By Mary Murphy
Editor’s note: Amy Hartl was one of the winners of ABMP’s Massage Is for EveryBody 2025 contest. We wanted to share more of Amy’s work, which exemplifies the inclusive values of this campaign. Please join us in celebrating Amy!
From pay-it-forward programs to mentoring local oncology massage therapists, Amy Hartl is committed to her oncology care community and those affected by breast cancer. It stems from personal journeys—first witnessing her mother’s experience with breast cancer and then her own. Today, Hartl has made herself a resource for her community. We recently caught up with Hartl to learn about her work as a massage therapist serving breast cancer survivors and the cancer community.
“I recently launched ‘The Survivorship Starting Point: A Free Re-Entry Guide to Life After Breast Cancer.’ It’s a resource designed to help people living in early breast cancer survivorship feel more confident and empowered in understanding and connecting with their bodies,” Hartl says. “It’s remarkable how often, when treatment ends, people are surprised by how lost they feel, and this guide offers them a way to reorient to life beyond cancer.”
Beyond in-person massage therapy and working in the oncology massage space, Hartl is expanding her work online in the form of a weekly newsletter and programming. “I’m currently developing an online program that I hope to begin testing later this year that will teach practical and relevant self-care skills and marry that with the mental and emotional support patients and survivors need,” Hartl says. “My hope is to reach people who don’t have access to a specialist near them or who are in the thick of treatment and can’t always come in. It feels like an important extension of my existing work.”
The self-care piece, Hartl says, is critical for survivors.
“The word self-care gets thrown around a lot, but in the context of breast cancer, it’s genuinely life-changing,” Hartl says. “What I see again and again is that people come out of their diagnosis and treatment feeling disconnected from their bodies—sometimes even afraid of or angry at them. They’ve been poked, prodded, cut, and radiated, and the idea of touching or nurturing their own body can feel foreign or even scary. Self-care and especially massage—both with a professional therapist and at home with self-touch—help rebuild that relationship. It sends a message to the nervous system and to the person: This body is worth tending to. For my clients, self-care isn’t indulgence—it’s part of healing.”
Hartl’s online resources cover everything from lymphatic health and lymphedema risk reduction to scar tissue and radiation fibrosis after breast cancer, as well as a library of self-care practices.
“I think about one participant in my dry brushing workshop who described [her experience]. Dry brushing made her look at herself differently. It connected her mind and body—and she said she’d never known such peace,” Hartl says. “That’s what self-care can do when it’s approached with intention. It’s not just physical maintenance. It’s whole-person reclamation.”
More acceptance and incorporation of self-care practices isn’t all that this community needs, though. Hartl would love to see more oncology massage programs, more access and fewer barriers to specialized care, and more education.
“I’d love to see massage therapy more consistently integrated into cancer care teams—not as an afterthought or a luxury add-on, but as a recognized part of a patient’s care plan,” she says. “We have solid research supporting the benefits of massage for managing treatment side effects like anxiety, pain, fatigue, and lymphedema risk. Building more pathways for MTs to work alongside oncologists, surgeons, and care coordinators would be a game changer for patients. But to do this, we need to be the educators and the bridge builders in the medical community. It falls on us to become comfortable speaking up, networking, and ultimately educating about our work and how it supports their patients.”
For breast cancer survivors or those living with a life-threatening or life-limiting diagnosis, this level of support and specialized care is incredibly important. For this community, Hartl stresses that self-care doesn’t just mean self-care. Self-care means self-reliance, self-confidence, self-acceptance, self-love, and full-on empowerment.
“The community piece has also been deeply meaningful. I’m so grateful that many of my clients and people in my community are willing to make real connections with me,” Hartl says. “The approach is different, but the message is always the same—our connection helps them feel less alone, and that’s everything to me.”
And that sentiment is evident, even online. Hartl signs every email to her community with a wonderful reminder: “Taking care of your body after a breast cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming. You don’t have to do it alone.”
Resource
Are you or someone you know struggling with a recent breast cancer diagnosis? Or, are you an MT who specializes in or wants to specialize in oncology massage? Connect with Amy at the links below:
- Website: amyhartl.com
- The Survivorship Starting Point: amyhartl.com/starter-kit