-
SMRT and Lymph Drainage
This past Thursday I did a tutorial with a therapist who has taken several SMRT classes with me. We were in her office working on her clients. She is a lymphedema therapist, so all the clients we saw had lymphedema. I too am a lymphedema therapist, using lymph drainage with SMRT.
A Client with Lymphedema
One of the clients we saw was a man who had inguinal and deep pelvic nodes removed as part of his cancer treatment. He has lymphedema in his left leg. The scar tissue in his left pelvis was adding to his lymphedema.
We did 3 SMRT moves, the scarring flattened and became moveable, and the tension in the muscle tissue relaxed. The space in his anterior left hip increased significantly and his left leg seemed to deflate in that 3 minutes.
Not Just a Local Problem
It is easy when working with a lymphedema client to be focused only on the area of the lymphedema. I reached across the table to his right iliofemoral joint and pointed out the lack of mobility in the joint.
As she began to work his right hip around the joint, he began to recount a very old soccer injury in that hip. She used SMRT to unlock the ligaments in the joint and within a few minutes the joint had almost full ROM. We palpated the left anterior hip and scar. The remaining tension had released and the scar had become more open and pliable.
His left leg again seemed to deflate. His hips had more balance mobility and when he got dressed, we all noticed that his pants were falling off. The edema in his left lower abdomen had also decreased significantly.
Need massage therapy continuing education credits? Learn to do SMRT for the hips, lower back, and abdomen by registering now for our Bartow, FL to be held from November 30 through December 2, 2017.
