Advanced Foot Reading - Reflexology Book Club Recording

but we will get started uh since it is officially 11am i want to make sure that everybody is uh not tied up and is able to uh get out on time so here's here's the story so what had happened was um in the us right now we're incurring a little bit of a shipping issue and so since my book was recently published um everybody else has gotten the copies of their buck via amazon which is very very good at fulfillment of orders and the advanced copies that were shipped to amazon have arrived and are in people's hands my books the books from my publisher have not arrived yet so i cannot show you a copy of my book because i do not have it um instead i will be reading from the pdf final proof of my book that i sent to my publisher so i won't have something physical to hold but i will be reading the exact text from the book so just as an fyi that's that's how we're gonna play this little game uh good morning victoria so glad uh that i'll get to see you over in march in london uh francesca glenn the one and only good sir it is such an honor to have you on the on the live stream okay so let's go ahead and start reading i picked a couple different sections from the book uh we'll do the introduction we'll do the section on what is consulting um and talk a little bit about the consultive part of the practice because that's kind of the title of the book is advanced foot reading a consultative approach to re approach to reflexology so we'll talk about um the idea of how reflexology is not just a manual practice it is uh through the work of foot reading a consultative approach where we have more of a dialogue oriented exchange with our clients but then also we have another section that i wanted to read on the assessment triangle and the idea of this this trifecta of different parts of assessment that i prioritize and look at uh to give the best consultation possible hello raquel hello karen hello raven uh everybody jumping on thank you so much for joining me this this lovely saturday uh for some some quality entertainment if anything else but let's go ahead and we'll get started and i'll start reading from the pdf not the not the physical book um but i will post it when i get those and i know that shipping is a little bit weird right now so from the introduction of advanced foot reading a consultative approach to reflexology by sam bellier we'll start with the introduction uh and it goes as follows thank you for choosing to continue our conversation it is my pleasure to write for you again as i hope to do many more times in the future our subject of the moment is foot reading which is the art and science of assessing the visual textural and walking patterns known as markers on the feet hands face and ears so we might understand the physical and internal past and present state of a person in my last book foot reading a reflexology primer on foot assessment i outlined the basic tools of a foot reader's toolbox but now i hope to take you further and enhance your skills since the publishing of foot reading back in 2017 i have traveled to ireland england canada australia and new zealand to teach this work these tours have given me great insight into what this second book needs to contain some of the concepts i presented were smash hits while others needed to be redrawn and explained differently as in the first book my goal here is to keep things candid but before we delve into specifics let me express some of my feelings that have surfaced as i've gradually unpacked this book in front of you over the past two years this book answered for me uh sorry this book answered me as i asked the question what's next i had already cracked the code on how to read feet but there were holes as i tried to explain this content to others who did not have the same knowledge base i did the elements and understanding of diet experience with different healing systems and a confidence built over time through working with clients were concepts and assets i had taken for granted in a way i needed to write content that reinforced the fundamentals i also desperately wanted to integrate new concepts that would stretch the imagination of my students at some point i was faced with a classic author's dilemma do i write about what i'm interested in or do i hold myself accountable to my readership and give them what they need to succeed instead i found the answer to be somewhere in the middle as it often is that's a side note you'll get the feeling as i address certain topics throughout these pages that i know more than i have written down this is an accurate feeling on your part there will be other topics exercises that i harp on as a requirement to patch and strengthen a potential crack in the path of your knowledge we are journeying along this path together and it is essential and necessary to reforge components over and over my commitment and promise to you is that i will continue to do my best whichever form that takes to communicate the knowledge that has been handed to me by others and what i've learned through my own research and validated through personal experiences however this is an advanced book please imagine me putting air quotes around that phrase as i say it so i don't intend to go easy on you questions should be contemplated and self-tested before asked in this classroom there is more to learn but the excuse of ignorance without a willingness to learn does not flatter the would-be adapt that's fancy talk for the following warning reading words in a book and intellectually understanding concepts is no replacement for work in the field that's probably like one of my favorite sections in the introduction anyway it is work and experience that makes you strong if you don't get it chances are you haven't accrued enough of the right experiences on your own the solution to your problem may be spending more time in the weeds the trenches of our healing profession and surrounding yourself with live examples of what we will be discussing i will at this time replace my philosopher hat with my teacher hat and begin talking a mile a minute about the concepts that truly excite me foot reading as we soon shall see is a door into many other worlds of thought the approaches to healing a body are endless but some are more correct than others which will be [Music] which will change based on the