Reflexology in Taiwan goes Mainstream

Welcome to Wednesday's Reflexology Wisdom. And in today's episode, we're going to Taiwan. This is Sufong T. She's an amazing woman and has the most ambitious plan to develop reflexology in Taiwan. And as the director general of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, she was just the woman that was going to bring this change about. My job was to train trainers so that nurses and other people can be trained in reflexology for the health of the people of Taiwan. Yes, you heard that right. Nurses are going to be trained in reflexology. In fact, reflexology is going to become integrated into the health care system of Taiwan. So for my first three days in Taiwan, it was intensive training for these wonderful people. And the team that Sufong had put together were people who were already qualified in reflexology and we also included nurses as well. We worked really hard and then as is quite right once we'd finished our three days of training we then celebrated with a lovely rooftop barbecue. Next on the agenda was to visit the sweet son postpartum nursing care center. In Taiwan, when you've had a child, it is tradition for the mother to be looked after for a whole month after delivery. I mean, what an amazing thing. And this center allows uh the mother to have as much time with the baby as is needed. But then there are nurses and experts to give advice, guidance and also to look after the baby if the mother gets tired. The amazing thing here is that they are also going to integrate reflexology into the care of the mothers who are staying at this center. How wonderful is that? Now, there's something I just want to touch on as well, which is food. And while I was at this center, they gave me lunch and they gave me exactly what the mums there who are residents at this center are eating. Now, just look at this. Can you imagine the National Health serving up something like this? It was delicious and absolutely fabulous. The next day was conference day. >> Well, welcome to the University of Nursing in Taipei. And this is the the the madness before the storm as we get ready to do a huge a day of presentations um all about reflexology, the research that there is to justify it. and we're presenting to um over 200 nurses and educators in Taiwan um to present how reflexology can be embedded into their healthcare system today. So, if you just kind of look over over my shoulder, we've got people setting up the PA system and then this is the room that I'm going to be doing my presentation. To say I'm a little bit nervous is an understatement, but wish me luck and let's just see how it goes. >> The room that we had seated 160 people. In the end, we had nearly 220 attendees. We had to put chairs in the aisles. There was standing room only at the back. It was amazing. And uh we did have a nice bit of fun, by the way, while we were setting up as well. We'd got some cameras all over the place. It was such a wellorganized event. I'd just like to take a moment to introduce the speakers to you. From left to right in this photograph, we have Ching Jang Chen. Now, Chin Jang is the son of Dr. Eugene Chang. He worked with Father Joseph. He co-authored Father Joseph's new foot reflexology book. um he worked at Father Joseph's clinic and so we have a direct link uh with Ching Jen uh back to Father Joseph and he introduced a fabulous talk on the overview of biological holism. Then next in this photo we have Tai Chu Pong. She's the dean of Tsuchi University. She's the most wonderful person and she did a talk on when nursing meets with foot reflexology for holistic healing. She is already training reflexologists at her university and her university in Howland Province specializes in teaching nurses. So she is going to be key to Sufong's plan to integrate reflexology into nurse training. Third from the left we have Tsuang. She is the director general of the Ministry of Health and Well-being and she opened and closed the conference. And then there's yours truly. They had asked me to do two sets of talks of an hour each and I really didn't think that people listening to me for 2 hours solid was such a good idea. So I did one hour's talk and then one hour of demonstration. In my experience, there are some really fantastic techniques that we can use that can show reflexology to have an immediate effect. One of them particularly that I would particularly like to thank Lynn Booth for which is her reflexology and movement. We had a client who had a frozen neck. She had very limited mobility and just by holding either side of the joint of the big toe and then manipulating passively moving the big toe joint within two minutes uh we had completely freed up movement in her neck and the audience at this conference just went absolutely wild. They'd never seen anything like it before. And um in my um view um I think it's one of these things. It's what I like to call reflexology is magic buttons. Um there are certain areas that we can work. They have a direct effect and um it was just great to be able to demonstrate the power of reflexology in front of all of these wonderful people. Then we have Singu Hung, but I know her better by her English name of Snow. She runs the Taiwan Holistic Family Nursing Association and she is key to the training of trainers in reflexology. She has been to every single one of my training sessions. She's just such an amazing person. and she talked to the conference about the impact stories on foot reflexology for holistic healing. And then to the far right we have Roger. Roger, thank you very very much. Without you, I couldn't have understood a thing that was going on in the conference, Roger was my translator. And while everybody was speaking in Chinese, Roger was whispering in my ear, letting me know what was happening. Sadly, I don't have a photograph of one of the other speakers. Her name is Dr. Kaiming Chang and she was presenting the evidence-based research for dementia care with foot reflexology and in this paper that she has just completed, it had the most fantastic outcomes for helping with confusion, for helping with uh anger and for helping with anxiety for people with this condition. It was the most stunning report that she gave to the conference and again showing reflexology to be so powerful and so helpful. So the conference concluded with the information that reflexology is going to be properly integrated into the health care system of Taiwan. Nurses are going to be able to deliver reflexology. People will be trained in two levels of reflexology that want to train. There is one level which is for family and friends and then there is a practitioner level and they have given this the name of reflexology for holistic healing. So in Taiwan it is official reflexology heals. We know we're not allowed to diagnose and actually I think that's a good thing. Um it relieves us of the pressure placed upon doctors. They've got to give a diagnosis. But to be able to heal, I think that is a far more profound word. And so to be able to have that official title that reflexology can heal, I think that's absolutely fabulous. So I leave you with this image of the conference attendees and then just as a taster for next week's reflexology wisdom turned the tables on me. instead of me interviewing her, she took me to a TV studio and did an interview of me. So stay tuned for that one. And as I would normally say, stay well, stay safe, and many thanks for watching. >> [music]