Expert Witness & Consultative Services in Massage and Spa Legal Cases

Felicia Brown, LMBT, LMT has been a massage therapist since 1994. Her expertise, experience and opinions come from nearly 30 years as a practitioner, owner, coach, consultant, educator and client in the spa and massage industries. An advocate for the massage and spa industries, Felicia will do her best to serve each case fairly by being curious and thorough in her analysis. She strives to provide direct and thoughtful consultation, opinions and/or testimony for each situation and case.

Areas of Specialty

Inappropriate Touch, Sexual Abuse & Sexual Misconduct: Felicia began teaching professional ethics in 1997, initially as a part of the curriculum for the Guilford Technical Community College – Professional Massage Therapy Program and Natural Touch School of Massage. Several years later, she became an Approved Provider for the National Certification Board for Massage & Bodywork and developed a number of professional ethics classes as continuing education for licensed massage therapists. Though ethics is often thought of a dry and boring topic, Felicia has a talent for teaching difficult subjects with a clear, no-nonsense way while still making the classes memorable, fun and enjoyable for students.

Business Practices: Since 1996, Felicia has owned and managed several spas.  This experience combined with many years of networking and collaborating with – and consulting for – similar professionals has provided her with direct knowledge of common and accepted business and management practices, policies, operations and procedures in businesses employing massage therapists.

During her career, Felicia has taught and/or consulted with hundreds of students and clients about massage and spa workplace issues including but not limited to dealing with inappropriate clients; harassment/sexual harassment issues, hiring classification and embezzlement. Additionally, she advises clients on issues related to the hiring, training and supervision of employees; policies and procedures; business operations; working with renters and/or independent contractors; professionalism and ethics; customer service and care; safety and sanitation; and various spa and massage product liability issues.

Standard of Care/Standards of Practice:  From proper treatment protocols to Massage and Spa Industry standards of care and standards of practice to how to provide appropriate draping, privacy, client care, comfort and confidentiality, Felicia provides a wealth of information of what should and should not occur within a massage session or other spa service.

Experience

• Expert Witness: Since 2015, Felicia has served as an expert witness or consultant on more than sixty legal cases involving the massage and spa industries. Working on both Plaintiff and Defense cases, she has provided detailed reviews of deposition, case materials and testimony; consultations on standard business practices and standards of care; and conducted research related to the cases. In some cases, Felicia’s case reviews have resulted in the production of an Affidavit of Merit or Expert Report; in others it has led to a Deposition or Trial Testimony.
• Spa Owner/President: From start-up and turn-around to inventory control, operations, management and more, Felicia is familiar with the complex inner workings of a spa or massage practice. Her first business, Balance Day Spa, grew from a private practice into a company with fifty employees and annual sales of over $1.6 million. She sold the business in 2005. Her most recent spa, A to Zen Massage, began operation in 2013 and (pre-COVID) employed thirty-one staff members.
• Massage Therapist: Felicia has been a massage therapist since 1994. She is licensed in North Carolina and Florida.
• Speaker & Educator: Felicia has been creating courses and teaching entry level and continuing education in the massage and spa since 1996. In addition to teaching on numerous business, ethics, marketing and treatment-related topics to conference audiences in the US and abroad, she has also developed and taught classes related to professional communication, ethics, boundaries and sexual situations in the massage and spa workplace.
• Spa & Massage Client: Since before the start of her career, Felicia has been an avid client of massage therapy and spa services, receiving hundreds of different services at her businesses as well as spas around the US and abroad. The variety of differing client experiences have been instrumental in creating Felicia’s well-rounded perspective of the subtleties required for providing comfortable, effective client communication and care.

Counsel, to discuss your needs or case, please contact Felicia here.
CV & Fee Agreement available upon request.