Foot Reflexology Demo Round 6

from the people holding in life that's right yeah okay and we're live okay sponsored by Sally Ches peppermint rosemary and tea tree bomb because Sally is amazing okay so first points are what oh my gosh the bomb is like super minty I can feel it on my skin that's so nice so what we're doing is we're holding solar plexus in line with the third toe at the diaphragm guide line and then we're also using our fingers on top to feel for a pulse so the dorsal pedal pulse gives us an idea of where somebody's like physical blood pressure is at but also their energetics so if the pulse is hot meaning its rapid its fiery its bounding yeah if it's dry if it's toned if it's strong if it's cold if it's deep yeah if you can't really feel it or if it's wet if it's loose and mushy and kind of rolls around with your fingers then we go to the adrenal reflex and the adrenal reflex is just on the medial aspect of that big toe flexor tendon in between the proximal heads of the first and second metatarsals anybody know what stress hormone adrenals excrete cortisol so we're basically if you wanted to think of it like the adrenals as the stress hormone gland yeah we're kind of checking in with that center if the adrenal reflex represents the adrenals what do the adrenals feel like that gives you information right there okay um can somebody grab me two hot towels in a dry check so we are going to open wrap fleece immediately comes on top we got that top of the tin in there as well for a little bit of seasoning normally we would shake these off but they're not as hot as they should be is it still early okay so we create some nice little booties just to both both soften the feet but also to clean the feet because we don't want to be working on like dirty gross feet because that's important then also the towels are secret weapons because from an assessment standpoint where the feet absorb the heat tells us where the vascularity is strong but where the feet stay cold even after they've been heated or warmed or softened tells us where the most restriction is in the reflexes and therefore in the rest of the body just last month you watch the videos now you're being hello from Buffalo Hey Oh Carolyn Carolyn okay so once we dry off the second foot we're actually going to keep the dry towel on and do the entire routine on the right side some practitioners will flip-flop from right foot to left foot right foot left foot I find that personally distracting thank you and so we don't want to we don't want to confuse the client but also we don't want to confuse ourselves going from left to right if we stay to one foot we know everything on the right side is being touched we know everything on the right side from the right side of the neck to the right shoulder to the liver gallbladder to the right kidney right hip right knee we know that we're on one quadrant instead of jumping from one to the other which starts to confuse your the story that you're forming about the client's physical mental emotional statement also rates at is past so we want to look at past so okay so we start with our sacred six-hour relaxation techniques hello from sheffield UK hello from perth australia oh so excited to be coming to Perth in like a month yeah so now is the time while we're warming up ask questions anything you want to know so since we're using the relaxation techniques as Palpa torii techniques - what are you checking for in the calf yeah so the calf we want to just go through your energetic sub hot cold wet dry so that fiery aspect of hot and dry the the muscles will be tight the muscles will be hyper tonus the muscles will be strong and slightly spasmodic but also warm to the touch yeah if somebody has a very earthy mix like we can see Suzanne has a lot of bulk in the calves very strong tissue texture that gives us an idea that she has a lot of density in her system she's going to be prone to joint disease because of that density if somebody has a lot of fluid retention in the calves they have that watery Constitution or that watery infection we would immediately start to look at the lymphatic backups and then likewise if somebody has that Airy Constitution that lack of tissue that hot wet just slightly spasmodic but also liquidy no boundaries whatsoever can't hold that to save their life then we know that depletion will probably be in the cards for them so it's part of the the basic assessment of general tissue texture when we're looking at the relaxation techniques to move on you know already what you're about to get into so we start with the spinal reflexes we're gonna walk them walk all the way to just below the bunion area three times nice and we are feeling for potential points of which there are none right now so spine feels pretty clear then we move to the toes now the toes are interesting because the toes although we're walking up each three times each toe represents a vertical zone of influence yeah so an influence of another body system on the head neck space when we look at the fifth toe it's the influence of the lower body when we look at the fourth toe it's the influence of the pelvis that includes reproductive urinary lower digestive hip when we look at the third toe it's the influence of upper digestive second toe is influence of lymphatic shoulder lung heart and then big toe has just had a neck then also mentally and emotionally facto a sense of security influence on the mind four toes family relationship influence on the mind third toe is career action influence on the mind second toe is feelings on the mind and then the big toe is just