Approaching Scar Tissue on the Oncology Patient: Revised Date

Date: Feb 4, 2018
Time: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Kriota Willberg
$240
Prerequisite: Introduction to Oncology Massage (or equivalent)
Contact vanessa@catanyc.com to register
6 CE hour NCBTMB / NY-certified

This workshop describes the processes of inflammation and tissue repair in normal wound healing and examines complications of healing such as fibrosis, delayed healing, and lymphedema, resulting from cancer treatment. Participants will review patient intake, design treatment strategies to address scar tissue and/or fibrosis, and learn and practice hands-on techniques designed to disadhere tissues and improve tissue pliability in post-operative cancer patients.

Students will demonstrate proficiency in the following hands on techniques: multidirectional friction; skin rolling/lifting strokes; active and passive myofascial release techniques; positional release; and passive stretching.

Students will practice designing and implementing hands-on massage sessions targeting scar tissue for patients with a history of surgery to the trunk wall, abdomen or pelvis, head/neck, or extremities.

We will also practice and discuss positioning options for patients with scar tissue or the trunk, head/neck, abdomen and/or pelvis.

Students will learn to list and describe the four stages of inflammation and tissue repair and the types of hands on therapies appropriate at wound sites during each stage; to define fibrosis and describe its causes and consequences; to describe radiation therapy and the differences between external and internal RT; to recognize indications and contraindications for touch therapy at RT sites; to list conditions that delay tissue healing including lymphedema, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, infection, and implanted hardware, and describe the way that each can impact a massage therapy session; to describe the anatomical effects of common cancer surgeries; and to ask questions specific to cancer patients with a history of surgery.

Kriota Willberg, MFA, BA, LMT
In her first decade of practice, sports massage and injury rehabilitation were the focus of Willberg’s massage career. She was a member of the American Massage Therapy Association’s National Sports Massage Team and was a massage therapist for the New York Giants football team. Later she gained valuable clinical experience with many orthopedic conditions (osteoporosis, chronic pain, etc.) through her practice at The Integrative Care Center affiliated with the Hospital for Special Surgery. Currently Willberg is a massage therapist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s Integrative Medicine Center.

At The Swedish Institute College of Allied Health Sciences, Willberg served as Chair of the Western Massage department and taught massage, anatomy, and pathology classes. She has taught anatomy in the dance departments of Marymount Manhattan College, Bard College, and NYU, as well as at the Center for Cartoon Studies.