6.1 Breast-Massage Consent and Sexual-Misconduct Rules

Session-specific written consent

The default rule is that a female client's breasts remain draped. Under section 117.91(c), a licensee must obtain a new written consent, signed and dated by the client, before each session in which breast massage of a female client will be performed. The consent can appear on a new consultation document or on a separate document.

The rule is precise about timing, frequency, format, signer, and subject. It must be obtained before the session, repeated for each session, written, signed and dated by the client, and authorize the breast massage. A blanket annual consent or verbal permission does not satisfy it.

Chapter 117 does not add a physician prescription, a chaperone, a special breast-massage certification, a clinical-rationale paragraph, anatomical quadrant map, or nipple rule as an element of this consent. A practitioner may adopt appropriate policies, but the jurisprudence answer should apply the requirements actually stated. The therapist must still be competent, remain within massage scope, honor client safety and privacy, and stop upon withdrawal of consent.

Consultation connection

The initial consultation states that female breasts will be draped and that breast massage requires written consent before each relevant session. If anticipated techniques, body areas, or the breast-massage information changes, the consultation is updated. The session-specific consent may be documented on that updated consultation or separately.

A signed form is not permission for sexual contact. It authorizes breast massage within the lawful professional service. Section 117.92 keeps all sexual behavior prohibited.

What sexual contact includes

For the massage rules, sexual contact includes:

• touching any part of the genitalia or anus;
• touching a female client's breasts unless it is breast massage specifically authorized under section 117.91;
• offering or agreeing to engage in those acts;
• kissing;
• the sexual offenses and prostitution-related conduct listed through the referenced Penal Code chapters, including offers or agreements;
• behavior, gestures, or expressions reasonably interpreted as inappropriately seductive or sexual; and
• inappropriate sexual comments about or to a client, including comments about the person's body.

The definition reaches more than physical touching. A proposition, sexual gesture, or inappropriate comment can violate the rule even when a session never begins.

Duties of the licensee and establishment

A licensee may not engage in sexual contact during a session with a client. A licensee may not allow any individual—including a client, student, employee, another licensee, a CE participant, or the licensee—to engage in sexual contact on the premises of a massage school, establishment, or the licensee's own business.

A licensee may not allow a student, employee, another licensee, or the licensee to practice massage or provide other massage services nude, partially nude, or in clothing designed to arouse or gratify sexual desire. A licensee also may not perform massage, paid or unpaid, at or for a sexually oriented business.

When a client initiates verbal or physical contact intended to arouse or gratify either person's sexual desire, section 117.92(e) requires the licensee to immediately discontinue the massage session, activity, or professional relationship. The rule does not authorize one warning followed by continued massage. Client initiation is not a defense; it is the trigger for immediate discontinuation.

Consequences without exaggeration

A violation can support administrative penalties or sanctions under Chapters 51 and 455 and sections 117.111 and 455.251. Certain convictions, pleas, deferred adjudications, practice at a sexually oriented business, or qualifying events on school or establishment premises trigger mandatory statutory revocation provisions. Other alleged conduct must be evaluated under the governing ground and process.

Do not claim that every documentation mistake automatically proves a crime, causes immediate permanent revocation, or exposes a person to a fixed maximum fine. Criminal liability requires the elements of the applicable criminal statute, and administrative consequences follow their statutory grounds and procedures. The rule violation is serious without inventing automatic results.

Scenarios

Verbal permission for breast massage: insufficient; obtain a new signed and dated writing before that session.

Consent from a spouse: insufficient; the female client receiving the service must sign.

Prior session's consent: insufficient for today's breast massage; obtain a new consent.

Authorized breast massage: lawful only within the consent and professional massage context; genital touching and sexual conduct remain prohibited.

Client proposition: immediately end the session, activity, or professional relationship rather than negotiate or continue after a warning.

Therapist at a sexually oriented business: prohibited even when the therapist volunteers and receives no compensation.

Question-reading sequence

Identify the body area, client described by the rule, existence and date of written consent, conduct's purpose, location, and who initiated it. A question about an unsigned form tests consent. A question about a client's sexual advance tests immediate discontinuation. A question about conduct elsewhere on the premises tests the licensee's duty not to allow it.

Boundary principle

Documentation and draping establish the planned therapeutic relationship. They never convert sexual behavior into a professional service.