Massage Therapist Asked To Provide Illegal Acts

It might sound like something you'd only find in a big city, but a massage therapist says clients asking for sexual favors happens more often than you'd think.

"I've hired teenaged receptionist in the afternoons.  I've had to explain to them why gentleman are calling asking for happy endings.  'Do we offer happy ending massage?' And I call them back and ask them if they realized they were speaking to a minor, a child, a high school student?,” Healing Touch Owner Julie Pommer said. 

Pommer, a massage therapist and owner of Healing Touch massage clinic in Sioux Falls, takes her profession seriously and says she is appalled by how often she receives those kinds of calls.

"It just bothers me because you put me on a level of somebody who is prostituting themselves or is undercover human trafficking and suggest I have a massage parlor, you know," Pommer said.

Pommer has been so bothered, she's even called the customers back and says they are often unapologetic.

"The response is, 'No offense, but other places offer these services," Pommer said.

They are services that Pommer says are requested more often during hunting season.

"I've interviewed therapists who work at certain hunting lodges or tourist-type places that claim during hunting season they are told it's good for the South Dakota economy to give the tourist what they want," Pommer said.

But Pommer insists refusing such requests is not only about their profession, it's also about respect.

"I have kicked people out of here.  I have banned certain people from our office because I don't want my staff to be working on people who don't respect them," Pommer said.

Pommer says such requests are so common, training for massage therapists in schools often includes teaching students how to deal with these requests in a professional manner.

The repeal of the State's massage therapy licensing requirement and massage board is currently being debated in Pierre.