Foot Reading and Reflexology Podcast-S1E1:Reflexology from the Student Perspective with Cody Rickett

hello everyone and welcome to the reflexology and foot reading podcast I am your host Sam Bell yay affectionately known by my clients and students as the foot Whisperer and we are about to go deep with Cody Rickett who is a licensed massage therapist yoga instructor and reflexologist in Tampa Florida USA he is the perfect guest to talk about our topic this week which is reflexology from a student's perspective welcome Cody hey everybody it's great to be here and I'm really excited to talk about being a student in reflexology awesome so let's kind of dive in with this idea that you chose reflexology for a reason everybody finds this modality for one specific reason or another what was yours what were those initial moments that really drew you in towards this practice well I would say there's a couple of different reasons that really drew me in and what happened was I was going to massage school at Irwindale in the Tampa Bay area it's a great little school I highly recommend it to any anybody looking into massage therapy but I was going to school at everyone technical and Sam showed up to give a demo on reading the extremities and the feet in particular so when you showed up Sam I believe there was six of us that got on the table I wasn't one of the people that got on the table but I was so impressed by the readings you did on the six other individuals that I went up to you after class and I believe I asked you about something to do with the fingers on my right hand related to zones four and five and you looked at my hand and you kind of asked a few questions and just you gave a wonderful assessment that really peered into my history and to my present situation so I was so impressed by the ability to read people based on their feet alone and of course the hands and and and other extremities but the feet were the first thing I saw so that immediately captivated me the reading aspect but then I've always been a big fan of first and foremost having my feet massaged and worked on and then working on other people's feet which a lot of people are afraid of actually is a common thing in the massage therapy world oh I don't want to defeat but I love young people's feet because I love it receiving it so it's a kind of a two-way door type thing so I would say it was the assessment and the power that that provides in terms of literally like looking into somebody's soul and then the pleasure that can come from from the physical technique it itself excellent so for those of you who have been in the reflexology world for quite some time nobody's mentioning years here I want to kind of step into this idea that we always need to be learning and we always need to have this student mindset about us even when we start to kind of age in the field so bringing us back to that initial moment Cody when you started taking your first reflexology classes like what were some of those initial things that you thought were so important that maybe our seasoned listeners could walk down memory lane with what were those bits and pieces of the reflexology practice that really stuck out to you in terms of importance well this certainly a variety of things stuck out but one of the first things was the diversity within the kind of feet that I was working on even within my student class which was about 10 people so even within a relatively small group of people there were a radically different feet so I realized okay I'm gonna have to pay attention to these differences and I'm gonna have to learn to navigate the differences so it was a matter of like well how do I be consistent or can I be consistent even when you know these feet are quite different that's awesome and I think that for those who don't have a lot of experience with various kinds of bodies or feet like you learned reflexology very young in your massage therapy career so only having worked on you know the people in your massage therapy class and then jumping into reflexology certification as opposed to somebody who had maybe been in the field for a couple years before specializing you know you really got a crash course in how different bodies can be very very different and that certainly affects the level of pressure the various techniques that you're going to use and also kind of how you customize the session for clients totally and if you don't mind um I'd like to give an example of working on my family members yeah Uncle Frank so yeah when I first started the the reflexology certification my family became my guinea pigs and what comes to mind is I worked on my grandfather and then I worked on my aunts separately of course not simultaneously that would be awesome maybe one day I could try that but so with my grandfather he's an old man he has a variety of health issues and his sensitivity was really acute so even the mildest of pressure I was hearing like ooh ah so I had to use super light pressure on him and then in terms of markers there was all kinds of different coloration like yellowness extreme dryness so that got the wheel spinning in terms of in terms of my assessment abilities which at the time were like I didn't I didn't know how to key to translate that into a narrative for him or for myself so that was like a great first experience working on him but with my aunt as I mentioned it was quite different because she is very athletic she's a tennis player she's accustomed to sports massages deep tissue so when I started thumb walking her feet she was like what are you doing and you're like tickling me so she's like wanting more pressure and in terms of her markers there she certainly had some but they weren't nearly as blatant and obvious as my grandfather so it was great a tester in terms of how do I assess when the markers are obvious and when the markers are not so obvious and how do I accommodate with different pressure awesome and you find