Reflexology Documentary History research

right okay so I'm talking to Elaine Graham here from Hawke's Bay she has been a prominent reflexologist and the industry over the years hi Elaine thank you for talking for us talking to us today perhaps you'd like to share start at specs the beginning how did you get into reflexology and we did many silly things we used to go to the beach and get seawater and we'd bring it home and we boil it and would soak his feet in seawater and then because his feet was so bad he could hardly walk every night I bound him up with that starch like a poultice a poultice patch i've got on the chemist i bind his feet up so he could get actually go to rest he had it he had such pain it was really awesome to see and he wouldn't take any painkillers he wouldn't take the aspirins that the specialist told him to take you refused to take them so we just started on a trip we did all sorts we did all sorts of weird since to a Maori man see tell them to put potatoes and his pocket and walk around and they'll turn into stones well the potatoes did turn into stones oh we're as hard as it's known but nothing happened with his arthritis no so we we boiled up linseed and he used to eat the slimy juice of the linseed you know everybody was giving us things to do and we tried them all we did the maddest things out yeah we would try anything anything to give him some relief but it just didn't come you know so we actually had to sell the pie and we had a 18 foot Caravan and we traveled all over New Zealand looking for somewhere to live and we decided on Naevia so we stayed here and maybe it has been wonderful to us the climate was a lot warmer for him and it gave him a breathing space so we could get into some sort of work in 1986 our son came home from university and he said I want to go and see someone who looks in your eyes and tells you what's wrong with you and I'd heard of this and I knew there was a lady here and her name was Denise Faris at the time she wasn't married then but she later married and she was Denise Pierce film right she was part Maori and she so I made an appointment and I'm talking and this is the road we went and he she examined him and she said well you haven't got asthma but she said you are an artist aren't you and he was studying music at the Victoria and he said there's some I'm going to be a music teacher she said well she said there's nothing wrong with your lungs cause he's a sinner and I used to wonder about this she said what you have got you have got stress in Europe when you're on course and she said we'll have to you know do something about the stress so we were talking and talking and and then we left paid the bill of course and left and as a as I was going out the door Denise said I want to see you would you come and see me next week muscle what's wrong with me yeah she said no it's not an appointment I just want to talk to you so we made a time and I went back the following week and she said Elaine you and doing what I'm teaching because I was doing the feet and the special foods it was on a vegetarian diet after eating meat three times a day really well you know I just like on the farm and she said if she said I'm amazed that you haven't you know this week and I said well I'm too busy trying to get the husband well she said well send your husband to me so we did and she put him on a herb called yucca it's an Indian who and he immediately started to get better he got he really you know was in about six months he was responding really well back no one would give him a job as soon as they knew he died after I just didn't know and so we just so I change roles I went out to work full-time and Denise had said to me Blaine I'm having meetings every Monday night you will learn all you need to know to get your husband well so I started going to her in meetings every Monday night I went I went for three years every Monday night she taught iridology she taught reflexology she taught them that him in Physiology she talked she bought doctors and there was we were taught by a lot of doctors and and there was a you know there was certificates and at the end of with qualifications and so that's how we that's how I got into this work that's where I learned about reflexology first was Denise home right and she has helped so many people in Hawke's Bay she on one girl I worked with she said have you heard of Denise Humber I said yes she said I was a drug addict she got me off drugs you know he hears so many good centers about food and so all our families started to go our daughter had excellent she went down a Hydra sliding in husband a man came down behind a hitter and the bat was both his feet and broke her back in two places she was on a fracture border and hospital in in Lisbon when we brought her home she was in a full body brace it was like looking at baby every time I shout her we had to take that body brace off and she was vulnerable we had things that she held on to but I had to get into the shower and just wash it like a would have been a baby and one day she said the pain is just too great so I took her back to the doctor and he offered her I'm trying to think of the drug he offered her it was a painkiller but it's addictive morphing know the Dean the one they made from they first found found the drug in ER in the natural sun oak him no I can't remember it was so she said I said no she can't take that I said I said her boyfriend's a detective her Sidney since she's not taking that it's a Victor so border Holman on we said to him sent us to the specialist we went back to the specialist he said the same thing so we came home I said would you go to Denise she said don't go anywhere so when I put her on the car she could only either stand up all I know she couldn't sit down to a meal she'd have to stand we had a fridge there was about that high at the time and she ate off the top of the fridge so I took it down to Denise Denise put her on something called skl which stands for skeleton and number eight cell salts and within three days she was without pain I was going to a massage course the tutors were coming over from the Queensland Institute of Natural Science because I had start studied with them and David said to me your walk done to go to that course would you let Anand do it instead and she was filming this body brace at the time so I went over and I spoke I spoke to all the people that come over from Queensland to do the course and they said we will look at different we promise you we will and so Murray and and her husband they they they had the Queensland Institute of Natural Science and they they message her every day she came back hop carrying her body brace and so and they you know they put her on all the right things and today she's a naturopath and she knows what it is to be in pain and she knows what it does to be sick she's a very very successful man education health and so that's how we got into this when I was when I was working with Denise I heard about the reflexology course which was a certificate course in Portland so I I said to Anna I'm going to a certificate course on Auckland I've enrolled with dr. dan killaby at the reflexology horse and walk now so I and