context of the session i will outline my case as to what boxes must be checked for that correctness to be present and how you as the now advancing practitioner can apply those methods to deepen your study of the body's profound interconnectedness let us begin so that is the introduction i hope that uh you've enjoyed that little snippet so far we have a couple other sections that i'm going to be reading from the next will be uh why consult so definitely uh stick around if you'd like to hear me read more from the book hello and fran christina jackie chantal everybody who's jumping on thank you so much um again we're just reading from my latest book advanced foot reading uh so if you have any uh kind of comments or questions feel free to drop them in the chat but i am reading from my pdf not the physical book because i don't have my copies yet uh so forgive me for that but we are moving on for those of you who have your the lucky few of you who have your copies um we are going to be reading now from uh why consult so we're going to be flipping past the first section on the elements which the reason why i started off with the elements was because that was probably the core part of the book that a lot of people didn't understand the most right uh it was new to a lot of you but as somebody who has studied the elements extensively both in physical and spiritual traditions elements to me were just such a such an easy part to grasp and as i lectured and taught all over the world it was very clear to me that a lot of you don't feel that way so i had to take that first section to say okay here are the elements again let's break them down not just into earth air fire water but also hot cold wet dry which we will use throughout the book um and kind of breaking that down into seasons and cycles and how you can start to understand and partner with the elements through exercises and so we're going to skip that first section because it is a little bit heavy and we're going to talk about the consultation aspect the idea of kind of why why consult in the first place right uh hello susie hello gail hello everybody who's jumping on thank you so much for spending uh part of your saturday with me so we are on page 27 and we're going to talk about why consult my practice has evolved as it should be since i began my journey back in 2009. i obtained my initial certification with a set of protocols and expectations about how this modality should be practiced i.e the right way change slowly intervenes the way i approach my craft now and the way i approach my craft now is much different from when i started a large part of this transformation has been integrating consulting as a major part of my practice it is now my professional responsibility to share what i have learned along the way when i present foot reading to groups of practitioners who are largely reflexologists or body workers there's a palpable sense of reservation in the room when we are taught that putting our hands on someone is the only way to contribute the idea of consulting seems off the table largely because foot reading is not reflexology i find an interested but hesitant audience in most of my classes true a consultation is not reflexology but it does use reflexology theory likewise a consultation does not have to be completely hands-off part of the assessment process can be doing your normal routine adjusting the length of a menu of the manual portion based on client's preference what you find during the work and how comfortable you are holding an educational conversation in this section i'm here to share why i think consulting can potentially lead to an evolution of our practice as it did for mine notice how i say potentially instead of insisting that you should be adding this work to your menu of services foot reading consultations are not for everyone however the value they bring enhances a session like no technique i've ever witnessed if i can only plant the seed of possibility that consulting is within your capability whatever form that takes i will have succeeded the question i'm asking you now is this can you apply your knowledge of the craft to help a client without telling yourself that touch is the only way to be valuable something to think on on scope of practice being the bridge throughout my exposure to touch as a career the importance of knowing my professional scope has been a reoccurring theme i studied energy modalities like reiki first and learned that florida is a license to touch state florida is where i'm at in the u.s in order to be hands-on with any form of health practice in florida you need a massage therapy license or have touch within your licenses scope because of this law i've been constantly reminded of the legalities of my work and the work of others reflexology is practiced differently across the world but in the places where it is regular regulated we have a similar do not list do not diagnose do not prescribe and do not treat for a specific condition my intention with foot reading was never to push these boundaries only to help my clients in order to do this i need to frame my practice in a way that did not label me as something i wasn't i also needed to honor the enhanced experience and knowledge i had acquired through multiple certifications and years of practice this change required transforming the words diagnose prescribe and treat into lesser variants to help others understand my intentions i do not want to be misconstrued as a doctor or other medical professional with a diagnosing prescribing and or treating in their scope however i did want to use the tools i had to bridge the gap between those professionals and the public first i changed the word diagnose to assess assessment is what i am practicing not a hard and fast flinging of medical labels meant to box someone into a specific disease category i do not want to tell someone they have xyz condition because i may be wrong and i certainly am not using the latest edge the leading edge medical equipment to confirm my findings however i can use my reflexology training and foot reading experience to understand what tissue states are present in the body i'm looking at diagnosis is actively using a predetermined medical label for a set of symptoms while assessment is being able to recognize a common imbalance recognize common and balanced patterns without assuming a