Wednesdays Reflexology Wisdom Panel No 2 - answering all your questions.

[Music] hello everybody and welcome to today's wednesday's reflexology wisdom and i'm delighted that we have a fantastic panel of speakers with us and we have got let's do the ladies first all the way from south africa where it's a chilly winter at the moment we have chris stormer fryer so chris if you just say say hello sir people can see you i'm going to do a millionaire thing okay that sounds perfect i'm just saying i'm doing a millionaire thing they always win oh excellent lovely thank you very much from the beautiful emerald isle from the republic of ireland we have got catriona plunkett hi david thank you delighted to be here fabulous we're going to do all the ladies first because we we are chivalrous here and then from my favorite holiday destination uh from the beautiful island of madeira we have vanessa santos hello everyone it's a pleasure to be here today with you and then certainly last but not least no last but certainly not least that's the way around i meant to say it we have my friend from israel mushay krichik hello hello everybody israel fabio i said it in hebrew you said ah that was in hebrew yeah moshe how many languages do you speak actually six i forgot five do you not ever get confused well sometimes when when i give a lesson in italian then i have to speak in portuguese with vanessa and then i have to make the switch to it takes me two minutes to be in the right language but it's it's okay all i will say is i totally take my hat off to you you are amazing anyway without any further uh uh um we're going to start our first question so uh katrina hedges um i believe you're from north queensland australia unmute again hi yes i am from townsville it's about after 7 p.m here so fabulous well it's just wonderful to have we have people from all over the world um asking questions today so it's just wonderful this is so katrina could you please ask your question so i was curious about the vagus nerve like an actual helper point i know the ones on the hands but i'm just wondering on the feet is there a specific vagus nerve reflection point on the feet okay now then katrina you are going to be really really pleased to know that chris has drawn a diagram specifically for you i i mean it's beautiful because i've seen it already so chris would you like to answer this question first and i am wanting to also to come to catriana and moshe on this one as well but can we have chris first please and chris when you are ready for the picture to come up do please let me know fantastic hi katrina and the vagus nerve in the universal technique and there is no one point on it so dave is going to show the diagram now aren't you david i am hang on a second it's just coming up david the diagram yep it's just coming hang on oh yay thank you hang on oh dear oh dear it's good it's gone it's going sideways this is how not to do it hang on a second so there we go that's that and i need two now i've got it here you've got it hang on i just need to share it yeah oh hang on you've got a better copy of it though anyway i'll carry on talking so really because the vagus nerve goes from the base of the brain and down the outer edges of the neck um and because this is reflected all in all the toe necks you're going to find the reflexes from the base of all the little toes aha we've got some of the picture um let me just lose that so if you look at the vagus nerve and as you can see in the middle i've just put the base of the brain and the seven cervical um vertebrae and then the vagus nerve coming down either side so you would find the vagus nerve down each edge of the little toes the outer edges of all the little toes and then you'd also find because it spreads it goes along the base of the toe next i hope that helps you yeah that's brilliant thank you very much okay no problem so um i know that um let's have moshe next we've got it i know that moshe you've got an answer for this one so could we have your input please yeah well it's a it's a bit similar to chris uh however with that with a different approach let's say that the the vagus nerve is born here in the medulla oblongata in the base of the in the base of the brain in cervical 7 but then when the vigorous nerve is uh is the only the only cranial nerve that goes out of the brain goes out of the cranium to visit and this is the name of the vagus vagus latin means wanderer uh it is not a asymmetric nerve it has two branches one afferent and one efferent and then it will visit some plexuses like the first one the the cardiac plexus the pulmonary plexus the solar plexus the gastric plexus then the pancreatic plexus then the splenic plexus then the renal plexus and then it will go down all the way through the vowels to come back to the brain through the bowels the billiard plexus the hepatic plexus and all the way up to through the gastric plexus again the pulmonary plexus the cardiac lexus and back to the medulla oblongata fabulous thank you marcia that's brilliant catriona i know you've also got some input on this one yeah i suppose when you're training generally you learn that the the vagus nerve is in the head you know that that reflexes in the head in cranial sacral reflexology they're covered in the little toe which is really interesting they have the cranial nerves um spread over the toes so i'm always conscious of working uh the little toe really well and the toes in general really well and moshe's description is really good as well because when you consider the vagus nerve it is the wandering nerve so it's not just in one place it travels and it covers you know it's it's probably the most interesting of the cranial nerves because it it has an influence on so many different um body bodily functions and chris's diagram's beautiful that's i haven't seen that before that's amazing chris there we go this is fabulous because i am learning i i love it these these panels because there's always something that i've not discovered before so that's fabulous now um i don't think we've got paulie no hagen with us if we have could pauline just quickly shout out no we haven't okay so i'm going to read a question that pauline o'hagan has asked and it's a brilliant question and vanessa i would like you to answer this one first if you would please so pauline asks i would just like to ask the panel what response do they give when the client asks following a session wow what did you find well in fact my answer is the obvious one i tell the truth i always start my session with a quick foot reading so i try to understand what the feet are telling me and i make some questions to my patients what happened to you because it seems to me that you feel more oppressed or that you're feeling more drained without energy or so in the beginning of the session they have one idea what changed from the last session from this one in the end when i'm working everyone wants to see the pictures the after and the