Live Reflexology Demo FSMTA

hich if snow like most people that have exposure to reflexology took maybe that to our AFE intro in school and that was pretty much about it like the instructor held up the book or made you watch the DVD and it's basically told you that if you press various points on the beat you might help somebody and don't touch the ankles around the pregnancy because that will induce labor and like that's it that's pretty much cotton and I'm getting like a lot of nods so everybody had that same experience and I didn't it except a year and a half into my practice I blew out the shoulder because I was working too hard and I needed to find something to do differently so I threw myself into a reflexology class that I didn't expect it to be the modality that I retracted us for the next eight years so this is literally what brought me here now is the art and science of manipulating the nerve endings on studies and it's not just the feet that we're going to talk about today so we're also going to be talking about hand space and ears but before we get into too much about me or too much about the modality what I would like to do is I would like to bring up a demo ended here and we'll do it first so I like it fast and dirty so what we're what we're going to be doing today is we're gonna be talking about reflexology but it's one thing for me to like to talk to you about reflexology and that's another thing for me to actually demonstrate what reflexology is for you to see it and then ask questions ask for domain which i think will be a heck of a lot more fascinating for everybody in the room and it will also keep my mind going because I love doing 50 things at once so has it my gift set up does anybody have any reflexology questions that they're just dying to ask like say you have had two beers face.he one take classes on any one of those and it benefit you yes so when the minds coming to see me and they see the posters on the wall down the first question that they ask is which one like what do I do where do I go I learned to beat first and that's kind of what I've known for so my clients are normally coming in for beads but reflexologists know that word focused on nerve endings which holistically interconnect the entire body so we're not focused on the extremity as much so much as the actual technique of sending the nerve impulses through the body to get the body to rebalance what's broken so I can knit like perfect example I had a student of mine who hated the ear work like she would not touch an ear to save her life she's like they're lovely here's getting worked on Sam but I just I can't it's weird it doesn't feel right and so she had a back spasm in the middle of the plots and I'm like Kim this is your moment we're gonna use the ears to deactivate your back pain and so we did and we found the exact point that was actually hot red and inflamed on the exact same side the twos having the spasm clanton and within two minutes it deactivated and the pain was gone she's like I will never badmouth the ears ever again I'm not gonna do them but I'm not gonna badmouth them so that's that's how reflexology works is it's not limited to one extremity instead we're activating nervous system which is present throughout the entire body it just so happens that these are our four windows into the house that make sense so so learning the points can I do that I'm gonna like interrupter in that for you two questions yeah I see that did that I'm sorry couple days ago yeah it definitely well there is there is a little red spot on there too craziness so right off the bat client says that they have a sore spot on the heel which actually like there's a little red bump so technically contraindicated for reflexology I would not work that area but I share is how we work around it because I'm a dangerous reflexologist but when we when we look at why reflexology is used and why it's not used one of the reasons why I didn't pursue reflexology originally was because I got work done by a reflexologist that hurt me and used excessive pressure and really overloaded my nervous system and that was a terrible experience so first thing that I tell my students is avoid pain at all costs pain is not the body's friend it's the body's warning system so if we are going to stimulate the most sensitive periphery nerves in the body the last thing that we would want to do is walk over an area that is painful damaged or exposed yeah because that's just going to make the nervous system jump and we don't want that we want to relax the client we want to stimulate the nerve endings without them kicking us in the face preferably yeah there are actually a couple places that popped up over the past like three years or so that are claiming to do reflexology and they're my best source of business because I get clients from them all the time and they literally say they don't speak English and they hurt me I'm like that's because they're not doing reflexology they're doing foot massage yeah which is totally fine 100% but when you override the body's pain system it shuts you out and it's no longer going to absorb the work right so what you can see right now is we're using an amal turn a ting pressure we're walking up what would be the spinal reflexes you don't know if I'm just watching relax relax and this is how reflexology is traditionally performed certain schools will use like Thai massage Thai reflexology will use like a stick also painful no bueno um from that standpoint like if you've ever ever received that type of work it can be very sharp and very invasive but their methodology is also different they are trying to push the energy through the channels yes in Western reflexology we are trying to stimulate the nerve endings to bring it an endorphin rush but also to get the nervous system to let go of any pain patterns our intention is different and because of that we don't need to force the body into a state of wellness that it's not ready to receive that was some power somebody write that down yeah we get on Facebook there I'm trying to do that more because my students are always like say that again I'm like I don't know what I said what we are going to do throughout the various extremities and we'll have the other demos come up as well is we're clearing the zones so each section of the foot represents a different area of the body the toes where I'm at now represent the headspace and the next space so whenever somebody has sensitivity or damage to the toes it always represents that issue like if you've seen those people with the the feet that start to claw and the toes start to grip that's all upper cervical yeah then we go into the ball to put the ball of the foot represents the chest long shoulder heart area then the arch we divide into proximal and distal the distal arch which is further away from the body represents everything upper GI then the proximal arch represents everything lower GI the ankle also represents the pelvic structures the reproductive area and the dorsal limb and then the heel represents everything lower body so literally the human anatomy superimposed over the feet nothing is left out yeah the idea is that the part represents the whole and by manipulating the part we can then affect the whole through the natural sensitivity of the extremity it's kind of like hacking the body right you're using the sensitivity that is natural in order to access the nervous system which penetrates every other system so it doesn't matter if it's a digestive organ or a muscle we're asking it to rebalance and relax right everybody with me so far we've got good stuff going on ok any other questions on that yes so it's right to right left to left which can get a little bit confusing if you've ever looked at a reflexology map and you're like what do all these shapes mean I don't get it it literally follows physical anatomy so if you've opened an anatomy