medical label second i change the word prescribe to educate i'm not peddling pills and remedies or trying to convince a client to come in for more sessions with me i just want to see them get better this requires that i direct them to medical information like anatomy and physiology materials scientific studies and other modalities and practitioners who specialize in their issues teaching a client to be aware of their own body and their options is a key part of the consultative process i teach clients to stand up for themselves and actively seek health solutions third i change the word treat into coach clients come to me for help often when modern medicine has failed them they're in need of support and guidance to help them cut to help them connect with the resources that would best fuel their healing journey when i consult with clients i become their wellness advocate it is my responsibility to refer them to the practitioners and tools that i know based on my training can help them i'm not claiming to cure or even relieve symptoms through coaching i'm saying that i have experience in the field and can be a guide on the path to health some reflexologists argue that these changes are too forward while others would say that they are not forward enough i personally like where i am in my practice and i enjoy having supportive sessions with clients that range from 100 manual work to 100 consultative discussion i love helping someone plan out their next steps doing research and helping them find the resources to stimulate their unique vision of healing anything more or less than that in my opinion would be doing a disservice to my clients that's just who i am and how i practice when we decide to incorporate a consultative approach into our sessions we embrace being a bridge as practitioners clients who have been chewed up and spat out by one system of healing allopathic or holistic are in a vulnerable place they are thankfully a growing there are thankfully a number of growing practitioners who are willing to have a client-centered approach should you choose to be one of them you're stepping into the role of the consultant using your experiences to help shuttle people from one point in their healing journey to another along a much larger path than any one of us can understand we are the ones who occupy the gap of chronic care management we stand tall and with compassion to catch those who are torn between suffering in silence and more acute interventions using our listening skills and our voice as part of a client session is in my opinion a complementary care practitioners duty we do not want to be the end of the road for clients although they sometimes seem to think we are instead taking a consultative approach lets us understand where we fit in the medical system of that client on not being good enough another pain point i pick up on from groups that i teach is an undercurrent of i'm not good enough unfortunately this is a pervasive theme in healing professions i'm not saying everyone is good enough because i've met practitioners that conjure the phrase well there's somebody for everybody in my mind likewise there are non-practitioners who refuse to become professionals despite how gifted they are it all boils down to the self-talk you have in your head and whether you are willing to put in the work confidence comes naturally to some but it certainly did not to me i started teaching because if i didn't share what i knew i felt like all my discoveries would tear me apart from the inside out every time i consult teach or work with someone i am nervous nervous i'll get it wrong nervous they don't like me nervous i'll be exposed as a fraud who really doesn't know anything all of these hesitations are terribly illogical fears hardwired into the brain to keep us safely situated behind the curtain eventually i discovered my personal trick for getting rid of the brain's countermeasures for my progress i had to let my desire to help outweigh the doubts in my head i still have all those negative words floating around in my noggin telling me that i will fail along with elaborately concocted descriptions of how and why i will fall short the difference between me and someone who succumbs to their shortcomings is that i put the spotlight on my heart's desire to make an impact instead of those nagging thoughts and feelings confidence is just convincing yourself that you are in fact doing the right thing can you remind yourself of the way you are of why you are doing what you are doing if that is not enough to tip the scales of confidence in your favor then you may need to do some deeper internal work and find out what the real problem is which is also part of being a healer education can also stand in the way in addition to my initial 200 hour reflexology certification i took a 750 hour massage therapy program and four years of medical training and physical and occupational therapy post certification i've taken the 300 hour yoga teacher certification and a 300 hour clinical herbalism certification when students and clients ask me how i can know so much the answer is simple i started early and i never stop learning i'm ravenous for information both for myself and my clients education can also come in a more practical form iec clients because i'm a full-time practitioner i see three to five clients a day multiple days a week at the height of my hands-on practice i was seeing six clients a day six days a week there is no better training manual than your own clients having such a high volume of clients under my belt also makes me more confident and experienced which fuels my inner knowing that i have earned my place as a consultant if you feel like some topics we've discussed or will discuss are unfamiliar to you the best thing you can do is use that feeling of lack to stimulate new and exciting learning opportunities maybe you don't have all the tools you need maybe you're missing a key piece of knowledge that can only be learned through working with a certain volume of clients however let me also say and make the case that you do have what you need and that you are enough to begin life teaches us along the way and the fact that you made it here is a compilation of many miracles we also attract to us the clients that are uniquely able uh that we are uniquely able to serve better than anyone else you have a life's worth of