SMA STUDY MORNING

Saturday 1^st OCTOBER 2022

09.15 Welcome from Paul Medlicott

Talk 1: Susan Findlay

What is Oncology Massage?

Biography: Susan’s first love is dance, sport, anything to do with the joy of movement. She trained as a nurse in Canada but soon left the profession when she came to the UK as she wanted a deeper connection with her clients.  For many years she worked in both health and fitness, teaching 20+ classes a week and running GP referral schemes. She wanted to make better use of all her knowledge which led her to retrain as a Sports Massage and Remedial Soft Tissue Therapist.  Currently, she is the director of NLSSM and specialises in teaching Oncology Massage. She is the author of Sports Massage: Hands on Guide for Therapists and is a feature writer for Massage World.  She volunteers her time as a board member of GCMT.  More importantly, she still has a clinic in North London and keeps current with new skills.  Join her on Massage Mondays for free weekly massage videos www.susanfindlay.co.uk

Talk content: Issues Susan will address in her presentation:

• The benefits of oncology massage
• How we fit in the integrative model of cancer care
• Dispersing some of the more common myths around cancer care
• Understanding what oncology massage is and isn’t
• What the main goal is for a successful outcome
• What modifications to treatment we need to consider
• Which techniques work the best and which ones to avoid

Talk 2: Tor Davies

How to survive in the current financial climate

Biography: Tor began her professional life training as a physiotherapist at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK. She went on to complete a BSc in Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Birmingham whilst also achieving a WTA international tennis ranking.

After graduation, she worked for a London marketing agency and then moved into medical journalism where her passion for publishing was born.  At 27 she established sportEX medicine, a quarterly journal for general practitioners focusing on sport and exercise medicine.

sportEX grew into an internationally known journal for all sports medicine practitioners, including physical and manual therapists; articles covered the practical application of evidenced-based research alongside professional development with expert contributors drawn from across the world of medicine and rehabilitation.

With a passion for technology as well as publishing and sport, Tor's leadership grew sportEX into the Co-Kinetic journal and website which included a more collaborative, royalty-based form of publishing as well as a wider content remit. As well as the quarterly magazine Co-Kinetic, offerings now include e-learning opportunities, breaking clinical research infographics, marketing kits for therapists, business growth tools, and a business discount club.  Tor's focus is on providing resources to help practitioners and therapists develop their businesses and work more efficiently and effectively, a topic that she speaks regularly on at global conferences.

Talk content: 

As if 2020-2021 wasn't bad enough for business, now in 2022 we're facing a cost of living crisis and looming recession, like nothing that's come before, it feels like a perfect storm for business devastation. But there are actions we can take right now, to soften the blow and mitigate the impact on our businesses and our livelihoods.

There are four key areas in which we can add ballast to our businesses:

1. Relationships
2. Services and Products
3. Marketing and Sales
4. Business Management and Finance

In this presentation, we'll discuss each area in detail and with specific reference to the delivery of massage therapy services and look at practical steps you can take to strengthen your business today and help you withstand the pressures of the coming months.

Talk 3: Earle Abrahanson

Clinical Muscle Testing

Biography:Earle Abrahamson is an Associate Professor at the University of Hertfordshire. In addition, he is an internationally published author, therapist, psychologist, educator, consultant and teaching fellow. He has worked actively in education and complementary therapies, specialising in sport and exercise massage and rehabilitation. He is former chair of the Massage Training Institute (MTI), Chair of the General Council for Massage Therapies (GCMT) and registrant board member on the CNHC. He is a principal fellow of Advanced HE, National Teaching, Fellow of the ICNM and an inaugural ISSoTL fellow.

Earle is a practising therapist having previously served on the CNHC Massage PSB from its inception.

He has written numerous texts including: Sports Rehabilitation and Injury Prevention (2010); Making Sense of Learning and Teaching Human Anatomy (2016) and Muscle Testing: A Concise Manual (2019).

Earle has worked as a lead therapist at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In 2017, he was invited to provide soft tissue therapy services at the World Athletics Event. Earle was part of the medical team at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games held earlier this year. Earle regularly contributes articles and vlogs to industry-specific publications and outputs and campaigns for raising educational standards and practices within soft tissue and complementary therapies.

Talk Content:

This session introduces the audience to muscle testing by examining the concepts and practices of effective muscle tests. The session is based upon the text Muscle Testing a concise manual, written jointly by the presenter and co-Author Jane Langston. In this session attendees will have the opportunity to revisit their musculoskeletal anatomy, develop skills and strategies for using muscle testing to assess, treat and evaluate impact of treatment. Key checklists will be presented together with a range of scales to measure muscle tests. Different muscle tests and patterns for testing will be presented in an attempt to engage the audience with practice related questions.

Closing remarks/notices Yvonne Blake