The Challenges and Rewards of Hospice Massage
For the terminally ill and dying, hospice care provides dignity and comfort, pain control and disease-symptom management. An important component of this care is massage therapy. Massage is growing in popularity at hospices around the country, in part due to the great comfort and relaxation it brings to patients—and in part due to the deep sense of satisfaction and connection massage therapists experience through this work.

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Massage for the Soul
How Harp Music Enhances Health Care

Harpists are working alongside a variety of hands-on therapies, from massage to oncology, nursing to reflexology. Here, learn how harp music complements massage—and why one practitioner calls harpestry "massage for the soul."
by Linda C. Wisniewski

BODY & SPA
Kinks from the Links: Massage for Golfers
by Janet Groene

PRACTICE BUILDING
Downshift Your Lifestyle:
How Living Simpler Can Mean Living Better
by Karen Sorel

Pages From History
Hippocratic Massage, Part One
by Robert Noah Calvert

Therapeutic Presence in Palliative-Care Massage

People who are terminally ill and dying offer massage therapists the opportunity to develop a rapport that is often more complex and profound than the traditional client-therapist relationship. Sessions with this population require skills, knowledge and expertise that exceed most massage-therapy curricula.
by John Mramor

Research Reports
Massage Benefits Depressed Pregnant Women

Sauna Decreases Arrhythmias

Reiki Reduces Heart Rate, Diastolic Blood Pressure

RESEARCH MATTERS
A discussion of the ongoing dialogue about integrative medicine
by Janet Kahn, Ph.D.

Overcome your Fear of Anatomy, Part Two
by Ray Bishop

An anatomy instructor shares his fears, successes and insights to help students and practicing therapists become anatomy-savvy—and enjoy it. Here, the author discusses education models for learning about joints; attachments, origins and insertions; and muscular movement.

Assess & Address:

Nerve-entrapment syndromes of the lower extremity are not as common as those in the upper extremity. Consequently, several of these peripheral compression pathologies may be mistaken for more frequently occurring conditions, such as herniated discs in the lumbar region. Awareness of these problems is important to accurately identify the nature of the client’s condition. One such nerve-compression pathology is tarsal tunnel syndrome (TTS).

Skin, like the rest of our bodies, inevitably ages, but you can improve the quality of how it weathers the passage of time with healthy changes in your diet and lifestyle.

The Posture/Emotion Connection

Sunken chest? Rolled-forward shoulders? Hanging head? How is your client feeling today? Massage therapists faced with their clients’ emotions as they work on their bodies see the connection between posture and emotions every day. How can massage therapists use the connection to help their clients address emotions? And how appropriate is it for massage therapists to be engaging in this type of work?
by Courtney Mather

Student Advisor
by Charlotte Michael Versagi

How to avoid burnout