By touching a body, we touch every event it has experienced. For
a few brief moments we hold all of a client's stories in
our hands. We witness someone's experience of their
own flesh, through some of the most powerful means possible: the
contact of our hands, the acceptance of the body without
judgment, and the occasional listening ear. With these
gestures we reach across the isolation of the human experience
and hold another person's legend. In massage therapy,
we show up and ask, in so many ways, what it is like to
be another human being. In doing so, we build a bridge
that may heal us both.
--Tracy
Walton, "The Health History of a Human Being,"
Massage
Therapy Journal, Winter 1999.
Welcome!
What's New
Register for Tracy's webinars!
Click here for her series on Massage in Cancer Care
Click here for her series on Cardiovascular Conditions and Massage
Tracy's textbook is out! See reviews and order Medical Conditions and Massage Therapy: A Decision Tree
Approach for your clinic, classroom, spa, or franchise.
Learn more about one of Tracy's projects, the award-winning DVD for caregivers and patients: "Touch,
Caring, and Cancer," developed by Collinge and Associates, with NIH sponsorship!
Questions? Read Tracy's articles on Cancer and Massage: Part 1 | Part 2
Read her Column
in Massage Today
on Research in
Cancer and Massage
Tracy Walton is a researcher, writer, award-winning educator, and specialist in massage and cancer care. She
is a dynamic voice for the power of skilled touch. She is also the author of a new textbook, Medical Conditions and Massage
Therapy: A Decision Tree Approach (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins). Click here to read more about her
book. She writes a regular column on oncology massage in Massage Today.
As a researcher, Tracy has worked on NIH (National Cancer Institute)-funded clinical trials involving
professional massage and massage by caregivers. Research partners include the Osher Institute at Harvard Medical
School, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, and Collinge and Associates. She
maintains a bibliography of oncology massage research on this website.
Tracy appears in the film, "Touch, Caring, and Cancer," massage instruction for caregivers
and partners (see below). She designed curriculum for this inspiring, innovative program, which received Telly
awards in 2 categories. She worked on a large, NIH (SBIR)-funded clinical trial testing the safety and
feasibility of its use in home instruction. The Principal Investigator on the project is William Collinge of Collinge
and Associates.
Best known for her leadership and teaching in oncology massage therapy, Tracy offers
several continuing education course for massage therapists. She has taught Caring for
Clients with Cancer since 1999. Her course
offerings also include an Advanced
Seminar and a basic Cancer
and Massage Training in safety essentials.
Thousands of massage therapists have trained with her as
part of their spa employment or at state and national
meetings. They give her courses rave reviews.
Tracy also taught physiology and pathology at the Muscular Therapy Institute (now Cortiva Institute-Boston)
for 13 years. There, she chaired the science department and served as Academic Dean. As an educator, she
integrates the art, heart, and science of massage therapy. In her presentations, Tracy warmly welcomes and
reaches researchers, consumers, health care providers, and massage therapists from all levels of training. In
2003, the American Massage Therapy Association named her the Teacher of the Year.
Tracy's classroom is known for lively discussion
and humor. She attends to diverse learning styles and
offers an easy note-taking format that frees people up
to soak up new skills and information. Her wholistic
approach to teaching balances the heart, soul and science
of healing touch. She adds music and words from people
with cancer to deepen understanding of the cancer journey. Students leave her courses with
extensive
training materials and support.
She is frequently sought as a
speaker
at conferences and in hospital and medical school settings,
often when
Complementary and Alternative Medical (CAM) therapies
are being considered for people with cancer. She has
presented on massage therapy research, massage education,
and integrating oncology massage therapy into the treatment
setting.
Back home, she holds a private
practice in massage therapy.
Since 1990 she has worked in a friendly office near Central
Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Her clients come
from all backgrounds, and many are in cancer treatment,
survivorship, in the middle of the diagnostic process
or living at the end of life.
Tracy holds a Master's degree in biology, with
a concentration in cellular physiology and biochemistry
from Northeastern University.
She received her undergraduate
degree from Wellesley College and her massage therapy
diploma from the Muscular Therapy Institute (now Cortiva Institute-Boston.
An exciting new textbook!
Medical Conditions and Massage Therapy: A Decision Tree Approach
Deepen your understanding of massage contraindications. Move beyond a single approach to each condition, and
adapt massage easily to your client's presentation. Ask brief, thoughtful questions about your client's health,
and use the answers to identify simple massage adjustments for an illness or injury. Work safely and well with
common conditions, using specific guidelines.
This unique book provides easy-to-use tools to manage complex medical conditions in your practice. Common
health conditions (such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis) present differently in
different people. Adapt massage safely to each presentation by knowing what to ask the client, and how to use the
answers to design the massage. This text prepares the reader for a spectrum of conditions: simple,
straightforward, layered, and complex.
This text is rich with detailed massage contraindications. The information is clean, clear, and immediately
applicable.
This comprehensive book is essential for the classroom and clinic. Use this book to:
Work safely and well in the student clinic, with a range of clients;
Manage the medical conditions you encounter in practice;
Promote wellness in a range of special populations and individuals;
Develop protocols for hospital-based work and medical massage courses;
Shape the policies and procedures in your spa or franchise.
This comprehensive text can be used in massage technique courses, pathology, student clinic, medical massage,
massage research, practice management, and courses on special populations.
The Decision Tree
The central tool of this text is the Decision Tree, a simple flowchart that helps you quickly determine how to
adjust massage to common medical conditions. Decision Trees spell out massage guidelines in plain language, in a
format designed for visual and spatial learners.
The Pressure Scale
Use the Pressure Scale (already in use in many classrooms, hospital massage programs and spas) to describe massage
pressure contraindications. Use it in charting, communicating with physicians and nurses, and talking to
consumers about massage.
Using this scale, massage therapy guidelines are described in concrete pressure adjustments, easily understood
by massage therapists, clients, and other healthcare providers.
Interview Questions
Use the brief, targeted interview questions to identify massage contraindications. Learn how to adjust massage
pressure, intent, joint movement, speed, client position, and other factors in the massage plan.
Physician Communication Tools
Learn when and how to consult a client's physician. Sample physician communication forms are provided, in
different formats to fit individual communication styles.
Medications and Massage
A single principle, plus four brief medication questions, helps you navigate an array of medications and medical
procedures. An alphabetized list of common medication side effects, with massage guidelines for each one.
Research
Current massage research is summarized for each full-discussion condition. A chapter on basic research concepts
helps you find and use massage research in your practice, make accurate claims about the effects of massage, and
use clinical observations to promote your work.
Learn how to use the available massage research to support your practice. Be on solid ground with accurate
claims about massage, informed by research.
Touch, Caring, and Cancer - DVD Preview
One of the most helpful forms of support you can offer a loved one with cancer is the use
of touch. This inspiring program provides detailed instruction by leading experts in safe, simple techniques for
comfort and relaxation that anyone can learn and apply. Developed and evaluated in a research project sponsored by
the National Cancer Institute, it follows eleven patients and their family members through a workshop as they
learn and practice the techniques together. Now you can receive this invaluable instruction at home to gain new
confidence and satisfaction in caring for your loved one. Available in English, Spanish and Chinese versions.
Buy
the DVD from Amazon.com.
Course Approvals
Tracy Walton is approved by the National Certification
Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) as
an approved provider, #283404-00.
Tracy Walton is approved by the Florida Board of Massage
Therapy, provider # 50-3354.
(Lippincott Williams & Wilkins). Click 