before like the tv shows and they always ask me so what i do is to pick up the pictures to show and to compare them and tell me what well when i started your feet were telling me this now your feet are like that what happens from now it's up to you so i always give some homeworks to my patients based on tcm most of them were created by me um for those who don't know my methods it's the five elements theory and so the elements are the base of my work and i always give him some tips to connect with one or two of the elements that will help him to keep the balance until the next session so when i don't diagnose but what i tell them it's a true it's what i see in the feet and they give me their feedback so we can work together and make some kind of a therapeutic plan until the next session so wonderful was the best answer yes no that's good vanessa when you were saying about the pictures do you is that is that that you're taking a photograph before yes i'll tell you a photograph with my cell phone yeah and then i photographed after so they can see chris i know you've got some input on this question for us as well um absolutely um like vanessa i do believe in honesty but i think if you say right at the beginning that we are not um able to diagnose with reflexology i mean we all know that and but to say to them that we are going to be massaging their feet so they feel better about themselves um i personally will leave it at that because i let the reflexology do what it does um naturally without um interfering with that process but what i do love to do is i love to give them something positive vanessa was saying that as well in my case i'll just give them something really positive about themselves so that when they leave that is what they take away with them so i i enjoyed her explanation beautifully thank you excellent now then we've got a question from maureen taylor and uh maureen uh maureen spencer even um and um i did get a message from her saying that she wasn't able to make it but she asks and it's a great it's a do you know what this is a really interesting one our authors haven't replied to this one and it's because they're too modest her question is what books would anyone recommend for reading she says i've read some reflexology books but would like to add more now um what i'm going to do is to completely embarrass our speakers here because um what i don't know is what maureen has already written but she should definitely read chris is hot footing it to better health and she should definitely read some of moshe's books as well i mean his foot reading book that i read analyzing personality patterns is absolutely fabulous catriona and vanessa i don't think i can embarrass you because i don't think you've written the book have you no i haven't written any books david um my favorite books probably i've lots of reflexology books like probably everybody here we have lots of books chris is certainly a standard for you know a book that every reflexologist should have absolutely i it was recommended to me as a student i recommend it to all my students um language of defeat fantastic book and i think i have all chris's books in fact um borough crane is um i don't know if that's um available to buy anymore but the definite um definite practitioner's guide i don't know if anybody has has that book um i thought that was that's a really that's a big chunky book full of comprehensive information around reflexology the meridians hand reflexology diet nutrition fabulous book that's a really good almost encyclopedia size book current favorite book um with an e-book is angela telford's visual reflexology which is full of fantastic information and she's constantly updating it and she's really generous with her knowledge so i love angela talford's e-book um it's fantastic i'm hoping she'll she'll publish a written book i'd like to get my hands on on a written book of hers so there's lots of fantastic authors out there i think and angela telford's somebody that i've got in my sights to have on one of our panels as well because she is amazing you're absolutely right um vanessa any books that you would be recommending that people should uh have a read of vanessa this my knight was down but i'm back now um i have one theory and it's mostly because you know tcm it's not only one medicine it's a one philosophy of life and i truly believe that the right books will fund you in the right time uh i absolutely love quiz books and mao chic books and of course inc documents because it incorporates the traditional chinese medicine but i think that books that are not directly linked with reflexology can be very helpful for instance i found this little book and it's portuguese but it's occult science in medicine and the name tells nothing about reflexology but when you read the book you'll see that tells everything about reflexology it was a doctor from the past century that wrote it and so the most amazing inspiration came from the book you like expect so keep an open mind and try to read as much as you can and you will have wonderful surprises that's my advice i like that keep an open mind and you will have wonderful surprises that's perfect perfect now then uh we have lee taylor with us you have got a question it was specifically for chris i believe wasn't it good morning everybody good morning panel good morning david uh yes good morning chris how are you long time no see um oh ages i know it's been a long time wasn't it uh i can't believe that it's been 25 years since we first worked together on language of the feet and that was a real turning point for me in terms of my foot analysis work and what i've gone on to do as a result of that um that was a real inspiration in my early career what would you say was the inspiration for you earlier on in in your career as well oh thank you for this lee and well actually i wanted nothing to do with pete at all and as you may remember and but the universe said no you're going to be doing feet so i would say that primarily it was a universe who inspired me because they gave me the information for those who don't know me i channel through the universal information and but then having shared it with so many amazing delegates and having the most fantastic organizers that inspired me hugely because of course as you present you learn from your your the delegates and their stories are always phenomenal and i've learned so much from them and then of course once the feet started talking and i understood the language of the feet there was no stopping them and there was no stopping me so thank you for the question lovely to see you again great to see you thanks thank you okay i'm going to bring mushay in for the next question because we have a question from rose manoli quinn um who again has for some reason i guess technical difficulties hasn't been able to make connection with us this morning but moshe her question it's a three-part question what are the best reflexes to work for chronic