🎶 Live with Catriona & Ollie Plunkett! 👣✨

Give it a second. All right. Well, welcome, welcome, welcome everyone to our I believe um fourth or fifth Facebook live uh event for this year as we lead up to uh Rack 2026 International Reflexology Conference in May. I am so delighted to be joined with Katrina and Olly Plunkett from Golden Egg Holistic all the way across the pond in Ireland who will be coming uh live and in person to Winnipeg in May to teach us all about sound reflexology. Thank you so much Katrina and Olly for joining with me today. >> Thank you. >> Hi Laura. >> So wanted to give everyone a bit of an introduction in your own words. What is sound reflexology? >> Okay, so I think I'll let Ollie and we're probably most people watching are aware of of reflexology and what reflexology is, but maybe not sound. So let Ollie start there. >> Okay. So um so like uh reflexology, sound um therapy is a complimentary modality. Um so it operates on the basis that uh everything in the human body uh vibrates at a frequency. So all of the trillions of cells in our human body vibrate at a frequency. All of our organs vibrate at a frequency and everything out in nature that surrounds us uh vibrates at a frequency. But sometimes um our organs in our body or our cells don't vibrate at their optimum frequency. And so how sound therapy works, we bring in an external frequency by using Tibetan bowls or by using tuna forks and the cells in the human body then it's called entrainment where they kind of copy the vibrational frequency of the external source and get back into their optimal or their original frequency that we're at. So the experience that people would have when they experience that is a sense of reconnecting back into themselves uh and feeling more at ease or at one. Um but I suppose the positive outcome from people that receive the treatment is that um which I think we see most is that it brings about self healing for the individual. So the body begins to when it gets into that more balanced state begins to heal itself. And so people that might be anxious or that might be suffering from stress or have multiple other ailments um that kind of healing um happens. The other piece that where it works really well I think if you look at the body being made up of a lot of different systems your nervous system and digestive system and lymphatic system all the different systems I think how sound works really well. that helps those systems to integrate better with each other when they've gone a little bit out of scheme with each other. I think that the vibration helps them to get back into um into harmony with each other. So that's really the effect of it. >> And is there an optimal frequency for the body to be at? Is it like you know um the Above B C if you're thinking music is you know vibrates at 440 hertz. Is there an optimal um vibration that >> Yeah. No, I suppose that in terms of often times when we're done with sound, we talk about tuning the body. >> Okay. >> And I I'm also a musician. So when I think about sound, I kind of think of sometimes when people come in that are not healthy, that are out of tune. >> Oh. >> From a musical perspective. So if you think of it from an orchestra, if you went to see an orchestra and someone in the orchestra was playing out the tune, I like see the human body as if there's an organ or a cell that's not vibrating at its correct frequency is kind of out of tune or out of sync with the other organs. But getting back to your point, um again, when we look at the chakra points, we kind of work when we're healing the body from the root chakra kind of up along and the root chakra will be the key of C. So you have C D E F G and up to A. So um um so in a way you're kind of tuning the body through that scale. >> Okay. Um but but but again the different organs and different cells there's no exact frequency for the body even though we have frequencies like 432 which again is the frequency that when people uh kind of resonate with they find the harmony with it and that's a frequency that's out of nature that people kind of can feel an infinity with. >> And how did you get into sound therapy? Now I know Katrina you're a reflexology therapist. Ollie, I believe you're the sound therapist. Is do I have that correct? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> How did you get into sound therapy? >> Okay. So, um I suppose I I have been playing music with lots of different bands and writing and playing music, but then um uh we actually built a recording studio because we're recording in different studios and we decided that it would be good to build our own studio. But in the process of building the studio, I began to learn how sound behaved, you know, internally in the building. So there was lots of different things that we had to have in the studio like reflective surfaces and absorbent surfaces and diffusion surfaces. >> Um, so through that kind of process, I began to think, well, if if the sound operates in that way in the studio, it's also has that kind of impact on the human body. So I start to kind of get more I suppose interested in it and um and then start studying it in more detail. >> And how did you connect with reflexology Katrina? Was it you who started to tinker or like start integrating sound into your reflexology? >> Yeah, I