book ever and you've like paid serious attention it should come easily the liver falls to the right and so it's on the right foot the stomach falls to the left and so it's on the left foot the kidneys are halfway in between the upper and lower digestive system more towards the back the lower GI you have a sending colon on the right side half of transverse 1/2 of transverse descending colon on the left side right pretty simple nothing complicated okay so any specific questions that are running around in your minds right now as I'm continuing to work and feeling for stuff yes that's a good question so clients like Blender percent of the time like they do either consciously like they're trying to fool you or they don't want to admit it or subconsciously like they truly don't understand where their pain is coming from right and we've all had that client where they come in with a shoulder issue but it's actually coming from a head yeah um I have clients the beautiful thing about reflexology is I don't need to limit it to muscles and joints so I had a client come in today who was complaining of sciatica and the first thing that I said was you know you have fluid pressure like her ankles were swollen the reason the sciatica isn't going away is because you're not moving enough to get the fluid off of the nerves right so fun stuff but that like blows the mind that most massage therapists because they're like well if it's not muscle and bone related then how do we how do we address it how do we see it how do we access it and that's where the assessment comes in so in addition to the manual technique we use the reflexology map and the state of the reflexes therein to determine what's happening with the client to better advise them on things like lifestyle changes in protocol here this she wants to know what understand that was that she's like everybody else is important to I tell me what's wrong with Fame so a great question in terms of like client intake so a client comes in they fill out a really simple health history form I let them lie to me and then I let the bodies fill me the story right during the session their job is to totally pass out and relax it is not my job to give them the play-by-play and extract them from their experience right so I want them to pass out I want them to be snoring stuck in the paint off my walls enjoying that bliss like going as deep as they want to go and then when we're back out of the front we'll talk and that's when I'll get my feedback will we'll have a dialogue back and forth and we'll really get down to the bottom of why they came in make sense so the pressure on on the feet at this time is what you just did with her it's basically it's it's a blend of stimulation and palpation so for the average massage therapist my pressure is considered light we'd probably be a 2 to 3 out of 10 and that's when I'm doing like the regular walk around when I'm just palpating the reflexes and stimulating the nerves however when I find specific points that goes out the window and I address the point as I see it very much like you would a trigger point except what most of you have been taught is to apply as much pressure as possible in order to deactivate pain like that's the simple way to do it block out the nerve that's causing the pain by just overloading it with stimulus totally valid not my approach so what I do is I listen for how the tissue responds the pressure if it invites me in then I go deeper if it shuts me out it doesn't matter if it's a 1 out of 10 in pressure if it is feather-light and the tissue is resisting me I'm not going deep I'm just not I have a contract between the body and myself I don't care what the client says yeah so as far as pressure goes facial expressions I do lighter work until we find the active reflexes that need to be addressed and then we use pressure according to what the body asks for Mixon yeah all the time I'm a great example I had a mother-son team come in to see me this afternoon and the son has been in to see me multiple times before and he's like I'm used to deep tissue massages he's a muscular 20-something like I get deep tissue massages and I've gotten my feet worked on but that's not reflexology and the way that he described it to his mom that he had brought in like first-timer was if they go to Dee it doesn't feel the same he he couldn't really explain it but if we're if we're going too deep then we're overriding the nervous system and the body isn't registering benefit it's registering threat so that's that's the difference is we are communicating with the body as opposed to forcing our way into the tissues no I just always start on the right okay personal preference if I started on the left you would spontaneously combust no it's it's just personal preference it really is sometimes that sometimes they'll switch it up but most of the time I start on the right what I - I don't write that that's interesting so if there was an if there was like a if somebody came in and they had plantar fasciitis that was so tender that I couldn't touch it without pain what I would probably do is I would wrap the foot and let it rest while I tricked the body into release came through the other side nine times out of ten fascinating my clients will report the stimulus from the one side going to the other side as the body intelligently takes the session where it needs to be taken so cool they're like why do I feel that on my other foot like because the body is amazing that's why go ahead the second part of the question right yeah so I teach a full certification program or my students study with me for our once a month for 12 months for a year so it's it's really extensive I do intro classes all throughout the area though if you are interested in reflexology I do have my entire routine for all of the extremities up on YouTube for free thank you can access right now another facial insane area so we have a definite right shoulder issue that the body is working on so as far as technique goes I really want to make sure that I didn't get the best reflexology education so I want to make sure that people have access to the things that I didn't have access to so I put everything out there for people to play with and then if you if you're like seriously if it's driving with you and you really enjoy it then come take a class because I don't want you to waste your money learning something that you're eventually going to hate like nobody wants that I've wasted enough money on the classes and but enough stuff at the give shoutouts to you know lastly a whole lifetime so I'd rather that not happen so take the free intro classes online and then take a class with me normally there about a week ends and so I'll be doing a weekend at 40 the School of Massage for just the B's and that's going to be an end of April timeframe that's to 95 and you'll get 14 and hands-on CEUs for that so that'll be that'll be a fun class and then for any of you who are a little bit more person the holistic arena will be teaching at the Omega Institute up in New York it's great fun that was still fun I'm so excited it's gonna be a week-long immersion on book reading Geoff's the assessment so yes they are yeah so as far as the way her feet are positioned so we know just structurally hypermobile hips yeah everybody understands how I got there yeah the hips are like block and so the feet are like blah because the feet are connected yeah okay just making sure got a couple weird looks at that one oh when you did like when you said oh the reflex yeah I'm feeling it right smack in my I live but not at my shoulder not your shoulder yeah so you're saying shoulder because you were working on the shoulder area because that is the facial reflex for the right shoulder okay so what happens is during a session back to the body reading as the bus as the body starts to absorb the work and then there are little things that I look