Tracy Walton & Associates

Caring for clients with Cancer

  • Home
    • About Tracy Walton
      • Writing and Publications
      • Research
      • Awards
      • Massage Therapy Practice
    • Quotations and Stories
    • Practical Pathology
  • Training Schedule
  • Courses
    • Oncology Massage Therapy 4 Day Intensive Course
    • Advanced Mentorship
    • Opening to the Mystery with Cal Cates
    • Setting Fees and Discounts for Oncology Massage Therapy and Hospice Care
    • Research and Ethics in Oncology Massage and Hospice Care
    • Oncology Massage Clinic Intensive
    • Oncology Massage in Action
    • Online Courses
    • DVD for Caregivers
    • Short Presentations
    • Testimonials
  • Questions?
    • Will I be certified in oncology massage therapy?
    • Are there jobs in oncology massage therapy?
    • Are courses approved for CEUs in my state?
  • About
  • Blog
  • Book
    • Practical Pathology
    • Textbook for Schools
    • Reference for Practitioners
    • Look Inside
  • Resources
    • Bibliography
    • Other Trainings
    • Relevant Links
  • Contact
    • Privacy Policy

A Healthy Dose of Hospital-Based Massage Therapy

July 5, 2013 by Tracy Walton 8 Comments

Have you ever asked yourself how long a massage should be to be effective? Or, what can be tolerated when contraindications are involved? What exactly is the optimal massage “dose?”

Curtiss Beinhorn provides inpatient massage at MD Anderson Cancer Center. (Photo courtesy MD Anderson Integrative Medicine.)
Curtiss Beinhorn provides inpatient massage at MD Anderson Cancer Center. (Photo courtesy MD Anderson Integrative Medicine.)

In hospital-based massage, where budget constraints have to be considered, the answers to these questions can be used to figure out how best to allocate massage services across the hospital. How can massage therapy help the highest number of patients, and have the greatest impact hospital-wide?

A Spoonful of Sugar

Most of the time, research on massage dosing is not available, so practitioners do their best with clinical observations. At MD Anderson Cancer center, where massage has been provided to patients since 1999, therapists have made some interesting observations of massage effects with thousands of patients.

Sat Siri Sumler, a massage therapist with 13 years of experience at MD Anderson, notes that compromised health means inpatient massage sessions need to be shorter than the average outpatient session of 45-60 minutes. In its early years of the massage program, they began inpatient massage sessions lasting up to 45 minutes.

Over time, however, Sat Siri and other MTs recognized that the potential for “overtreating” (or exceeding dose tolerance) is greater when a massage lasts 30 minutes or more, and especially as it heads toward 45 minutes.

They observed that 20 minutes of massage seemed sufficient for relaxation, whereas just 10-15 minutes would meet with, “That’s all?” from the patient. For these reasons and others, they shortened the sessions. By shortening sessions, therapists could see more inpatients and still have an impact.

Measuring Outcomes in Gratitude

Massage staff also provide on-site (“chair”) massage to patients and caregivers in waiting rooms for surgery, radiation therapy, ICU and Critical Care, inpatient units, and other areas of the hospital. Even though chair massages in many settings last 20 minutes, the hospital team found that 10-minute chair massages were sufficient. According to Sat Siri, they saw that people were relaxed and very grateful after 10 minutes. A 10 minute massage was often followed by many tears and appreciative hugs from patients and families.

Sat Siri Sumler provides free on-site massage to patients, caregivers, and families at MD Anderson. (Photo Courtesy MD Anderson Integrative Medicine.)
Sat Siri Sumler provides free on-site massage to patients, caregivers, and families at MD Anderson. (Photo Courtesy MD Anderson Integrative Medicine.)

By keeping those sessions to 10 instead of 20 minutes, each therapist could see four people per hour, and help more people than a 20-minute standard would allow.

Most of us would prefer longer massage, but in both these cases, keeping sessions short stretched the value of the program, optimizing use of the massage budget.

Massage Dosing Gets Real

Dose-finding studies for massage therapy are currently in progress. Go to www.clinicaltrials.gov, a database of government-funded trials, completed and in progress. There, do a search for “massage” and “dose.” There you’ll find a dose-finding study of massage for neck pain, headed by Karen Sherman of  Group Health in Seattle.  There’s more there, too.

