expression of the professional self-image for tantra massage practitioners. They offer practitioners a valid orientation for their practical work and set standards to enable a transparent determination of the quality of their work. In this way, the following rules serve to ensure internal order within the profession and enable appropriate sanctions where standards are not complied with.
General Guidelines for the Rooms, Fittings and Way of Working in Member Institutes of the Tantra Massage Association (TMA)
1. Rooms and fittings
A massage institute within the TMA should have its own dedicated business rooms. The premises have to have an anteroom or corridor, one or more massage rooms, and a functioning shower and WC. The massage rooms must have daylight, this is not obligatory for the other rooms. The premises must be cleaned on a daily basis. The massage institutes in the TMA should offer every guest fresh, clean and hygienic towels and massage sheets.
2. Advertising and institute signs
Each member of the TMA has their massage institute listed on the TMA webpage. This listing includes a permanent address and the full name of at least one responsible person. TMA massage institutes should display a sign that clearly identifies them as an alternative massage practice. If this is not the case, at least the name on the doorbell should refer to the massage institute. Private apartments or rooms that appear to be private accommodation are not admissible as TMA institute premises. TMA members providing massage are recommended to avoid using provocative or suggestive imagery in their advertising. Advertising copy and images from other massage institutes should not be used without permission. All advertising should include transparent and binding information regarding the price and duration of massages. It is not permitted to charge supplementary fees or to add extra charges after the massage.
3. Massages
A TMA massage institute offers tantra massages. The tantra massage is an in-depth whole-body massage which includes massage of the genital areas. The client receiving the massage is naked.
A TMA massage institute is permitted to offer types of massages if these are clearly identified as such and not sold as tantra massages.
Institutes who offer sexual services such as sexual intercourse or any form of sexual exchange in a wider sense will not be accepted as TMA members. The TMA will also refuse membership to massage providers who offer any massage which includes massage of the genital area but which has a duration of less than one hour.
Where an institute applies to be a TMA member and the massage activity of the candidate institute is determined to be in line with the TMA guidelines for tantra massage, a test visit will be made. After receiving payment of an inspection fee and a preliminary dialogue, the TMA Board will commission a massage client to visit the candidate institute anonymously for a test massage and subsequently report to the Board. The inspection fee shall cover the costs of one massage and a fixed sum for travel expenses.
4. Further training
TMA massage institutes must provide evidence of annual training for their workers amounting to at least 20 hours. The contents of these training sessions have to be demonstrably relevant to the tantra massage. The TMA massage institutes shall report their training activities to the Board. This enables all bodies within the TMA to make long-term recommendations and develop training courses and thereby contribute to the ongoing quality assurance for tantra massage in general.
5. Ethical guidelines
Tantra massage serves to increase people's well-being and personal growth, so its aims are comparable to medical and remedial treatments and services. TMA member institutes commit themselves to dealing with their clients in an attentive and respectful way. Tantra massage practitioners commit themselves to behaving in accordance with § 203 StGB (law regarding confidentiality) and to maintain silence about anything they experience or hear during their professional activity, insofar as there is no law which dictates an exception or a legally protected interest which is threatened.
The massage is available to any person. In particular, no massage shall be refused to anyone on grounds of their race, religion or ethnicity. Nor shall anyone be excluded on grounds of their particular physical features, such as disabilities.
6. Statement about colleagues and other occupational groups
Tantra massage practitioners owe their fellow practitioners respect and should not engage in non-objective criticism of their professional activity. Tantra massage practitioners should not attempt to exclude other colleagues from their professional field or divest them of their contracts by means of unfair actions. Tantra massage practitioners who believe they have observed unprofessional conduct by other practitioners should initially make these colleagues aware of this in a confidential manner. Instigating legal proceedings such as for defamation, libel or slander, taking out an injunction or officially reporting unfair practices should only be considered after contacting the TMA Board and requesting a decision from the Association.
Where tantra massage practitioners employ other practitioners either as employees or on a freelance basis, these should be offered contracts appropriate to the profession and the agreed professional activities. Where tantra massage practitioners engage other employees or casual staff, these should have suitable working conditions and be offered contracts appropriate to their required tasks.
top ˆBecoming a Member
Dear Colleagues
There is a wide range of advantages to be gained when reputable massage institutes work together, in particular with regard to:
- further development of binding quality criteria for tantra massages
- national PR work
- recommendations and exchange of further training
- an annual meeting, contacts, getting to know other institutes
If you consider yourself as a reputable provider of tantra massages, we would like to invite you to join us. Please read the list of standards we require our members to comply with. These standards are subject to continual further development by our members. Our association is not set up to make a profit.
A good association relies on the commitment and active participation of its members so we would welcome your contribution.
or send us a request by post:
Tantramassage-Verband
c/o Birgit Stehle
Leibnizstr. 16
04105 Leipzig
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