Point Work in Reflexology - Live Talk

okay so the ideas that we wanted to talk about this morning also wanted to talk about different extremities okay so yesterday we did the ear demo and one of the things that again you you saw while we were moving things through the ear was that you know the idea that we chose the ears just because as to it's accessible it's easy but also because it's an undervalued extremity a lot of people don't go to the ears like a lot of reflexologist will go to the feet first and foremost they won't choose the ears because ears are not taught and a lot of traditions but when we're looking at the four major extremities we know as reflexologists even if somebody's coming in with plantar fasciitis like we can address that through the face we can address that through the hands it doesn't need to be extremity specific for a particular issue but there is that dynamic of if somebody is coming in with plantar fasciitis and they're expecting to get their feet work done you always want to work with them the client expectation but like we were dealing with low back stuff we were dealing with nice stuff we were dealing with trauma like all of them they like genuine trauma all of the things that it's are very appropriate for reflexology to work with it's just you know it might be fun to switch it up especially if you're hitting a wall with a client to choose another extremity but the point work aspect is really where reflexology shines so after you master a basic routine so you go to school for reflexology for massage I mean that the whole process or even like any job you master the daily tasks you master the processes that you need to do to get the job done which for us is going to be the the routine that I'm teaching you so we start with the relaxation techniques we go spine toes dorsal aspect ball digest to back to toes around the ankle you know and finished with relaxation techniques like that's our canned routine but the routine is not the work the routine is just to get you from point A to point B it's to get you to not leave anything out but to feel every area like the analogy is you're going to the zoo I want you to see every exhibit because you never know when the Lions are like dancing on their heads or something like that you just don't know what's going to happen at the zoo that day and clients are definitely a zoo within themselves so we want to make sure that we're not getting locked into a box of like the reflexology books will tell you somebody has a headache press X Y Z if you follow that approach that's going to eliminate certain areas that you might not expect which may be totally involved like yesterday we were working with you know what the direct issue was me which when we think of areas of emphasis we would all we would work all joints in that area of emphasis but maybe a practitioner who doesn't know that that theory of areas of emphasis they might just be jamming on that knee reflex maybe into the lower back reflexes there may be some referral sensation because there they would be hitting vertical zone one which would be the influence of the neck but if we were to clear out every zone we would have found and felt anyway actually which weren't was feeling on the table with with her yesterday you would notice you said the toes feel stiff they feel rigid they feel restricted and so that that was an echo of what we found actually the body was was demonstrating pain in an area that wasn't the true source of the tension so that's where pointe work comes along is we're using the routine to make sure that we're staying on like staying focused on covering the entire extremity but then as we're visiting the various exhibits as we're visiting the various reflexes we then realize that there's a fire that we need to put out or we realize that something isn't happening in that area like the manatees are sleeping we don't need to stay here for three hours in order to you know have a good time so somebody comes in and they complain of XYZ issue but throughout the course of the routine you visit X Y Z reflux and nothing's happening there what do you do you know if you're not properly trained as a reflexologist you might freak out and be like well I'm not seeing anything this is the end of my career like I'm a terrible practitioner and that's not the case the body is always going to direct you to exactly where you need to be because it's infinitely intelligent and then when you get there you implement the point work because the point work is you communicating with what the body is telling you to deactivate the stressors right so we found weakness on one side of the lower back tension on the other side of the lower back classic compensation pattern but then when we got to the neck area there was so much congestion so my version of pointe work was literally pulling out that congestion but then on the opposite side I stayed in that one zone for a good ten minutes because that's what was needed like the points weren't releasing and that's where the body told me that I needed to be so we did the appoint work but you know 35 percent of the session was in that one area you know of the five zones on either side of the 100% of a session we spent a third of it in one zone you know because that's what the body dictated to us you know during the session and that's that's where the point work starts to come in so there hey hon come on in make yourself at home free pre reflexology conversation so let's talk about the the various aspects of point work so when you find a reflexology point which is the real the real staple of the practice in my opinion so the routine is like level one so you're learning the routine you're getting things down once you start to not focus on what your with your hands every two seconds you start to feel