pain conditions is there an approach to working the tender areas that provide more relaxation than pain and then finally what reflexology styles can be combined to ease the symptoms and discomfort of pain and uh catriona just so i can have you on standby as well when mushy is finished i'd love you to come in as well on this question so mushy over to you well i don't know if i have enough time to answer this question because it can be integrated by many aspects the first aspect is to understand what osteoarthritis is an osteoarthritis is a degenerative kind of arthritis where the cartilage right runs down that means the cartilage is that piece of tissue that supports the wall that separates two bones as to me as to avoid the friction so when the cartilage go around um wears out so it invites the two bones to be together and to have this contact that they shouldn't have and to and to make severe restrictions in movement and of course a lot of pain now when you have a patient with osteoarthritis you can't go back where it was you can only avoid further damage or try to stop the influence of that damage in your normal functioning now when when a person has osteoarthritis as i said you cannot go back and make it flexible as he as when she was 12 years old because it is progressive and degenerative and therefore what are the best reflexes to work for chronic pain conditions well if it is a general question there is a lot there is a hole there is a whole concept for the treatment of pain that involves um all the structures in the body the nervous system the endocrine system and other um [Music] other pieces of of the body that or well our parts of the body that work on the parents and parasympathetic system as to relax the body so what are the best reflexes to work for chronic pain if they if the answer is goes specifically to the condition of osteoarthritis first of all we must know where the osteoarthritis is let's say that if this is in the knees what i do in in the cases of osteoarthritis is well i combine another concept that i have found very useful for myself that is if i want to have [Music] a dynamic response of the body then i should work as a reflexologist in a dynamic way and this this means to combine movement with reflexology so to stimulate the effort or the movement at the same time that i am doing the reflexes i am working on the reflexes of course in the case of osteoarthritis my capacity of moving or just to flex or add more flexibility will be very limited because of the damage done so but but the the the full part of the glass is that you can still work on the flexibility just to avoid further damage and to under make that that that and make uh the progression of osteoarthritis slower i would recommend my patient to do some exercise smooth exercise like walking in the water doing flexible flexibility exercises in the water uh swimming as far as the person can do that is there an approach to working the tender areas that provide more relaxation than pain the whole body does it that means when the body has to deal with pain it starts with one focused area for pain but it is the whole body involved in that and if the body the whole body is involved in creating the pain the whole body will be involved in eliminating the pain too in the case of osteoarthritis is a lot of what you do in your normal life and how can you do reflexology to avoid further damage and of course to avoid the pain what reflexology styles can be combined to ease the symptoms or discomfort reflexology in motion reflexology with a lot of relaxation working on the nervous system to just to control the pain and and of course working on the structures as to give a better performance to the machine that means here i work industry in the in a i have a personal technique that i called the tree that works on the all the structures of the body that allows the body to be in constant movement and to be in constant dynamic one thing is very important to remember and it is that when osteoarthritis or whatever kind of triggers come to visit our body we have to be in attention enough as to do more exercise and to do and and to and to uh stimulate more movement otherwise it would be like giving up to the to the illness perfect perfect i i like that it's it's almost that phrase that if you don't use it you'll lose it exactly yes wonderful thank you so much moshe you're welcome right now we're going to make cheese add the emotional spiritual aspect to osteoarthritis go for it come on they're the fabulous and i loved what more she said and it was fantastic um and i totally agree with him you know with any condition you'd do the whole reflexology treatment but when it comes to emotional spiritual side it really helps to understand what has been going on in a person's life because it's very very different for each person if you take the word osteo of course that is bone and bone is being one of a kind if you take the word be one and um bone issues often arise when we cannot be one of a kind i know i break many birds because i'm breaking away from conforming but weakness of those is a different story altogether arthritis is being art righteous and this is not to judge condemn or criticize is to understand that some people have been brought up incredibly strictly particularly my generation i had an army officer dad and right and wrong black and white and you have to do as you're told so there was a lot of righteousness and as a result of that because people were so frightened to to test the bounds they became rigid so osteoarthritis is very much connected to being one of a kind but uh yet not being able to be one of a kind if that makes sense because we're all the the boundaries that are put there so the questions i would ask not just for osteoarthritis but and to get to uh the root of any situation is firstly when did this start and um this is always a key question because you can see what was going on emotionally at that time not necessarily just in that person's life but mary possibly in a parent's life and how did you feel about what was going on at that time and then for them to keep answering the questions until they find the solution for themselves but in the meantime as moshi says you know doing the reflexology and exercise is fantastic i would say for gentle techniques um you know work gentle techniques compression work would be lovely linking techniques gentle linking techniques um you know and and just you know nice and slow and and gentle and not heavy pressure i'm an advocate of general pressure anyway i know that's that's not everybody's style um but i don't believe uh reflexology should hurt anyway in the first place but that's not that it um you know if it's deep it's not effective but i think it can be just effective when it's gentle so i would just work very gently with our client and depending on where the the issue is then you're obviously you're focusing on those reflexes pituitary cranial nerves spinal reflex all