Charlotte* has spent more than five years trying to forget what happened to her two weeks before her wedding.
The memories were blurry, she said, but some moments remained clear.
Like the charm of the man behind the counter, Kristen Briggs, and the "friendly" appearance of his business.
"It disarmed me," she said. "I booked in for a week later to go in to have this massage."
Briggs had worked as a massage therapist in an allied health clinic in Melbourne's north for years.
Court documents show that the then 42-year-old suggested a lymphatic drainage massage to help Charlotte release fluid retention before her wedding.
"I had been trying to lose weight for this wedding as most brides do. I thought great, a silver bullet, sign me up," she said.
"The day I came in … he was really lovely. And the massage began and it was just like a normal massage."
But near the end of the massage, Briggs digitally raped Charlotte. Earlier this year he was sentenced to three years in prison with a non-parole period of one year and eight months, with the court accepting he was at low risk of reoffending.
"Afterwards I just remember feeling disconnected from my body. I couldn't think straight," Charlotte said.
"I felt like my soul had left my body in a way. I just remember shaking."
What followed was like mental torture, she said.
"I didn't want to believe it. I went into this frenzy of research and I started Googling. I wanted to find evidence to say 'you're just overreacting, this was professional conduct'," she said.
"The more I searched, the less I found, the more I found that my fears were confirmed."
Charlotte said she contemplated suicide and couldn't bring herself to tell her fiancé until the next day.
"I was so humiliated," she said.
"I was so embarrassed, I was still in shock and I didn't want to say anything to anyone until I had concrete evidence."
She said she talked to a counsellor at an after-hours sexual assault hotline who confirmed what had happened to her was wrong.
She also spoke to the Association of Massage Therapists, who told her they would check to see if Briggs was registered with them.
He wasn't. Charlotte was horrified.
"The regulation board was not compulsory, it was optional. Which was really shocking, really disappointing," she said.
Charlotte had believed there was robust regulation around massage therapy, just like in her work as a psychologist.
"This has lit a fire in me," she said.
"I am so angry.
"I'm just outraged that there are these people out there that don't need to be qualified … that aren't regulated. There is this unbalanced power dynamic."
Industry leaders push for regulation of 'massage therapist' title
In Victoria, massage therapy is classed as a general health service, so practitioners do not have to be registered, allowing anyone to call themselves a massage therapist.
Practitioners are subject to the general code of conduct within the Health Complaints Act, which requires them to provide services in a safe and ethical manner.
The Association of Massage Therapists (AMT) is a national voluntary membership organisation aiming to professionalise the industry.
The group mirrors what registered professional bodies do, with policies for members such as 20 hours of annual professional development.
AMT spokesperson Rebecca Barnett said more regulation was needed to deal with the issue of sexual assault, which was being increasingly raised with her association.
"We'd receive somewhere between three to five inquiries a year from members of the public, but on top of that, we also get contacted by the police about cases where they require expert witness evidence to be presented at court," Ms Barnett said.
"Unfortunately, that has been steadily increasing over the years."
Sexual assault in massage industry 'surprisingly common'
Kathleen Maltzahn, chief executive of Sexual Assault Services Victoria, said reports of sexual assault and rape carried out by massage therapists was "a surprisingly common issue".
"Members across the state said that it's not surprising to them. And this is every part of the state, not just metropolitan Melbourne," Ms Maltzahn said.
Victoria's Health Complaints Commissioner (HCC) Bernice Redley said since November 2019, she had received 64 complaints about myotherapy and massage practitioners.
Half of those complainants alleged sexual misconduct occurred.
"In some cases, multiple complaints were received about the same provider and were investigated," Dr Redley said.
Six investigations by the HCC led to interim or permanent prohibition orders.
If orders issued by the HCC are broken it can lead to criminal prosecution.
But there is no requirement for the courts or police to inform the HCC when a massage therapist has been prosecuted for sexual assault or rape.
The HCC does its own monitoring, but relies on the public to contact it with complaints or concerns.
Issue brought up in parliament decades ago
The issue of regulating the massage industry has been simmering for years.
In 2004, Victorian parliamentary records show then-member for Brighton, Louise Asher, pushed for the government to investigate the massage industry after a masseuse in her area was convicted of rape.
The member told parliament the judge in that case remarked it was "an extraordinary situation that in an industry involving medical implications, that anybody can purport to treat patients who are virtually naked".
Ms Asher said the judge recommended the government look at regulating the industry — but government ministers responded that self-regulation was best and there would not be sufficient benefit to regulating the industry.
'Higher bar for entry' needed in massage industry
Ms Barnett wants to see the title of "massage therapist" legally restricted to those with appropriate qualifications.
"At the moment, anybody could call themselves a massage therapist and you can imagine that makes it very difficult for members of the public to know what they're signing up for when they book an appointment," Ms Barnett said.
She said the intimacy of the service set it apart from other health professions.
"There are fairly specific vulnerabilities; being in an enclosed quiet room with just two people and one of whom — the one who's seeking treatment — is semi naked, generally," she said.
"That means that I think a higher bar and some sort of barrier to entry is very significant."
Another option the association has suggested is the creation of a public register that includes a therapist's qualifications, years in practice and any complaints made against them or their business.
Ms Maltzahn from Sexual Assault Services Victoria said a more formal regulation of the industry would help, but no system was perfect.
Ms Barnett from the AMT said all regulation came with an increase in costs, but she said most of that was likely to be absorbed by the therapist.
For Charlotte, the last five years had been incredibly difficult.
She's been able to slowly get back to her "nice, happy, quiet life" with help from her family, but said she would never be able to completely move past what happened to her.
"I want change," she said.
"I want victims of sexual assault to be taken seriously in any situation, but particularly in this situation, which could easily be rectified which could easily be regulated with some legislation."
*Name has been changed to protect privacy