that that directly translates into the clients that you're seeing now totally totally absolutely yeah I mean I could talk a lot about that well give us a couple examples like I think one of the struggles with the new reflexology student is that they think that they're they're going through it all alone and it's it's really scary because you know they they don't know what they're doing they've maybe taken their first class or a couple classes and they they have all of these anxieties about whether or not they're doing it right but what it sounds like you're saying is that from the minute that you start to put your hands on somebody's feet or other extremities based on the school that you learn on you learn from your learning about how to handle real-world cases so it doesn't matter if it's you know a close friend or family member or a client on the table the same lessons apply so give us some examples about kind of what that looked like translated into you know the actual client practice sure sure well actually a good example that comes to mind is that we did an event for Sam's book signing which was really cool because we had like I don't know probably thirty people show up and I was giving reflexology sessions but they were you know they're relatively short probably fifteen or twenty minutes but it was a great survey of different feet changing really quickly so normally with a reflex all reflexology session if it's an hour I'll have you know at least 30 minutes to kind of recharge clear my mind get ready for the next client but with with the book signing event it was like one person right after the other so I had to kind of switch gears quickly so I had one guy who on the exterior he seemed like oh I'm tough and strong and you know I can take lots of pressure so I started working on him but I was using like moderate pressure and he like he what's the verb I'm started like guarding hey yeah any exia winced that's the Merman winced like and somebody was watching for him me from behind he's like and she said oh you hit something you know so that was a classic example of on the exterior you would think that this guy wants really deep pressure but in reality he's quite sensitive and he needs to be kind of we need to adjust appropriately so that to honor his sensitivity and then like the very next client I had a woman who needed the exact opposite she needed deep pressure and but I couldn't necessarily tell that just from her disposition or her face or anything like that fortunately she started communicating with me and saying like so why do you why are you using the pressure you use and I said well why are you asking and then Sam Sam had seen her you'd seen her before so you said you said it well she needs deep pressure so yeah yeah what I would I find and kind of what we had talked about in that moment is this idea of clients falling on a bell curve and everybody is so different and reflexology as a modality that really caters to everybody regardless who's on the table you know the job of a reflexologist is to provide a service at the end of the day that triggers the body's healing response so some clients will need that feather-light pressure and if you go any deeper with them you know they're gonna start to wince and guard and shut out the impulses from the session a majority of clients fall somewhere in between and on that bell curve there you know in that three to about five out of ten in pressure range but then there are some clients where they're just wired differently to the point where they need those six seven eight out of ten sometimes even nine or ten out of ten and pressure to even start to feel the work and I've had multiple clients who have you know it's almost like the energy in the room flatlines because they're just not receiving what they're not picking up what you're putting down and that process starts to become very apparent when you're needing to customize as opposed to just kind of going through the same routine day in and day out so with with all of the bodies that you've worked on so far what are some maybe tips as far as adjusting to a client's preference that you can talk about and like for new reflexologist start just starting out well again I think the main thing is communication so for instance some clients will directly say hey what can you increase the pressure so being open and receptive to whatever they're going to communicate verbally of course that's really easy if they communicate directly what they want it's a no-brainer in terms of okay I'll adjust accordingly but the challenge is how do I read other signs if they're not verbally communicating with me which actually more often than not they're not verbally communicating because they themselves want to relax and go into kind of a deep trance and a deep healing state so so fortunately there are clues and signs and symptoms that we can look for to make sure that the body is receiving the work well one of them of course is a change in breathing so it's just a wonderful thing when you hear that subtle change in breathing they're breathing deeper it sounds like they're in a semi sleep state maybe even a fully sleep state maybe they're snoring if there's toying you know okay this your pressure is probably pretty good you're relaxing them technically a breathing change yes yes everything change so a breathing change is a great sign another good one is actually muscle twitches whether in the feet or the legs or in any other part of the body the hands the legs any kind of twitch is an indication that the nervous system is doing the work and we are all about the nervous system with reflexology more than any other system we're tapping into that which in turn influences the other systems I think that that might be like especially for kind of pausing and talking like a new student in a session first time new client within that like first 100 feet that you're getting your hands on it can be really scary like