We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kathleen Lisson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kathleen below.
Kathleen, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Confidence can be described as relying on or trusting in the truth of something. With massage therapy, confidence comes when a therapist successfully use their skills to help their client. Time after time, students of my continuing education classes mention that taking the class has improved their confidence. I believe it happens because they are able to see how their fellow massage therapists help clients with similar issues. The can go into their next massage session thinking ‘this is what we do as massage therapists when we see a client with this condition.’
I built my own confidence as a therapist by having a ‘buddy’ therapist. Her name is Sherri. We live on opposite sides of the country, but we messaged back and forth, sharing our client experiences (good and bad) as we tried to ‘crack the code’ to more effectively apply lymphedema therapy techniques to clients after plastic surgery. I have a ‘share your social media accounts’ section in my online classes so students can find their own ‘buddy’ as they are learning.
Therapists also build confidence as they learn the evidence-based research supporting what they do in the massage session. This is also valuable for explaining why they are doing what they do to both the client and to the client’s care team including the plastic surgeon – for instance, ‘research shows that many surgeons include massage in their postoperative protocol.’
Self esteem can be defined as a belief in one’s own worth and abilities. Self esteem increases as therapists see repeated success using their massage techniques to help their clients in their healing journey. One of the biggest ways I built my own self esteem as a new therapist was to email my clients the day after their session and ask how they were doing. I took the answer (with client permission) and developed testimonials to add to my website and social media. Many new therapists are hesitant to raise rates at first. Reviewing all my clients’ positive feedback over the past year encouraged me to know my own worth and charge accordingly.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
As a lymphedema therapist and board certified massage therapist in San Diego, CA, I offer breast massage after breast implant /explant plastic surgery including total capsulectomy for breast implant illness. I also teach an online class to fellow massage therapists about breast massage after implant and explant plastic surgery.
My passion for helping people recover from surgery started when I was 9 years old. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and I saw how difficult her recovery was. As a child, I saw the people who helped my mom through the process, including doctors, nurses and family friends, and now, as an adult, I am grateful to be able to be one of the people who helps others after a cancer diagnosis with oncology massage.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Knowledge about the lymphatic system has made a big impact on my massage career. The more I learn about the lymphatic system, the more I realize that it has an impact in many diseases. In the journal article ‘Exploring disease interrelationships in patients with lymphatic disorders: A single center retrospective experience,’ researchers from the Stanford Center for Lymphatic and Venous Disorders state that “lymphatic dysfunction can be pivotal in the initiation and development of a variety of diseases across broad organ systems” (Rockson et al., 2022). I highly recommend taking a manual lymphatic drainage class.
Learning about diseases that are underdiagnosed and sometimes called ‘social media diseases’ has also positively impacted my career. I started by learning about lipedema after helping a client after liposuction with manual lymphatic drainage. A few years later, I started helping clients who had their breast implants removed due to breast implant illness. Manual lymphatic drainage can help clients after total capsulectomy, and breast implant illness is also sometimes called a ‘social media disease.’ Learning about these diseases makes me a better resource as my client’s massage therapist after their plastic surgery. Nowadays, it seems like everyone is competing to help clients after cosmetic liposuction. Learn about lesser-known diseases like lipedema and breast implant illness so you can be the therapist of choice for these clients.
Becoming comfortable with communicating on social media has enabled me to enjoy a steady stream of clients referred from plastic surgeons. Just a few years ago, it was much easier to just post my skills on my website and wait for the phone to ring. In 2024, plastic surgeons who refer their patients for massage often have a list of several local therapists. Having a social media presence allows these potential clients to learn about me and my practice. I recommend checking out my Instagram at @kathleenlisson and my YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@KathleenHelenLisson to see my style.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
Taking continuing education classes has been extremely helpful in developing the skills and knowledge to be a successful massage therapist. When dealing with clients after surgery, it’s easy to step outside of your scope of practice as a massage therapist. Make sure you are getting a high quality education by ensuring the classes you take have continuing education credit that is accepted by your state or the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://plasticsurgeryrecoverymassage.teachable.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenlisson
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleenlisson/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kathleenhelenlisson
