Bringing the joy of massage to cancer patients
The School of Natural Therapies (SNT) recently carried out oncology massage with additional skills and training at the AMAN spa, at London’s iconic Connaught Hotel in Mayfair – including a live clinic day with cancer patients.
Principal, Marc Innes, who has 23 years’ NHS experience, said ‘It was a privilege to help this luxurious spa open their doors to their spa guests, who are going through active treatment, living with, or recovering from cancer. We worked with a very dedicated team of seven spa therapists who wanted to make a difference.
In the past, many spas and salons were either very reluctant, even scared to provide massage or spa body treatments to their guests, if they declared their medical status on their consultation forms – this often led to feelings of rejection, upset and at worst, bad feeling towards the spa or salon’.
Happily, SNT’s Marc Innes and Joseph O’Dwyer help the industry to overcome fear and misinformation, by working with therapists on their three-day accredited programme, leading to a Diploma in Oncology Massage and Cancer Care.
With Marc’s exhaustive knowledge as a result of his NHS experience, he teaches the robust theoretical knowledge that therapists need in order to understand different types of cancer, oncology terminology, and to have confidence when meeting and greeting their clients.
The course programme provides essential theoretical knowledge of topics such as: –
- What cancer is and how it develops and grows.
- How cancer spreads and importantly, why massage cannot cause this to happen.
- Risk factors for cancer
- Treatments for cancer and how therapists can adapt their massage to meet the demands of side effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, as well as modern drug interventions such as Immunotherapy and targeted drugs.
- Knowledge of complex issues such as Lymphoedema (which often occurs as a result of surgery and radiotherapy) and how we can work with the system if it is compromised.
On a practical level, the course teaches therapists to adapt their massage techniques appropriately and in consultation with the client, to provide a safe and comfortable treatment.
Additionally, the course provides bodywork strategies to treat other associated conditions, such as scar tissue from surgical wounds and a common side effect of chemotherapy – Chemo Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN), an often debilitating condition where numbness and even immobility can develop.
On day three of the course, SNT organises a clinic day, where real life case studies are invited to experience a massage or remedial treatment by the therapists.
Marc adds, “it is a pleasure to welcome clients in on the last day of the course, who are undergoing active cancer treatment, or who are often-debilitating recovering and are attempting to bring some sort of normality back into their lives. For therapists who have undertaken our training, this clinical experience cements and bonds their learning and provides confidence under supervision, as they treat their first oncology client.”
At AMAN spa, each therapist had their own clients, each presenting with different types of cancer, and of course with differing needs. As a result of their training, the therapists were confident, asked very relevant questions and each guest was over the moon with their spa treatment.
One guest with terminal cancer fed back that it was one of the best days of her life, since being diagnosed. Another reported that she could feel tingling in her legs after her treatment, which have been almost crippled with peripheral neuropathy as a result of her chemotherapy.
Marc urges therapists to consider this course to help make a big impact on those living with cancer and who deserve a treatment like anyone else.
SNT is running its next three-day course for independent therapists in June at their Clapham venue in London – there are just a few places left.
Diploma in Oncology Massage & Cancer Care (schoolofnaturaltherapies.co.uk)
Contacts
Tel: 0203 544 6544
Email: info@schoolofnaturaltherapies.co.uk
Website: schoolofnaturaltherapies.co.uk