Martyn Lewis Interviews Tracey Smith

Tracy Smith what is reflexology reflexology is complementary medicine that works through the feet hands face and ears and it's thought to work by there being some sort of connection from those areas through to them all the organs and systems of the body it's hypothesized that it helps the body rebalance and start to help its level of well-being by the body's own healing reactions and generally do people find that it works for them generally people find that it works on an individual basis so some individuals will find it exceptional someone will find it good and very occasionally there will be no reaction at all because it works at an individual level and what is the association of reflexologist what was it formed to try to achieve the association of reflexologist was formed in 1984 and it was set up with the idea of having a level of standards of training and codes of practice so that the public could feel comfortable and safe in finding a reflexologist these days there is now a voluntary regulation around and so we are as the association of reflexologist now included within the voluntary regulation system under the complementary and natural Health Care Council but it back in 1984 there was no voluntary regulation at all and voluntary regulation is purely there to protect the public so now we are part of voluntary regulation it's perhaps the public's protection role is slightly different but that's what it was originally set out for what makes a good reflexologist a good reflexologist comes from a very sound background of training with both anatomy and physiology some pathology good reflexology training and also an awareness of of practice and ethics also there is the ability to be registered and therefore safe on the regulation area level and of course there is the need for passion you really have to believe in your therapy to be a really good therapist what might reflexology be good at thought treating reflexology might be good for treating a whole range of issues both chronic and acute however it definitely works on an individual basis and individuals should try it for himself to see if it's going to work for their particular problem issue or concern it works very much on a mind body and spirit level so it's not necessarily just the physical aspect of an illness or problem that may be helped with reflexology but it might be more the emotional side as well give me some idea of the range of illnesses or conditions that might be helped by reflexology anecdotally there is everything from fertility issues through pain through helping people get through cancer all sorts of things may be helped but very much on an individual basis however there is some research coming out of the cancer fields now to show that it is a very good integrative complementary therapy and works extremely well alongside the allopathic treatment of cancer so research starting to come through but is there enough research what what is the evidence that reflexology works there's a very small evidence base with reflexology unfortunately in part that's due to difficulties in funding across the board with complimentary medicine if you don't have research in the first place you can't get funded because funding comes on a bedrock of research and without the bedrock of research no funding so there is a very there are very few research projects in the area of reflexology but those that there are there's a very mixed bag so some is positive some are some are negative the key to research would be to do some really good collaborative research which covers the whole of the subject not just the clinical or scientific aspect which often research projects do but that would actually have some therapy content involved with it as well and we at the association of reflexologists are very keen to support any research projects that are ongoing with advice and therapy content if they would like to come to us is the demand for reflexology growing the demand for reflexology is growing dramatically it's now one of the top five therapies in terms of use within this country and there are some 35,000 reflexologists out there or an estimated 35,000 reflexologists it's the case of the public making the choice for themselves even though there's a very small evidence base that a reflexology actually works the public are deciding for themselves and choosing with their feet to find reflexologists