Massage License Requirements in Rhode Island
Verified against Rhode Island Department of Health, Board of Massage Therapy · 2026-07-24 · verified by agent
Rhode Island's 800-hour training requirement is sourced from RI Dept. of Health — Massage Therapists Regulation (216-RICR-40-05-10, current), verified 2026-07-24. Its required exam — MBLEx (Massage and Bodywork Licensing Examination) — comes from the same source.
Compiled and verified against primary state-board sources by GetMassageLicense — cite-or-deny, with no invented figures. How we source & verify →
Rhode Island requires a state-issued massage therapist license from the Rhode Island Department of Health before anyone may practice massage therapy. Effective for applications filed on or after January 1, 2026, initial licensure requires 800 hours of in-class, hands-on coursework and clinical work (up from a previous 650-hour standard), plus passing the MBLEx. Licenses renew annually, and the Department of Health reports its continuing-education requirement recently increased from 6 to 24 hours.
Rhode Island Massage License Requirements
| Licensing Authority | Rhode Island Department of Health, Board of Massage Therapy (RIDOH) |
| Title | Massage Therapist |
| Training Hours | 800 hours |
| Exam | MBLEx (Massage and Bodywork Licensing Examination) (Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB)) |
| Renewal Period | 1 year |
Fee Breakdown
| Initial License Fee | $65 |
| Renewal Fee (every 1 year) | $65 |
Recommended MBLEx exam prep
Formal prep pays for itself against a $265 retake. These are the resources we point candidates to for the MBLEx (Massage & Bodywork Licensing Examination).
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Mometrix · SponsoredMBLEx Secrets Study GuideFull-length practice tests and step-by-step review for the Massage & Bodywork Licensing Examination.See the study guide →
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Mometrix · SponsoredMBLEx Online Prep CourseA guided video course with instructor-led lessons, quizzes, and a study plan for the MBLEx — a subscription option for a more structured review.See the course →Continuing Education
24 hours every 2 years, confirmed with no dedicated ethics-hour carve-out.
RIDOH's current licensing page states continuing-education requirements 'have increased from 6 to 24' hours, to be completed during the reporting period of 07/01/2025 through 06/30/2027, even though the license itself still renews annually (expires each June 30). The codified regulation (216-RICR-40-05-10, effective 03/20/2024) still shows the older figure of '6 continuing education units (annually)' — this conflict between the live departmental page and the codified rule text is flagged for human review rather than silently resolved. No ethics-specific CE-hour carve-out was found in either version; ethics appears only as an example elective topic, and licensees are separately required to follow the NCBTMB Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice (incorporated by reference in the regulation).
Licensure by Endorsement
Applicants already licensed in another state may submit equivalent credentials for initial licensure rather than repeating all Rhode Island-specific requirements.
Sources
Source Notes
Where a source is stale, conflicting, or required a judgment call, we document it here rather than presenting a single confident-sounding number. See our methodology for how these calls are made.
- Rhode Island's continuing-education requirement recently increased from 6 to 24 hours per renewal period. The codified regulation text still shows the older 6-hour figure, but the Department of Health's current licensing page confirms 24 hours is now in effect — that's the figure we use.
- Rhode Island's training-hour requirement increased from 650 to 800 hours for applications filed on or after January 1, 2026. We use the current 800-hour figure.
Data last verified: 2026-07-24 (verified by: agent) | Source: RI Dept. of Health — Massage Therapists Regulation (216-RICR-40-05-10, current)