and once you start to feel you start to notice that certain textures are different from others right but then what do you do with those points so let's kind of walk through the technique of what though what that procedure looks like so there are three major aspects that I want you to to focus on okay so first when you when you find a point when you find an active reflex point that that varies in sensation from person to person some people describe it as like a static like an electrical feeling some people refer to it as like a magnetic like I I know during a session when I walk over a certain point like my thumb does not want to leave that place like there's a pole in that area sometimes it can be some of the elemental science that we've we've talked about it could be excess heat it could be weakness it could be just a gut feeling of like ooh that's not right like we need to stay here for two seconds because this is raising a red flag in my mind as you know you as the practitioner we're trying to kind of work with it's it's very much I you know even if you're not a practiced or like your mom senses are tingling like you just you just know when something's not supposed to be there you know when something's out of place so the first thing that you want to do is engage the point and that means you're going to stop and you are going to apply an even amount of pressure when I say even that's gonna be the 3 to 4 out of 10 in pressure on the lighter side of the spectrum but not light enough as to not engage the nervous system so you're really going to be applying that evenness to the place hold it with a certain amount of pressure to start the conversation that's the goal is the body told you that something was going on here and so it's your job to stay there and figure out what's going on so the engagement aspect is you consciously being aware of what you feel stopping and engaging the point to start that conversation in that dialogue and then the next step is going to be the listen so after you apply that pressure what is the reaction that the body gives you so there are a couple different things that could happen here okay so the first the first response will be the tissue will guard against you okay so it will often lift up against your pressure and create a defensive wall of Basha basically against the point against your pressure exactly as if it was trying to say please don't touch that um and and that's okay that's a good thing hey make yourself at home so the the guarding response is okay but that does mean that either you you need to back off or that the point was not appropriate so even though the body was doing some construction work in that area the reflex itself may be valid but the problem is that when upon addressing the actual point the body is having second thoughts and being like whoa that's a little bit too sensitive for me so your response is either to back off or to to kind of stay there and see if the body calms down a second if it doesn't then then you move on number two is going to be the body actually releasing so after you engage the body will let go and it will discharge that tension this will often feel like the body is welcoming you in like it will separate the ocean of tissue and allow you to actually fall deeper into the point that you're working on and this is a very beneficial this is a very beneficial action because it means that the body is kind of pulling you deeper and allowing you to actually access a point maybe from a different angle or getting out of kind of its own way to let your pressure do the work that it's supposed to that the body was basically asking for you know but then very interesting is the the third response would be the body actually doing nothing so you engage the point but nothing really happens like the body is not guarding against you it's not letting you in it's just kind of sitting there and that's okay too but after about 15-20 seconds of the body doing nothing move on because that means that the point the point was not supposed to be pressed or was not relevant and that's you know that's part of the the ongoing dialogue is even though the body may draw you in to a certain point there may be activity there but it may not be the body may not need your help in that area it's very much you know the struggle of therapists everywhere you uh there is a problem going on but it's not your job to fix it you know and that's that's when nothing happens is the body saying you know you're right stuff's going on but you know nothing to see here move along yeah exactly I got this this is perfectly fine so your action will be based on that response if the guarding occurs your job is to pull back a little bit and see how the body again responds to that new level of pressure or if it releases you will then go deeper and allow yourself to kind of fall down that rabbit hole into the point in question or if nothing happens you move on so that dialogue gives you what you what information you need to treat the point effectively then we can get into subtler aspects of kind of the intuitive work what does when you feel a point what what does it feel like it means does it need a circular pressure like doesn't need to be to be moved around in a circulatory way yesterday I was pulling a lot of things out of the point so I was literally locking into the point and dragging open the tissue not not in an aggressive way but just as the body dictate for me to move in that direction and then in some points like at one point I use the nail of my finger because the ears are small and they require that kind of nuance delicat work but I needed to get into a very a very finite point in order to deactivate it based on what the body was asking me to do my little my little finger bone although it's small it wasn't small