Current Partnerships

“Working with older patients brings me a great deal of joy because I know how much we can really impact their quality of life,” explains Mickey Agney, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) at Massage Therapy of Oak Park.

Mickey and Rick Halle-Podell, owner of Massage Therapy of Oak Park, often partner with geriatric care managers in Chicago and Chicago's Western Suburb to help people maintain and improve overall health and regain the physical function that may have been lost due to aging.

“One of our first clients referred by a geriatric care manager wasn't able to walk to the bathroom by himself... memory, energy, just a real struggle to live,” Mickey reveals. “With oils, energy and massage therapy, we helped him to get to where he is today. He can get off the table by himself and is taking classes again. He looks forward to when I will arrive.”

A related experience involved a woman who had all but given up on life. She had stopped walking seven years before Massage Therapy of Oak Park started treating her. She sat in a wheelchair everyday, hunched over. When Mickey first arrived, she didn't look up and didn't talk. In fact, the only responses the long-term care facility could illicit from her were shouts of pain. By then end of her first session with Mickey, she talked and smiled.

According to Mickey, “The first time I worked on her she was complaining of back problems, but I felt it was digestion because back problems tend to involve movement and she was confined to a wheelchair. I did a lot of energy work on her stomach. It turns out a blockage was putting pressure on her spine. Also, it was evident during a massage that the facility was not cleaning her feet enough. I do not know if anyone else would have noticed this. While I do not think she will ever walk again, I do see that I am an important part of her happiness and foot health does play a part in the immune system. I am glad to have been able to improve how they take care of her.”

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