Pink Ribbon Lymphatic Massage offers physical therapy, vibroacoustic therapy and lymphatic drainage to post surgery, post cancer and lymphedema patients. While medically based, it has a spa feel, where customers are encouraged to come in and relax. It was founded in 2022 by Deborah Kellogg, a pioneer in oncology lymphatic massage, and has three locations in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Pink Ribbon Lymphatic has been offering Relax VR since May 2023, which continues to provide significant value to its customers.

Starting Out

Deborah’s husband would always tell her that she needed to entice all of their customers’ senses - from the visuals, to the smells, to the sounds - and Deborah thanks him for suggesting to her at one point: what about virtual reality?

Choosing the Right Equipment

When Deborah started looking, she found a lot of virtual reality applications for gaming, excitement and adrenaline-driven experiences, but very little for relaxation.

When she came upon Relax VR she liked that it was lighter than other products she had come across. 

“Relax VR is lighter. That’s really key, because if it’s not comfortable, it’s not relaxing.”

Deborah decided to get one unit on the rental plan to try it out.

When she received the unit, she was really pleased with how the package was put together with its different aspects:

• Essential oils: “The scents are combined for each location. Everywhere you want to travel you have a scent specifically for that.”

• Training materials: “The training materials are all prepared, even to the extent that they are laminated so they are easy to clean off and pass around. The step-by-step instructions on how to use the VR were great, because I am not tech-savvy, whatsoever.”

• Marketing materials: “You just plug them in, they were brilliant. Very easy, very appealing.” 

• Consent Forms: “That’s a big expense gone. Every type of modality that we have we have to work through it, have our attorney look through it, make sure we do the due diligence, so having that consent form makes it so easy. We just print it and then send it out - it’s great.”

Within a month of receiving the equipment, Deborah knew she wasn’t going to turn the equipment back in, and decided to switch from the rental plan to purchasing the equipment outright.

Implementation

Deborah initially added Relax VR to her website as a separate service. However, she didn’t seem to get a lot of people searching it out. “People think more of the VR as something for gaming, so it was a mind-flip for some people to realize that - oh I can use this to relax!”. 

One of the things Deborah already did in her practice was teach all her clients diaphragmatic breathing for any lymphatic related work, as it speeds up the motricity of the lymphatic system. However her clients found the practice very frustrating, because it’s not easy to breath from your diaphragm if you only ever use your chest for breathing - especially when somebody is standing over you watching. 

So Deborah started putting the Relax VR headset onto them - asking whether they wanted to go to the beach, the woods, or any other location. She would put the client in supine position, put on the diaphragmatic breathing meditation, and then start her opening work on her client somewhere else on the body. With the headphones off, she was able to know when the meditation was done, able to observe whether the clients were doing the practice correctly, where they were struggling, all in a very unobtrusive way.

“I’ve had really good feedback. It seems easier for clients to learn [diaphragmatic breathing], so the outcome is better.”

After the meditation is over, Deborah then asks clients whether she should take the VR headset off for the rest of their session or leave it on, and about 75% of clients ask to keep the VR headset on.

Once a session is complete, Deborah places her Relax VR unit into a Cleanbox disinfection device that provides hospital grade UVC disinfection within 1 minute. 

Marketing

Deborah offers Relax VR as a kind of gift with purchase - so new clients come in to see her, and they get an unexpected additional offering, or an anticipated additional offering for repeat customers, to their existing service. This increases what customers come to expect from Pink Ribbon Lymphatic in a very positive way. 

“Relax VR just elevates our brand so much compared to our competitors.”

Deborah also uses Relax VR at trade expos. “It gets everybody! They are standing in line”.  She puts up a sign for a quick 5 min diaphragmatic breathing exercise and introduction, and can simultaneously monitor the person using Relax VR as well as continue to talk with other people that come to the booth. 

Challenges Encountered

When asked about the challenges she encountered with Relax VR, Deborah said: 

“I had never seen one of these, I had never experienced one of these, I was very afraid of it. It did take some time to get some nervous jitters out before I put it on someone. I had to go through all the steps. 

But the steps are laid out really really well, so I think my biggest challenge really, was remembering to reorient the experience once the client was in position. There were a few funny moments at first when someone was like “Oh I thought that was an interesting scene!” - maybe I had it off center a little bit. But everything on the screen is pleasant to look at. 

That’s pretty minor, that was about it. It was not hard.”

Results

The direct results for Deborah of using Relax VR have been:

• Increased customer satisfaction
• Improved outcomes with diaphragmatic breathing
• An average of 10 minutes saved each session, as she no longer has to manually teach clients diaphragmatic breathing

Pink Ribbon Lymphatic has also doubled its revenue each year for the last 3 years. Deborah says this is a result of providing excellent care, excellent product, and elevating their brand.

Deborah has also found Relax VR worked particularly well for certain groups:

• People that can’t get out of their head. “This is really great stuff for them - it really does help them. They see there’s a video stimulation, and then it lulls them right into a place where they haven’t been in a long time. It just seems to revive them. It’s an exceptional experience they’re not getting anywhere else.”

• Plastic surgery patients. “They are in a lot of pain and just need to relax. I have a LOT of them who are requesting it over and over again. They want to go to different destinations, they usually find one that they like, the ocean is very very popular. But yeah, those people that need to be distracted. The ones in a lot of pain.”

• Older individuals. “My grandmother turned 100 on the 25th of May and I took her on a boat ride to Antarctica. And she LOVED it. Oh my god she loved it. A lot of older individuals really like it quite a bit as well. It’s very calming.”

• Millennials. “They love it.”

Advice

Deborah’s advice for those considering getting Relax VR:

• “Don’t be afraid to try it. A lot of people are going to be a little unsure, possibly the older generation. But generally I say don’t be afraid because it’s really met with a lot of excitement and acceptance. And it’s true to its name - it relaxes them completely.”

• “In a medical setting where there is high stress, people have a disease or injury they’re dealing with, everything’s expensive, they have no time, they’re uncomfortable, nothing is fun - this is the break they need. I just can’t say enough about it.” 
  • It’s also great for caregivers. "Sit’em down, make sure they’re safe, pop this on them and give them a little break. A lot of people who are chronically ill or struggling with a lot of medical needs really rely heavily on their caregiver and just from having worked in the acute care setting, they love it when you love-up their loved ones, their caregivers.”

“It’s been something I never thought I could offer, but because it is so well thought through and so well supported through customer service, it was a no-brainer. There’s nothing else out there that, at least I found, that was even similar.”

What's Next?

We asked Deborah what's next for Pink Ribbon Lymphatic, and she said: “Probably getting our non-profit Pink Ribbon Lymphatic Wellness going - we just started that this year. We see a lot of plastic surgery, it’s very profitable, it’s very needed, but we’d like our oncology patients to be able to afford us, who are cash-pay. And we’d like to get more post lymphedema post cancer patients recovery patients in to see us.”

A great mission and cause!