143: Palliative Massage is for Everyone (with Cal Cates)

The Thinking Practitioner

🎙Cal Cates returns to The Thinking Practitioner to explore the essential role massage therapy can play in palliative and end-of-life care. In conversation with Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe, Cal shares practical insights, personal stories, and the philosophy behind Healwell’s innovative mPATH training program. Together they unpack ways that all massage therapists and bodyworkers can better support patients, caregivers, and care teams—not by fixing, but by listening, noticing, and showing up with presence.

🌟 Key Topics:

• [04:37] What is palliative care—and where massage therapy fits

• [07:15] The cultural fear of dying and how it limits care

• [11:38] Common assumptions therapists make about palliative care

• [13:21] Massage therapy is palliative care—philosophically and practically

• [16:36] Caregiver stress: why the family is the “unit of care”

• [20:23] Communication as the primary intervention in palliative settings

• [24:06] How therapeutic touch invites emotional openness

• [25:44] Self-regulation and presence as clinical skills

• [31:38] Cal’s personal story: how they began this work

• [36:39] Are we making progress as a culture in facing death?

• [38:37] Skills and mindsets bodyworkers can cultivate

• [46:16] The mPATH program: advanced training for palliative care massage

• [52:21] What can go wrong without proper preparation

• [57:13] Technique is important—but presence makes it land

• [58:17] Resources and where to learn more

💡 Join the Conversation: Share your thoughts with us!

📌 Sponsored by: ABMP and Books of Discovery, with in-kind support from the Fascia Research Society

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📄 Get the full transcript at Til or Whitney's sites!

• Whitney Lowe’s site: AcademyOfClinicalMassage.com
• Til Luchau’s site: Advanced-Trainings.com

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Healwell's mPATH program: https://Healwell.org/mPATH
• Cal's recommendations
  • Palliative Touch by Cindy Spence
  • Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care by Rebecca Sturgeon and Janet Penny
  • Massage Therapy and Medical Conditions: a Decision Tree Approach by Tracy Walton
  • Vital Talk
  • The Center to Advance Palliative Care
  • Mandy Bartolovich on the Folding Towels podcast talking about pediatric palliative massage work and her research.
  • Friday Chalk Talk - Palliative Care

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• Advanced-Trainings: try a month of the amazing A-T Subscription free by entering “thinking” at checkout at a-t.tv/subscriptions/,.
• Academy of Clinical Massage: Grab Whitney's valuable Assessment Cheat Sheet for free at: academyofclinicalmassage.com/cheatsheet
• Fascia Research Congress: save $100 when you use the coupon code "thinking" at https://www.frscongress.org/

About Whitney Lowe | About Til Luchau | Email Us: [email protected]

(The Thinking Practitioner Podcast is intended for professional practitioners of manual and movement therapies: bodywork, massage therapy, structural integration, chiropractic, myofascial and myotherapy, orthopedic, sports massage, physical therapy, osteopathy, yoga, strength and conditioning, and similar professions. It is not medical or treatment advice.)