for like muscle twitches the stomach gurgling itching of the face as well as breathing changes to let me know where the body has taken before and the fact that she hitched and is currently feeling that area that area of the face has lit up on the face map that represents the right side of the chest and shoulder area so her body for some reason is registering that area of the body as being more important than the rest and so that would incorporate into my feedback like is there a latent shoulder issue has there ever been also if we went to the event mental emotional side that indicates past emotions that are being really so that's another aspect that the work at deeper aspect of the work so all of that becomes relevant and it becomes so much more than just a foot massage so does reflexology work in a series of treatments for community get one you know that's a good yeah he'll fail so I wouldn't everybody has those handful of miracle cases where it's like the client couldn't walk when they came in and they could walk when they left and like yes I've had those and it's fabulous most of the time the body was ready and I was just a facilitator for that transaction it could have happened to anybody else so when clients come in to see me I'll I'll give them my canned speech which is notice how you feel over the next couple days based on how you feel look you're an exception accordingly which means if you felt great and you would like it to continue then booked sooner if you feel like you never want to see me again don't because I'm not here to say you need to come see me three times a week for six weeks in order to get you better right my theory is that based on what I see in the reflexes and based on just us giving the body time to decompress if they listen to the recommendations that I give and it resonates with them and they go out and do their homework they should get better on their own because they've started to listen to the body and work within the body's natural rhythms okay like example mother son son had a left hip issue which he forgot to mention but I found out and so I said great thing for what I'm seeing in your hip would be pigeon pose for those of you who have yoga background really really deep hip stretch but he's muscular enough he's fit enough to where it would be totally appropriate comes back in he's like I don't know I still feel it I'm I did you to the stretch it's like no I didn't do the stretch like well that's why he comes in today he's like I tried that stretch that works I'm like yes it does yes it does good boy so that's that's the dynamic it is is the quiet willing to do the work it's not up to me to press the button fix the issue it ranges across the entire spectrum actually if you could hold it sideways that way it will head into another direction yeah that way that way it'll like film wine the best yeah so the benefits aren't just o matic but a lot of people come in for pain like physical joint pain clients will report digestive issues decreasing hormones balancing one of my first clients ever came in and said I'm coming in every week and my husband is paying for my sessions because I didn't bite his head off during my cycle this one and I totally think that you did that for sure also the first American study published for reflexology was on the benefits of the female reproductive cycles and reflexology in the Journal of gynecology and obstetrics so like really deep hormone work is really cool sleep patterns regulates I've had clients that I've tried to lose weight and they reported oh great the bad stuff anymore but I can't control how the body chooses to process the session so I'm just asking the body hey buddy you remember that state when everything felt good yeah let's let's go back to that and sometimes the body's like okay and it just it fixes itself because the body is intelligent but then of other times there are things that are standing in the way of the client self-healing and that's when we had the discussion am i part of that regimen do you need to go see if craniosacral therapist you know need to go see over there therapist you know what is it that you are lacking in your clinic might spirit complex that the feet are talking about that we can really move the needle for you and sometimes that comes in the form of the treatment and sometimes it comes in the form of physical pain more often my clients come in with physical pain and the pain is what brought them in the door but the issue is deeper does that make sense yeah cool how are you feeling my dear good good now that the endorphins are all rushing it's time for you to get out no it's okay feel free to like chill for two seconds so anything specific besides the experience [Music] [Music] yeah wants to jump up her hands okay somebody got that actually let me be a good massage therapist and use some hand sanitizer I couldn't whip this out before because man you guys gobble up my hand sanitizer so go ahead okay so handsome let's talk about so in terms of the hands so in terms of the hands the reason why I would choose the hands over the is if and I totally get to say this because I'm so closed to make daily air force base if the feet are missing yeah which is awesome to work on because it's it's literally like same benefit even when the extremity isn't there if somebody has a direct shoulder issue carpal tunnel brachial plexus stuff I've worked on one of my clients got thrown off her horse her neck and we used hand reflexology to rehabilitate her the doctor didn't understand what she was doing and that was really really awesome to like see that to have her come in with an ink neck brace like totally immobilized and to have her be able to do like little ranges afterwards with no pain that was that was legit impressive so with reflexology at the hands we're doing the exact same technique just on a different surface so the hands are shaped a little bit differently than the peach but the theory is the same press release press release press release it's an alternating pressure and so all we're doing is sending those nerve impulses up through the body and these are the exact same techniques that you'll find on the internet for me on my channel I can't speak towards those other shady reflexology signs but if you've ever searched for reflexology videos on YouTube you know what I mean this is what we're doing were very much having a conversation with the body it just so happens to be a manual conversation instead of a verbal conversation no I I stand if I if I if I wanted to I could sit which is totally okay reflexology has a modality is very versatile I'm sitting all day like most of my clients come in for foot work so when I get to do hands I'm like whoo I can stand you know but totally if you want it to sit through out all of the extremities you could most of my clients so right now I have two students that are in their 70s and both of them are taking the reflexology course because it doesn't hurt their hands yeah so this modality is meant to be easy it's meant to be effortless it's meant to be powerful but also non stressful on either party it's pressing a little bit not too much exactly so then when I when I find a spot that I want to clamp on then I'll hold it and adjust like if we wanted to stop here we could stop there it's a nice little ribbon there so we're just gonna hold that and wait for the body to to tell me like I'm waiting for marching orders from the body so the body wants to and the proximal digit a little bit so I'm gonna bend the proximal digit and then we're going to wait for a response so we're gonna wait for the stomach to grow both the face to edge muscles to twitch there's a nice little muscle twitch and so we're done that's the process yes so just like with the feet so toes represent the head fingers represent the head then the knuckles represent chest lung area in the hands the palmar surface represents