if a body starts to twitch uncontrollably but you know you've we've talked about this before you actually view it as a good thing totally totally and because a word that comes to mind is rearrangement or circuitry excellent because that twitching is like again something's happening in the SIRT the circuitry and as you mentioned at the beginning I'm a yoga instructor so I have a deep appreciation for those kind of subtleties again just on a personal level or in a solo context when I'm meditating by myself if I have twitches like that that are involuntary it's it's it's fabulous because it's beyond my own personal will it's like my body's taking over and I love that so when I see them twitch it's like okay their body's taking over and it's not just the shallow level of the ego-mind excellent so what are some other signs that we can look for as a reflexologist or that new students can kind of keep their eyes out peeled for to understand that the body is truly receiving the work with a client well on the note of obvious signs a lot of clients will like each their face that's a super common one again a good sign that the nervous system is at work but in terms of not so obvious signs I would encourage new students to get in touch with your quote-unquote intuition and I think you mentioned a little earlier which you know when the room flatlines like so having that sense of what's the energy in the room is there a welcoming calming vibe that's kind of emanating from both client and practitioner so in addition to the obvious physical signs I would say do not be afraid to tune in to your energetic awareness and and use that as a barometer to how the session is going and in addition to those more subtle signs I mean I think they're equally important you can't rule out one side of the equation it can be loud and dramatic like an arm flying across the room or the stomach starting to gurgle and growl yes yeah that's a fantastic one yeah but then there can be those moments where it's just like the client drops so deep that it feels like in the room you've been transported into another space and all of those really subtle signs to let you know that you're doing a good job yeah totally and so I try to keep keep my senses tuned to to whatever comes whether it be subtle or obvious and on the note of obvious a couple days ago I had a client who was snoring and then she started talking like how a person talks in their sleep and at first I was trying to communicate but then I realized oh she's not there she's like so again great great physical quote unquote involuntary signs that pop up excellent so back to this kind of first couple reflexology classes new reflexology student they're having to learn this fundamental routine that they're being taught this hands-on methodology of the work how to manipulate the specific reflexes what was the process of you learning your first round of reflexology techniques what were some of those easy hard moments and maybe some tips and trick that you can give to anybody who wants to learn reflexology okay well I'll start with the easy and then go to the heart so in terms of the easiness of the technique it was very logical to me the way Sam taught it and so in other words we broke it into the five zones we used the five zone theory to our advantage and I would walk you know zone two with three passes in vertical zone one in vertical zone two cetera et cetera so it was very rhythmic and systematic and I appreciated that especially because I played music I'm not a professional musician or anything but it's a major hobby of mine so any any time you can give me rhythm and patterns I accept that well so I really appreciated the simplicity of three times in this zone three times in that zone etc etc and it was like a like a snake it like winded its way across the the surface area the the foot again in a very consecutive fashion so the logic of it was like I like this this is easy cool the hard part is like let's horizontal zone to the balls of the feet and then dropping two horizontal zone three the more spongy part like they feel quite different just in you know we're talking less than an inch of distance so okay how do i how do I adapt my pressure and my palpation to to suit those well still being consistent with my three passes you know so it's like okay there's consistency with how many passes I'm doing but maybe my palpation needs to change a little and I think that's really important especially for students who they've they've never really worked with the various surfaces of the foot like in in foot massage like you're just rubbing the feet but in reflexology you're systematically going through and often in alignment with the major structures including the arch the tendon the bones of the foot so that you can really palpate the reflexes that are located in those areas so in terms of you know advising new students who maybe don't have as many feet underneath their hands as you do now like what would be some suggestions to give them in terms of kind of solidifying their practice and gaining that confidence well I would say don't be shy amongst friends and family but totally yeah yeah take all your opportunities to to try them out and to get their feedback so that's the first thing that comes to mind the second thing is if you are in a certification program buddy up with with your fellow students because that's that's was fantastic for me and still is that I love my fellow students that have graduated and they're still in the program so working with them working with friends and family is just gonna prepare you even further for clients that when it you know the bar is raised because there's an exchange of money but if you can work for free on your friends and family and your fellow students I say go for that as much as possible I love what you just said in terms of you know getting with your students because that implies that you're both giving the work and receiving the