Try this “dosing” experiment: Check in with clinicaltrials.gov at the above link, or for published research, go to www.pubmed.gov, the US National Library of Medicine. Type in “massage therapy dose” (no quotes). There you’ll find a few completed massage dosing studies, as well as those in progress.

Your Weekly Dose of Research

Repeat this search 1x/month to see research emerging over time. It is guaranteed to be interesting. Who knows what we will discover about massage dosing?

Sat Siri Sumler is featured in our Hospital-Based Massage Therapy webinar series, where she shares insights, advice, and even sample massage protocols from her years maintaining MD Anderson’s popular massage therapy program. MD Anderson provides free massage to inpatients, families, and caregivers.

Filed Under: Hospital-Based Massage Tagged With: massage, massage contraindications, massage dose, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Oncology Massage

Comments

  1. Massage Chairs says

    July 19, 2013 at 4:54 am

    Wow. Really great information. I really didn’t know about this kind of massage therapy.

    Reply
  2. marilyn st.john says

    August 2, 2013 at 11:37 pm

    Good information here.

    Reply
  3. Sidratul Muntaha Choudhury says

    September 27, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    Massage therapy is a very effective process for stress relief. Massage chairs make it easier to get a massage.

    Reply
  4. jenny says

    November 8, 2013 at 11:31 pm

    Even other health facilities in Hong Kong are incorporating massage therapy program in an effort to support patients’ health, healing, and quality of life.

    Reply
  5. Juan Yuenn @HK-Massagehongkong says

    February 14, 2014 at 4:38 am

    Such a great read tracy, Really, I haven’t knew about long massage effectiveness. you’ve covered some unknown facts. 🙂

    Reply
  6. Chair Massage Therapist  says

    May 6, 2014 at 2:51 am

    Chair Massage is like meditation that can give you instant relax the brain begins to recharge in just a few minutes and with just the right touch, tired muscles feel rejuvenated right away. Great Therapy!

    Reply
  7. lovemassage says

    March 9, 2015 at 3:48 am

    Massage table is a fact for perfect massaging. So conscious about massage table and I have a suggestion to visit http://www.lovemassagetables.com

    Reply
  8. harryberr5 says

    March 15, 2019 at 7:44 am

    I am very thankful to you for providing such an awesome blog. I am very inspired by your blog. Thanks for sharing such a interesting post.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

What’s New

Why take a course in oncology massage therapy?

There are so many good reasons. Here are a few:

Service. During cancer treatment and beyond, people need support. They need symptom relief. They need sleep. Oncology massage therapy (OMT) can help people cope during cancer treatment, at end of life, post-treatment, and during diagnosis.
Practice building. With the right skills, you can meet growing client demand and build your practice. You can be part of cancer care. It is better for your business to be able to work with people right then, right where they are, than to refer them out or send them home.
Career satisfaction and longevity. OMT is immensely satisfying work. Your steady presence and your hands can make a huge difference in someone's day or week. You might even find our approach to be easier on your hands and alignment. We offer new ways to provide comfort without effort and "deep tissue" work.

To practice OMT, massage therapists need to know what to ask clients before the massage, and how to use the client's answers. They need to know how to think through what to do, and how to communicate with clients in difficult circumstances. They need confidence, sensitivity, strong interview and table-side instruction. They need to learn from actual case studies and real-world exercises, and good chances to practice.

We provide these learning experiences in our 4-Day Intensive, Oncology Massage Therapy: Caring for Clients with Cancer.

Learn more...

Join Our List

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Recent Posts

  • An Open Letter about Re-Opening — to Massage Therapy Employers
  • A Pandemic Infographic – Why We are not Ready to Return to Massage Therapy
  • Therapy for my Hands and my State of Mind
  • COVID-19 and Closing – What do Love and Bicycles Have to Do with It?
  • COVID-19, Massage Therapy, You, and Me

Blog Categories

Blog Archives

Contact Us

Copyright © 2023 · Tracy Walton & Associates - All Rights Reserved

X