practical metal medical knowledge just by taking care of yourself isn't that the truth qualifications are lovely but don't underestimate the power of two genuine human beings meeting and sharing their life experiences you can make a difference with the tools you have now you are good enough to start this work your choice becomes clear as you admit when you are scared feeling inadequate and self-conscious then push forward anyway that is the only way to get real experience here are some of the recent stories that define my personal why and i would like to share them with you it's actually the stomach my client had spent four months at a well-known medical facility in the states what started as back pain had become a back injury which was then diagnosed as cerebral spinal fluid leakage after all the tests procedures and medications the client reported that they still felt like a ghost of a person they could not sit in the car and drive 20 minutes for their sessions without unbearable pain from disc issues upon inquiring about the pain i asked what the client first felt in the morning they described how it started as a stabbing pain in the stomach red flag and migrated around the ribs to the back about an hour after waking the client couldn't sit up straight without radiating ache without a radiating ache that drained all of their energy when i followed up that question with another regarding their diet the client seemed perplexed but continued to share it turns out that the back pain was being medicated with a daily dose of an unhealthy amount of over-the-counter pain relievers the body was saying that even though the back was injured and there was still probably damage that needed to be mended the stomach was compromised no one at the major medical facility had even considered that my client reported from a practitioner's perspective it's pretty simple the pain that starts in the stomach every morning the pain starts in the stomach every morning so the body is saying that digestion is the first priority and that the secondary pain is spinal without consult without consultation skills and being open to having a conversation about what being uh what was being experienced by the client i would have been limited to merely working the spinal reflexes and assuming the most dangerous medical uh the most dangerous thing a medical professional can do assume um that their pain was simple second example pulse patrol when i began taking pulses as part of my herbal training side note at the very end of this book i discuss pulse assessment as one of the three additional extremities that i teach you just like i did in the previous book i expanded feet into ham's face and ears in this book i expand foot reading into pulse tongue and eye assessment super fun anyway when i began taking pulses as part of my herbal training i quickly incorporated pulse assessment which i will teach you at the end of this book into my own sessions at the beginning and end of every session i now take pulses through the dorsal pedal pulse of the feet all this knowledge was put to the test when a pregnant client came to see me while having an anxiety attack i was able to check her pulse before and after the session to ensure that the body wasn't going into dangerous levels of shock in addition to other precautions that needed to be taken during the session my next client of the day appeared by all accounts to be in average to be average in health and appearance a little on the heavy side but not much this client was pleasant and open to whatever came from the experience i was certainly ready for an easy session after the frantic one before but it wasn't that simple upon palpating the dorsal pulse the client's heart rate was higher than my previous pregnant client undergoing an anxiety attack i rechecked and triple checked the pulse at the end of the session it was almost the same which wasn't good thankfully the client had scheduled an additional half hour of consultation time on top of their hour session so he could spend some quality time talking post session after reminding the clients that my consultation was not meant to diagnose prescribe or treat i began to explain my findings with a sobered look my client thanked me for being honest and relayed that this was the wake-up call they needed to initiate the proper changes if we hadn't made room during our time together to discuss the ramifications of what i found then that meaningful exchange would not have happened i'm so focused on enhancing the quality of my sessions that consulting at this point is not just an option it's a requirement last example i never thought of that one client story about consultations hits my heart more than the others because it was so close to home a client came in because of strange symptoms including memory loss anxiety tremors and fatigue they were also swamped at work and wanted some insight into how they could perform better in their daily life what i wasn't exp what i didn't expect was the background story being more telling than the current symptom profile during the session the client's feet were so terribly dry cracked and lined that i had to use way more balm than i had anticipated the client was clearly depleted we moved into the consultation phase and i asked about the person's diet all the food choices that they were making seemed on par with a healthy diet however i also asked about other substances that could drain the body of nutrients like sugar alcohol and caffeine and that was the breakthrough the story came with tears and strength all rolled into one the client had been sober for a very long time but as you but had used coffee as a replacement addiction having a pot or two a day to keep them going we discussed options that would help them hold on to the nutrients that they were ingesting by removing coffee and substituting other beverages while being sensitive to the integral triggers that coffee represented a body that had been depleted by one substance was now being depleted by another and our conversation allowed for major for a major breakthrough that would help heal old patterns as well as current symptoms oh so good your why will be different from mine in terms of the background story but our motives are likely the same we want to help and we want the tools words and circumstances to enact that help once we understand our personal