I was honored to be asked to present a poster for Touch of Kindness at the 4th Oncology Massage Healing Summit, 2016, sponsored by the Society for Oncology Massage (S4OM), at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, Minnesota. The summit abounded with classes and workshops for oncology massage therapists, and there was plenty of rich discussion about oncology massage education, research, and funding, both in private practice and in hospital settings. I was grateful to have so many conversations with therapists from not only around the country, but around the globe.
Many massage therapists said they have felt in the same pickle that I have – wanting to find a way to ease the financial barriers to oncology massage but still needing to bring in enough income to make a living and stay in business. Having the poster at the summit was a fun, visual, conversation-starting way to present the pay-it-forward model as one possible solution to this problem, and the comments were great:
“Huh. This is so EASY!”
“What a great idea! So simple, but it seems like a win-win-win.”
“I feel like I’m always apologizing that I don’t take insurance. But then if I could offer something like THIS…”
And my favorite: “Oh my gosh, I cannot WAIT to get back home and do this in my own practice!”
Look for an upcoming column in Massage Today magazine on Touch of Kindness as well. Word is spreading!