the big head so depending on if a toe is hot cold tight restricted if they have weird nail issues going on it tells us a lot about what somebody is dealing with mentally and emotionally but also in the head/neck space when we go into our big toe routine we're decompressing the various aspects of the neck here so we hit the medial side the proximal plantar side and then we clear the big toe pad up and we've got our first point right at the jaw so we're gonna hold that spot and we're applying that steady pressure and we're waiting for a response there's a little bit of a spasm underneath my thumb so I'm going to back off ever so slightly see how the body changes still spasms now I'm starting to get a little bit of a tingle in my fingers which is good Oh and then the next starts to spasm so we know stuffs happening and then the point is released any feedback on that spot Susan that's about her okay let me go over the dorsal aspect and walk down the lateral side of that proximal phalanx John neck issues this week always okay then we go to the dorsal aspect we're going to gloss the dorsal aspect with some cream use the thumbs to push the foot back fingers come together and we're going to pump the lymph down in three vertical sections three times each just to clear out any swelling clear out any fluid but also palpate are the metatarsal spaced evenly yeah we can see that dorsal bone bump prominent yeah so we already know that there's a little bit of malnutrition that's happening but other than that everything feels really clean the lymphatic aspects are really easy to glide through but in some clients you might feel like you're literally trying to push through sludge like it feels very thick very syrupy very congested yeah these are all that that dorsal aspect of the lymph need to Ramona tarsal shake hello from the UK hello from Ireland and Sally cage a student in a second ago but she did not catch your commercial for her Blanca they're so lovely I just love the mint okay so before I get distracted by Sally now we're walking in between the dorsal valleys Oh and we found a point right over that liver pancreas space so we're holding that point we're applying an even amount of pressure points bucking me just a little bit so I'm going to back off this is the fun part that's where we just wait still gonna back off just a little bit because the tissues aren't necessarily letting me in okay we got our twitch in the foot so that's good and now the points not doing anything so I'm going to move on now the toes are quite cold yeah what I find super interesting is when clients come in to see me and my hands will get very cold for no reason and then I go to touch their tissues and their tissues are hot and it's like my body has prepared to to counterbalance their their temperature and same thing with hot as well but I find that super fun so now we're on the plantar surface of the ball of the foot so we're gonna walk the ball of the foot which is just I've had it area between the toes and the arch three times in line with each toe you have some gross so we're just gonna use a little bit of a sliding sliding slippery back and forth unlocked move that around it moved pretty easily so we're good and that's some crackly grouse this so we're gonna hold here so we have some lung stuff we have some chest stuff yeah I'm gonna use a flat thumb with this I'm not going to be as pointed because the callus is a little sharp and I'm just gonna hold so do you always been something to work on yeah I mean most of the time sometimes it's just going through the motions even though I find points I just I get the feeling that they don't need to be addressed so it's a lot of just moment to moment kind of working with what you find really trusting your gut with it but most of the time there will be at least a couple points that I find sometimes there are a point the points release really quickly sometimes I'm spending a good couple of minutes on the point it really just depends on you know each time a client comes in and that's the individual client not even two different clients the same client could come in one time and it's just all the point work but then another client comes in and or that same client comes and you know a couple weeks later and everything's fine or vice versa okay after the ball of the foot then we move to the digestive reflexes so we're gonna do zoom three walking horizontally first to that plantar tendon because we don't want to Flores only walk across that plantar tendon because that does not feel fun and then we'll go vertical in line with each toe three times so we find a spot over the knee reflex the plantar surface of the proximal head of the fifth metatarsal so we're gonna hold that spot yet somebody had a question in the video oh okay no--but hello from Milwaukee Wales and Ontario and so I said she's looking forward to your class in October yeah yes clan field will be amazing the right knee yeah okay so can confirmed right knee stuff yeah you'll find a lot of keratinization a lot of swelling a lot of bruising in that area when people have made me issues then we go vertical and we're just clearing each of those zones I know isn't it just so good it's delicious you could eat it you literally could eat it I wouldn't in front of you [Laughter] so there's a little bit of a deficiency here it's like a little bit of a hollowness so I'm just gonna hold that really gently see if the body wants to kind of fill it in feels cold so I'm just checking in like hey hey mama how you doing what's going on you having a bad week your hair's not doing the right