What I do
Manual lymphatic drainage is a slow, light-pressure technique that follows the body's lymphatic pathways to help move fluid through the lymphatic system. After cosmetic, reconstructive, or general surgery, swelling and inflammation are expected; lymphatic drainage is one of the modalities surgeons commonly recommend as part of a recovery plan to help patients move through the post-operative course more comfortably.
I work on direct instructions from each patient's surgeon — when to begin, how often, what areas need attention, when to pause if something doesn't look right and needs the surgeon's eyes. The patient's medical team leads the recovery; I execute the manual portion of the plan within the parameters they set, and I stay in close communication when something needs to be flagged.
How I got here
I've been practicing for more than fifteen years. I graduated from the National Holistic Institute in Emeryville, California in 2014 with a 750-hour Clinical & Medical Massage certification, and have held my California massage therapy license (CAMTC #82919) continuously since then. The earlier years were in integrative wellness centers across Los Angeles, where I worked alongside plastic and reconstructive surgeons before being recruited by a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon for exclusive post-operative work. That specialization is where I built the protocol I use today — refined across thousands of sessions, in close coordination with the surgeons whose patients I see.
I founded Lymphyx in 2018 to formalize that practice. Today the practice is surgeon-coordinated, with patients arriving through fourteen board-certified plastic surgeons across Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. The model is intentional: every patient I see comes through a surgeon's referral or arrives with a clear surgical history, and I treat their post-operative phase as a stage of a plan the surgeon owns.
The work, plainly
If you're considering surgery — or recovering from one — you're going to read a lot of optimistic copy. I'll give you the version I actually believe:
- Manual lymphatic drainage supports recovery. It does not produce the surgical result. The surgeon does that.
- Consistency through the early weeks matters more than any single session.
- Compression, hydration, and movement matter at least as much as the manual work.
- If something looks wrong — heat, redness, asymmetric swelling, drainage from incisions — that is a call to the surgeon, not a session with me.
I keep the practice deliberately small so I can give each patient the time the protocol actually requires.
That's the same reason I haven't tried to scale or franchise the studio. The job is hands-on and the standard of care is set by people who can actually do the work.
Where to go next
- Credentials — licensure, certifications, professional memberships
- Training and lineage — where I studied and who trained me
- Approach — how I think about post-operative care
- Scope of practice — what an LMT is and isn't, and when I refer out
If you'd like to book a session, the studio handles all scheduling: Lymphyx — Lymphatic Drainage & Wellness Massage.