the usual and you know lots of um diaphragm work with deep breath work to help them relax as well um but there's no reason that you couldn't um work them and obviously it you know it can't be like if the feet are structurally painful you have to be very mindful as well you might need to use hands instead perfect wonderful because this is a question for everyone from the lovely uh paula hewlett uh yep unmute yourself please yes okay okay well thanks hello um my question is what changes have you seen in the feet of clients who are nearing death so i've pondered this since about 2009 when i'd only just qualified and i'd seen a huge transformation in a lady who had worked on all through my training and just about ten days before she left us her feet were completely different but i guess the additional question is what should i do with that information okay um who fancy's asking answering this one first catriona christine or vanessa um i've only had the honor and privilege of seeing one person near death and what i witnessed at that time and was the disappearance of most of the markings on the feet and i i saw it almost like isn't working the slate clean um as you well know the ancient egyptians used to remove the souls of the feet of the elite and this was to set the soul free so i don't know if there's a coronation there and i'm not sure what you can do with that information well uh i work in a hospital in one service called internal medicine and unfortunately there are many of the patients eventually die and i didn't study reflexology yet it was about two years later but all the nurses there start to pay attention because you know when you work every day with those kind of patients there are some signs that you you start to catch your attention you you start to to making the link and it starts to to being obvious to you so about it's not a standard time some people are one week before some people are five days or two days but um it's very often to the the feet to be pale with purple spots lighter and when you touch them they are like um i don't know um like fluffy you know it doesn't have the the same consistency okay it's it's it's much um i of course that in the hospital it was different because you know i wasn't a doctor i'm not a doctor i was not going to say to the families your passion you're going to die but you could have a subtle conversation you know you your past your family um it's it's very old uh he's feeling a bit down it's better if you start thinking in all the options and preparing yourself if there's someone that wants to speak with him he may even may want to hurry up a little bit because he may recover but he's very feeling very down at this moment in the reflexology it happens for me a couple of times the difference about my approach was the relationship that i had with the family and the passion itself because one of the situations it was the aunt of one of my friends so he was my friend and now i was already friend of the family i was not only the therapist and he called me for one opinion because uh another therapist from other medicine told him that the daughters were were wrong and it wasn't cancer but when i did the reflexology i really felt the agony of diet not only all the symptoms i told you sometimes feet can also be very swollen it happens but in this case i had to stop the reflexology it was the the only the only time that it happened to me in my career because i really felt really bad and i knew that she was going to die so in the end of the session he was very hopeful that the daughters were wrong and i talked with him and i know it's not what you want to hear but you better prepare because your aunt is going to die i felt her agony and she died a couple of days later and the story ends with me doing reflexology to him during her funeral so it was a one unique experience but in the other case it was one passion of my of mine but i wasn't afraid you know i was the therapist i had a close relationship but i didn't told the family because you know it wasn't up to me um they were not expecting it because you know he suffered from the heart but he was very active he was struggling with a lot of problems so they know that that he wasn't okay um i tell you you should pay attention to your husband be around him he's a bit down but i didn't open the game so i guess it depends on the contest where you are of the kind of the relationships you have with the patient and the family uh and the situation itself it's not a rule you know in my opinion thank you vanessa that's great catriona um this was a question for all the panel do you have an input on this one yeah it's interesting i i guess it depends on where the person is at you know as they're nearing the end um i have seen with um a good friend a couple of years ago um that was um that had cancer she near in the end she wasn't in any pain she was comfortable she was ready to go and like chris said it's as if her feet her feet became soft they were pale but they were soft and it's like most of the stress lines um disappeared from her feet it was it was beautiful because it was like she was ready to go she had suffered a lot but at this stage she was ready to go but i suppose in a hospital situation like vanessa said that's different isn't it so you're in a hospital situation so that potentially could be more stressful for the person but um i think when i think it's you know if the person is ready to go and they're comfortable and they're not in any discomfort that's different isn't it so um it can really depend on on the person but such a privilege to work with people at that it's not somewhere it's not a you know a client i would see very often it's not somewhere i have a lot of experience but just with family and friends i've seen um it's a real privilege to be able to to give reflexology to somebody at that stage of their life isn't it absolutely absolutely okay we're going to move on to our next question now so this is from tanya kemp i think she's had connection problems as well so her question and this is to catriona is a client has prolapsed disc in the neck now causing neuropathic pain down all this right side what would be the most effective reflexes to work in the scenario yeah interesting one well i guess i always do a full treatment on all clients um and you're going to really focus on i imagine pain is an issue there so um you're going to focus on reflexes that will help to soothe and relax our clients and give them relief from pain um yeah it might be even be and actually won't work quite likely because it might be very imagine that the reflexes are going to be very tender aren't they absolutely absolutely okay um you're a bit of an expert on pain um is there anything that you would like to add that you because we've already talked about treatment of pain already haven't we is there anything extra that you would be wanting to add in on this one yeah i i might have some something to add to as a beautiful