With over 1,200 hours of hands-on oncology massage experience, having worked in private practice as an oncology massage therapist since 2011 and a Certified Lymphedema Therapist since 2012, I’m pleased to be offering mentoring sessions for...
I’d like to thank Dr. Dhruv Singhal, Director of Lymphatic Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center here in Boston, for sharing his brilliant “train” analogy for lymphedema and for his collaboration in making this latest...
Check out the snazzy new piece of equipment in my treatment room! It’s hydraulic and it’s super smooth and quiet. I’m excited because this means even more comfort for you on my table. We can adjust the height and angles so that...
The question: Why does my GI tract sometimes make so much noise when I’m in my massage session? The answer: There’s actually a fabulous word for that sound. Borborygmus. Go ‘head, say it again in your head. It kinda sounds like...
The question: “But I only had one lymph node removed when they did my sentinel node biopsy. How could I possibly develop lymphedema if just one little node is gone?” The answer: Well, let’s take a quick-and-dirty look at how...
I used to draw cartoons as a kid, through high school and college, and sometimes during my corporate career. I realized during massage therapy school that I retained information about the human body best when instructors characterized different...
Picture this: It’s your first time sitting down for an intake interview with a massage therapist you’ve never seen before. You may even be about to have your first massage ever. The treatment room is unfamiliar, not to mention the person sitting...
Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love manual lymph drainage (MLD), and, well, sometimes I have to gush about it. (Fluid pun intended. Lymph nerds can’t help it.) The sessions are gentle, painless, non-clinical, relaxing, and over...
I was honored to be asked to present a poster for Touch of Kindness at the 4th Oncology Massage Healing Summit, 2016, sponsored by the Society for Oncology Massage (S4OM), at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, Minnesota. The...
A client once told me that right after her double mastectomy, she felt like she was tossed into the ocean without a lifeboat or any direction. The surgery was a success, but no one warned her of the extent of pain and tightness she would feel as...
Lymphedema is a largely underdiagnosed condition, and anyone who’s had any type of mastectomy, lumpectomy, radiation treatment, lymph node removal, node biopsy, or even surgeries or trauma to the limbs should absolutely know what it is, ways that...
Even if you love your desk job, working at a computer all day can be a pain in the neck…and back, shoulders, hips, head…. If you’re like most folks, when you sit at your computer, your shoulders are slumped and rounded forward, your head is held...