she said Milan coming too so her and I both went up we'd drive up and back to each block horse laws and we both qualified with reflexology and the day that the last weekend that we were having our course Deann broke her ankle that's our tutor and she she didn't turn up and and white bias turned up because he was coming to oversee everything he used to go around Wallace schools and it was our turn and he said he said to the class there was 25 in the class he said I'm going to do the exam while I'm here and we all just about fainted obvious six because none of us felt we were ready even though we've been studying all the year do you ever feel you're ready for an exam so so Dwight Dwight said I'll do it on Monday and we all groaned and he said all right I'll give you till Thursday so on Thursday six turned up to do the exam and three paths I was one and my daughter Anna was the other one she got the highest max and the other lady is a lady in Auckland so still there practicing and Walkman and he went down and and took the exams in Christchurch and no one passed he was tap he was really tired and and he had to be you know to get the best and the day that he gave me my certificate I said to him what can I do with this certificate of my lab to do with the certificate he said what are you willing to promote are you willing to promote reflexology so that's what we need it's in its infancy all around the world and he said that's why I go around the world trying to get people to even don't try it you know so I said yes I said I'm willing to promote do you see well you can do anything X but you normally have to copy my business card I'll show it to our family yeah so I came back here to Hawke's Bay I was I was doing other courses over at the Lotus Center which was a center of learning it's a it's a private private training and so I was doing other courses over there I didn't net me in Physiology I did the mess and New Zealand message course and did that I did all sorts of things so that aromatherapy I did anything if you put a course in front of me I did it because it's just it's information is easily carried and if you get someone who you can't do something that you can actually do something else you know so I stayed studying over there and then we were going back with some forwards to Dandan postgraduate courses and going to ATMs and things like that and I said to here they asked me at the Lotus centerfold do a just a short course a short course to introduce it and she said all right she said I'll put it before the board and she said send us the course write the course send it to us and I did that and I waited about a week and I thought you know but they did and they ring me up and they said you you have permission to go ahead with it so I went over and I told the directors over the other because they they've gotta clean everything - I said yes I'm able to go through with it and it was just simple dating Sunday you know and and I loved doing that I really did and Glenda was doing a big course over there you know it was a nature petted course so she sorted me in was the reflexology in her here of course it could be a natural path over there yes so that's the part of the course I did and I absolutely love teaching it because I love it to bits and when I went over there they were asked me to go over and open a new part of its which I went over the one thing I sent them I don't ever remember being late I said because I couldn't wait to get here whereabouts was that it's over in Hastings I don't yeah it's over in Hastings had to go into Hastings do all that study where there was laughing hearing Napier there was the EO IT but that was really very attached to as was really you know net all natural state what sort of arrow was that that would have been in the 90s probably that I started I started from when Hamish came home because I went straight to Denis the following week and I was in here of course the next time she put about five I was there and she had loads of people together that were you know if she thought that they would add something to the course she she brought them in there was always new people there there was really be a doctor day the Jack's was one of the ones that was he there was other doctors caiman and there's other people that had expertise in other areas that she talked taught a really full course and you know she her clinic was also good teaching place she used to teach weekends and we would do weekend courses and and we do you know catch ups and reruns and all sorts of things she was very very good just a terrific teacher I think I thank you for all your good health because she was the one that really started it when I went to Auckland there was another but another wonderful lady up there dr. Deanne killed me that was her who maiden name and she run the reflexology school up there she had qualified was Dwight in London she was over there getting her doctorate what she did but it's why she was doctor she comes from a long line of medical people when mother was she was a chronic therapist and did all sorts of other natural things and an investor boot Dan had been a nurse so they had a terrific medical background as well as all the other you know so you've got a good grounding we ever you eat in those courses you learn something new about the body and the body to me is amazing I'll tell you what it just about the first time when I went to the courses over at Denise's course we had a doctor there and he put the single-cell up on a a overhead projector and he it was blown up and I couldn't believe it I I was out of my seat before I knew I believed it and I was up on the stage behind him and those tears in my eyes I said what I said it's like a whole city he was the cell with you know everything you know these men made and everything I've said I said this is absolutely wonderful I looked up and he he had tears and disaster he said that's why I'm a doctor he said it's absolutely wonderful so and I loved all that I absolutely loved me and when I passed it on to the other my students I made it as I would not go ahead until everybody knew what we were talking about because I had sat in front of lots of tutors that leaned against a table and read out of a book and I could have delicious students true I mean students did she teach sometimes that you had to have at least eight but sometimes I had seventeen and sometimes in 24 you know so and a girl coming to my class about halfway through my teaching time there and she was in she was in the kitchen Johns Ambulance she was so you know she did all the rushing around when people and had to take some things and she absolutely absolutely loved it she locked herself all those times that she couldn't go at the ambulance so she could come to the mall and at the end of the course she passed well and she said to me come back next year she do you think I just come back and sit in again I don't want to pay anything again but I just want to learn it all over again I said well I'll talk to the directors and I can't give me any promise you know so I told them I said this girl's got a great great love for people I said she's got a great love for getting people well I said she is pretty