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Milady's Guide to Lymph Drainage Massage
Lymph drainage massage is a technique utilized by estheticians and massage therapists to provide relief from edema, an accumulation of fluids in the tissues that causes swelling. This book provides a scientifically accurate explanation of the lymphatic system, the theory behind lymph drainage massage, and explains when it should be performed. The book also explains the application of lymph drainage massage to the needs of well clients, rather than focusing on pathology, since most massage therapists and estheticians will not be treating lymph edema disease in their work.
208 pages, Paperback
First published July 11, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 4, 2013
This book is absolutely wonderful for the novice patient that wants to learn a bit about the lymph system and some do-able self massage techniques.
The step-by-step self massage instructions are very clear as are the accompanying photos of each step. Instructions are included for face and neck message, breast massage and basic arm and leg lymphatic self-massage.
I am severely ill and have poor arm strength and arm lifting and moving abilities (part of why I have lymph issues!) but hope I will be able to manage at least part of these techniques because such light pressure and slow strokes are needed. Professional lymph massage is wonderful and I have a wonderful therapist but it's far too expensive to have as often as I would like so I'm hoping to boost my lymph health by doing some extra massaging myself maybe.
[Update: Have done my first self massage session and it went well. I was able to do the entire 30 minute upper-body massage session as instructed, and it has definitely had a noticebale benefit with visible shrinking of the areas massaged etc. Not as strong an effect as with my professional full-body massage, but still good. For half an hour afterwards my arms were on fire though and too weak to move at all or to lift even a pen. They also hurt and were very weak the next day, making typing difficult. I may have to cut it down to a 20 minute massage maybe, and even then once a week would be my absolute maximum schedule for it, sadly. Probably this is only relevant to those with my disease and with a similar ability level, but I thought I'd include it anwyay, FWIW.]
The self breast massage idea is very important as a professional masseuse most often wont do this area, so learning to do it yourself is so vital if you have lymph issues.
The diet advice in the book wasn't great but was very brief. Also very few tips are included for other ways of improving lymph health such as rebounding etc. It also seems not at all detailed enough for use by professionals, and I hope therapists would get some quality real life training before doing these massages on ill people. Other than that the book was great and so helpful to me. I thank the author for writing it.
I'd love so much if I could see some videos by the author demonstarting the self massage techniques so I could follow along with the video as I try them out - and be a bit more sure I am doing it all right. But the book is pretty good all on its own and I highly recommend seeing if your library has a copy if you have lymph issues or any oedema.
Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for M.E. (HFME) and Health, Healing & Hummingbirds (HHH)
The step-by-step self massage instructions are very clear as are the accompanying photos of each step. Instructions are included for face and neck message, breast massage and basic arm and leg lymphatic self-massage.
I am severely ill and have poor arm strength and arm lifting and moving abilities (part of why I have lymph issues!) but hope I will be able to manage at least part of these techniques because such light pressure and slow strokes are needed. Professional lymph massage is wonderful and I have a wonderful therapist but it's far too expensive to have as often as I would like so I'm hoping to boost my lymph health by doing some extra massaging myself maybe.
[Update: Have done my first self massage session and it went well. I was able to do the entire 30 minute upper-body massage session as instructed, and it has definitely had a noticebale benefit with visible shrinking of the areas massaged etc. Not as strong an effect as with my professional full-body massage, but still good. For half an hour afterwards my arms were on fire though and too weak to move at all or to lift even a pen. They also hurt and were very weak the next day, making typing difficult. I may have to cut it down to a 20 minute massage maybe, and even then once a week would be my absolute maximum schedule for it, sadly. Probably this is only relevant to those with my disease and with a similar ability level, but I thought I'd include it anwyay, FWIW.]
The self breast massage idea is very important as a professional masseuse most often wont do this area, so learning to do it yourself is so vital if you have lymph issues.
The diet advice in the book wasn't great but was very brief. Also very few tips are included for other ways of improving lymph health such as rebounding etc. It also seems not at all detailed enough for use by professionals, and I hope therapists would get some quality real life training before doing these massages on ill people. Other than that the book was great and so helpful to me. I thank the author for writing it.
I'd love so much if I could see some videos by the author demonstarting the self massage techniques so I could follow along with the video as I try them out - and be a bit more sure I am doing it all right. But the book is pretty good all on its own and I highly recommend seeing if your library has a copy if you have lymph issues or any oedema.
Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for M.E. (HFME) and Health, Healing & Hummingbirds (HHH)
April 13, 2018
Well-written, informative, and useful, this book was written for professional LMT's, but is accessible to the layperson who has some knowledge of anatomy. I admit to having to look up a few anatomical terms because my biology is rusty and Latin non-existent, but that's what dictionaries are for.
Note that the e-book edition does not make use of scalable font, so each page has to be zoomed if you want to increase text size or closely examine the many illustrations and photos of technique. Normally, that would cause me to downgrade my rating since I expect e-books to be more functional and user-friendly than print books, but I think the quality of information overrides this small inconvenience.
There is an excellent section on self-massage (both doing and teaching), and it's nice to see the concept of the healing crisis addressed in a balanced manner.
If I were an LMT, I certainly would purchase this book and consider the cost a career investment. It is, like most textbooks, an expensive purchase for the non-professional who is unlikely to get extensive use from it. Fortunately, Amazon offers a textbook rental option that allows one to borrow the e-book for a reasonable fee.
Note that the e-book edition does not make use of scalable font, so each page has to be zoomed if you want to increase text size or closely examine the many illustrations and photos of technique. Normally, that would cause me to downgrade my rating since I expect e-books to be more functional and user-friendly than print books, but I think the quality of information overrides this small inconvenience.
There is an excellent section on self-massage (both doing and teaching), and it's nice to see the concept of the healing crisis addressed in a balanced manner.
If I were an LMT, I certainly would purchase this book and consider the cost a career investment. It is, like most textbooks, an expensive purchase for the non-professional who is unlikely to get extensive use from it. Fortunately, Amazon offers a textbook rental option that allows one to borrow the e-book for a reasonable fee.
January 16, 2012
Very well written. And even better when you get to take the class from the author herself. She is amazing!
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