enough to hit it at just the right way so I used by nail instead and normally I don't do that like that's a no-no for me but in in the process that's what the body required and this is where we get into the conversation of you know clients come in and they fall on then that pressure spectrum of some clients can barely take any pressure whatsoever other clients you have to go through the foot in order for that or the extremity for them to even start to feel it and then most clients end up somewhere in the middle so with pointe work you're it's a dialogue it's not a chart in a book that you can memorize in order to say this is good this is bad this is what you need to do this is what you don't do because two clients will never be the same two points will never be the same you deactivate one point on a client one week they come back the next week it's totally different some points may be the same especially if it's a chronic long-term issue but most of the time they change that's start to make sense a little bit so that the guard release and nothing is corresponding to listen yeah so it's once you engage the point with an even amount of pressure then you're listening for the feedback and adjusting your action accordingly and then you're basically waiting you're continuing the dialogue process until the body finally calms down it's very it feels very much like the tissues settle and the point has been released and that's that's when you truly move on this this goes back to our four the four signs but I make it sound really really fancy the for signs of perception which sounds like a really secretive technique or book or something like that something very metaphysical but it's it's the four signs that the body is receiving the work when we're when we're doing body work of any kind but reflexology specifically so the face the facial itches the muscle twitches the breathing changes and the stomach gurgles those are the four main things that we look for when a client is on the table and we're moving stuff around and the body is adjusting and the body is releasing tension and the body is starting to receive the work those are our four signs of reception so as you're moving stuff around in the points you're looking for those things and that tells you that you're getting close to unity which is breathing changes and facial edges muscle twitches stomach hurt those breathing changes facial aging bitching twitches while twitches are that's muscle twitching they don't like each right exactly wherever that occurs yeah there there are many other others similar ones you get classified it under muscle twitches but it really wasn't it was really yeah I mean like one thing I'll see a lot is the clients will have temperature changes which we experienced yesterday but tearing of the eyes the eyes will actually release tears or we're sweating yeah I mean all of those are valid but these are living yesterday right yeah exactly i awful I know it's terrible it was very dramatic but that all of those things are very very much a sign that we've moved something that the body is going into a self-healing response which may be pleasant may not be pleasant but it means that we've addressed the point successfully and the body has taken that and ran with it to do whatever it needs to do to heal yeah it was like all of it that would be under miscellaneous I miscellaneous signs inverse a Penta um that's volume to the same issues of transference and countertransference yeah transference countertransference definitely what the problem that I have with we're about to go down a rabbit hole so this got posted in the foot reading and reflexology community on Facebook recently where somebody a new member came forward and said you know I have energetic experiences during a session when I work on people in the form of hot flashes like what does this mean and like thirteen people jumped on the thread and they're like you know you have negative energy the client has negative energy like this you know this situation is you know need for energetic grounding and protection and blah blah blah and you know transference countertransference is very much that like the idea of taking on somebody else's pain is a attractive form of kind of shamanic practice in some instances but then it's also a feared practice in other instances from body workers who don't necessarily have that acceptance or confidence and in what they're doing but a really great example of that is all have clients come in to see for the first time and a part of my body will start to hurt that normally doesn't start to hurt and that's my body warning me what's about to come through the door it's it's a very cool experience but likewise on the table like you've experienced this in class like your face will start to itch your muscles will start to twitch like you'll start to get hot or cold and that's your body communicating with their body through what's known as mirror neurons so your nervous system is communicating on a very subtle level and we'll talk about this more on the sensory system as well and it's producing the transference countertransference in in both ways you know you're not the only person getting worked on in that room and I firmly believe that because the session dynamic you know we are not these magical healers that you know poof you're healed and it's a one-way street you cannot and this is this is an interesting theory of interesting concept because a lot of body workers will say I feel so drained after I give a session well you're not giving a session you are also receiving a session so are you fighting your own work are you fighting the work working on you and that's a very powerful statement so that idea of transference countertransference I think is super relevant especially when we get into the symptom