work and I think when you're learning a hands-on modality it's this idea that you know you need to give give give but I mean we learn by receiving so especially if you know you are partnered with a student that has a very different style a very different rhythm like you said I love that word than you it can be such an enlightening experience to receive from them to say oh I really like how they did that I really like their tempo I really like their pacing and likewise you know I really didn't like it when they did this technique or that technique and it can be a learning experience for both of you as well through that difference of you know just two people totally and so if you have a two-hour block of time where you can be the practitioner for an hour and then you can be the receiver for an hour it's an ideal circumstance for fellow students to work together so I've done that quite a few times and I love it because like you said I'll say hey let me show you this it would try this on me or vice versa how did it how exactly did you do that you know ten things so it's just the the dialogue and the duo dynamic is really beneficial awesome so let's take it to that next level and once kind of the technique is mastered and maybe you've graduated the certification program but again for those of you who are experienced reflexologist listening let's take a trip back down memory lane talk about your experience seeing your first clients like what was that like and is there anything anything in this world that can prepare you for for that sense of anticipation and and touching those first like paying clients feet well in regards to that I would say that I was certainly nervous and even a little shaky and I think actually my hands were colder than normal and actually they're not cold on a normal basis but they were definitely colder than I had had felt before so there's that anxiety but fortunately for me I've I like being in front of people in general I've done a good bit of public speaking I've I'm an athlete I've been on sports teams in which people are watching me from an audience so I just used it like okay I'm nervous but that means I'm excited that means I care about what I'm doing so I was able and I still am able to use the nervousness and anxiety to first indicate that I care that my heart's in it and then to use it to transform and do like compassion and and kind of good energy awesome so what you're saying is that this sense of nervousness when seeing clients isn't necessarily a bad thing no I think it's actually a good sign and I would actually be a little suspect if a new student or a new practitioner was not nervous at all that's when I start to worry actually because to me the nervousness is your own body generating energy so you can pour that energy out interesting yeah like that and you we we've been tossing about this idea rhythm so after you've seen those first couple clients and maybe you've gotten the initial jitters out or glitches out of your system and you've convinced yourself that you can do this how does a reflexologist in your opinion go about finding their rhythm or their flow in their practice well that's a great question and to kind of go back to talking about learning the basic routine within the certification program so if you have a certain rhythm that you like and actually I'm gonna I'm gonna palpate on my own hand right now and I want to count out loud like a rhythm that that actually Sam likes and that I use most of the time but I'm gonna give you a difference so here we go 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 so that's like a palpating rhythm of thumb walking so that's like when you're just walking over the reflexes and you're just basically going through the routine as it is yes yes kind of the baseline so to speak but at some times I feel like I really need to slow down the rhythm so here's the new rhythm maybe first again that intuition kicking in I just feel like the client needs a slower rhythm so something like this 1 2 3 4 instead of 1 2 3 4 so literally like the tempo changes and especially with a modality like reflexology we've we've talked about the power of the nervous system like just a subtle change in rhythm can make such a huge difference exactly and sometimes actually maybe I've needed to go faster because it is a client that likes hyperstimulation they want the faster pace and on the note of rhythm too here's an interesting thing is okay let's say I'm doing my walking and then I come across a crunchy spot in the tissue or a spot that like hey I need to stop there and do some point work and just be still so I'm still for like 3045 seconds getting back into the rhythm of like that familiar comfortable pace is important so that the client doesn't feel like oh I stopped and I've totally lost my sense rhythm so that's a that's a an art in itself with with stopping and point work like getting back into smooth rhythm excellent so how would you suggest that we cultivate that sense of rhythm anything that you couldn't recommend to to reflexologist new or maybe experienced certainly I think we mentioned reading the clients signs and symptoms of terms of their breathing but how about paying attention to your own breathing true that's that's super important so I constantly need to take a look at my own breathing if I feel like I'm like panting hurts like getting worked up I tell myself hey Cody take a deep breath and so breathing is a major barometer of rhythm and and a way to maintain rhythm so I would say use your your breath with purposeful and tension and so that's a great way to to maintain rhythm and another way is what I would say call zooming in and zooming out sometimes if I'm too focused on a particular spot or particular zone if i zoom out and I look at the clients whole body and maybe even like close my eyes and just feel feel the field feel the energy that can be a great way to keep rhythm versus if I'm if I myself