Complementary therapy is a gentle way of nurturing those battling the effects of cancer, writes SYLVIA THOMPSON
‘I FEEL SO relaxed and reinvigorated after the treatment that it’s almost spiritual,” says Daniel Maher of the gentle massage he receives at Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross, Dublin.
The 73-year-old from Saggart, Co Dublin, was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and comes to the day ward at the hospice once a week. While there, he receives complementary therapies, partakes in an art class and has physiotherapy – all of which have brought him on so much that he is back on his feet again after a period in a wheelchair and then using a zimmer frame.
Patricia Scully, co-ordinator of the Complementary and Creative Arts Therapies at the hospice, says the programme is fully integrated into the care plans for patients. “The complementary therapists – all of whom are registered nurses – have equal status to all other health professionals and receive referrals from their disciplinary colleagues,” she explains.
Our Lady’s Hospice was one of the first cancer care centres to set up a department for complementary and creative arts therapies, in 1998. “It started with one of the Sisters of Charity offering aromatherapy to patients. Then other therapists offered treatments on a voluntary basis. Now we have three paid complementary therapists who offer reflexology, aromatherapy and therapeutic massage,” says Scully.
Áine Vaughan gives therapeutic massage to inpatients and outpatients in the hospice. “I adapt the type of touch, the pressure and the pace of the treatment for patients who are debilitated by cancer,” she says. “Although the word massage is used, I think ‘therapeutic touch’ is more appropriate.”
Vaughan also incorporates relaxation and visualisation into her treatment. “Being present with the patient is important. It’s unhurried time which is not task oriented.”
Scully believes that complementary therapies can help cancer patients get back in touch with their bodies and emotions. “Those on a cancer journey can be taken over by their disease, their medication and their treatment programme, and complementary therapies can help them become present to their bodies and accept where they are,” she says.
“Complementary therapies also have a big role to play in attempting to ease the pain and distress people can feel before they die,” says Scully. Vaughan adds that sometimes a patient will become attached to a particular aromatherapy blend which she can offer to family members to use as a medium for physical contact in the last days of someone’s life.
Geraldine Clare is the chief executive officer of the ARC cancer support centres in Eccles Street and, more recently, in South Circular Road, Dublin. The centres offer complementary therapies such as therapeutic massage, reflexology and relaxation, yoga, tai chi and mindfulness meditation classes on a drop-in basis.
“It’s a holistic approach to help people through the various stages of their cancer journey, from the fear and dread often associated with a cancer diagnosis to the physical effort involved in having busy appointment schedules, to the anxiety of coming to terms with their illness, to helping them return to work,” she explains.
“The complementary therapies we offer have become more mainstream in the last number of years, and the benefits they offer to wellbeing are so established that health insurance providers recognise many of them,” says Clare.
Yoga teacher Connie Walsh runs weekly classes at the ARC centres for women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer.
“I often think it is hard for people to get to the door of cancer support centres – but once they step inside, they find what’s on offer to be very helpful,” she says.
Attendance at her classes is generally through word of mouth, with one patient telling another in a hospital queue or a family member offering to bring someone there.
“It’s a form of therapeutic yoga in which everyone in the class finds the movement for themselves. Sometimes, people are looking for a new way to move after having surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or hormone treatments,” she says.
“It’s about exploring and discovering what movements suit you even if you still have pain, tightness or restrictions.”
Cancer support centres offering complementary therapies are by no means confined to cities. In the last 10 years, a number of new centres have sprung up in various parts of rural Ireland.
One such centre is the LARCC cancer centre in Ballinalack, Mullingar, Co Westmeath. LARCC is the only centre in Ireland to have developed a residential programme over five days which gives participants the chance to experience complementary therapies such as reflexology, reiki, therapeutic massage and Indian head massage, as well as group therapy, art therapy, pampering and trips.
Nurse and complementary therapist Briga Gorman is the facilitator of the residential programme at LARCC. The role of complementary therapies at the centre is to help people relax, she says. “Being relaxed helps the body to heal from within.”
The Irish Cancer Society has a list of all cancer support centres throughout Ireland on its website, cancer.ie