answer i would say that um [Music] first of all there is a principle that they always follow as one of the big principles in reflexology reflexology has a great impact in physiology but it doesn't have any impact on anatomy that means a prolapse this is a changing the anatomy of the body that means something that was in a place displaces and go and makes uh some damage that means there i cannot bring the prolapse back i can only deal with the physiology and physiological conditions are and the consequences of the prolapse disk now causing neuropathic pain down all right side it means that from the cervical area from the cervical plexus i would need to continue uh well to identify where the pain is if if the neuropathic pain is in the in the in the arms i would need to complement that with the brachial plexus with the structures that support the brachial plexus and with and even if with the sacral plexus if the pain if the neuropathic pain goes to the lower limbs uh what are the most effective reflexes to work in this scenario are the reflexes uh corresponding to the to all the diaphragms in the body cervical plexus brachial pulses and uh and and that's it and of course yeah it is it is a whole integrative area a whole integrative uh treatment lovely thank you okay sharon sharon sorry quickly sorry um just explain the emotional spiritual side of pain i'm sorry but i just can't resist it if you take the word pain and power in and a lot of men have suppressed their feelings big boys don't cry etc etc and because our issues go back seven generations or more um we take on a lot of that memory and so pain also need to look at father's story what did he go through what was going on in his life and as well she said you know a lot of pain from the war times now i'll shut up for a little while [Laughter] chris you are a darling you really are okay we are going to go to sharon morgan and just so that we can try to get a little bit back on track for time because we we were sort of way overrunning at the moment um sharon could i ask you could you have your question please um yeah i was just wondering if anybody's specifically worked with people who have a dual diagnosis of addictions and mental health um i've worked in in that area before there's a huge gap for services so i'm just wondering if them if there's any specialisms out there that um can use can be used to treat people to get back on track um or if there's been any research done or anything like that with recovery and how reflexology can help with that lovely what i would like to do is if i can specifically ask vanessa on this one please especially being as we have got your conventional health care background as well yeah that's a pleasure to answer to it in fact sharon this is a huge problem since covet teenagers are suffering a lot from mental illness the the problem is getting bigger and the truth is that drugs doesn't solve it you know it's like a quick bench but the root of the problem is not solved with medication so yes mental health it's a very broad subject you know it depends on what you are talking about because the approach is not always the same what happened is that for instance i work in the image emergency service and so i am the front one and i am able to do reflexology in the hands quick treatments five to ten minutes and for instance in case of anxiety panic depression you can help a little bit of course it won't work for a long but at least the symptoms at the moment are controlled and in fact some of the doctors call me to help with those patients if you are calling um if you're asking about additions like hulk huckle drugs the problem is more complex i also work with it it um implies a network team you know you can't do anything by or there's very little things that you can do alone but when you work together and there is a commit commitment from the passion and the family yes you can get results it's a very slow process you have to be very patient and there's a lot ups and downs you know because um it's not easy for them to change in the same environment and they need a lot of support many times the family is very tired and give up on them so they end up on the streets so it's not easy to think to do but it's possible about reflexology specifically there are some tips um into i work with traditional chinese medicine and according to it the heart is the seat of the psych so everything that is related with the mind and the control of mental health mental health is under the control of the heart and for that i create one technique that i call braveheart that it helps in many things but one of the things it can be useful it's on these cases another important reflex in the addictions is the spleen because you know in traditional chinese medicine everything that is about compulsion and obsession is about the element earth and if you think a little bit it makes sense because when you are addicted to something you are trying to to feel one hole that you have inside you and you are not able to feed your needs so you try to compensate that hole that you bring that that unhappiness that you feel with things from the outside because you're not able to fix it in your inner side so in this perspective the spleen it's always always very important to work with and also the heel area because the heel it's the earth element another very important reflex is the liver because the liver is the emotional discipline and many of these patients or all of them have discipline issues they don't follow rules they do whatever they want they don't sleep well um the drugs itself will interfere with the liver so if you're asking for top tips i would say do a triangle between kidney heart spleen or the kidney heart liver you can do it in the hands and why a triangle because a triangle is also associated with the element fire and the fire is under the control of the heart and like i told you the heart is the seat of the cycle this is only one small small small tip but that there is a very complex process you can do it but you won't always be effective and you have to know that it's not your fault because you must have um commitment from the passion and that's a very very hard thing to do to achieve another important thing to work on is the solar plexus because you know they have to balance their ego and their relationship with themselves so but this is like i told you a quick bench you know vanessa that's fabulous thank you so much top tips absolutely top tips for such an important issue that we have in our society today um a very quick question for chris storma from roseanne carhill when are you coming to ireland to be sure i'll be back i'm hoping to be back in april it all depends on obviously the whole situation and i'm traveling but um already i'm chatted to um surgery um in sliger and we're looking at april and also the fabulous birth green in canada toronto so it's all um in the air at the moment but i'll be back someday fabulous now moshe miriam