Tracy Walton

Tracy Walton is a massage therapist, researcher, writer, and educator, specializing in massage therapy in cancer care. She has worked in private practice, hospital and spa settings since 1990. She is the author of Medical Conditions and Massage Therapy: A Decision Tree Approach (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins). She helped develop the award-winning film, "Touch, Caring, and Cancer," massage instruction for caregivers and partners (www.partnersinhealing.net).

As a researcher, Tracy has worked on NIH/National Cancer Institute-funded clinical trials investigating massage by care partners and massage professionals. Research partners include the Osher Institute at Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, and Collinge and Associates. She maintains a bibliography of massage and cancer research on her website, www.tracywalton.com.

Best known for her leadership and instruction in oncology massage therapy, Tracy offers several courses and presentations. She taught physiology and pathology at the Muscular Therapy Institute (now Cortiva Institute-Boston) for 13 years. There, she chaired the science department and served as Academic Dean. As a writer and teacher, she integrates the art, heart, and science of massage therapy. In her classroom, Tracy warmly welcomes and reaches massage therapists from all levels of training. In 2003, the American Massage Therapy Association named her the Teacher of the Year.

Tracy holds a master's degree in biological sciences, with a concentration in biochemistry and cellular physiology. She received her diploma in therapeutic massage from the Muscular Therapy Institute (now Cortiva Institute).