suppose it was something we just we we developed over time. Um you know because you're always working with different but um reflexology is changing all the time, isn't it? And >> yeah, >> there's so many different types of reflex algae and there's like people use different tools and it just seems like a natural progression. You know, both of us were interested in only that's your his favorite therapy would be outside of sound would be reflexology and mine outside of reflexology would be sound. So, um yeah, I just went about combining the two really and they just combine really beautifully and you can use different instruments. There's a lot of different combinations that you can use with the um tum and forks, different frequencies and with the bowls. Um it can you can it could be a standalone treatment or um you can just integrate it into your own treatment um as the opportunity arises or as you feel like a reflex needs um more energy kind of more I describe it as infusing the reflexes with sound and it just has really you have to you have to experience it I think to understand it because it just >> um it it feels completely different doesn't it than your your reflexology treatment. Um, >> so yeah, it's just a lovely combination of therapies. >> The other way to understand sound can be throw a little pebble into a pond. >> Okay. >> And you know all those concentric waves that go out from the middle. So likewise because our body is made up of 70% water. But when you're putting in the vibration in that vibration travels around the body so it finds it way where it needs to go. And I think going back to Katrina's point, we you know work on the hand where the meridian points in the hand but also the feet. So sometimes when we do if the reflexology isn't getting there near the end, a little bit of sound vibration can can add to that and and bring the results that you're trying to achieve. Yeah. >> Now, many other cultures around the world use sound as part of their their healing, as part of their their medical um uh I don't want to say system, but experience. Um I'm just thinking of like in India or Southeast Asia where this um from my understanding sound is actually quite common in terms of getting um someone well or if someone is sick using sound as part to help them get better. Have you taken any inspiration from other cultures bring in terms of developing your sound reflexology? >> Yeah, I suppose in research uh for um most most other kind of civilizations around the world at some stage to use sound. So if you look at the Aboriginal people in Australia, they would have used the theaki or dig digu and again the frequency that would come from that would you know was known to bring about um healing. Um again in ancient Egypt they had um an instrument which people didn't realize what it was but it was a sister which was a little kind of a metal thing that had a series of little pieces of metal that hung from it and when that was shaken it gave off a range of frequencies that is similar to our current ultrasound. Um so going back to Egyptian times they knew that the effect that sound vibration had and also they accept now that some of the temples they used to infuse sound into vibration to some of the temples and their understanding was when the person was leaving this world that they were going to go to the next world with this like you know with this beautiful vibration that was going to bring them on that journey. Um and again in our tradition in Ireland we have we were kind of have a Celtic tradition. Um but again we would have uh traditionally have a lot of our celebration and our healing would be would be centered around sound and again I suppose with the native American people again you know where they would have kind of either maybe through dance or through sound again would use that to bring about healing as well. So I think there's very few cultures in the world that >> that haven't embraced it. But some people maybe nowadays it's getting more popular. to think it's just some new phenomenon, but it has been around a long long time. >> As my mother would say, there's never there's nothing new under the sun. It seems like it just always comes back. >> So, you're coming to our conference in May and you're going to be speaking during the weekend for 90 minutes um on introduction to sound reflexology. For those people who are interested in going to your seminar, could you give us a little bit of a taste of what you'll be uh discussing and teaching during that seminar? I suppose we want for anybody who hasn't used sound with reflexology before is to introduce them to combining the two modalities and the this two therapies and to demonstrate how they can use it and um so they can learn some techniques as well. Um, yeah, it's it's it's completely new for a lot of people. We we've had a lot of students that maybe would use u their sound therapists and their reflexologists, but they've never combined the two before. >> Um, so yeah, just to give people a taste of what they can do with sound in their reflexology treatment. >> So, we're really looking forward to it. >> Excellent. And then afterwards, you're going to be doing a one-day more comprehensive workshop on sound reflexology. And for those who are interested in that, um, what will they come away with