thing that's what's up I say mama because the liver is technically a Yin organ okay so everything is melting really nicely I just want because it's because its signature feel is cold I'd like to stay until I get a little bit of heat I'm just not feeling that yet it's almost there yeah and this is turning into a long one sometimes I get the feeling and we'll move on from this point sometimes I get the feeling that when when a point is so close to becoming to becoming whole to finish to to complete whatever it needs to complete in that space with my assistance as the reflexologist but it can't it's like right on that edge but it can't seem to to click or turn on the right way I'll find that there's another point that needs to be addressed in order for that point to respond so if for some reason you're struggling with a point along your walk and you're not really sure why and you keep holding it but for some reason it's not doing what you know it should be doing then chances are there's another one that needs to be turned on first it's it's again it's like picking a lock yeah this lever needs to be pressed before that lever in order to to make the thing though you could yeah if you wanted to normally what I have what I do come back to those points everything's fine you could yeah totally very appropriate energetically because when we look at cold as being stagnant if you wanted to literally introduce movement with a pump you totally could so question from Alberta Canada big toe does not bend due to arthritis do you jump over that area yeah I've pains a 7 out of 10 totally or walk it lighter but you want to give some sort of stimulation to the area even if it's just doing a nice hold to let the tissues know that they're safe yeah but very rarely will I not walk an area unless it's like oozing pus or blood to be gross but when when a client comes in especially with an area of pain I always try to make it a point to touch that area even if it's super light even if it's very compassionate even if you know the voice in your head says well that's not really going to do anything it will the nerve system will appreciate your effort but yeah we want to avoid pain at all costs during the session because that means that the body will start to view us as a threat and it will shut down the receptivity of the work so now after the digestive reflexes were back to the toes also would you handle that differently if it was an inflammatory like rheumatoid arthritis versus like a really dry osteoarthritis case-by-case yeah so I just don't want to touch it yeah but if the client if the client is on the table and I go for the toe and they immediately seize up you know the the big thing is to make sure that the client is comfortable so if that means not touching the area in order to keep them in a in a relaxed state then that's what I do it's very rare nine times out of ten when a client comes in I'll all notice that when I touch the area compassionately their body relaxes very very deeply especially since they're they're expecting me to go hard they're expecting me to go fast they're expecting me to plow through the area but when I approach it slow steady and with that that awareness and that compassion it's it's very easy for them to be like oh this person knows what they're doing they're not trying to hurt me they are aware that I am red-hot fiery and in pain notice how I didn't say the toe was red-hot fiery and inflamed you know and in pain it's it's the person on the table because especially with that big toe representing the mind you know it's just as much about relaxing the clients mental space as it is taking care of that toe okay so now we go into the heel and the ankle aspect we do that last because it's the densest most difficult area to work physically this is where the most calluses this is where the most restriction is this is where the strongest part of the foot is people who come in for plantar fasciitis often need a lot of ankle mobilization so we want to relax all the surrounding tissues before we get into this very solid part of the foot so we're gonna walk the medial aspect of the heel three times switch hands that's nasty we're gonna have to go back to that then we walk the outside of that calcaneus with the fingers underneath that's the glute reflexes so the medial aspect of that heel would be the sacrum it would be the base of the spine then the lateral aspect would be the lateral muscle tissue bridging from that sacral area to that hip joint and then we go behind the lateral cow the lateral lateral calcaneus the lateral malleolus that words and these sandy's archnemesis and we're rolling on to that point as we shift our pressure but it is normally very sensitive and there are a couple fun points here so we're just gonna we're just gonna hold that so I have one hand compassionately placed on the arch and then my my left middle finger is actually on the inferior surface of the lateral malleolus oh and I'm going to just do a really quick little vibrate just to send the impulses a little bit deeper so holding the point but then also giving a little bit of jostle like a barely a jostle yeah and that unclamped the hips really nicely delicious all the change good stuff okay now we go to our dorsal ankle pump we're going to get all of that dorsal ankle tissue to okay from South Africa Oh yourself oh okay then I'll do cuboid notch so keep waiting on tour starting at the proximal head of the fifth metatarsal we're walking up the ascending branch of the triangle we're walking down the descending branch of the triangle and then we're walking