ology of what happens when we address points correctly and that movement sometimes it freaks clients out like sometimes we're bringing up pain to the surface so that's all that's all part of the package but as long as you know how to handle that appropriately and to kind of step back and be like what is exactly happening here we as reflexologists are working with the nervous system we need to be more open to weirdness happening during a session because the nerves can do very crazy things like I had mentioned the other day I had a client come in for a half-hour session and her entire left leg went numb so how do you explain to a client that has never experienced a sensation like that that that's actually a good thing and it means that the body is rebooting that nerve channel during the because it doesn't matter how many times you fix the bolster the nerve will still go numb because you're inducing a healing response you know so but you have no control like it's not like you press the nun the leg button that's not how it works so being open to you know witnessing the body is beauty really and stepping back and like being like okay I don't know what's happening here I hope it's a good thing if it's not a good thing you tell me or I'm gonna tell you and we'll address it that but otherwise we're just gonna like let the infinitely intelligent body guide the show for two seconds and that's really all we're doing with point work is we're having a manual conversation with a highly intelligent clump of tissue that's then giving us advice on how to fix it the voices yeah that explains the voices well I'm gonna get that checked out okay so let's copy okay so let's talk about flavors of extremities and kind of going to that rabbit hole of the flavors of the different extremities so we have feet hands which we did yesterday so now we're onto hands face and ears okay so the question continues to be asked when you study multiple forms of reflexology what extremities do you use what extremities are appropriate is one extremity better than the other what happens when markers manifest on one of the extremities and they don't manifest on another and the body is extremely intelligent with how it chooses to place its markers and in what extra it gives affinities as an example I you know my business is the foot was for a reflexology Institute people know me to work on feet mostly I do work on clients with hands face in the ears but a large majority of my client base are expecting foot work what happens when a friend or family member gives a gift certificate or tell somebody that they need to come in and they make an appointment but they hate their feet getting worked on you work on a different extremity exactly but because the nervous system is saying for some for whatever reason don't touch me here I don't like it versus somebody comes in and they're like oh my god you could rub my feet all day don't touch my face so much like don't really like that part but you know I'm all about the feet or same thing with the hands or the ears there's a certain affinity to certain extremities that's unique to each individual so if somebody has like we're by MacDill Air Force Base so I've had clients who come in without a particular extremity or extremities so how do you work with in that situation the variety is very helpful but then also we look at you know what's indicated just in terms of preference yeah I've done it it's really up to them and it's about having a conversation with them in terms of what are you expecting I've had clients that you know I've said I want you to work on both hands in just the one foot or I want you to I haven't had the phantom limb experience yet I have yeah I have I have students that have had that experience but where they're actually manipulating a foot that's not there or a hand that's not there and fascinating research has been done with that neurological process so I encourage you to look at the TED talks and stuff with that but totally appropriate why whatever the client is expecting at the end of the day you're a service provider so provide a service you know to the client based on their expectation but when we look at from a point work perspective why certain points are present on different extremities or white markers pop up on certain extremities I'd like you to keep the flavors of the extremities in mind so from the nerve innervation standpoint the feet are at the end of horizontal zone five than me they're chocolate there are chocolate recent flavors yes so chocolate vanilla strawberry green tea so the feet are the extension of horizontal zone 5 which means that they are naturally going to hold greater nerve innervation for the lower body reflexes make sense yes but they will also be speaking in a flavour that is more geared towards their sense of security their foundation and how they're moving forward the internal mental emotional meaning of the zone because the feet kind of technically belong to that area of the body so when somebody gets and this is this I think plays into the stigma of foot work in our society or if you look at other cultures like in some cultures it is considered one of the greatest insults to bear your feet to somebody you know the feet tend to hold a very powerful force a very powerful influence over the body and I think that that idea of it being in that horizontal zone 5 somebody's sense of security how they're moving forward their foundation I think that that's relevant to to that that appearance versus the hands are an extension of horizontal zone 2 right so we have the nerve innervation that runs through the chest going through the arms and into the hands the hands are an extension of that zone that's where they are placed yeah so the hands will always have more of an upper body flavor but also the