upper digestive just above the wrists kind of like the heel of the hands represents lower digestive the wrist itself represents the hip complex and reproductive and then the what would be the distal row of carpals represented zone for the lower digestive and then the proximal row of carpals represented zone five a little bit difficult there's a visual aid on the table now that people are getting lots of tattoos and piercing that is that is a really good question so the the one offs not so much that the multiple piercings yes so what I look for with piercings and tattoos is the body's response to the stimulus so if the body repeatedly rejects a piercing where that piercing is located is super significant like my second piercing when I got it done it was infected for about four months and that's like right in the middle of the lower back which I also have a corresponding mark on my foot which represents lower back weakness on that side so when I did it like my body went bananas and I didn't know what was happening but looking back now I do so if the body is rejecting a piercing that's significant if the body absorbs a tattoo that's also significant but most of the time it's it's one offs you could also read into like did the body like eat a ring like it won't let it go or just the ring keep falling off yeah I was wondering about allergic reactions talk about that still munching class yeah jewelry it's stories fun to play with it's actually where a lot of you are so are like Dalton had a thumb representing head space than the proximal phalanx representing and neck space and then all along that first metacarpal his spine ending at the wrist which would be tailbone coccyx I want to join these players they always like to throw that arthritis so here's here's my thing with arthritis love you medicine love you so much doctors I love you so much you definitely have your place stand back well and three years while I say this arthritis is different for everybody so when somebody comes in to see me and they're like I have arthritis what kind of arthritis what does it feel like what does it look like is the joint actually swollen or is it cold and deficient is it is it actually like true arthritis meaning it is swollen and as red it as hot as as painful or is it Earth doper is it rigid imbalanced is it locked you know or is it hyper mobile and it's all coming from the nervous system is it fluid based you know what kind of arthritis do you have and that's that's facial edge so we have we have that part of the equation and then once we determine what kind of arthritis then we would look at the joints location because in addition to horizontal zones for those of you that have been following me on social media you know that horizontal zones and the direct physical Mountain the body is only part of the equation we also have vertical zones of influence which give us a grid system to then properly map both physical influences emotional influences to decode every point of pain that could possibly exist on any extremity at any time it's a science and it's scary like it never gets old oh yeah so I've had this so I have a Facebook group it's called the book-reading and reflexology online community also known as Brock and the group they'll post pictures like these are reflexologist and body workers from all over the world and they'll post pictures of clients and we'll talk about them like visually like what's present in the extremity and we'll assess and we'll swap notes and it's really fun and so this this one girl posts she's over in the UK I think she was from and she posts visits a woman that I've been working on for a really long time what do you see because I'm running into some of the inconsistencies and I think that her her body isn't doing as well as you know it could be and so her toes were totally gnarled and the nail of both big toes had overgrown and become opaque yeah like jaded and so I immediately I was like well that's Alzheimer's dementia dementia you know memory loss and a handbag which is like how did you know that I'm like because the toes in addition to representing the head and neck space which would physically be warped because the toes that worked also represents the screen of the minds and somebody's thoughts and opinions so lo the toes so go the mental space and so we go through that with every extremity every blemish on the face every swollen knuckle on the hands every weird bump that occurs in the ear every infection of the ear all significant and now you'll never look at your body the same way ever again you totally can it does not feel as good just just saying oh wow that wasn't happen on the other side so its first self treatment goes who totally had and it is doubt that I've deactivated a lot of papers that way but really I mean if you're feeling crappy then I would suggest like the body is screaming answer it may go get worked on instead of you know just doing stuff any other questions comments concerns yep go for it reaction right after you treat them or others some people that have kind of a delayed reaction that maybe a few days that is a great question so the other day I had a client come in she was scheduled to come in and stop morning she actually slipped and fell on her hip and came in like literally limping and I said this could go one of two ways either like you broke something and if this is going to be the worst hour of your life because the reflexology will try to repair it during the session and it will bring all of that pain to the surface and that's not pretty like I've worked on people who have recently broken things and the body tries to heal the brain the drive in the sector which can be very uncomfortable uncomfortable but I said if it's if it's muscular if it's muscular it's muscle and nerve base then well we'll turn off the pain right away because we'll distract the body and the body will release that pain pattern and she gets up and she's like the pain is better like I could barely palpable in and the pain is gone and she said her words was this makes me curious as this was like her second session ever so which we really didn't have that kind of rapport yet but then there are clients that I work on them and they feel the residual effects well after the work like weeks afterwards their body is still going through so and that's very much how I respond to the work like speaking from personal experience the suction flows through the body and really chews on different areas for in my opinion like about seven days after the session I'll tell clients you know if this is your prepare bless you if this is your first time coming in and you've never had this work before and you're not like coming in for an acute situation give it time to settle like even though you enjoyed it don't look with me tomorrow you know feel it like experience what the work is trying to do and then base your decision off that get it give it time to process well no you had mentioned one reason he would choose to answer with her feet well in my case as a reflexologist I know that if I was to grab her ear or her face or her feet does not matter no but if a client comes in and they're like I got plantar fasciitis I'm like I'm gonna work your face they're gonna they're gonna look at me funny maybe they aren't they just are because that's clients clients who aren't familiar with the modality they're not going to get that part so it's about okay you have men's pain let's work that out and knowing that everything is interconnected make sense so technically you could have done my feet and I would have got the same response I had one client who she's the realtor loved her to death she she's a talker you know those and so throughout the entire session she's just you have her in a way Javan her way along like therapeutically not like like she's she's been taking and so halfway through the session she's like huh I was like