and maybe drifting off a little in my own head maybe I need to zoom in so it's zooming in zooming out that's a kind of key thing to keep good rhythm and to ensure the client feels safe secure and comfortable awesome and reflexology is and as well as the art and science of foot reading when you're when you're lost inside your own head or you're not in sync with your clients it really screws with your ability to palpate which i think is such a powerful concept in all bodywork but especially in reflexology and foot reading because if you're if you're not listening to the signs and signals that the hands are giving you and you're you know panting a mile a minute or maybe your head's focused on the grocery list you know you lose that sense of what's actually underneath your hands that's true that's true and there are I have a variety of tricks that I've learned from you and that I've brought from my own kind of experience with yoga and meditation and other massage and it's it's just a matter of first and foremost putting the attention on the tissue on the skin and then yes going deep into the energy into the more subtle aspects but I would say first and foremost is returning to that that palpation and the tactile touch you can't go wrong with that you know I think and then the energy and stuff becomes a bonus in a way a deepening of the experience but when I went in doubt returned to literally how does their skin feel against mine is their roughness here is their softness here are they perspiring is their and then with with the sight you know is there redness is it pale is it yellow is a blue etc so relying not only on the tactile touch actually but on you your other senses of sight and hearing and and things like that how important is that kind of I love this where you're taking this discussion in terms of like this holistic sensory experience of the session for a reflexologist like do you find that when you're really opening up all of your senses at once that it contributes to a greater kind of session outcome a hundred percent and we actually we had a certification class in which we specifically focused on the quote unquote extrasensory abilities so things like clear audience clear sentience in other words we have the ability to sense externally but we also have the ability to sense internally so if I'm in tune to both my external and internal senses the client is going to again involuntarily automatically open their external senses and their internal senses so I think it's it's just a win-win situation if I'm willing to open my senses fully then the clients gonna automatically feel that kind of willingness and kind of drop in to the to the deep relaxed state and that the parasympathetic nervous system is gonna go to work I love that and I think with reflexologist nowadays we get so wrapped up on reflexology being hands-on that we often forget that were two people not just meet suits but we're two kind of energetic expressions that are that are in the same room together and so those vibes that are being thrown back and forth like they are both physical in terms of you are working on tissue and the client is feeling your pressure and your touch but they are also extrasensory like you said so not necessarily focusing on too much on one side or the other but I I D listicle II foot readers and reflexologists should have that all senses on feeling during their work to make sure that they're not missing any part of the dynamic that's going on totally and I I just I love the term use meatsuit okay that's that's funny but it's very true and real but let's throw out another tip term luminescent radiant being a luminous and radiant being in a mead suit so that's the fullness that's the holistic word approach we're talking about you have to work with the meet suit but also have to be willing to get in touch with the luminous and radiant beam that's underneath the skin okay so for for new reflexology students you know I find that clients will gravitate towards one side of that equation versus another they'll they'll want to just talk about the language of bones joints glands physical pathologies but then other clients are really for lack of a better word kind of hippy about it and they're they're all about the energy and how things are manifesting and you know this this idea that there's this holistic interconnectedness so how do you as a as a student of reflexology kind of balance those two approaches in your own head like how do you speak both languages at once well what comes to mind and this may be less of a student thing and more of a professional thing when you work with clients is I would say try to start the dialogue before the session so when they're filling out a health history form they've just walked into your office go ahead and try to get to know them and you know without being forceful or overly persuasive see if you can engage them in a conversations so you can tell are they of the hippie variety or are they more of the purely physical you know they just want the meatsuit variety yeah exactly so I would say that's super important to to start a dialogue before the session because again once you're in the session it's not ideal to say to try to talk to them because we want them to relax so you work on those communication skills before the session even begins that's great advice but what do you do with a client that kind of wants to talk during the whole session well I would say go with the flow the path of least resistance so if I resist their chatty nature I'm just gonna do kind of harm to the session so I I'm willing to talk if they if that's their their their vibed I say go ahead and talk but at the same time I'm not gonna start easy gating yeah yeah exactly or say like oh well let me let me ask more questions or let me talk about my own personal narrative of like oh well let me tell you this long story that relates to that no I don't want to push it that far but be willing to