from from your postconference workshop? Well, I think they'll experience a sound reflexology treatment >> like a full. >> So, we we'll bring them Yeah, we'll bring them through the different stages and where you might place um either the bowls on the body or use these chilling forks on the body. And I think the best way to for people to understand is to experience it. So, when people experience them through the workshop, then from all of the workshops we've done today, there's always a kind of eureka moment where people kind of think this is fantastic. this is something that I want to to continue to do because they get the experience of it themselves. Um, so I suppose that's what we'll be trying to do and again we'll be answering if people have any questions around the origins sound or sometimes people will ask where can I get the equipment or what's the best equipment to get or can I use it in these types of circumstances or whatever. So we'll be answering all of those questions. Yeah. >> And why um bowls versus tuning forks or both? What why are those instruments to help generate the the vibrations? >> Okay, so when we do sound therapy, in the most part we use uh Tibetan bowls, which if you can see here, this is the one here at the moment. So um sometimes when people um purchase bowls when they come to a sound therapy training, they've already purchased some bowls, but they've got them from some place that sells maybe instruments that you might that could be nice for your house. They might get bowls that are not really therapeutic bowls. They're just uh sound bowls, but but they're not really they haven't got the frequency in them that that's effective. So, the really good bowls, the therapeutic bowls, they give off overtones. So, you get the initial tone and another tone and another tone and another tone. And it's the combination of a sequence of of overtones that provide a range of frequencies that will help you know find a frequency within the human body that can match with that. So that that's where works really well. So so the bowls uh in sound therapy are placed on the different chakra points but in relation to uh sound reflexology uh we use them on specific points in the body on the feet and on the hands and we use the tuning forks and the bubble. The tuning forks are probably easier to you know to carry around. uh they don't give out as big overtones as the >> bowl >> the Tibetan bowl but they're still effective and if you can see at the end of the tuna for here when you place it on a particular kind of part of the body to resonate or vibrate in that part and you can feel underneath it on the organ around that part of the body you can feel the vibration. >> Uh the junior that we bring with us and that we specify is uh is a key of 12 to8 which is kind of the lower kind of C. So the reason why we picked that cuz it has a stronger vibration. If you get a higher frequency the vibration isn't felt on the body as significant whereas this one you can feel the vibration more. Um so that's why we went with the one to8 as opposed to but you can use a range of frequencies for different parts of the body. So if you were going for more the upper part of the body it might r you might use higher frequencies because again they would be more for kind of chilling um you know different parts of the body the heart or the throat chakra or the crown chakra whatever >> and does it work similar in terms of like lower frequencies lower part of the body higher frequencies higher does okay >> absolutely so so in a way the best way to understand that is that if you hear a big bass sound >> Mhm. It's normally a big wave that's coming towards you. So, it's a sound wave. And if it's a big bass sound, there's only probably one big wave and another big wave. That means it's a lower frequency because there's only be like if you say a frequency of 128, that means there's one to eight big waves coming at you per second. >> Okay? >> But if you think something that is um you know 3,000 of a frequency, that means there's 3,000 little waves coming at you and they're normally very high pitched. So the bigger wave coming at you, you'll feel it. So if you go into a a nightclub and there's someone kind of playing, you know, music and it has a bass frequency, you'll feel it in your knees, you'll feel that movement. But if you hear something that's very high, you won't hear it necessarily either the lower part of your body, you'll hear it in your ears in the higher higher part. >> So yeah, so >> all the dancing we did in our youth, um good good vibrations for our body, >> good vibrations. Um, another part of our conference is talking about the integration of reflexology into the larger healthc care um, field, larger healthcare system. Music therapy has already I I don't know how it is in Ireland, but here in North America, music therapy has become quite common um, for a bunch of different ailments and, you know, helping kids, you know, learn how to speak or express themselves. um helping uh the elderly with movement um with dementia, with um you know also with rehabilitation after strokes, things like that. We've got music therapists. Do you see in your opinion um like sound reflexology fitting into the same sphere as music um therapy or does it work alongside it? I guess kind of put it into