what what's going on just make my elbow hurts like what do you mean you're all over it's just like like it hurts like I'm moving it but it's not because of movement like it's just like like it's turned on like somebody flipped on the switch and she's like yeah like that's the work just like I don't want it like don't worry about it just breathe if it becomes uncomfortable we can always stop the session and give you a break guys you know let the let the work work on you and so we're proceeding through the section and then she's like hey I'm like what's happening now and she's like well they went for my elbow into my shoulder like okay that's good that means that the body is tracing the painting back to the origin of the nervous and and then afterwards she's like wow I really feel in my neck and so on and so forth like the pain literally started to make its way back and she got off and she's like yeah I don't have that shoulder pain that I didn't tell you about yeah okay and then like and I wasn't pressing different reflexes and I wasn't working on her shoulder pain the body just took it there because it's intelligent like that and if you know how to intelligently work with an intelligent system you know you're not trying to type code with a sledgehammer so we've got a lot of low back stuff on this side and that's because her her outside her pinky finger that whole area was red-hot when I touched it it's calmed down nicely but then also from a physical standpoint both middle fingers were very good just in the neck but that's why I don't like to give feedback in session because it's like I've only touched certain parts of the extremity so definitely next up on this side as well but both middle fingers on both hands were very very tight and congested indicating stomach liver upper digestive some so kind of like food inflammatory issues would be the best way to sitting so that's part of the equation during the training weekend's the way that it works is my students come in and we have we have two full days together 9:00 to 5:00 during that two full days you are both giving and receiving all four routines so you are getting two and a half hours worth of work every weekend minimum that's if they don't you know have a revolt and start working on each other of class but with that it's it's so nice to do case studies that way to be like I have this going on I have that going on I have this particular stress can we see it through the extremities I have this particular pain can be treated through the extremities it's so beautiful to actually have somebody that you know and somebody that you have a little bit of background with to like in a safe space round table it and to work with it live [Music] it wooden rail the technique get on like it still work on the extracting the only reasons why it won't work on the extremities if something's broken if something's open and losing or like the client doesn't want it so all of our clients come in and they'll say Sam everybody says to concede four foot work but I hate getting my feet we can choose another you have one session per extremity oh that's a good question so most of the time when cleanse come in to see me for first sessions I recommend just starting with the feet unless they have like a pain somewhere that they would like addressed the feet I'll do an hour hour and a half on the other extremities I'd normally like to pair in twos so somebody will come in for hands and feet or face in ears or ears and hands or a half hour on a single extremity but it's never awful but it's not like you need to cover all four oh yeah yeah so it's like if a client comes in and they're wondering which is best for me you know esthetician work she's just working on the face she doesn't need to learn feet if she's not touching feet if you don't want to work on feet you don't need to learn feet yeah oh okay well just let it let it die oh well if we could plug that in sometime cool and we're going I'm gonna die I'm gonna let it roll yeah let it roll yes so each weekend we are working hands face feet and ears within that weekend the way that the weekends are divided as we focus on the system so last weekend we did our reproductive system and this weekend we're doing the skeletal system so we're specifically looking at when somebody comes in with knee pain joint pain except for like what does that look like how do we work with that and you have a headache good stuff describe that bag let's have you kind of rotate and stand back up and we'll see yeah I thought that so I think you were talking about that shoulder I said well maybe don't so what happens when a client feels worse upon leaving than they did when they come back in right so that is damaging to credibility unless you know how do we educate our clients properly so in this example like doing a live example if this client were to say Sam you suck what did you do to me you broke me you know I would say hold your horses for two seconds in that exact Southern drawl way and I would say we also found congestion in the upper digestive system which means that the headache could have been brought on by a little bit of a detox response also pain tends to be intensified when we have tried to numb it so if they had taken anything for a particular pain or if they had recently gotten work done and the body hasn't adjusted properly or if they've been like massaging some kind of topical onto it as well that numbing effect would have been removed by the reflexology which is trying to open things up instead of shut things down so what we could have done is relax the tissues to the point where she actually feels where the issue is that's the headaches god yes so it's traveling okay so this is this is beautiful stuff so this means that the set again the section is continuing right so I hope even though you're done it's not done okay so that that's part of the discussion is normally when a client comes out and were like this this is when we would address this kind of stuff we would make sure water is very very important in fact I read definitely we're going to grab a bottle right now as possible and so but then also understanding like this is clearly where a lot of stuff is happening so addressing that first and foremost I would just do that same routine twice we we have one more somebody up with us how are we doing on time yes we are doing so good [Music] six of one half dozen I'm mobile like you we are going to resume with face which in my opinion is probably the most beautiful extremity to work on my when I started branching out from the feet into the hands like I was taught the hands but the face in the air curriculum is actually mine like I made it because there was no face in here reflexology accessible to me so I had to wing it and it just so happened that I was correct so the face work the more I did it and the more I practiced it the more like the response that you get from touching somebody's face is the most outpouring of compassion like it is truly beautiful work so I encourage you for those of you that have not taken some sort of face work class like let let this be your excuse to delve into this extremity because out of all of them like this is the one that really pulls on your heartstrings like all of my students they'll poopoo the feet don't like all the feet are difficult or yes I'm talking to you and the ones watching this video I know who you are and they're like oh the feet are too complicated or you know the hands are too easy or the feet or - or the ears were too weird but everybody loves the face it's just it's the thing so we're gonna we're going to be demoing face so I have my you're fine just fine as is so we're gonna start just like the other extremities with just a little bit of relaxation techniques so we're gonna pump the shoulders make sure the head is glued on straight and then just massage masseter temple and forehead to release