why for providing consultations as an extension of our current practice we now need to understand when to consult uh and when not to consult believe it or not there are varying levels of consulting that you might find relatively easy to accomplish so that is the why consult section of the book and i hope that that uh that that was inspiring to you um let me go back and just uh kind of look at all of the comments real quick hey sam how are you hey seki so good to have you on the call so true what a lovely way to silence your inner critic thank you sally uh sarah uh yeah feel free this is all being recorded so the video uh whether you're watching it live uh or can't stay for the whole thing it's gonna be here uh for later uh francesca you're inspiring imposter syndrome haunts me yep imposter syndrome is the absolute worst trust me trust me um oh shaqib that's so sweet thank you so much um i know carrie wright that's great example um hi elda from south africa thank you everybody for watching um we are about halfway through our talk and i have one major section that i wanted to to read from it is a little bit longer so i'm not sure uh how much we're gonna get through but i wanted to just kind of put that out there uh feel free to add any questions or comments uh in the chat and we'll just keep rolling along so for those of you who are following along uh we're gonna flip to page 53 for the assessment triangle and this is where uh i get into kind of the heart of the work so the way that the book is organized i start with the elements and then i get into the why consult when to consult and how to consult so kind of deepening your understanding of my process and how um how to do a full consultative session and then we get into the assessment triangle and the remedy triangle which is how to spot the various inconsistencies in the reflex and then the reflexes and then what to do about it and the conversation should hinge on these two parts of the work which is assessing or collecting your information and then doing something about it putting together a plan putting together various remedies that include diet movement and somebody's mental emotional state then the final section of the book is exploring the other extremities the tongue the pulse the eye um and uh yeah that's that's kind of the the essence of the book so this is the the first part of the third section of four so let's talk about the assessment triangle and uh for those of you who have the book you'll be able to see the image but it is a downward facing triangle with symptomology markers and constitution on the three sides of that triangle i feel like this work is being caramelized what was once sweet albeit raw has been cooked throughout my travels as i've taught in the united states the united kingdom australia and new zealand the work has matured and become deeper taste a deeper tastier version of itself in some ways my assessment style has boldened and become stronger less fluff and more pointed conversations in other ways i've stepped back and allowed my practice to speak for itself without explanation the way i've come to define my assessment style is through a pattern much like the scheme of the four elements but with only three sides i look at three major points of information gathering when i meet a client for the first time but i also do the same every time i see a friend family member or student i profile everyone i meet by talk by taking them in through my senses listening to what they are saying both verbally and non-verbally and synthesizing that information as the result is an option the result is an opinion an assessment of who i have observed them to be what is happening in their body and life and how i'm going to respond to their current state whether you realize it or not you're doing this process every day we're constantly judging our surroundings and making decisions based on what we find the question then becomes how do we use our ability to assess our daily lives and apply that process to our clients we start by defining the stages of assessment and identifying the information we are trying to collect in daily life we're often looking for situations such as opportunities for success whether someone something is a threat who we feel comfortable with asking for directions or signs for the nearest bathroom with clients we are looking for signs of their health or lack thereof the process is the same we use our senses to take in the environment we heighten our listening skills to receive information and then we make informed decisions which lead to actions that bring us closer to our intended goal the goal in this case is to help someone in their recovery process i define the three stages of my assessment triangle as markers symptomology and constitution constitution first we gather what can be noticed outside of the client's experience second we listen to what the client has to say about their experience third we get to piece together the body's energetic truth via a combination of markers we learned to identify in the first book and what someone has shared with us together these three pockets of information will help us develop a pointed suggestion in the remedy triangle on practice i've said it already but when i continue to think about what do my readers need to hear from this book i keep coming back to the idea of practice i know that it sounds so easy when i say it but there's a method behind that repetitive madness a court uh according to my appointment software i've seen over 10 000 clients uh in 12 years and i've over the 12 years i've been in practice this doesn't include demo sessions or the countless hours teaching and taking classes the next time you question how to get better at foot reading the answer is to put in the work real life will always be the best teacher i can write at you and teach at you what i know until you're blue in the face but each client is a textbook in and of themselves their life story which is written in their body contains more information than i could ever teach you books and theory are great but the body should always be your ultimate teacher to this day i will question any practitioner who doesn't view the body as their primary instructor the ideas the ideas that we are assessing are about recognizing patterns the elements and an assessment the elements and the assessment remedy