Foot Reflexology 101 - Introduction to Foot Reflexology

[Music] welcome to the introduction to foot reflexology I'm colinda trifo in this video we are going to cover what is reflexology how does it work what does reflexology help what it's like to be a reflexology therapist the perks of knowing how to use reflexology going to go into a little bit of reflexology research that's happening right now and how to get certified what exactly is reflex well it's the study of reflexes reflexology therapists press on reflexes in the hands feet ear face and those reflexes mapped to other parts glands and organs of the body so through the application of the pressure on those reflexes it encourages the body to relieve tension improve circulation and support the body's effort to function optimally now Unice Ingam lady in this picture is actually the mother of reflexology she's the one that coined the term she worked with medical doctors to convince them of the value of reflexology and she made major contributions including discovering that alternating pressure on a certain point stimulated healing rather than having a numbing effect so she took her work to lay people so that they could learn proper techniques to help themselves and their families who actually invented reflexology well no one can claim to have invented reflexology it's just been rediscovered there's been traces of footwork dating back thousands of years and when people started wearing shoes in the 1880s the reflexes on the bottom of her feet were stimulated less because they lost contact with the earth a reflexology therapist we do not diagnose we do not prescribe we do not treat for specific conditions and we do not use machines or instruments that we're not trained to use how does reflexology actually work well the body is mapped so if you look at reflexology charts you can see different parts of the body that are mapped to the reflexes on the different body parts a reflexology therapist understands where the reflexes are mapped and by stimulating those it sends messages to the brain when all body parts are communicating with each other things just seem to work better so one of the best examples I can think of is you know when you go to the doctor and they tap on the knee and the foot kind kind of moves out well that's a reflex the reflexology therapist when they're working with the feet it kind of stimulates the same it's just that it's not such an obvious reaction three main benefits of reflexology it promotes relaxation and releases stress improves lymphatic cardiovascular circulation drainage and elimination and it's believed to maintain and reestablish homeostasis we get that from feedback from the clients when they just feel better after a session so when a reflexology therapist is doing a session the pressure should always be the same we usually rate it between a 0 five 010 and the goal is not to cause pain it's to relieve stress but what happens is when a reflex gets cranky it can feel like we've increased pressure when in fact it's just the reflex that's gotten imbalance factors affecting tenderness well it can be stress physical emotional or mental there could be an injury or trauma surgery so if you are scheduled for surgery and you have a reflexology session it's important to let the reflexology therapist know because a lot of times when you're going under anesthetic the doctors they make sure that you have blood work and your um medication and the everything being used in the surgery to sedate you is measured by that blood work and reflexology if it increases circulation it might change that so you don't want to have a reflexology session after you've had your blood work done for surgery postsurgery your body is releasing a lot of toxins so when it comes to doing reflexology sessions pressure has to be extremely light and just wait a couple of days is what I recommend it's just to let the body recover a little bit and get rid of some of the toxins before having a session medication when you have medication what happens is it can numb the reflexes or it can increase sensitivity so if you have painkillers you might not feel the reflex whereas if you didn't have any medication in the body level of Wellness your age Phantom limb Footwear a lot of people when they wear high heels will find that the feet are super sensitive same thing happens in like steel toed shoes or flip-flops anything that is not supportive Footwear can increase the tension in the feet and of course if you're feeling fatigued or are lacking sleep now lighter sessions are required for very young elderly very ill pregnant pre-surgery postsurgery heart patients and diabetics after having a reflexology session there are cleansing responses that can happen and it's just because the body is DET detoxifying I usually say it's kind of like going to a lake when you go to a lake and there's the water and then you can see the sand in the bottom if I go in with a stick and I shake up all the sand it puts it into the water and it takes a while for it to settle well kind of the same thing when you're doing reflexology or taking all the toxins that have settled in the extremities pushing them back into the bloodstream in order for them to um be eliminated so it's important to drink a lot of water and it's important to um be gentle with yourself after a session because your body's getting rid getting is just busy cleaning out all of the toxins so how often should you have a reflexology session well it depends if you have acute conditions you don't want to have reflexology sessions more than every 24 to 48 hours because like I just finished stating you want the body to have enough time to release any of the toxins right you want to be able to drink water bre if you have a chronic condition it's recommended to have one session a week if you just using it for maintenance can be once a month some clients come once a year once every two years it's you you're the boss so you decide how often you feel like you need them but those are the recommendations so if you are getting reflexology sessions and you don't see any Improvement after 12 12 sessions we always refer to another modality it's always up to the client how often the sessions will take place so a lot of times when I see clients I wouldn't leave it for 12 sessions if there's absolutely nothing there has to be some kind of improvement like there yeah if we rate your pen on a scale of 1 to 10 and it's a 10 when you're coming to see me well if it hasn't moved down to an eight after two three four sessions depending on what's going on I mean I would