As a hospice massage practitioner for over three decadesI find that full-body sessions are rare with hospice clients due to physical, emotional and environmental restrictions and limitations. Many sessions will involve one or two areas of the client’s body. Sessions that usually present themselves in a hospice setting are:
(1) legs and feet, (2) feet, (3) head and neck, (4) face, (5) back, (6) arms and hands or (7) hands.
I call this piece work. Gentle stroking, holding as in acupressure or Reiki and sometimes rocking these areas of the body for short periods of time, prove to be comfortable hospice sessions.
As your client approaches the end of his or her life, your touch sessions may become shorter and return to basic forms of family touch such as stroking the forehead or holding a hand.
For me this is the most difficult form of touch to provide. It requires me to put technique aside and to simply, without fanfare, be present with another human being in touch. It is as if all the previous massage practice was to build my confidence for this one moment of just being.
This is truly the advanced practice; an advanced practice in the ability to be intimate without attachment. For me this is the healing, the big reveal in hospice work.
Please paste the link below into your browser to view a short video snippet of providing a head massage to a hospice client, CB. The intimate contact in this short piece speaks volumes. This video appears in my new interactive book ‘Massage In Hospice Care” now available in your iBooks store on your iMac computer or iPad .The video snippet includes a short introduction to the book before the head massage. I welcome and treasure comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlOZBYwoa0w
Blessings and Gratitude,
Irene Smith www.everflowing.org
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