the major areas of tension and that's it and then we'll go into our walk so super easy super simple questions um good question in terms of like removing jewelry if I'm going to be working the ears yes if not then no like I'll work around most stuff if they've got blemishes great question so it'd be the same thing like if a book was covered in warts or a hand was covered in warts any type of topical skin infection like his country indication for work yes we all know that from you know basic massage school so if somebody has a serious acne problem chances are they also feel really self-conscious about their face and so bringing attention to the extremity that they're already self-conscious about is inappropriate so I would immediately discourage somebody who has like that acne from getting faced reflexology not because it yeah I mean if they really wanted to that I would totally go for it and do the best that I could with the areas that were not you know breaking out but at the same time just making sure that we choose the extremity that's most appropriate for the person yeah right you wanted to work on it if that was ready exactly yeah I have really great work what's ties that's always fun when somebody comes in with like an immediate infection of like one at that eye lash follicles like I'll reduce that to nothing in two seconds that's fun no I think that's a little bit too deep yeah allergies is difficult because allergies again it's it's like the arthritis question you have allergies but where are the allergies coming from so when a client comes in and I'm like allergies allergies like allergies where where is it hitting you from that standpoint so we will work the extremity but a large portion of my work from from that standpoint is asking the body like where are you broken so is it coming from a deep-seated lung weakness is it a gut flora issue is it a true like sinus impingement is it a latent sinus infection is it due to the fact that they just don't want to go to work and their body is giving them the excuse not to go to work because the sinus attack see that one a lot so it's it's that type of question and then based on what we see on the feet we would then and not only work a little bit more on that area but also advise the client on like look this is where I think your allergies are coming from does that make sense to you and we would have that consultation yes beards and facial hair oh my um I will work right through that Bush I do not care it as far as as far as men go like normally men don't come in for bodywork treatments because they're men the men that I see are normally the wives the husbands of the wives that I see so as far as like men coming in with full facial hair if they're coming in to get facial reflexology most men will have the comments to shave I say most but then like bless his heart John thickest beard that I've ever seen and he'll be there on the table he's like I want you to work on my jaw like okay John we can do it together but that goes back to you know the contraindication aspects there's a lot of things that I will work on that will make normal massage therapists cringe and I'm okay with that I will boldly go where no reflexologist has gone before totally went there but at the same time there's there is that line when it's when we have to have the conversation in terms of this is inappropriate we should do something different and that line is clear one of my longest standing clients reflexology is her religion she comes in to see me every single week same time she is a blessing on this earth she had a traumatic brain injury and she loves the work absolutely loves it from that standpoint and besides besides like little cognitive things like we need to make sure that during this session she feels comfortable she feels safe she's not experiencing any kind of emotional release but at the same time like that we can communicate um and that she doesn't feel like you know there's a barrier at all it's it's all about appropriateness so I've worked on dementia Parkinson's love those clients absolutely I have some pretty strong feelings about those diseases but at the same time it's it's the idea of do they want the work is the work acceptable to them and are there any blatant issues why we should not do the work if not then I'm going in yes my hands feel different but I'm also feeling like pain sensations moving moving through my hands they're not staying in one spot it's like that's interesting because it was like him in the palm and then it went to the fingers and then just thought I'd share that with you yeah so we opened up the nerve root and now the body is starting to work out which is so cool but again I mean that's the that's the exact same session that I would do on anybody so it's not like I did anything different for her I didn't hold a series of points that's magic that you won't be able to replicate I asked the body to do what it does best which is fix itself imagine that yeah I have not had too much experience with stroke because I normally turn them away early stages post totally but if they're if they're still covered in red tape I won't touch them and that means being actively supervised by a physician for complications so 100% as long as they release her for body work I would be happy to work with her emotions for me are a necessary part of the work and I think that on some level if you're a body worker like you need to have versatility to be in that space with somebody to hold that and to be receptive to whatever comes up during a session but on the flip side like the goal isn't to make somebody fall every time that they're on your table right so that would also be inappropriate we want to make sure that what we're doing is helpful but sometimes the help is not physical so really just making sure that that's an active part of the conversation I during the certification program we talked about that at length like it is a required part of the curriculum for my students to be able to have those experiences neuropathy is another allergies situation it's like where's the neuropathy coming from is it an impingement is it a damage most of the times when somebody comes in with neuropathy it's a fluid strangulation and what I mean by fluid strangulation is their cardiovascular system is starting to fail and their their fluid is starting to back up in the feet and that fluid pressure is strangling the nerves causing them to scream and then go silent fibromyalgia is a widespread cry for help it's also the clients excuse to say no which is a which is a really like controversial statement for me to make but at the same time it is not psych it is not fully psychological let me let me rephrase that there is a definite physical imbalance that I see in fibromyalgia clients it often has to do with digestion it often has to do with hormones and it often has to do with sleep cycles however there there is the aspect where I've had enough clients that say ma like in the middle of a flare-up I need to come in for a session and we get to talking about the context of the flare-up and the context is always stress-related always 100% they try to blame it on the beef that they ate and they try to blame it on this and that but it I mean really when we get down to it it's like you know I'm seeing I'm seeing the joints react but not to the degree that you're experiencing that pain so we then take the exact same map and we start to look at the mental emotional component of things and start to say well if this was metaphorically oriented you know head and neck becomes thoughts and opinions chest and shoulders becomes feelings and emotions upper digestive becomes career and actions lower digestive becomes family and relationships lower body becomes sense of security and how they're moving forward so based on where your pain is and where the reflexes are showing discomfort what is your stressor