across the bottom of that triangle the ascending portion of that triangle represents the quads the descending portion represents the hamstrings and the plantar surface or flat part of the triangle represents the calves that's not something that you'll see in a reflexology book that's just something that I've found over time there's a nice little this nice little point through here so we're gonna gonna hold that right in the calf knee space on the back side and it starts to melt ever so nicely perfect right on Pakistan Oh Pakistan okay then our last section we're going to walk across the plantar surface of the heel so thumb walking in two horizontal rows three times each and then switching to go vertical these are all those lower body reflexes that are just so tight and strong and delicious especially since we already pointed out the knee issues this will be a very important section to work on somebody goes knee issues because it represents that sciatic chain because the heel is so gnarly and dense and hard you really want to be careful with your mechanics here so notice how I've lifted the heel to get better leverage notice how I'm not or with my thumb I'm just doing little little baby walks to make sure that my thumb doesn't get compromised yeah just really play it safe because the heel is notorious for blowing out your thumbs it's also a lot more sensitive than you give it credit for the heel may feel calloused but it's really a teddy bear and three okay now that we're done with that foot we finish with our relaxation techniques and then we'll go to the other side the calf has softened very nicely it's always lovely to feel yeah got a couple of people watching from Alberta Canada any Alberta come to Toronto yeah or Winnipeg cough cough cough cough cough there you go he'll rotation notice how it's a full-body technique her entire body is jostling with that pressure it's not just a foot massage knuckle roll switch sides and there is no change in routine from right side to left side you're doing the exact same protocol exact same method the only thing that does change is your point work because the points that you feel on one side may be totally different than the other it's all based on what is needed we go up to the calf notice how the calves are different from one side to the other this one has a very strong lateral band the other one was more heavy and more even but this one is totally different which again makes sense from a compensating point of view the weakness on the right side so that lateral left side has to compensate to balance out the weight 100% when there's a lot of heat throughout that dorsal surface of the zone four so all that lower back stuff your rotation notice we have a we have a nice freckle right on top of there yeah freckles right at that right in line with that first point that I found on the other side that freckle would indicate weakness in the occiput yeah so weakness in the innervating nerves for the jaw and all that jazz so we can see on especially that left side the jaw issues being a little bit worse or being the source of that weakness that seem but same thing we're walking that spinal reflex three times open and we have a point we did not have a point on the spine on the other side so now we're just holding that yes so I studied massage therapy back in 2009 and then about a year and a half into massage I found that reflexology worked better and started doing that instead there were details are between okay so now we're on to the toes oh that is cold so fun fun little fact I've gotten into the habit of tracing lines and pathways so I'll hold a point and then I'll grip the nerve trail somewhere along that space in order to stimulate it this was inspired by Lynne booth who we did a podcast episode together with her vertical reflex technique and she had talked about dual sensations along the same pathway increasing the strength of the impulse and she found that it was also more effective and as I experimented with it I also found it to be much much more effective so when I feel like a point is significantly stuck and it needs a little bit of help I'll find a point along that channel whether you want to call it nerves or meridians or whatever you know language you want to use but I'll grip that spot and I'll I'll work it from both sides trying to open that that line yeah same zone yeah most of the most of the meridians that you find are in line with the toes so whether you want to call it nerve roots or zones or meridians it's it's something along that same channel or you know when Sally was here she talked about that that balancing technique yeah that tether it was then linking linking where you hold one place and you hold another place in order to stimulate connection with those two areas so you could do that as well but just the idea that when a client comes in and you find that stubborn point that just won't release sometimes it needs a little bit of help from another another angle it's an interesting you can actually see the referral pattern all the way up from the toe through verticals on five showing the influence with the cold into everything that you were holding here and all the way up you can even see and her eye team in the hypertonicity going all the way up to RT Fla you can actually see the compromise by the way through and that's like that's what we look for oh and hello from Deadwood South Dakota no yes okay so now there's another point in the jaw in this space and we're we're just gonna hold that and we got a twitch so that's good almost there and then we just move along like nothing happened