Student placement information - massage therapy

The Massage Therapy service within South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust is based at Springfield Hospital in Tooting. We have been established as an integrated service within the Trust for 12 years, which makes us an unusual and pioneering service in mental health and the NHS.   

We are currently a team of three therapists, including a team leader. The team is part of a Physical Therapies Department, which also includes a Physiotherapy service and an Exercise Therapy service. Student placements are facilitated by Ceris Fender, Team Leader and Eddy O’Meara, who is a senior member of the team. Between them they have 13 years of experience as massage therapists in the NHS, 9 years experience of working in mental health, and 11 years experience of providing supervision to other massage therapists or students. In addition, Ceris has been a tutor, training massage therapists to professional level for 10 years and Eddy is currently undertaking training in teaching adults to further his interest in this area.           

The Trust provides a specialist service for people whose mental health needs are more severe and complex than those that can be met through their GP or other Primary Care services. Specialist support is provided both to people living in the community and those who are admitted into inpatient care. Patients of the Trust include those with a wide range of mental health diagnoses including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress syndrome, bi-polar affective disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorders, personality disorders and addictions.      

Within the massage therapy team we provide a service to patients with all of the above diagnoses and work with people who come to us as outpatients from the community and those who are currently inpatients. Each massage therapy session includes an individual assessment and treatment based on this assessment of the client’s needs. Our aim is to focus on issues associated with our clients’ mental health needs, such as anxiety, stress, agitation, low self-esteem, difficulties with body-image or receiving touch. As, of course, mind and body are linked we often work with physical symptoms such as muscle tension, headaches etc. but our primary focus is not on muscular-skeletal techniques. Clients with specific musculo-skeletal problems would be seen by our physiotherapy colleagues. Our treatments tend to emphasise gentle, relaxing techniques rather than deep tissue techniques, although there may be occasions when we use these with discretion. We do not, for example, offer massage inetrventions such as shiatsu to our clients.

We achieve very positive outcomes with our clients who report experiencing decreased anxiety, agitation, muscle tension and stress-related symptoms, increased relaxation or motivation, improvements to quality of sleep, self-esteem or body image, increased ability to accept touch and to feel safe doing so and greater self-awareness.

We also encourage our clients to develop skills that they can use themselves to help manage their symptoms.   

What the placement involves

Students spend a half-day session with us each week for a period of six weeks. At your initial session you will receive an induction to our service and training on professional practice boundaries and standards within the service, and you will observe a massage therapy session with one of our clients. This introductory session is provided to two students at once, where possible, so that you can also learn from questions or issues raised by the other student.

Due to the complex nature of our clients’ needs and the skills needed to respond to them, you will receive individual supervision, support and teaching input from your allocated supervisor who will be one of the senior members of the team. You will have the opportunity to work with at least two different clients during your placement and will carry out assessment, treatment planning and evaluation. Your first session with a new client will be observed by your supervisor so that they can give you very focused feedback and support you in the areas that you need to develop. You will write your own clinical treatment notes each week and a report on each client at the end of their course of treatment, again with support from your supervisor.

We aim to have two students with us at one time so that in addition to the 1:1 input from your supervisor you have the opportunity for further peer support.

What can be gained from the placement         

As each student receives input from their supervisor based on their individual learning needs you can benefit from this placement regardless of the level of prior experience that you have. This means that each student’s learning experience will be different. However, there are certain key areas where you can gain experience and learning from this placement:

• Insight into working in an NHS Trust, including standards of practice, policies and procedures, and record keeping.
• Experience of working within a team of massage therapists and experience of a multi-disciplinary working through communication with other health professionals.
• Insight into mental health and the specialist skills needed to provide massage therapy to clients with complex mental health needs.  

In addition the placement provides an opportunity to develop the following skills, qualities and further areas of interest in bodywork practice:

• Sensitivity of communication skills, which are absolutely paramount when working with our client group.
• Sensitivity of touch, which again is of absolute importance when working with vulnerable clients who may have a history of sexual or physical abuse, who may self-harm, or who may have body image issues.
• A client focused approach that helps clients to feel empowered, important for people who may have experiences of feeling disempowered, or who have low self-esteem.
• Flexibility and adaptability to the needs of the client, which may change week to week.
• Acuteness of assessment and evaluation skills through observation, touch, and verbal and non-verbal communication.     
• Awareness of the mind-body connection, including the impact of mental health on the body and the impact of bodywork on mental health and emotional well-being.    

If you would prefer the opportunity to try out lots of different technical skills from a range of bodywork modalities, focus on physical health needs or would feel frustrated by taking things slowly with clients this placement would not offer what you were looking for and would probably not be the one for you. However, if the above areas for learning and development interest you, whatever your current level of skill or awareness, this may be the placement for you.

If you have any questions that you would like to discuss do not hesitate to contact Ceris Fender-Reid, Massage Therapy Team Leader on 020 8682 6474 or email ceris.fender@swlstg-tr.nhs.uk