go the distance if there are so insistent on talking and being verbal but like back when you're out front with a client either before or after the session and you're trying to establish that that pulse line like who they are what they're here for do you find that most clients are interested in what you're finding during a session or do they just kind of want to zone out like what if your experience has been as far as the the type of conversations that you're having in the feedback you're relaying as a practitioner well I would say the majority of clients are interested in any insights that can provide mostly after the session I would say it is a minority that would want to play by play call of what's what I'm seeing but certainly those clients do show up that they want me to tell tell them what I see immediately as soon as I see it during the session but most clients more often than not would rather again relax and enjoy the experience and then find out you know what did you see afterwards okay and is that really where we start to transform the hands-on art of reflexology into this craft of foot reading I mean as a reflexologist and a reflexology student like you're learning this hands-on modality and it's wonderful and maybe depending on where you're at you also have a massage therapy background that that's required for you to practice but then there's this thing that I know that I had to find out kind of independently I wasn't taught this this idea that the feet are the map of the person so how do you as like the student start to slowly drip in that content in that feedback and take the hands-on work to the next level well one of the awesome parts of our certification program is that we do case so we'll literally look at pictures of the feet will identify the markers like the top three and then we'll build a narrative what's happening here and you Sam unfortunately worked with the client directly so you can validate okay you're on point they're not so much on point there so if you have a chance to do case studies with an experienced reflexology reflexologist I would highly recommend that to to hone your assessment skills but again the the other option is work on friends and family and people that you're not so worried about getting it wrong because the biggest fear is oh I get it wrong with an assessment but if you can do it with friends and family and fellow students you'll get over that fear quickly and even with a client where oh what if I get it wrong well you can ask a question you don't have to throw the dart at the bull's eye right away you can say hey you know I noticed something in zone four have you had been having any issues in your knees shoulders maybe so you asking a question is often the best way to start the assessment dialog rather than you must have you know a shoulder injury blah blah which may be the I'm not to the level where I feel like I can always hit that bullseye but Sam maybe you know I've seen Sam hit it a bunch of times but I think it's important to be honest with your level of confidence like I'm super confident with my technique right now but in terms of assessment that's still like oh okay I'm getting there but I'd rather kind of dip my feet in then dive headfirst yeah and I think students are really needing in the beginning to identify their strengths and even reflexologist down the road like some are going to be better at the assessment side some are gonna be better at the technique side I didn't start really getting the jaw-dropping responses from the work until I started incorporating the foot reading aspect and now that's kind of what I'm known for but you know when when I get reflexology from certain practitioners it's like they just have the hands for the work and they could be concerned less with this idea of assessment so I think in the beginning it's it's nice to find those things that you're good at and nurture those strengths and not worry about developing the skills that have to naturally happen over time yeah I think techniques should come first and then let assessment naturally blossom and and that's certainly my ongoing process and but you know what you do accurately assess someone's foot and you get that validation and then you move into the coaching aspect of like oK we've identified the problem now let's you know make some suggestions in terms of how you can remedied it I mean that is a great feeling so I am certainly motivated to keep moving in that direction of assessment yeah definitely and with reflexology where it is now and the fact that we're doing this podcast even and that there are so many online resources you can learn from almost any practitioner in the world right now if they have a social media profile you can contact mentors you can find the material online most times but I think back to that idea of case studies that you were talking about it's just about getting the experience and getting the the whether it's the validation or the hands-on practice trading with your student co-students and really just developing that skill set of whatever side of the work that you want to get good at and following that sense of where you're naturally led to kind of dig and and get good first and foremost and and on the note of assessment what I've found as well as what comes a bit easier and more natural is finding the markers at first so again noticing abnormalities in coloration texture etc etc that that can come a lot easier than building the story or connecting the dots between okayed this most likely means it's a certain kind of injury a certain issue with the pathology so I would say to new students get comfortable first just noticing differences in the visible signs and symptoms and then the story comes more naturally and kind of the assessment so again it's very it's all and all it's all pretty logical and it's like it's meant to be done there even though it's can be intimidating for me I feel like okay this this makes