recommend you a lot sooner um sometimes people just enjoy it for relaxation because it's kind of it's relaxing right so there's that too it's it's totally up to you what the goals are with the treatment what does reflexology help how many people do you know with aches and pains and so reflex ology is connected to All Parts glands and organs of the body and it its goal is to help restore balance specifically with the nine body system the human body we have got the nervous system the endocrine system which is like all the chemicals in the body cardiovascular system that's the heart respiratory system that's the breath muscular sceletal system that's our bones and muscles reproductive system that's how we reproduce digestive system that's how the body manages their food your immune and lymphatic system oh it WS off viruses and the urinary system anything with those nine systems is what reflexology has got Parts related to so the reflexes that we use are to balance those nine body systems it's to restore homeostasis balance so reflexology is like a mediator getting all body systems to work together in harmony it helps to shift from fight and flate which is the stress response to rest and repair it encourages the body to relax encourages the body to increase circulation and it encourages the body to reduce stress the one thing I do not do is teach people how to rub feet that just drives me crazy there's a specific sequence to follow and of course do teach that with every client but the anatomy and the physiology portion of the course is when you understand that you understand how the Body Works holistically and each session can be customized for clients because we're all one in eight billion people and let's face it what works for one doesn't work for another so when you really understand how the body systems work you're able to pay more attention to specific reflexes in those body systems and so that it's able to help that client's body restore its normal function right if you're just running through the motions of just doing the same thing that you always do kind of like an assembly line um yes it works all the reflexes but there isn't specific focus on the body system systems that cause a problem so let's just say that you went to the doctor and the doctor came back and said okay you have got high blood pressure all right so high blood pressure primarily is from the cardiovascular system right it's the blood it's the heart so if I know that you have high blood pressure yes I'm going to do reflexology session like I always do but when I get to the cardiovascular reflexes I'm just going to pause and if there's any extra um tension or if the reflexes are more tender I'm likely going to spend a little bit more time on those spots working them to encourage the body to relax with the cardiovascular system if it's if it's a diet thing it might be diges digestion right so I would spend a little bit more time focused on the digestive reflexes just while I'm going through the reflexology session the same as I would for anyone else it's focusing on the spots that are more stressed in your body when you know Anatomy that becomes possible if you don't know Anatomy well you're rubbing feet because it's just doing the same thing over and over there isn't going to be any extra focus on um The Reflex that's attached to the systems that may be stressed in your body so when you take the time to be able to customize the sessions for each client that's not treating for specific conditions it's just knowing where the imbalances are in the body so that your body can relax right the body is the one that does all the work um and when you do that amazing things can happen and I don't know how to put into words what it feels like to have a friend who has been given a terminal diagnosis with only a limited amount of time to live and can't get treatment because her body isn't strong enough that friend lived for 18 months feeling great until the last few months with many wins to celebrate and I don't take that for granted ever it's also amazing to be able to share the skill of reflexology therapists with others and so that they can experience what it's like to help people in this specific case this student um actually helped someone that had been struggling with reproductive system and getting pregnant and just helping the body to relax the client was able to get pregnant after her session there's lots of students with lots of stories I've trained hundreds now and it just never gets old being able to hear the Amazing Stories and clients report they feel like they had a better sleep just all around feel better what is it like to be a reflexology therapist other than amazing well I've got a lot of stories that I can share but nothing is more rewarding than hearing the stories from from the students it's um it's a blessing to know that there's lots of people with a passion to help others feel better and by keeping our two thumbs up we help our clients feel better and that's an absolute blessing the other perks are you get to create your own schedule you don't have any co-workers unless you work in a clinic and it's just you and your amazing clients you decide when you're able to work your office is a sanctuary set up exactly how you like it it's a place where worries melt and you can start your day and end your day whenever you want you get to earn back some of the tuition before you even get your certificate so what are the perks of knowing reflexology number one you can help yourself you can give a treatment and get a treatment so you've got reflexes in your thumb clients have reflexes in their feet or their hands or their ears and when you are working on the client you're stimulating the reflexes in your hands and so you're actually getting a treatment while you're giving a treatment there's exciting things happening in the world of reflexology with the research there's testing being done with I believe it's an MRI they're doing reflexology sessions on clients while they're going through the Imaging and they're taking pictures of the brain as the feet are being worked on and I think there's 87,000 images I think that have been taken and they're starting to do research on it and one of the things that they have reported so far is that when the reflexes are stimulated in the feet the message goes to the brain almost instantaneously so it's starting to have evidence that the signals to the brain are being impacted when clients are having a reflexology session which I think is pretty cool and it's giving more credibility to reflexology and that's