um who sent us a question in spanish can't be with us i'm going to ask the question in english you've got it written out in spanish would you be able to then translate it into spanish so that any of our spanish speakers can also understand it and then could you translate the could you could you sort of answer it in spanish as well because i believe you told me she doesn't actually speak english does she that's great so miriam asks i have a patient with carpal tunnel problems for years and in the complication of this difficulty the index and middle fingers suffer from trigger finger only waking in the morning both fingers get stuck after a while they have no difficulty in moving and this happens every morning when my client wakes up since reflexology her carpal tunnel situation has improved but i don't know how to treat her with the difficulty in her trigger fingers of the same hand a few months ago she suffered a fall and sprained that hand she soon recovered from the discomfort of the four caused but since that fall he began with his other difficulty in the mornings of the fingers he also has some discomfort at the elbow which he identifies as a result of the fall he suffered over to you moshe uh before before i answer the question to miriam i said i will say that i will be in ireland before priests oh fabulous end of september and two weeks after that and paula's in subreddit but to the question in spanish [Music] now in english so the this person has a per has a uh a problem with the carpal tunnel syndrome for years she has been where she has been helping him to deal with the pain with some techniques that i that i showed in the course that she has done in in montevideo uruguay some years ago and then what i suggest to me and to miriam is just to squeeze a flexible ball before she wakes well when this person wakes up and before he stands and stands up and gets off the bed to do some exercise for some minutes like 10 minutes squeezing very squeezing a ball a flexible ball very softly as to exercise they involve the the fingers breathing uh breathing deeply as to nurture herself with the oxygen and to get and giving herself much more power at the moment of squeezing and maybe to combine reflexology with motion and even with eyes but this is a whole technique that i have already uh taught her and she knows it very well fabulous mushy muchas gracias many thanks okay catriona um this i would like to call you in for the next question if i may this is from karen smith she was with us until a few moments ago sadly there has been a family emergence and she's had to go she's i'm interested in learning more about linking techniques this is sometimes also known as precision reflexology and wonder whether the panel used them as a standalone treatment or during a full treatment at the moment i use lynx ad hoc throughout the treatment but feel that there may be that there is a more structured approach so catriona could could you sort of address that one maybe hi karen um structure is boring isn't it so i love that bring them in when you feel it when you you know intuitively feel it i think you can't structure a set treatment for any client can you have to kind of go with it and see what shows up and be guided i'm always mindful of using the linking techniques i think they're amazing i think also i think they're very powerful so you know if you spent a full hour doing linking techniques your clients could have steam coming out of their ears you know they're very powerful so you have to respect them i think john williamson is a genius um creating blinking techniques i think many of us have probably been to lots of postgraduate trainings and linking techniques are included you know it's just her techniques have spread across so many different ailments and clients and i would even use them with children but i'm very mindful when i'm using them with children that i'm very gentle and i don't necessarily link i tap so it's a very gentle linking when i'm using but i i would bring them into treatments um not in a structured way at all really when i feel they're necessary and i always um i like to see how clients react to my you know generic reflexology treatment first as opposed to going straight in with linking because you never know how anybody reacts to a treatment so um it's not something i generally use on a first treatment um i would integrate them after that but um yeah as i would just be guided by your intuition when you feel ready to you know when the time is right perfect i wholeheartedly agree with that answer wholeheartedly agree fabulous vanessa there was a second part to this question which i think you will be perfect for how useful do you find traditional chinese medicine and what advice would you give to incorporate this into treatments well thank you david for that question because in fact it's related with the previous question the linking so i work with tcm because tcm allows me to work in holistic approach this means that i can work the same organ in the physical energetic and emotional way how do i do it by linking blinking what well there's different approaches in my methodology one of them is to use not only the physical function of the organ but like us said before for instance the the the heart it's the city of the deep sick so if i want to tell the body that i want to work some organ on some parts but with a mental perspective i link with the heart for instance and in this case i link different reflexes but using the energetic and emotional function another thing that i do a lot and in fact it was the first technique that i created was the yo-yo and what is it i work the reflex and the meridian at the same time so i'm licking the physical and the energetic function at the same time and i can do it with the entire meridian on the the the foot or i can link the reflex with one specific acupressure point that has one specific function so i'm telling the body that i want that organ to be attached with the function of that meridian point so i am bringing the hole to the parts another thing that i do since i place the five elements of chinese medicine on the feet is to connect one element with one reflex or different elements with meridians so tcm opens a new opportunity for me a new world that allows me to to work in a holistic way and to improve my performance and the results that i obtained from the patient wonderful thank you so much that's brilliant um chris this question i want to put to you this is from morwenna can you please let me know what you would say is the quickest method for calming someone down for nerve pain would it be balances massage connecting reflex points with the brains or what would you suggest i would say they would all work but um for me i would go straight to the solar plexus and the solar plexus of course being immediate beneath the balls of the feet and then just to rest the thumbs um very lightly are on the reflexes and allow the thumbs to literally sink