nothing to see here folks over the dorsal aspect to that lateral side of the neck oh so much Christmas in the neck so much Christmas and there's a really specific point so I'm using the very tip of my index finger to nail like around c2 c3 like it's so fine that spot we're just gonna Nick it like put a pin in it oh and there's heat like the insertion like the suboccipital and stuff oh and I just and melted yeah melting we just do a couple extra passes just to say thank you just say thank you thank you and there's crosnes done thought we were done so we'll hold this please hold oh she just twitched all the way up all the way up well and there's that heat goodness gracious like just on the lateral aspect of the shin in that same same zone threesome before it's it's like like there's a Sun in this point like it feels so warm underneath my my index finger it's so hot that's gradually starting to unwind there we go yeah so it's shifting which is good yeah so it's all bladder really yeah could be the oh and there it goes it just kicked me off okay cool so we're done and that's how we do it but sometimes the client can freak out on the table when they're like oh my god what are you doing to me and that's okay let them freak out let them have their moment you know let them know everything is okay that they're still in safe hands that you know you're not pressing something that should not be pressed but then also you know remind them that this is this is what I talked about before the session when I say referral sensations this is this is a referral sensation it's not always as dramatic as that but it can be by the way ami from Pakistan just wants you to know that they've learned a lot of reflexology from you their therapist been wonderful thank you guys thanks for spreading the work so then we walk down the channels in between the bones you that's gross all this gross nasaan that on the neck upper back not not the person on the table not the person on the table the texture and the tissues which from a foot reading aspect let's be real it's the same thing but we we really want to we want to I'm just calling it like I see it for educational purposes I would never say that during a session I would never say you what is that yeah yuck gross oh my god what did you do no I would never I would never say that to a client because and we joked about this before she got on the table but most clients have terrible self-image especially when it comes to their feet so if you reinforce that that's such a no-no yeah we're joking and laughing and having a good time about it but at the same time I have clients on a regular basis who come in and they're like I am so sorry for the state of my feet or I have the worst feet ever or if you want to wear gloves I would understand and for you as a reflexologist to not only work on them but also to work on them and say everything is fine and not be like you you um but to show confidence and to show them through your touch that everything is okay like that is such a gift for somebody who you know reflexology is a is a modality that a lot of people come to who can't get regular massage either because they they physically cannot disrobe yeah they have mobility issues or their self-esteem is just terrible or they don't feel comfortable getting naked or you know all of those things when we look at a client working on their feet a part of their body that is often very neglected it's an exercise in compassion and it's definitely an exercise for you to teach your client that you're not as gross as you think you are close but but we we get to talk about the gross stuff like poopy menses we get to talk about you know fun things and the tissues that are not easy to discuss like around the dinner table and the same thing with like really stuck nasty emotions yeah we have to make space for a client to feel safe enough to experience those things on the table you know not asking them to be all you know dramatic and go into a crying fit about it but it's okay if they do like it's not necessary for them to take it to that really an intense place but they can if they wanted if that's what's needed but with a with physical tissues like sometimes especially for educational purposes like sometimes you just got to call it like you see it like that is just gross congested nasty stuff and their pain patterns will definitely reflect that oh we've got all this rigidity on the shoulder reflex all this callosum so it's just like up that entire vertical zone four or five channel oh and there's gross PAH penis on that joint right there man there's we're about two unlocks and stuff okay right all in all in good fun okay so now we're in the digestive reflexes so we're walking the plantar surface of Zone three those three horizontal sections three times each then we switch hands and we go vertical ooh again over that knee this one is much more fibrous the other side was hard dense restricted this side is just really tight having waves of impulse okay and it's done in relation to the leaking channels have you done the corresponding yeah you totally could it's interesting to see where is it and they don't always speak right let's have the same yeah whatever angle you want to think about it you want to think about it postural e you want to think about it you know mentally and emotionally and her feet are just breaking out in water which is so good the sweat responds just excellent so good but yeah however you want to logic that note to my compress would you would you address both yeah you could cool so that was fun but we're back okay so now we move