SPECIALIST CARE
Oncology massage
Massage adapted for people living with cancer, during treatment, in the weeks between, and long after it's over.
What makes it different
The conversation comes first
Before anything else I'll ask about your diagnosis, your
treatment, and how you're feeling this week. Not to be
intrusive, it's what tells me how to work with you safely.
Sessions can be shorter
Thirty minutes is often plenty, especially during
chemotherapy. You're never committed to lying still for an hour because that's what you booked.
Pressure is adapted, always
Lighter, slower, and adjusted around anything that needs care , a port, a surgical site, an area treated with radiation, or a limb where lymph nodes were removed.
Position is yours to choose
Face up, on your side, propped with cushions, or seated in a chair. If lying flat isn't comfortable right now, we simply don't do it.
Who it's for
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In active treatment — during chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, or while you're recovering from surgery.
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Between treatments — the quieter weeks, when the tiredness and the tension have somewhere to settle.
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After treatment ends — including years afterwards. Some precautions stay with you for life, and they're worth respecting whether it's been six months or six years.
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Living with advanced cancer — where the goal is comfort, and nothing more complicated than that.
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Caring for someone who has cancer — partners and family carry it too, and rarely book anything for themselves.
TRAINING
Where I trained for this
I completed the 24-hour Introduction to Oncology Massage through Corewell Health — a Recognized Education Provider of the Society for Oncology Massage — with lectures, hands-on training and a supervised student clinic.
In November, I'll go back for the second part: another 24 hours training, this time working with patients under supervision.
Oncology massage isn't just gentler massage. It's knowing which questions to ask, what each answer changes, and when the right thing to do is to work somewhere else on the body entirely, or to wait for another day.
What this is, and what it isn't
Massage does not treat cancer, and I would never suggest otherwise. What it offers is an hour
where you're comfortable, unhurried, and cared for, which is not a small thing in the middle of
a year of appointments.
You may have heard the old worry that massage can spread cancer. It isn't supported by how
oncology massage is practised today. The adaptations exist for other reasons entirely: fragile
bone, low platelet counts, the risk of swelling in a limb where lymph nodes were removed, and
skin that's been through radiation.
Please do mention to your oncology team that you're planning to have massage. They know
things about your situation that I don't, and most of them are glad to hear it.
Booking a session
Message me before you book your first one. It's a short conversation and it means the session is already shaped around you when you arrive. Sessions can happen here in Hudsonville, or at your home if travelling is hard right now.
30 min · $50
60 min · $85
Not sure whether this is the right time? Tell me a little about what's going on and I'll be honest with you.