I have delivered face to face training in ‘CPD Cancer Care Workshops’ for Massage, Reflexology & Reiki to over a thousand therapists in the UK & Australia. Over the years I spoke with many therapists who had problems attending face to face workshops, either due to family restrictions; cost of travel and accommodation, or simply not having the time. I was asked many times whether I could offer the training as an eLearning course.

At first, I felt it was not possible and dismissed the idea. After all, in my field this kind of training in oncology had never been developed. However, my imagination kicked in as I began to see the possibilities of how this could work. I spent 3 years developing the eLearning version from my award-winning course, watching it evolve into the unique ‘CPD Complementary Therapies in Cancer Care’ eLearning course for Massage, Reflexology and Reiki practitioners.

In developing the eLearning it was incredibly important to me to maintain the integrity of my teaching, while delivering good quality training and creating an online training platform which works for all therapists and their own individual ways of learning.

My past teaching experiences helped in this process. Many years ago, I worked within an adult disability centre, meeting many needs and forms of disability, and creating training material from scratch. I have also had personal experience as a parent helping a child with Dyspraxia. The skills and techniques I developed through these experiences proved an excellent base for imagining what obstacles and difficulties therapists may encounter.

In building the course we found ways to address all kinds of learning needs, including providing voice overs throughout the whole of the course; assessments in the form of Q&A’s; mix and match quizzes and multiple-choice options. There are also case studies with powerful and emotive audios of patients describing their emotions and experiences. Very importantly we also included guidelines, protocols, best practices and contra-indications.

The videos created cover reflexology; massage and reiki techniques. We also added techniques for working with highly stressed patients, examples of appropriate touch pressure and how to position patients with different conditions. We included red flags, barrier nursing; hand-outs and course booklet for therapists to create a portfolio for future reference. This was a wonderful opportunity to include so much more material and content than I could have presented on a one to two day workshop.

Phew! No wonder it took 3 years lol!

This has been a team effort and labour of love between myself and Catherine Colling, my course developer and technical support. We were both so proud and delighted to finally launch the very first eLearning oncology training course ‘Complementary Therapies in Cancer Care for Massage, Reflexology and Reiki practitioners in February 2019.

We invite you to step forward with us and enjoy accredited, quality, accessible online training you can complete in your own time, your own home and at your own pace.

Accreditation and Insurance: The eLearning Oncology courses are accredited by the AoR, CThA, FHT and RAoA. They are also accepted for insurance purposes as a CPD course by Balens, Hiscox, Westminster and Holistic Services Insurance.

Reviews and Testimonials: The eLearning course and clinical practice placements have received wonderful feedback and support from Dr Peter Mackereth and Timothy Jackson MSc. RN.RM.ONC.Cert. You can read their comments as well as therapists who have completed the eLearning training at: https://butterflytouchtherapiestraining.com/testimonials/

Check it out: You can find more information about the eLearning CPD Complementary Therapies in Cancer Care eLearning for Reflexology, Massage & Reiki at: https://butterflytouchtherapiestraining.com/ or by contacting marie@butterflytouchtherapies.com

‘Do not underestimate the power of your touch and the strength in your gentleness’