Is an Oncology Massage
Certification Right For You?

Choosing a specialty can help you focus your marketing, differentiate your practice from the competition, and allow you to follow your passion. Oncology massage, which uses multiple modalities to treat the effects of cancer, is a career path to consider upon leaving massage school.

What is oncology?

Oncology is the branch of medicine that deals with tumors, including study of their development, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Once diagnosed, cancer therapy can include surgery, chemotherapy and focused radiation. Each of these therapeutic treatments has its own specific side effects, which can include pain, nausea, dementia and fatigue. A diagnosis of cancer can also have vast and long-lasting effects on the emotional and spiritual well being of the patient.

What is oncology massage?

Oncology massage is a specialized form of massage therapy that deals with the physical, emotional and spiritual effects that the diagnosis and treatment of cancer has on both patients and caregivers. It includes the use of various modalities that depend upon the specialty of the therapist and the condition of the client. Comfort and a knowledgeable and caring touch focused on the symptoms will have a profound effect on the client's well being while enhancing the body’s innate ability to heal. Pressure, site and position considerations are the foundations of a massage-therapy session for any hospitalized patient, especially those with cancer.

What is oncology massage certification?

Oncology massage certification is a specific massage-therapy program that trains its therapists to work on cancer patients both within and outside the hospital environment. Within the hospital, therapists learn how to: work as part of the health care team; follow orders from the patient’s physician, nurse practitioner or registered nurse; work with a variety of hospital equipment; and read a patient’s chart in order to develop a safe and effective treatment plan. Oncology massage certification also involves education in the physiology of cancer, including the pathology, treatment and side effects of both cancer progression and its treatment.

What does a program like this do for the profession?

A program of this intensity brings massage into the hospital environment while establishing its importance as part of a multi-modal approach to medical issues of the highest order. This will further pave the way for massage therapy to be utilized in all areas of traditional medical care. We, as massage therapists, are entrusted to the well being of our clients, which involves the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of their lives. This responsibility further enhances our dedication to the premise of overall health care, which is to  do no harm.

Jim Zazeski, N.C.T.M.B., is the program director and an instructor at the Institute for Therapeutic Massage, www.massageprogram.com. He has a private practice in Budd Lake, New Jersey, where he works with a chiropractor.