mental emotional meaning of feelings and emotions so I find in my practice that the hands tend to be very emotional extremities the issues tend to pop up and leave very quickly in acute cases or they tend to be 100% like deep-seated chronic it's either one or the other it's a very flighty extremity the hands very easy easier than the feet because the feet are tougher they have to be physically they have to support a body the hands are all over the place they're supposed to be mobile they're supposed to be grabbing and letting go they're supposed to be you know getting paper cuts and they're right by the heart so they're very vascular more vascular than the feet they don't have to fight gravity to return venous flow so they're there in that space that is a little bit more transient but at the same time they do have that proximity to the metaphoric heart as well that heart center so we can think of that energy just being a little bit more present in the extremity itself does that make sense a little bit okay so let's talk about facing ears and this is where it gets kind of interesting is because face and ears are both horizontal zone one but I'd like you to think of form governing function so what do the ears do like what do they do physically yeah they collect sounds they listen right they are receptive in nature so they are the receivers of horizontals on one versus the face when you see somebody that's the first thing you see it is projected right um the idea the idea of a poker face you know needing to hide your projection than needing to cover up like I can see it all over your face you know that that kind of language is very ingrained in our society so when we think of the the relevance of the extremity and when something happens on the face it's literally something that we have to face we cannot look away from it because it is projecting who we are what we think that ideal into the world around us the ears tend to be the opposite they tend to be more laid-back they tend to be recessive they tend to be more about absorbing information from our environment so when we think of like the internal meaning of face versus ears the face is very much about what we want to say but can't the ears is very much about the soundtrack of our lives and what's being said around us the words that were absorbing but think of like mucousy discharge like it can also be projective true exactly but when we think of like when we communicate we're using facial expression the ears have no expression they have no ability to express vocally visually but it's part of the face extremity that is expressive yeah but definitely I mean it's beginning yeah yeah exactly I may be sneeze exactly so all of that I mean it's little nuances just like there there are more than four you know signs of reception so we want to look at the flavors of the extremities in terms of why why that one you know if somebody's chronically developing ear issues or if they have a massive keloid on the ear or they're cute accumulate is just an overgrowth of scar tissue like things like google ears and you'll be able to see tons of fun stuff people who like surgically turn their ears into elf ears like lots of fun things all very all very cool things so when we look at like if a person develops acne in a certain area and we're able to see a pattern in the extremities like that's an echo that's something that we're able to validate through the other extremities but if you're only seeing a symptom in one extremity ask yourself what about the flavor of that extremity is the body trying to add to the meaning here yeah does that make sense so that's that's kind of my thought process as far as what would dictate both treatment you know if somebody comes in and they're saying you know oh I love my hands getting work done I tend to be you know and they're also complaining of shoulder issues they tend to you know I'm getting the vibe that they're emotionally closed off or there's some emotional baggage going on I'll choose the hands over the feet because that seems to be kind of where things are for them versus you know if they're hobbling in and they're like I just I they'll often use the word like I just can't get over it I can't move forward like I feel like I'm stuck I'm in a holding pattern and that's that for me as totally zone five versus you know if people are complaining of clogged ears and they have TMJ and they have weird vision stuff like I'm going to go into the headspace but ultimately is reflexologist it's that the analogy that my favorite analogy right now is you know different windows into the same house it's all the same you know you can break in anywhere but it's just you know it looks a lot nicer to go through a door rather than a window so any other questions point work and for everybody watching home I'll get to questions individually I'll respond to those later but fun work is basically when you find something right general protocol just work well and define working and that's the idea of true point work versus you know very common in trigger point therapy to go 8 into 8 and - 8 - because that's what the textbooks say versus instead of intelligently you know systems like craniosacral therapy systems like myofascial work we'll talk a lot more about listening and feeling you know reflexology I believe some schools will teach the more mechanical deep pressure grind into it treating the body like a meat suit with nerve innervation versus were having an intelligent communication with the body and asking you to listen asking you to be an intelligent practitioner as well and engage in that that dialogue between you and the body okay anything else we want to cover before we wrap up and go to hands okay cool so let's let's take a quick break and then we'll we'll head out to the tables you