triangles you need to navigate the healing process in yourself and in clients through working with definable systems the way we practice learning about these systems is finding them in the wild i could describe water and the energetics of cold wet in the most vivid detail but nothing is going to build your library of markers and consultation skills faster than seeing a waterlogged client theory is no match for real life experience then we go on into the first section of markers which is where we'll end our reading so this will be the last section although it is quite a few pages long the first juncture in the assessment triangle is collecting our markers in the first book we looked at the four elements and how each potential marker falls into one of those four categories we're looking for the most striking markers that the body can produce we're asking the body to show us in bright neon lights where the issues are from there we can proceed onto the rest of our assessment however let's stop here and go over some of the finer points of what constitutes a marker a marker occurs when one of the energetic tissue states and or elements is clearly present within an area of the extremity this marker is different from the surrounding tissues in a normal foot and tells us a few things about the person we can learn about their innate tendencies towards hot cold wet dry constitution where they are holding their stress their horizontal zones what factors are causing that stress vertical zones and what types of stress they are holding on to elements markers can be found anywhere in an extremity markers can be earthy density width growth like immobility wide zones and callusing they can be airy light thin circulatory like hypermobility thin zones and dryness also fiery long hot colorful like lung features pain and redness and watery short cold pale like stunted features cold reflexes and lack of color each marker is a clue that tells us what is happening within that client at that time but it can also show us what has happened in the past that cannot be let go of just yet we will get to the point when a client's statement is valuable during the symptomology section but for now we need the clean facts about what the body is dealing with as an example i just had a client who came in with foot pain but the body was presenting with multiple markers that did not resonate upon relaying my findings the client reported that they love what they do have no pain and that they are not stressed this is not an objective and subjective disagreement which is another reason why consultations are important in this kind of situation it may be helpful to ask the client why they think their body is showing certain markers but if they cannot answer this question simply encourage them to think on the marker's meanings as an obscure exercise to facilitate a deeper understanding of their own body the body never lies to us and we should use markers as objective guard rails to keep our conversation focused and unbiased without the markers acting as guard rails the client could derail us by convincing us that their that they are feeling subj what they are feeling subjectively is the truth remember clients sometimes exaggerate and even lie not cool we cannot allow for a client's story to get in the way of what is actually happening in the body however our own biases can cloud finding the markers as well knowing how to avoid mistakes when working with troublesome markers is a question i get a lot from students on to the section marker mistakes as i've taught this content there have been a few emerging patterns that i would like to bring to your attention now you may or may not have these thoughts but it's important to recognize that these tendencies exists when searching for the markers we all have our biases and there are top there are the top three issues um i see when and these are the top three issues i see when uh in new students when they first try to approach finding their top three take them as you will but i'm sure you'll recognize some of your old habits here just like i do after we go over the mistakes we will discuss how to choose the ideal markers little markers look for markers but don't look so hard that you missed the bigger picture the trap of getting sucked into the nuances of the extremities can be like quicksand too many students will be so focused on how this particular toe is leaning a millimeter in one direction that they totally miss the other more dramatic markers they then wonder why their readings aren't as accurate or mind-blowing as mine sometimes it simply comes down to choosing the bigger marker but why does the marker have to be bigger good question because when a marker is either physically bigger or more prominent than the other issues the body has expended larger amounts of energy to create that signal it's like a beacon a red flag that the body has planted for you to find most markers are not subtle and do not need a magnifying glass i remind my students of this all the time if you need to squint choose another marker there is something to be said for choosing a marker that keeps catching your eye but it still would give priority uh but i still would give priority to things you found on an extremity that are bigger nastier hairier doesn't have to be literally hairier than those that are less objectively noticeable think of bigger markers as what the body wants you to talk about whereas the intuitive inklings that are more uh are more fine-tuning of the bigger lessons if the person seriously needs to drink a glass of freaking water and it's manifesting as dryness throughout the extremity then their itsy-bitsy barely visible freckle on the fourth toe finger indicating some small family issues is not the body's first priority respect the size of the markers and you will be better in line with what needs to be discussed in this case size does matter the body has spent valuable resources to feed these patterns of dysfunction for the client to learn from it is then our job to interpret these markers if we stray from the body's carefully laid out plan then we are doing a disservice to the issues at hand sticking to a favorite zone when i first teach foot reading everybody has a favorite zone it could be the zone that uh they see the most active in their unique client profile a zone they have the most experience