If you have undergone breast surgery or a mastectomy, you might consider specialized scar massage therapy to help your body heal from the trauma. This type of massage targets scar tissue, which is an ongoing source of pain and discomfort for many women.
Lymph drainage will also be addressed as part of your treatment. Scar tissue can become hard, behaving like a solid wall and preventing the proper flow of lymph. Since your lymphatic system plays such an important role in helping your body eliminate toxins, it is vital to your health that your lymph flows well without obstruction.
Scar therapy massage creates motion around traumatized tissue and enhances the normal flow in lymph capillaries just under the skin. By softening and dissolving scar tissue, it helps release tissue congestion. This improves circulation in surrounding areas, including the arms where many women have continual aching after breast surgeries.
When the circulation and movement is increased - not only in breast tissue, but in your shoulders, chest, back, and neck - it can alleviate swelling, discomfort, and other post-surgery symptoms, such as pain or pulling around the surgery site. For women who have cysts as well, it can decrease the fluid in them.
Breasts are a touchy subject for Americans, despite the apparent fetish with them. Having another person, even a specialist who is well-trained and experienced, touching one's breasts can be cause for alarm. Many women are self-conscious and uncomfortable with the idea of breast therapy, but scar massage therapists are generally very supportive and are there to help.
I have two colleagues who specialize in techniques to heal scar tissue. They love to help women healing from breast surgery. Both of them have wonderful attitudes toward their work. They are dedicated to helping women live better lives post-surgery. As an added bonus, these therapists know when scar tissue has softened, whether cysts have decreased in size, or even if there are unusual lumps in breast tissue that ought to be checked by your doctor.
Many massage therapists find that working on the breasts is too intimate. Breasts are loaded with emotional, sexual, and societal concerns. Being the therapist who enters this territory can be daunting, but fortunately there are those who know its healing power, who feel very comfortable with it, and are dedicated to helping women in this way.
If you are interested in having scar therapy and breast massage, seek out a female practitioner well educated in breast anatomy and lymphatic massage. The American Massage Therapy Association website at http://www.amtamassage.org is one place to start. Once you are on this site, click on "Find a Massage Therapist." Currently breast massage isn't listed as a modality, but lymphatic drainage is, so once you find a list of therapists in your area you can then narrow your search to one that also specializes in scar therapy.
Christina Grant, PhD is a spiritual healer, counselor, astrologer, and writer. Learn more at http://www.christinagrant.com.
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LINKS
- Living Through Breast Cancer - PB
- Secrets for Reducing Your Breast Cancer Risk
- 100 Questions & Answers About Advanced and Metastatic Breast Cancer
- STOTT PILATES: Breast Cancer Rehab on Equipment
- Breast Cancer: Beyond Convention: The World's Foremost Authorities on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Offer Advice on Healing
- Breast Cancer: Risks and Prevention, Diagnosis & Treatments
- Previvors: Facing the Breast Cancer Gene and Making Life-Changing Decisions
- Beyond Flowers: What to Say and Do When Someone You Know Has Breast Cancer [VHS]
- There's No Place Like Hope: A Guide to Beating Cancer in Mind-sized Bites
- Celebrating Julienne - a gay woman faces terminal breast cancer