yeah I did it's all in the book yes so the charts it's 34 to 24 1 24 1 so that would be 64 the set if you want it I have all of them yes and then the book is 15 for those of you that didn't get to hear that part interesting so describe to me again what what the pain pattern was okay so let's talk about that um in reflexology school I was taught that reflexology was press button fix issue I was taught that if somebody has a shoulder problem you find the shoulder reflex and you mash that sucker as hard as you possibly can until the shoulder pain goes away that was that was my training I had enough clients start to disprove that that I no longer teach that way so when my clients report sensation in a different area my default responses yes so Sam I'm feeling that in my lower digestive system are you on those reflexes yes I could be in the lungs I really don't care because Who am I to deny what they're feeling and where the body is taking the session and again I have no control over that so if the body wants to take all of the work that I'm doing and put it into the reproductive area then that's that's where the body has chosen to put it but it's not as simple as press lung reflex hit lung it's about press reflex stimulate balance and then feel for what is happening in that reflex area through your touch sometimes well let me let me tell you this so you were in the chest lung space in line with the second toe or third toe okay perfect excellent so from that standpoint you were on what would be the upper digestive and chest influence of the opposite side which would be liver she felt it in the stomach that lets me know that she has acid reflux issues her her body decided to take the impulse that was appropriate to the place that was appropriate and it just so happened to be related to her a part I jest of concerns yeah changing diet working on water so my hands now feel fabulous and the saga continues it was it was I mean from aching I mean because they went through a whole spa where like eight and it moved all around my hands to where now they just feel very light and no pain no remember that and also like on the note of pregnancy I have never induced a labor I have tried I have never used a labor and you are all good my good sir no Immaculate Conception no Immaculate Conception so what let's let's talk about that so the body cannot be harmed by somebody that does not wish it harm from from my from my like experience with reflexology so if you're not trying to do something the body knows what you're trying to do and will adjust accordingly and especially in the case of pregnancy it's this idea that if the baby's not ready and the body is not ready that it's not going to happen same thing with physical pain even if the body brings up a soreness or a sensation it's because it's appropriate it's because it's working it out it's because there's a reason for that but it's never been the case words like Sam you hurt me you know without the body being in control the whole time so you did three different extremities yes and did you do the same routine on and off three oh yes so I cleared all the zones okay yeah so I basically I went from zone to zone and and walked the various areas and that's all you did with me it's magic okay ears who wants to be ears there you go she was and it wasn't a good and it wasn't like oh I should feel this way so from from a physical reflex standpoint there are certain schools of reflexology that will emphasize pain is good I am NOT one of those schools and I love the opinion that all body work should be that way I know that there are bodies in this room that respond to that bone crushing pressure I am NOT the therapist to deliver so when a client comes in to see me I'm working with hypersensitive clients clients that have been hurt and we are working in a very different way the goal is not the sensation the goal is balance so it's not like you need to feel it for it to be work okay make sure I understand so lay down and here or there either one okay your job is just to totally relax okay yeah before you start yes I give you about a week nearly its past all of your bedtimes as far as the face goes the the one thing that I noticed is that the pelvic space isn't moving as much as it should so there seems to be a little bit of congestion around the hips but also like deep lymphatic pelvis and that's what's causing a lot of the head stuff is that the the craniosacral balance is off there's too much heaviness on one end and lightness on the other does that make sense so what I also noticed in his face after you do that you actually look younger because I can see like how he really relaxed heard that on a brochure right seriously who needs a Vampire Facelift when you got say oh my god so crazy yes these verses such as what I'm unfamiliar with okay gotcha all right rounds it depends on where it manifests so psoriatic arthritis rheumatoid arthritis any kind of arthritis I've had clients where it manifests in their right wrist and then sometimes it manifests it in their left ankle and then sometimes it's into their face their jaw so it just depends on like where it goes but at all so I just did a webinar last weekend on reflexology and throat reading for a head and neck pain and we talked about this about ditching the label of disease because one as massage therapists we should not be involved in medical diagnosis that is not our purview we also do not treat for medical diagnosis so like I'm not working on whatever arthritis you have I'm stimulating the body to balance and that's my job and that's where it ends so from from a physical standpoint what I would look for would be the same in you as anybody else which is is there heat is there cold is their fluid retention is there dryness is there callosum rigidity what are the extremities timing yeah so it's not like there's a series of points for the arthritis family that I would hit that would magically decrease her pain it would be a step ace which is really where the power is because I'm not treating you like a disease I'm treating you like a person which separates us from the medical field because compassion is not billable by insurance so that is going to be book number two which I'm working on right now the book number one is all about just the the assessment and location of the reflexes so the the protocol is basically like this is what this area represents these are some of the cases that I've seen and this is what it means from a physical and mental emotional aspect versus like when somebody comes in with an infection of fire in the low back this is how you would use methods of balancing and pointed work to either validate and validate and work with that client it's it's gonna be a it's gonna be one hell of a second book but that's that's part of the equation and what would you steer different methods of balancing that would be focused in that direction so sometimes it's seeking out professional help I did a foot reading report for a gentleman and Ireland's the other day and in my methods of balancing like recommendations I said you know now would be the time to seek out a counsellor of some kind because it seems like you're going through a lot so that that type of work can sometimes be necessary and sometimes it's just about like let's have you Journal let's do you meditate you know like step one like do you close your eyes and listen to what's there um as far as accountability like if they wanted an accountability partner that's not my job my job is to identify to give feedback and then to let them do the work so that's that's kind of where I draw the line and that way the client isn't looking at me towards like the source of their issue instead it's like either you did it or you didn't and you'll know whether you did it or you didn't because you'll either feel better or you won't I do have music it's it's very like techno not like techno like