with personally or both it's common to have sudden uh it's common to have students attempt to pick out their top three markers and select three smaller markers in a single zone while completely ignoring the other blatant markers in the other zones it's at this point that we need to expand our horizons and learn about what is possible i find the issue is with comfort level students of foot reading start where they find the most ease what they can recognize and some simply stay there now reading toes is said to be a complete modality in and of itself and we could make the microcosm macrocosm excuse here but if you're looking at the whole extremity you have a better chance to see all that you can see not to mention the hands face and ears as well limiting yourself to one zone one extremity is crippling to a foot reading practice go forth and conquer the other zones let the entire extremity speak to you in addition to relying on comfort there are also issues of knowledge and experience knowledge of the anatomy physiology and pathology and location of the zone is a deterrent for most dabblers some students will downright refuse to read the other zones consciously or unconsciously because the zones are simply holes in their knowledge bank that they will not do the work to fill honestly i've seen this more times than not going back to basics reading up on your anatomy and physiology and actively looking to find the markers in the other zones is how you break the spell of hesitation surrounding zone favoritism experience is truly a great teacher and you can't move forward without embarking on the adventure of discovering new things i've seen foot readers who have memorized all the meanings by heart but their interpretations still fall short they will ask me how i've refined my meanings to be so accurate and i will tell them point blank that it is because of all the clients i have seen i don't remember the markers i remember markers in the context of my clients that's not a fire marker in horizontal zone four in vertical zone three that's mary who has uh who is struggling with balancing two kids in a promotion at work if you're not willing to go and collect the stories attached to the markers and break your own comfort zone then you will stay where you are most comfortable and limit your library of interpretation skills one-sided interpretations there are two sides to the interpretation coin physical and mental emotional some reflexologists were trained to respect the physical meaning above all else others cling for dear life to the internal side of the equation neither is a complete story they must work together this is my stance and allow me to elaborate as to why you see i've had several swings back and forth between sticking to just the physical interpretation or just the mental emotional interpretation of the markers so when i use them independent of each other when i use them independent of each other i found a 50 to 65 percent sex rate uh success rate clients may not understand their bodies but they certainly understand what they are experiencing in terms of stressors other clients wouldn't recognize their own internal struggles if it bit them on the nose but they certainly understand their physical pain too many clients have walked through my door and thought i was crazy simply because i gave them the side of the coin that they couldn't recognize sometimes i will get an email a couple weeks later once they've reflected on it other times not the most accurate way to nail someone's current physical and internal state is to provide meanings of the markers at once in a single concise statement this will take practice but giving both perspectives will enhance your accuracy which will trickle down into your confidence to help keep you going it can be very tempting to be a physical practitioner and only want to discuss pain profiles and the science behind the body system interconnection trust me i've been there leaping into the heartstrings of a client's situation can also be very alluring touching and feeling all the gooey parts of a client's life is a very intimate part of our work however both sides are incomplete without each other furthermore if we are unable to talk about how the gui stuff manifests into the physical pain via the zones then we cannot educate the client on true multifaceted importance regarding self-care this next section is probably the section that we'll land on and then we'll open it up to questions comments concerns it's the crutch of intuition and this is this is one of the sections that i edited the most um because i wasn't sure how to say it because i knew that this would rub a lot of people the wrong way um but i do think that it's probably one of the most important conversations that i that i address in this book in the foot reading and reflexology online community also known as frock on facebook that i run there's been a lot of discussion on intuition's place in foot reading before i go any further let me just say that i am a creepily intuitive person and foot reading helped me to ground my intuitive nudges in the beginning of my practice that said i have unfortunately witnessed multiple accounts of practitioners throwing out random intuitive hunches labeled as reading the feet without any foot reading theory applied to back it up when asked to provide validation through the markers they cannot this is invalidating to the craft in my opinion i personally am against using intuition during a foot reading session unless the markers validate what is being felt intuitively foot reading can be used to complement sessions that are more energetic and intuitive in nature but if you're going to practice foot reading as i've outlined in these two books intuition is not a skill that is needed likewise intuition can cloud the process of listening to the body through the reflexes and again in my opinion should be kept to a minimum as the body is perfectly capable of speaking for itself through the markers to intentionally share what the heart of this matter is for me there is no better way to describe my grievances than the following statement foot reading does not require intuition there i said it yes the intuitive arts and levels of extrasensory activation that accompany groundbreaking moments within a client session are truly valuable and delicious and mind-blowing but no i'm not in