context and how this could be integrated into like the larger health care system. >> Okay. So, so maybe it's slightly different in Ireland we have sound therapy but then we have music therapy. >> Okay. Yeah. >> In Ireland, in Ireland, uh music therapy is slightly different to sound therapy. So, music therapy uh is is where we would use the medium of sound to help people to uh maybe resolve underlying issues that they've had. Um so um it's like psychotherapy which you're using like either you know a medium to allow a person to address those issues. Sound therapy is different. Sound therapy is just a healing modality that we place the bowls on the body and it brings about healing. Whereas the music therapy in our country in terms of how it's uh how it progresses in our country uh it's a 4year college program. >> Okay. where people get trained uh to work with people that um I suppose have a difficulty in expressing unresolved issues and then through the abstract medium of sound they can kind of work in there. So it's like uh using paint or using drawing or using any of those mediums they can go in and help people to work with resolve issues. But we do use sound therapy with in dementia units. We use sound therapy post stroke. So the sound therapy element is used in our hospitals uh you know uh in a wide variety of settings to bring about um healing. >> Yeah. And it's certainly becoming more um more widely used, isn't it? Yeah. And >> yeah, so we will we have consultants in Ireland. I presume you might have similar um that maybe in the past would have looked at kind of you know healing modalities. uh they may not have had the same respect for them um you know in the past but I think that's changing and uh I think the good thing is that people that are now delivering those uh different modalities are probably better at explaining what it is they are what it is they do whereas sometimes I think maybe the challenges be that people maybe weren't providing the right information to people that more have a science background so if you look at a consultant that spent >> you know 10 or 12 years training and then you're coming in with STEM therapy and you're telling them is going to bring these amazing results. They're thinking why did I spend 12 years in college, you know, learning about my particular area when you're going to come in with this uh modality that's going to bring around these very effective outcomes, you know, >> but it's it's very much a complimentary therapy that works hand in hand. It's not it's not an alternative. Yeah. It's not um it's not a this or that. Um it's it's very much complimentary just like reflexology. No, I think that wording is really important to the working alongside Ali. You mentioned like people who have the more scientific background. Um, you know, one of the things we're always trying to encourage is conversations with more, you know, traditionally trained um, health care professionals to see no one's trying to replace you. We want to work alongside you. things like sound therapy, reflexology can um support your client, support people's healing um healing journeys. So >> yeah, and and nowadays you get a lot of referrals coming from from hospitals or from maternity units or from consultants. So some consultants, you know, um are beginning to refer to these type of therapies now. They understand the benefits of them. And I think that's important for everyone to kind of people listening to kind of have in the back of their mind oftentimes uh when you're doing additional training or getting additional you know protocols. It's you get them but then you don't know necessarily where to find clients or you don't know um how who this is best used for. And just getting people to think that, you know, if sound therapy is becoming more used in certain um centers um like you mentioned with dementia um or PE with the elderly, those could be potential places to go and explain how this could benefit um those client groups if that makes sense. Uh >> last guess question for uh or start wrap up. If someone was just is interested starting to get interested in sound reflexology, sound therapy, not quite sure where to start, where would you recommend they might go um or to start getting information, start learning. >> I suppose we we only teach uh sound reflexology to qualified uh reflexology practitioners. Um so it's not something we would teach as a standalone um >> okay >> uh modality. So it's it's a postgraduate for reflexology um therapists um because you'd have to understand where the reflexes are and >> you know yeah it's so um yeah it's very much a um a postgraduate for for reflexologists. So, if a reflexologist, reflexology therapist um was interested in kind of maybe starting to learn a little bit more about uh sound and integrating it in with reflexology. Do you have a recommendation or a sort of like where would someone start or where what would someone Google? >> I suppose there's there's lots of books out there on on sound therapy and um so any particular books you would recommend. There's a good book that's um by God rest him. He's now deceased Mitchell Gainor. He's a consultant. Um he was a an oncology consultant in the Mayo Clinic. >> Okay. >> And um so he had a kind of a fascination. He he actually went on a visit to India or Nepal