Self-Care Education Classes
A one-to-one, two hour live video call where we work through a specific topic so that you come away with education, information, skills, and resources that allow you to be empowered in caring for your body and walk through day to day life with more self-reliance, confidence, and comfort in your skin. Choose from lymphedema risk reduction & symptom management, scar tissue release for comfort & appearance, and nurturing your mind/body bond.
Life in survivorship can leave you feeling helpless and adrift.
"Why didn't anyone tell me it would be like this?"
Scars that are uncomfortable and probably not what you envisioned. Nerve pain that shows up as random zaps, zings, and stabs. Painful and motion-limiting effects of "cording" like wires under your skin. Burning pins and needles of neuropathy in your hands and feet. The fear of lymphedema without any real facts about what it is or what to do about it.
The care and guidance that you received during surgery and treatment can seem to disappear when it comes to everything after and finding your elusive "new normal". They say you are done but what about what you are left with?
It's not enough to be told what to do or not do. You need to know why it matters.
One of the hardest parts about living life in survivorship is trying to figure out what it's safe to do or not do. "Can I work out? What about travel? How do I know if I'm "overdoing" it and what are the consequences?" Life in the unknown is frustrating.
Even when you do receive information like "don't take your blood pressure or have blood drawn on your cancer side" there often isn't any information as to WHY this matters. When you understand the WHY behind the WHAT you become equipped to make informed decisions in many areas of your life.
When you are capable of making informed decisions, it means you no longer have DO's and DON'T's. You have opportunities to decide what is in your best interest in different situations. Empowerment at its finest!
Class Options
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One of breast cancer’s best kept secrets is the lifelong risk of lymphedema that almost all of us live with after diagnosis and treatment. This stems from damage to the lymph nodes and vessels during diagnostic and treatment interventions like node biopsies and dissections (even sentinel!) and radiation therapy.
Learning to understand your lymphatic system and how to care for it is your best defense for reducing your risk of developing lymphedema in the first place, or when necessary, managing early stage symptoms to prevent them from becoming worse.
This class teaches you to use a combination of critical thinking and hands-on self-care skills around your unique risk to ensure that everything from daily chores to your favorite adventures and activities are safe and available to you!
Lymphedema doesn’t play by the rules. Read about “Breast Cancer’s Best Kept Secret” and how understanding it may be the key to reducing your risk.
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While many of the changes to your body caused by breast cancer may be permanent the way you live with them doesn’t have to be. Scar tissue is one of the most common causes of pain and discomfort after surgery and radiation but YOU have the ability to create more comfort and ease in your own skin.
This class will teach you to understand the nature of scars, the difference between superficial and deep scar tissue, and how it affects your body when it comes to range of motion and pain.
You will develop hands-on skills to work with your own scars, not only allowing you to affect great physical change over time that can reduce pain and restriction, but also create a deeper and more loving connection with your body as a whole, especially the parts of you directly affected by your breast cancer experience.
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From the outside people think that once the surgeries are done and the treatments are “over” that you are “good now”. That your new normal has begun and it’s something you slip easily into like a favorite pair of jeans. Unfortunately this is often the farthest thing from the truth.
Breast cancer changes not only your physical body but the mental and emotional ways you connect with it as well. Establishing practices that create the opportunity to care for and feel whole in yourself, even the parts that look and feel different, can be the catalyst to moving from feeling disconnected and betrayed by your body to a deeper level of understanding, trust, and self-love.
This class combines scientific information with mental and emotional practices and as hands-on skills to create a variety of self-care rituals that move you towards healing.
Self-Care Education Class - $200
One call. Detailed education, training, and resources. A support guide to help you make your new practice a reality. The knowledge and skills to create a foundation of lifetime self-care and empowerment making life in your head and body more comfortable.
The Process
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While you might feel you need more than one of these sessions, start with the one that either feels like the most attainable for the fastest win OR the one that really weighs on your mind so that you can start the process of healing that area.
Each Informed Self-Care Coaching Session focuses on one of the following areas of recovery and healing:
⟢ Lymphedema Risk Reduction and Management
⟢ Scar Tissue Release for Comfort and Appearance
⟢ Building or Strengthening the Mind/Body Connection
Each focus area is tailored to your needs based on your individual experience with breast cancer.
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Based on your chosen class topic, and your experiences and goals, we talk through a variety of education and skills that you can use to facilitate healing.
Sessions include practical information, tools, and resources, including demonstrations of hands-on techniques and the opportunity for questions and answers.
What you learn in your session will be the foundation of establishing a self-care practice that you can use now and throughout your survivorship, when and as you need.
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Knowledge is power! Education and information is at the core of your self-care practice. Not only understanding the what and the how of self-care but the WHY as well.
This is what allows you to make informed decisions in your life about your activities and health as you become more familiar and confident with your body, what it needs, and how to care for it, as you are now.
To support and reinforce your self-care practice I provide you with a tailored, comprehensive workbook, containing graphics, reference materials, and a link to your recorded coaching session, arriving in your inbox within 72 hours.
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You have the knowledge, you have the skills, and now you get to take action.
Your self-care practice is just that - a practice. Whether you try a little every day or as you feel you need it, this is something that will become more comfortable and consistent with time and practice.
Breast cancer recovery and survivorship is complex and multifaceted so give yourself the grace and space to take things at your own pace. Work in what you can when you can and you will see and feel the results through your progress.
Are you ready???
“Knowledge is powerful. Amy gives you the tools to help navigate your new life on your breast cancer journey. I highly recommend her Lymphedema class. She breaks down the information into easily digestible segments. She works with you on a personal level to help you learn to listen to your body and teaches you how to keep your lymphedema manageable. Amy has truly been a light on on my breast cancer path.”
— Barbara
Why Amy and As We Are Now?
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, I had an advantage that most women don't: knowledge and skills about what I was about to go through and what might come after as well as what to do about it.
Growing up BRCA1+ and high risk for breast and ovarian cancers, I knew it could be me one day and in 2012 I began my career in integrative oncology. My education, training, and hands-on experience with women living with the aftermath of breast cancer surgeries and treatments allowed me to take my own healing into my hands.
During my recovery I was able to translate the work I did with clients in the studio into a self-care strategy that allowed me to improve the look and feel of my scars, to safely increase my range of motion, to reduce the effects of chemo-related neuropathy, and most importantly, to manage and even minimize my risk of lymphedema to this day.
Now I teach other women like you and me to hold space for yourself and to use these same practices for recovery and healing so you can resume an active life while feeling safe in your skin.