favor of practitioners waving off solid study of the theory behind our art claiming the label of intuition as their scapegoat this salts the work with laziness and peppers it with complacency neither of which leave a good taste in a quality client's mouth when intuition does come forward during a session it should be greeted as an old friend information traveling through the non-physical channels which happens to land during a consultation can be called intuition a psychic sense or extra sensory information these moments should be labeled accordingly and given the respect they deserve but i often see the opposite if you throw away all of the information in front of you with an extremity simply because of an intuitive side track then the way you name and market your services should change from foot reading i go on in this section about markers uh and the the uh marker mistakes to talk about not putting in the work uh back to the top three selecting refining and storytelling um and then we close out and move on to symptomology so lots of stuff um it's it's certainly a more comprehensive book than the first uh but i i hope that you all enjoy it um it's been a long time coming carol samuels thank you so much um for attending i absolutely adore your work francesca um yep yep good stuff uh tatiana i'm so glad that you find it uplifting uh for the last five minutes or so i'd love to hear um any questions or comments and kind of chat with you about that if you have any comments about the latest book please let me know i would love to answer them for you in the chat otherwise i'll just kind of hang around and i hope that you've enjoyed this look into the latest book advanced foot reading a consultative approach to reflexology there is a lot in the book including a comprehensive list of um of foods and movements and uh mental emotional techniques and perspectives that is just really really useful especially for practitioners at the beginning and it is kind of the the book that i wish i would have uh stumbled across at the beginning of of my practice for sure uh hey alex hey sandra thank you so much for coming um very much appreciate everybody jumping on uh again questions comments concerns we've got a couple minutes left and i'd love to chat with you uh but otherwise i'll i'll dismiss you and let you kind of get about to your saturday because i would lovingly sit here and read to you the entire book um but i know that you all uh have places to go where can i order your book um it is not on my website yet because the reason why i'm not reading a physical copy i do not have copies yet um shipping is a little bit uh stale here in the us right now because of different things um but amazon is the best place to find it so if you go to amazon or amazon uk or amazon.ca wherever you're located it is on amazon both hardcover softcover and ebook thank you lorraine thank you for coming i absolutely adore all your posts with the hats they just they make me smile every single time um hey sharon how you doing um thank you so much sally thank you for this opportunity and thank you for creating such a fabulous group and giving us a home not just during the pandemic but also um your work and everything that you've done for the community is just so inspiring uh thank you janet thank you jules so glad you found it interesting um thank you francesca thank you uh shelley i appreciate it uh thanks alex thank you septa thank you victoria so glad that you were able to find the book um gail will you be teaching in an online full class anytime soon i have the foot reading uh online certification which is based on the first book and that is available through my website if you go to classes um at the very top it sends you to my teachable account and the online class is there but i am at this point just kind of decompressing from writing this book over the past couple years but my plan is to have an advanced foot reading online course as well that will be available to graduates from the first online course uh so glad liam um so glad to see you uh yes definitely glad it's glad it's confirming um definitely that's how that's how it should be the it was it was such an interesting process writing the second book because it it echoed the first book but then also it had so much so much kind of additional stuff to say uh the tones of the two books are very different and uh sally and i discuss this at length as she uh as i help her and she helps me with the writing process um you know it was just books are alive and the spirit of this book was just so uh had so much kind of rigid things that it wanted to get across whereas the first book was just like here's foot reading let's have a party uh this one was very much about laying down the law of foot reading um which was difficult for me to write and took took much longer thank you julia thank you lorraine thank you maxine i'm so glad that you enjoyed it um we've got just um a minute or so and i'm not really seeing any questions in the chat pop up so uh i will officially let you all um go and uh if you'd like i know the recording will be here um i'll ask sally to see if i can put this up on my youtube channel maybe that will make it easier because i know sometimes posts get lost um as well thank you laura i'm so glad that you enjoyed it um but in the meantime we will uh sign off and we'll sign off with the last line of my uh of my first book um may the feat be with you oh victoria uh would you recommend that i do the online course from the first book before we meet in march um that's a good question so the course in march so i'll be going to the uk the third week of february through the first week of march and i'll be teaching in york first nottingham and then london and each one of those classes will be a a splice of book one and book two so we'll be going over the basics and we'll be going over the advanced stuff so it would be good to familiarize yourself with the material but you don't need to take the whole course before you attend live but the two will kind of intermerge with each other also for anybody who attends my online courses uh or my live courses rather i give you a discount for the online course so it might be good to wait until then awesome okay well i will let you all go thank you so much for spending an hour with me i greatly appreciate it um and we will see you on the flip side