sense it's meant to be done yeah I totally get where you're coming from and it's really important when you're going through this whole process to have a mentor that you can actually connect with and I'm lucky to have you Yeah right that is the disclaimer this whole podcast I mean I worked with Sam for a full year pretty much known it's it's really been awesome so yeah get a mentor if you can get one in person that's ideal but even online or via correspondence that that's pretty good deal as well so yeah and I think even when I was learning hands-on reflexology I didn't reach out as much as I should have because I thought that I knew it all and it was definitely one of the things looking back that I should have leaned on some of those people to to either pat me on the back or smack me upside the head to get those initial kind of fears reservations but also to push me to discover new things a little bit a little bit sooner than I did organically on my own but now back to that idea of the Internet I mean the hands-on modality is now digital not in practice but definitely in terms of knowledge and mentorship so at this point there's no excuse to not take your practice to the next level by learning from things like this podcast totally and just as I think good reflexology draws from the surface level physicality and also the deeper subtle energetic things a good reflex all just trust that you trust yourself but you always you know talk to your colleagues get feedback so it's got to be a two-way street of I'm gonna learn to trust myself and the quote quote inner guru to go back to back to my meditation in yoga background you know the Guru is in you but that doesn't mean now that you're omniscient and omnipotent you still need you know feedback from from other practitioners so well and this brings up a really good point so as the student is starting to become a little bit more advanced or maybe a reflexologist who's been practicing the same way day in and day out is maybe ready to venture into a new style or new rhythm to use that word that we've thrown out before what does it look like from from your standpoint when you start to take the techniques that you've been given and that you've been taught and start to adapt them change them and grow within the field may be outside of the initial template that you were taught well that's a great question and you and I have been having an ongoing dialogue about that exact issue and one of the things that in terms of my own self discovery self realization is you know I'm an athlete I love sports and so I think I'm attracting more athletic people so the question becomes how do i spin reflexology to be more geared towards athletes people that are seeking that kind of treatment so for me it's it's it's definitely an ongoing process but I'm gonna I'm gonna keep maybe maybe I could take a sports massage workshop and then kind of pioneer sports reflexology I maybe I could be a bit of a pioneer and a niche within a niche there you go I mean it used to be that it was just reflexology and now there's aroma reflexology there's extremity reflexology with the face and ears there's reflexology using light therapy there are nuances of reflexology that have developed now that weren't in existence you know 10 20 years ago as it was just a fledgling modality but now is it starting to get popular like you can take this this broad scope of this niche modality and turn it into almost any variation in you know busting some of the myths that are out there we have reflexologist that are just focused on reflexology during pregnancy pre postnatal reflexology is starting to get really popular so I mean understanding that just that that first workshop or that first certification isn't where the the line gets drawn and you're limited to this box of techniques that maybe are a little bit rusty you can always go outside the box and and really discover new ways to use the work totally I mean and that's what keeps me wanting to learn more meet new people within the broader network both online and in person so I'm just very excited about what the future holds for myself and for the field of reflexology awesome and new students definitely is kind of like a final note keep that sense of excitement and even to the reflexologist that maybe you're listening to this podcast and you've been doing it for you know five ten twenty thirty plus years that sense of excitement should never go away because the reflexology is really a modality that has to come from the heart and I think that the reason why there are so many practitioners out there that have made this their life's work is because the modality is inherently exciting like it validates this magical interconnectedness of the body in such a way that really astounds both client and practitioner alike so always keep that sense of excitement kind of rolling strong totally and Cody as we wrap up are there any ways that the listeners can connect with you and kind of monitor your progress as you go through that student dynamic absolutely of course there's social media Facebook I have Cody Rickett LMT RIT so I'm constantly posting pictures blogs things like that you know when Sam and I do an event together like we recently did a webinar that was really exciting and we got some interactive activity so Facebook you can check me out on Facebook Cody Rickett I also have a website Cody Rickett com which I'm starting to put more content on so and of course I'm affiliated with the foot Whisperer so if you go to the foot Whisperer you will find me very close with Sam and a lot of ways so those are all good ways to to follow me and need to get in touch with me perfect awesome well thank you all for listening to the reflexology and foot reading podcast make sure to subscribe and follow the foot Whisperer on Instagram our YouTube channel and Facebook we so appreciate you listening until next time may the feet be with you and we will sit down later