techno but like techno not not house music know what I'm what I'm trying to say is like it's it's technologically altered nature sounds so it's not like there's a bird chirping in the distance it's like synthesizer yes it's like genetically modified relaxation music yes 100% I kind of like that so it's it's basically it's just present enough for you to realize oh there's soothing music but then it's just monotonous enough for you to be like there's no more music versus somebody playing the piano or like waves crashing or like whale sounds which always freaks me out I'm like where the whale girl from mine is more expensive because you're spending more time with me so it's a twenty-one hundred dollar price tag which we divided up into 175 each month but you're learning a craft as opposed to taking their class yeah so it just depends like do you want the introduction from the originators of the modality do you want to take that and see if you like it or do you want to be with a group of people that are committed for a year to study something talked about it and also go deeper to the mental emotional aspect and explore the other extremities you know correct right it's oweme oweme all the time no problem thank you for asking such a beautiful question what else are you feeling feeling good good good awesome awesome she loves it um so in terms of like extremity preference that's a big one so if somebody says I just I love it when my face is touched or like the way she responded with her ears or some people I like that about feet like in a non-creepy way and so it's it's this idea that the body is saying please touch me here you know so we always want to listen to that to say you know would it feel better if we chose another extremity because your body is more physically receptive in that space yeah so like on me I my hands were screaming to be honest but they really were I mean it was amazing good good we'll see how it lasts okay it's recording it's okay well it will all be present on the Internet in some way shape or form what that shape or form will look like is to be seen but um if you guys are interested in reflexology again the best way to interact with me is through the YouTube channel which has all of the techniques which you can get for free and start playing and then the second best way to interact with me is on Facebook I have the group which you can literally like scroll through and have hours of material of like looking at feet we do the videos on YouTube are linked to the activity in the Facebook group so I'll literally have people send me foot photos in the group and I'm like this is a really great case study let's turn this into a case study and so we turn it into a case study and we throw it up on YouTube but that's all going on in the private group that nobody else can see so if you join that group then you know that's where I post a lot of stuff yeah mm-hm so it's a group that's linked to the foot whisperer reflexology Institute yes it should be mm-hmm and then I'll be teaching a foot class just a flipped class at court Eva in st. Pete end of April yeah Cort Eva I love them such a beautiful space to teach you something new mm-hmm yeah love love their new space they're also going to be adding in aesthetics so excited about them it's I believe the last weekend of April 4th weekend only whole weekend you can take one day if you wanted and then the week-long class and in October and then I'm doing I think in another class in October for Court Eva but that's foot reading like just foot reading and I'll probably post a lot more next year since it's a renewal year I'll probably be at convention next year because it's a renewal year and all of that stuff that will be 1414 hands-on so totally satisfies your 12 hands-on needed for renewal plus two extra yes exactly okay so let me let me just give you a little bit of tidbit as far as because you can't really see it so what just happened was I'm in her low back reflexes on the left side and I hit this point and the body is like yay and it literally just sucked me in to the spot which I'm now holding because the body said so and that's what a session consists of is me going through the reflexes using the alternating pressure finding the points and holding them until the body says okay you're free to go right now it's more of a squeeze just because the ears a little bit awkward that way so my index finger is underneath providing the pressure and then my thumb is back boarding it for leverage yeah same thing with all the extremities so we would pay attention to that and that's what I mean by contraindication like it's not bad but you wouldn't want somebody to sit through an hour where they were just terribly uncomfortable yes unless it is a form of torture not necessarily there we try to stick on the extremities it's like you might have seen me do a little bit of calf massage with the foot but it's not like I'm into the calf right so we're doing the relaxation techniques we're getting things warmed up but that's not the focus of the work okay you did this right exactly the shoulder is to rely on for the face you're not necessarily doing neck because that's all in right [Music] awesome okay we'll wrap up with this one and then we'll be what I'm noticing is that there's a lot of lower body and pinch Minh lower body and pinch Minh so this idea that the upper body is compromised by the lower so we want to have those discussions and there are multiple markers that I'm seeing to confirm that so we we just want to have that discussion like you know did you feel a difference during the session you know but then if you didn't feel a difference here's maybe why and can you work with stretches can you work with a structural therapist can you work with somebody else to align the foundation before we try to fix the roof again does that make sense Yeah right mm-hmm yes exotic to you yeah said one of the things you mentioned with reflexology as it works with the nerves yes a lot of nerve issues going on especially in my hands I'm trying to ask here releasing the nerves to be able to feel is the best way to describe it is like when your hard drive has too much information on it and you need to defrag it to make space like you ask the computer to get rid of all extraneous things that are no longer serving the hire process that is what I'm doing does that make sense yes so it's like I'm asking the body mm-hmm I'm telling the body like hey again do you remember that state when nothing hurt like let's try to get back to that if possible and the body starts to okay and rubik's cube itself around to try to figure out like how can we get back to that space can we get back to that space and all of the lighting up and the twitching and the gurgling that's all the body trying to figure out is there tension here is there tension here is there attention here and move that out of the way so that wellness can pervade yeah our initial state our natural state is wellness yeah so that's that's what we want to bring it back to hello my dear how you feelin wow that was amazing the sensations I could feel I was real surprised I could feel it my so as and then my quads started jumping and again lower body especially my left leg which I have a lot of trouble with and that was jumping a lot but I was real surprised you got some popping in my ears which is really I usually only get that when I get sick lisanna did I get that release and you had it pop like five times like fireworks I was like wow this is like the to me that says this inflammation and it stopped coming down I don't know if that's right but yeah intuitively that's what I thank you that was awesome okay awesome so that was that yes for time uh so that's it I'll stick around if you would like more info stuff and questions but I'll let you guys wrap up with the meeting and again check further the the video of all this when we post it you