Oncology Massage MattersOncology Massage Matters
ONCOLOGY MASSAGE CLASSES are Continuing Education Courses for Massage Practitioners and Students, Bodyworkers, and Other Professional Touch Therapists given by Isabel Adkins.
For students who have taken Gayle MacDonald's Massage for People Living with Cancer©, see Isabel's Blending East with West class.
What is Oncology Massage?
Massage can be given to any patient at any stage in the cancer experience. Oncology Massage training provides guidelines to massage therapists with regard to the safe application of their personal massage style to those with active cancer, those in remission or those in treatment.
Isabel's oncology massage approach especially integrates both Western and Eastern modalities of bodywork in order to address the symptoms and side-effects of both treatments and disease.
Isabel Adkins is considered an expert in the field of Oncology Massage. She has been a keynote speaker at the UC Davis Cancer Center forums on complementary medicine and she was a presenter at the first Oncology Massage Healing Summit in May of 2007. Isabel recently collaborated on the new edition of Medicine Hands, just released in January 2007, with a chapter on an Eastern approach to strengthening the body during cancer treatment and disease.
Isabel is the primary instructor for the 300-hour certification program in Oncology Massage at the Massage Therapy Institute in Davis, California (the only state certified Oncology Massage training program in California). She directed and supervised the Oncology Massage Program at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital and is currently developing an Oncology Massage Program at Alta Bates Cancer Center in Berkeley.
Isabel’s original studies were in adult education, psychology and art therapy. She has studied with two of the cutting-edge oncology massage therapists in the United States, Gayle MacDonald at Oregon Health Science University, and Dr. Sandy Canzone. She is also certified in Ayurvedic massage, reflexology, shiatsu and acupressure.
Through bodywork, Isabel seeks to alleviate physical and emotional pain and to create a space for healing and presence. Isabel's interest in massage comes from understanding the need to address the experience of illness in a way that explores the body-mind relationship and the body's energetic systems.
“Your research is outstanding and your presentation professional, yet you have the ability to convey empathy and warmth.”
-Julie Brown, Patient Educator
Education and Outreach, UCDavis Cancer Center