QuestionMy massage therapist did massage on a client who'd just completed chemotherapy. After,while washing her hands & arms, her arms began to burn. Her arms were red, and burned for about a week. What should she do for massaging this client, or others, in the future?
Thanks
AnswerHi and thanks for your question.
In 20 years of massage, I have never experienced the symptoms you massage therapist went through.
Medical experience also tells me that there are no Chemotherapy drugs which are known and can be passed on to others through touch. (Unless one gets in physical touch with the drugs themselves).
I also wish to exclude any new aromatherapy/carrier oils that she might be using on this on any other client.
One must also exclude allergies from detergents used for the client draping.
After all the above considerations have been excluded,
I can only boil down this experience to a psychosomatic symptom. How did your therapist feel emotionally when working on a cancer patient? Was she overwhelmed with emotions?
One thing is sure and I have experienced it myself. The giving of massage to another person requires a strong inner self. Bad or good energy could be communicated both ways. Just like a calm massage therapist can instill this calm into another person through non verbal communication and touch, a nervous, angry or resentful client can pass this energy to the therapist. The best way to overcome this is by giving a massage with plenty of love and blanking your emotions so that any good energy will flow to the client. Chinese massage therapists also shake their hands towards the ground after therapy to remove any negative energy that has built up inside them! The practice is used in 'Chi Qong'(Chee Kung) and Tai Chi too!
Although psychosomatic symptoms are sometimes thought to be in the mind, they are actually not. They are very real! They can affect a sufferer to the extent of hospitalisation.
I can only suggest that she is mentally prepared before taking on this or other sick clients and only look at them as one of our own. She should do her best to disassociate herself from her emotions and concentrate on just giving love through massage.
After the first time that I worked on a cancer patient for palliative reasons, I could not sleep that night and also felt a tingling sensation in my hands. The thought of knowing that this young person you are working on will pass away within a couple of months could have overwhelmed me.
Ask your massage therapist to reflect on this and see if there is any truth in it.
Kind regards
Jeremy Lanfranco