into this skin until you get a resistance and then just hold it for a while and then continue to allow the thumbs to sink in a little deeper until you feel that this is enough for them and just hold it there and then as you release the thumbs to incredibly slowly and if you feel they need that again particularly if they're having breathing issues then you can match it to their breathing issues as well and then after this you can allow any digits to just rest on that reflex and until you feel that energy going through and the solar plexus is incredibly powerful reflexes on the feet and particularly good for asthma hyperventilation any panic situation and you can go to any time during a treatment if you feel that the person is feeling a bit distressed excellent thank you so much moshe i'd like to come to you for the next question i don't think dawn is with us uh no she's not do any of the speakers so moshe if i can ask this one to you have any suggestions for mouth ulcers i have a seven year old boy who has them more often than he doesn't so blood tests have been done they are clear she can't find a trigger but he is generally an anxious boy with a lot of aggression the aggression comes at home but he's good at school and he's been the same since the age of two so ulcers have been with him for now three and a half years marshay to you please well uh it is a very complex answer that i had it is based on the possibility and a theory because mouth ulcers can be an a very early sign my most mouth ulcers in them in a child can be a very early signs of of crohn's disease ah since cross disease attacks all the membranes in the all the membranes of the digestive digestive system tissues and well you have to under we have to understand what an autoimmune disease is well every uh almost every autoimmune disease attacks one tissue in particular the tissue in particular that the uh cross disease attacks it are all the mucosa membranes of the digestive system particularly okay 95 percent of the 85 percent of the cases um the attack goes to the terminal helium but this is another story an early sign of crohn's disease that can be seen in childhood or under but interpreted later in life oh i had mouth ulcers when i was when i was a child well it might be linked now there is a second element here and it is when a membrane a membrane is um is supposed to protect the tissues and a mouth ulcer is uh is an injury in the in the in the in that membrane in the muscles of the mucus of the mouth so it speaks about vulnerability now where does this vulnerability come from well it can it can come from some genetic uh mutation that is is one of the basics of in the theory to explain the possibility what is possible to cause an autoimmune disease so i don't go i don't want to go that far because i don't want to see the fear in anyone but just it can be one one of the signs and the other thing that somehow becomes a part of the of the same explanation is the stress and the anxiety stress and anxiety is one of the most clear environmental factors that that can go together with an autoimmune disease whatever the stress is whatever the anxiety uncertainty is stress nervousness or whatever psychopathogenic disorder or cause for the disease now we're speaking about a seven-year-old guy and it is really very early to and of course i would like to please not to be misunderstood i am not diagnosing anyone but i am only throwing one a possibility of these mouth mouth ulcers that have no explanation that sometimes some doctors would prefer to say oh yes probably it is the lack of some vitamin um my answer to this approach would be what is wrong in the body that this vitamin cannot be absorbed and therefore i would suggest don just to not to take this very hard but you take this into consideration and at the at the right time to take the guy to a gastroenterologist before because there would be no sign in the body at this age that can indicate that there would be a problem in the future yes this is this and well in just in the in case and i touch wood that it is not in case that it is an autoimmune disease here i just um clear signs of the disease will be seen much later in life okay moshe thank you very much very very comprehensive that's lovely um we are going to have a question for chris storma next and this is going to be one of her beautiful images going to be coming up in a moment uh katie from canada so she can't be with us because the time difference but she says the reflex area for the knees are different on different maps how do i approach people with osteoarthritis of the knees um and she she does also go on to say before and after knee replacements or pain so uh chris stormer please can we have an answer for this uh one please absolutely i love the feet that suddenly appeared with morty um um but it's wonderful that there are so many different approaches to the feet and and there are so many different foot charts and because every person perceives the feet the way that they've been taught or how it resonates with them and for me being a medical person originally i i find it the easiest to actually um visualize the body anatomically on the feet so if you look at have you got that first little chart that i did ready please the first one yes so no problem at all let me just get to where it says share screen and this will now probably oh hang on is this the right one um hang on all your starts here um no that's the second one that's the second one um but we can we can stay here it's not a problem so basically um basically we the way i perceive it or the universe perceives it is that we are sitting um either in a fetal or crouched position now if you put the uh limbs in that position on the soles of the feet you will see that the knee and the nipple reflexes are the same reflexes on the soles of the feet so if you take it to the other diagram if you've got that please day we'll do it no problem let's just go to the other one so it's going to be this one that's it and so if you look again as i'm saying going anatomically the outer ankles are the hip reflexes and then you take it from the um right down to between the shoulder reflexes and the elbow reflexes and you'll find the knee the way the best way to do this is to put your thumbs on the shoulder reflexes which are protrusions that are just below the little toes you'll feel them they feel just like the shoulder reflexes on our body then halfway down on the outer edges of the feet you will find the elbow reflexes so if you then put your third fingers on the elbow reflexes and then let your second fingers fall halfway between you will feel like little ledges that feel like a bent knee a bent patella and because if you saw in the previous program i mean picture that the knee and the nipple reflexes are the same you'll see that the t they match up with the secondary nipple reflexes on the tops of the feet so what i love about reflexology and at the end of the day we don't even