Publications

• Setting Boundaries with Inappropriate Clients
• Spa Legal Liability: How to hire well and protect your business
• Sexual Abuse Within the Health Care Field
• Sexuality and Boundary Issues
• Understanding Boundary Violations in the Therapist-Client Relationship
• Sexual Misconduct: An informational brochure for consumers of health care services
• Discovering Your Boundary Issues: Are you in trouble with a client?
• What I've Learned as an Expert Witness: Sexual Abuse in the Treatment Room
• Massage Therapy and Sexual Misconduct: Protecting our clients, ourselves, and our profession
• Clients Crossing Boundaries: Effects, interventions, and prevention techniques

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Dr. Benjamin has served as an expert witness since 2004 on cases involving allegations of sexual assault by massage therapists. He has worked with both plaintiff and defense attorneys, testifying both at trials and depositions, consulting on standards of care, conducting research, and writing reports. He owned a massage therapy school, called the Muscular Therapy Institute (MTI), for 31 years and has served on the Massage Therapy Board of Registration as well as the Board of Podiatry in the state of Massachusetts. Dr. Benjamin has also maintained a private practice working directly with clients since 1963. One of his specialties is working with individuals who have suffered a trauma-whether it be physical, emotional, or sexual. Sexual Abuse In the early 1990s, as allegations of sexual assault in the field began to surface, Dr. Benjamin chaired the first Professional and Sexual Ethics Task Force of American Massage Therapy Associations Council of Schools. For more than 55 years, Dr. Benjamin has designed and led courses in the massage and bodywork field. In addition to teaching his own therapeutic techniques, he has taught extensively throughout the country and also appeared as a panelist on issues related to communication, ethics, boundaries, and working with survivors of trauma. As Founder and President of the Muscular Therapy Institute, Dr. Benjamin made MTI one of the only schools in the United States to incorporate more than 100 mandatory hours of coursework on these topics. In addition, Dr. Benjamin conceived of and co-authored The Ethics of Touch, a book on ethics, sexual trauma, and professional boundaries, that is used as a primary text in massage and bodywork schools throughout the United States and Canada. He has also published multiple articles on sexual abuse in healthcare. Injuries Dr. Benjamin has a Ph.D. in Sports Medicine and has taught courses on the assessment and treatment of musculoskeletal pain and injuries for more than 30 years. He studied under Dr. James Cyriax, commonly regarded as the father of orthopedic medicine. He has authored dozens of articles on this topic for major massage therapy publications, as well as the book Listen to Your Pain, which has been in continuous publication since 1982. Awards & Recognition Massage Therapy Hall of Fame National AMTA President's Award for Service to the Profession Massachusetts AMTA Distinguished Service Award ABMP "Eight Who Matter" Award Books & Monographs Conversation Transformation: Recognize and Overcome the Six Most Destructive Communication Patterns (2012) The Ethics of Touch: A Hands-on Practitioner's Guide to Creating a Professional, Safe, and Enduring Practice (2003) Massage and Bodywork with Survivors of Abuse (1995) Listen to Your Pain: The Active Person's Guide to Understanding, Identifying, and Treating Pain and Injury (1984) Exercise Without Injury (1979) Are You Tense? The Benjamin System of Muscular Therapy (1978)