Most massage therapists in practice today readily acknowledge that if they received any breast massage education at all when they were in training, they did not receive enough.

Breast health care is vitally important to women, yet most do not know how to find practitioners who will support their breast tissue health. Massage therapists can provide gentle and effective treatment of a number of the breast complaints that women have, including post-surgical and scar work, easing of discomforts of pregnancy and breastfeeding, treatment of congestion and edema, and alleviation of many of the causes of breast pain.Massage therapists can also play a role in supporting our clients' regular breast monitoring practices.

While most massage practitioners believe in the therapeutic value of breast massage, most do not have confidence in their skills in relation to this sensitive area of treatment. This groundbreaking book provides the knowledge and understanding that massage therapists need to be able to offer breast massage when appropriate, as part of the fundamental set of health care services we provide for those who choose massage therapy.

About the Author

Debra Curties has been a massage therapist since 1984, and has been teaching Pathology and Clinical Theory to massage therapy students since 1987. She is the Executive Director and one of the owners of Sutherland-Chan School in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her love of teaching and of the massage therapy profession have merged in many of the roles she has assumed in the past 15 years, including President of the American Massage Therapy Association's Council of Schools, founding member of the Canadian Massage Therapy Alliance and the Canadian Council of Massage Therapy Schools, and contributor to the Ontario Core Curriculum and the Ontario College of Massage Therapists' Standards of Practice. She currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the AMTA Foundation. She is the 1998 recipient of the Ontario Massage Therapist Association's Meritorious Service Award and the 2000 recipient of the AMTA Council of Schools Meritorious Service Award. e-mail the author