at some stage and he saw how sound was being used quite frequently in that part of the world and and he had a fascination for maybe informing himself and getting a bit more educated around it and see could it could he bring something back and and integrate it into his own uh practice. Uh so he he he wrote a very kind of enlightening book around uh with his cancer patients, how he used sound and how he started kind of in a minimal way but then kind of progressed to use it more substantially as part of the the treatment. Um, so I suppose in one sense that can be useful for someone that comes from a clinical background because I think sometimes people that come from a clinical background nearly want a clinician or a person with a clinical background to explain >> Mhm. >> that they have seen it, they've experienced it and then they can kind of take it on board that way. There's lots of other um you know consultants you know from clinical background Oliver Saxon there's a lot of information out there at the moment around the benefits of it and you know to explain it um so maybe um maybe just do a little bit of kind of research on it and and you can find information um at the moment as well with sound I think really most countries in the world or most areas I'm sure have kind of sound therapy >> uh training I think that's going on. So it might kind of differ slightly from some kind of you know countries to the other but in in the general sense I think it's all about using vibration to bring about healing. So >> and a lovely um introduction to sound I think sound therapy is to to go to a sound meditation or sound bath class. That's a lovely way to experience um sound. Um, so we'd often recommend that to, you know, if students were looking to train as sound therapists but, you know, weren't really aware of how sound works, we would definitely recommend, you know, either to have a sound therapy treatment, you know, one-on-one, placing goals on the body or to go to a sound meditation or sound bath as it's often known as, and just experience sound um, you know, yourself. And and then I suppose the reflexology is just that um kind of more um specific. You're really infusing the reflexology, radian points, marble points um on the hands, the feet um with sound. So there's different ways to experience sound, isn't there? You know, I suppose sound meditation a class would be um a more generic introduction and then your sound therapy and your sound like sound are more specific. Yeah. Sometimes people as well when they start sound therapy training they get confused between music and sound. They kind of think okay I listen to music and it has this effect on me you know whereas with sound it's more putting a vibration in the body rather than an emotional response to music that you're hearing. So a lot of the emotional response is through melody where you're hearing a melody and you're kind of carried away. You're carried off with that melody which is which you find pleasing. Whereas in sound therapy, it's not a melody. It's just a tone and a series of tones that are emanating from that tone. So, um, so sometimes people, you know, might be aware of that. They might be coming in thinking the sound therapist is going to play some lovely CDs or some classical music. The classical music and all that can be played as part of a sound bat or, you know, which is kind of different. The sound can bring about relaxation. Um um but it might necessarily be it wouldn't be the same as the sound therapy where you place the bolts on the body and bring in a more specific vibration. >> Well, is there anything else you'd like to let people know who may be on the fence to come and hear you guys speak or anything you like to, you know, what are you most looking forward to um when you come to Canada later this year? >> We're just looking forward to everything. We we haven't been to Canada before, so we're so excited. And um I suppose if people are interested, they're not sure if they want to attend the course, the one day course that we're doing after the conference to come along to the seminar and just get an introduction and see um you know, see and hear about um sound reflex and maybe experience it and uh yeah, just to enjoy it. We're really excited. Yeah. The one thing I always say is that when people experience it, it always brings about this kind of change for them and they always want to get more. >> Often times when we're doing the sound reflexology, you can just see the people's faces kind of, you know, lighting up because they've got the experience of it. So, I'd say give it a go. >> Oh, well, thank you guys both so much for sharing your your knowledge and your clear your passion for sound and integrating it with reflexology. We're so excited to welcome you to Canada for the first time um in May. If anyone who's listening is interested, uh Katrina and Olly will be here. They'll be doing seminar number three, introduction to sound reflexology on Saturday, May 23rd. And then this will be followed by a one-day workshop um to get the full protocol, full uh understanding of sound reflexology on Monday, May 20 uh 5th um here in Winnipeg as well. So, thank you guys um so much and we'll see you later. >> Thanks, Dora. See you soon. >> Bye. >> Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.