to the lower digestive system see how are you large intestine hmm how are you small intestine three two Oh and we have a point of weakness so there's a really nice line that we're just gonna hold in the belly of the bet waiting for ya would it be intestine area yeah definitely in the middle of the small intestine so it feels like there was a little bit of a cramp or a fold in the in the small intestine so we're just kind of letting it unfurl and the most subtlest circles ever just just to unwind that that point just super tiny super tiny circles just just open just and there we go so then we do toes and then lower body and then we're done okay there's a little bit of restriction and vertical zone 5 here so we're just gonna I'm just gonna hold again No last oh good job okay so the bone just let off a little bit of poppy cracky space so that's what we want sometimes it's sometimes the release feels as simple as like a bone literally shifting her body has started to absorb the water that it where the water evaporated that it released that's good so the body is kind of coming down from that that release state three [Music] to okay then I'm the victory team clearing that big toe pad you know it's total torture watching somebody else get a full reflexology session like right in front of you it's like the hardest thing in the world people don't understand like your sympathetic nervous system starts to kick in and you're just like oh my god that feels so good wait why does it feel so good I'm not the one getting work done and before you know it you're just like oh the neck is so much clearer still still not where I want it though so we're going to hold that bit almost go and to be open perfect do a little bit of Keeley's effleurage get everything all nice and circulated and soft it helps a few dance then we're gonna walk the medial surface of the calcaneus see how that nice color the lateral surface you know that's not good okay so find a nice point here I'm just gonna hold that yeah lot of five and two and three then posterior surface of the lateral Mellie the manly growling grossest the mentally grossest is the it's the malleus Maleficarum that's what that is okay okay so we're right so for those of you who haven't heard me talk about them lateral malleolus being the hip joint yeah so that that posterior Crescent around that ankle represents the hip joint so when we find restriction here we can know where the restriction is coming from in the glutes based on what surface were palpating so the posterior surface represents glute max the inferior surface represents glute medius and then the anterior surface represents glute minimus so here we're just in between glute Max and medius she's got a nice little kick right there so that's good and so we're just holding that space waiting for the fibers to melt waiting for everything to calm down and waiting for that band of tissue to just take a joke though and so what we're gonna do is we're actually going to take the foot we're going to gently ease it to open that band yeah yeah there was a nice twitch just two seconds ago let's just push that out real quick awesome good stuff the a-team work hmm okay so then we finish her ankle rotation I just don't know that and or something oh it's so hot three then we have the cuboid notch so we have the ACE ending descending and plantar surface of that triangle proximal head of the fifth metatarsal represents the knee then we go up the quad that apex of the point represents the sciatic nerve then we go down the posterior surface of that triangle representing the hamstrings then we have across the bottom of that triangle representing the calves and do that three times a couple more damn stirring doesn't need it calves don't need it okay then plantar surface of the calcaneus and then we're done relaxation techniques hot towels points we're finished that wasn't so bad any other final questions comments concerns things you wanted to chat about I'm not dorsal part of our foot it looks hard to me just looking at yeah totally yeah she has a very earthy Constitution her bones are very strong her tendons are very strong and that's part of what we look for when we start to get into just basic foot reading kind of constitutional assessment what's the body type that we're dealing with and definitely like she has a lot of density in her tissues that could form a hard bone like the right foot did yeah totally yeah two three and last one one to and three cool relaxation techniques your rotation and then knuckle roll George can economy hotels and pull out the towels unfortunately - how much you like your client go back press the heat in press the heat in again this one can never have enough heat July you can energetically but not from a hot towel standpoint direct how all loveliness and the last hot towel then we'll finish with solar plexus and adrenal just like we started which is from a nervous system perspective it's how we open the session and close the session it's the body's way of remembering okay we're starting to work now we're stopping the work so solar plexus and then fingers come to that dorsal paddle posts it's so much nicer just a little hot but much calmer then the adrenal reflexes and we're done about 30 seconds each you could owe them longer like especially if somebody's coming in with like anxiety issues you could extend it you know if somebody if you feel like somebody really needs to get into the point work you can shorten it if you want it but I find that even 30 seconds Mesa makes a good one okay cool thanks everybody for watching we'll see you later