Oncology Massage Therapist

Susan’s first love is dance, anything to do with of movement. She as a nurse in Canada soon left the profession when she the UK as she wanted a deeper connection with her clients. For many she worked in both health and teaching 20+ classes a week running GP referral schemes. She make better use of all her knowledge which led her to retrain as Massage and Remedial Soft Therapist. Currently she is the NLSSM and specialises in Oncology Massage. She is the Sports Massage: Hands on Therapists and is the Sports feature writer for Massage volunteers her time as a member of GCMT. her on Massage Mondays weekly massage videos

As a massage therapist working with cancer there needs to be a greater depth of knowledge and the development of our hands on skills, with that in mind

I realized that after having received a couple of questions recently, quoted below, that there is a very real need to develop a greater understanding about what it is to be able to work as an oncology massage therapist, as well as there needs to be a clearer understanding about what a contraindication is, what are we able to work with and when to just say no.

BY SUSAN FINDLAY

Question 1:

Dear Susan

I have a new client coming tomorrow and her daughter just told me that her mum has a mastectomy late last year and has just finished radiotherapy and will start chemo shortly. I’m guessing she can’t lie in prone so I can treat side lying but wanted to check any other modifications I should make? I will obviously not go deep and ideally would’ve guided her to someone trained in Oncology massage, but she desperately wants to come tomorrow. She is suffering with a shoulder problem (the same side as the cancer) and she booked in without me knowing this info so I just want to be safe in the treatment as much as I can be.