27/08/2025
Over my time at Eastern Palliative Care, I have been privileged to integrate meditation and grounding practices into our Foundations Program, helping our allied health team discover how even five minutes can be enough to regulate the nervous system. Taking a short pause became a way for us all — therapists, nurses, carers — to return to balance so we could keep showing up with presence and compassion.
For many of our clients, massage was more than comfort — it was an entirely new experience. I will never forget those who told me they had never been touched in a nurturing way before. To place a hand gently on a shoulder, to hold someone’s hand as they were actively dying, to bring calm to a body and mind in transition… it reminded me that touch is not just physical. It is a language of dignity, humanity, and connection.
Colleagues often told us how much this meant to clients and their families. In those moments, it was so clear: we are not only massage therapists. We are companions, witnesses, supporters, and sometimes simply the steady presence someone needs at the end of their journey.
The memories I carry are countless — clients who changed me, stories that reshaped my understanding of life. If palliative care teaches you anything, it is this: life is not only short, but it is profoundly beautiful.
✨ �I think of my work like walking through a forest at dusk. Each person I have met is like a tree — some strong and tall, some fragile and bending, each with their own story written in their rings. My role has been to pause with them, to listen to the wind through their branches, to sit with them in stillness. Though the light fades for some, the forest remains filled with beauty, reminding me that even endings carry grace.