been building for the past few decades as well so who recognizes reflexology well it's recognized by group plans that include reflexology so clients that come to you can actually get reimbursed as long as you're in good standing with a membership that provides receipts that includes reflexology so for example this course is recognized by the Reflexology Association of Canada when you get your certificate you can take it apply to the Reflexology Association challenge a board exam and you can get your rcrt status when you pass that challenge exam with an rcrt status you get a number that number gets put onto your receipts and with that receipt if the client has coverage with reflexology they're going to get reimbursed for their session but you have to be an active member with rack you have to have an rcrt status to do it and um the clients group plan has to be reflexology as not massage it has to be reflexology so the Reflexology Association in Canada was founded in 1976 they're the ones that own the RC RT trademark is this specific course with me is recognized with mtas which is the massage therapist Association of Saskatchewan and um simoto which is a massage therapy and Osteo I believe um Association in Alberta so if you have any questions I encourage you to book a call with me I am open to taking calls or you can email me as well at reflexology cender trio.com so for those wondering how to get certified well it all starts with understanding the theory this is the anatomy and physiology that I talked about a little bit earlier it's core reflexology is what it's called and this training the anatomy physi ology theory is a prerequisite for all the Practical reflexology courses that I teach so in core when I used to teach core live it took I taught it in a weekend I would give the students a break for a month they would come back and they would write the exam sometimes I would give them three months to study just because if you haven't been studying for a long time some people get nervous or whatever the case may be life gets in the way so on average I I gauge it as a three months course you can work at it at your own pace I have limited enrollment and um you're going to receive a physical manual for it now in order to complete core reflexology you're going to have to write uh written exam all of this can be done online I've got ways to work it for the written exam so it's legit I'm there with you even if you're on the other side of the country it's it's all good we got technology and I use it to make sure that you're able to complete it without having to incur travel cost to get to me which is in Regina a scat most times so after you are completed the theory you can move on to practical reflexology training the prerequisite for this you have to do core reflexology first this is a 12-month course and registration is limited and based on student demand to accommodate exams and reviews so I open this course up a couple of times a year the reason is the certification steps are all kind of done as a group there's a couple of different dates that you can choose from from your exams and your reviews and um the training is all online so you don't have to worry about um missing any of the dates except for the exams you need to you need to fit into an exam date but for the most part you you go through the materials at your own pace and so that you can be ready for the dates that you've chosen for your exams and reviews when it comes to exams and reviews there are several dates to choose from it's just like I said done in a group except for the Practical practical is just you and me so because I teach right across Canada I have to make sure I have enough time for every student and that's why um I restrict the number of students that I put through at one time for a very limited time the all-in-one so you can actually take the theory and the practical in one course this course is being discontinued as long as there's manuals left you can still sneak in you can still claim a spot when they're gone the course is gone that doesn't mean that you're going to lose access to the training that will live and um what will happen is any of the students that are currently going through core Plus Foot they'll be grandfathered in plus get access to the individual course um trainings so you'll get the best of both worlds essentially if you choose the all-in-one there's also a private Facebook group for support so all the students hang out ask questions it's a very supportive environment we celebrate your wins if I have anything new that I want to share I pop in and I share that with you and then you get to ask questions you get to meet other reflexology therapists across Canada there has been lasting friendships made I think it's super cool you also get access to the foot course Student Portal if you go to my website www.cal trio.com and you go to reflexology courses student login you are actually going to see you're going to get your own private login and then what it looks like inside is there's modules that go for all the training in the book so you work through all of this like I said there's live Q&A that I currently have for the all inone group you would get access to those so you just show up and you ask these are not going to go away they will exist in the core and the Practical training as well it's just right now with allinone this is the link that you can join you can show up ask anything that you got what happens when you register well you are going to get all of this so if you register with the Allin one course there's a different manual that includes the core plus the foot right here you're going to get this manual but if you just take core then you're going to get this manual until you are done the written exam and then when you register for foot you're going to get a different manual and it's um you'll also get the chart and the sequence sheet when you register for that we are going to celebrate wins I have a little bit emoji that comes in and celebrates absolutely everything inside the Facebook group there's a new platform going to be coming so people that absolutely cannot stand Facebook will be able to um join in the fund there will be a community in there that's in the works for later in 2024 there's lots of testimonials of students that have taken the course most of them are available on my website and it's just a blessing to be able to share such a gift of a skill with so many others so like I said if you have any questions you're always welcome to book a call with me I'll meet you on zoom and thanks for attending today