have to have an intention in fact it's better if we when we do the treatments is to just hand over to the universe and just empty our minds of anything and everything and then trust the process because the energy will always go to where it's needed so even if you just say knee the energy knows where to go and um that's the best i can that's perfect thank you so much moshe you were waving your little mini feet in in the the screen do you have a were you wanting to come in on this one as well well yes i thought you were yeah yeah just a second they are my they're coming to say goodbye so um where was the question so it's about the where the point of the knee reflexes yeah yeah yeah okay yeah right listen my first my first approach for the knee reflex or for all the reflexes in the body uh to locate the pre the precise reflex where we have to work is where the pain is and therefore if i am if i am working with someone who comes with a problem in the knee then i will have to explore all the near reflex area to know exactly where the pain is now this is one approach a second approach will say so so this is so this is the hip so this is the hip and this is the shoulder yes so the cervical the survival from the cervical plexus i can connect to the brachial plexus through this capillary bone and then through the upper limb through the uh sorry through the arm and the elbow yes and then the forearm on the hand when i come from the other side i come from the hip all the way up to the knee yes and then i continue with the forearm yes so sometimes we miss with this concept sometimes you know this this can be just a millimeter just it can be a distance of a millimeter from between one and the other one and the third concept is that i for me when it comes to joints i consider the joints as a subsystem of the osteoarticular system that means when it comes to the when it comes to a problem in the knee or when it comes to a problem in the elbow if it is a problem in the knee i will need to work also on the hip and also on the pelvic floor and also on the sacral plexus because this is where the the nervous message comes comes from and this is where the muscles are and therefore my conclusion is the knee will be here and the elbow will be here thank you moshe that's great the interesting thing is we've got so many we've got the variety it's not the one is right and the other one's wrong we've got alternatives and and i would just put in there that if one isn't working for a client then go for the other now we're going to just jump just for the speakers you don't panic i am jumping on purpose i'll come back to the other questions in a moment this one is a question for catriona so uh this is from tina walsh uh again i don't know is tina with us i can't no she's not that's fine so she'd like to ask catriona i'd love more information on how to teach reflexology what qualification do you need to do this and where is it best to do it she says i'm based in ireland i've got diplomas and reflexology diet and nutrition but obviously she would like to know more catriona what would you advise somebody living in ireland to do to be able to teach okay hi tina um so you're based in ireland but a lot of your students will not you know not necessarily be from ireland and may travel internationally so um it's important that you choose an accrediting body that's internationally recognized okay and there's not a huge list of those in ireland um so also you know make sure it's you know there there's different modules when you're teaching reflexology in ireland anatomy physiology is is um you know a huge part of it we often have students that have taken a different qualification and then they want to take an itec massage diploma and um they often their anatomy and physiology that they've already studied is not sufficient or it's not recognized so it's important to do a little bit of research um beforehand and if if tina wants to get in touch with me directly she could um contact me through my website goldeneyestick.com and chat about it um so yeah i noticed she has diet nutrition as well and you know there's qualifications there's accrediting bodies that she can also get um you know she can teach her diet and nutrition as well through that so i tech would be one of them she could teach reflexology and diet and nutrition and she lists um indian head massage as well so they're they're all high tech diplomas so it might be it might make sense for her to have one accrediting body like that but there's different choices if she wants to get in touch with me and she's welcome to do so fabulous thank you so much catrio that's excellent information very valid we've got two questions left uh we've got one from clear and we have another from al donna claire i'm going to come to you first so claire could you ask your question please and this one's going to be going to vanessa oh yeah hi thank you so much um i i i don't have my question written down but i remembered that i i basically was talking about uric acid in the in the can as congestion in the feed um when i'm working with clients i um i know that that is a theory in reflexology and i certainly can feel congestion um and and the soreness that can come with that goes away as this substance breaks up in the tissue of the feet a bit um and so i'm just wondering what yes um the panel or whoever it was that you chose for that question um has to say about that so about um [Music] uric acid and the reflex points of defeat uh the question you actually wrote was what are the opinions of this theory and in uh the combination of the soreness to the acupressure points so which that's particularly why i was thinking that vanessa might be a good one to ask you because of her chinese traditional medicine background as well so deposits of uric acid uh vanessa how might they uh influence you and your understanding of reactions yeah like as uh told before my first technique was the yo-yo and it was because when i was a reflexology student i was very impatient one of the things that really bothered me was at the end of the treatment that the patient still have some crystals on some deposits um so i start thinking of some strategies or some tools that i could use to destroy that crystals faster and that's why i thought that maybe making the connection between the reflexes and the meridians will help it and when a reflex has crystals and the acupressure point has soreness or congestion or stagnation or any imbalance for me the interpretation is that the the imbalance of the reflex it's not being caused only by the physiological function but also from the energetic um the point for me is that when the energetic um aspect is imbalanced the physical may or may not be affected it depends on the function of the acupressure point because some of them have some um functions like spread the wing the wind so we spread the wind or for instance to help with dizziness and you know that if the liver has congestion and the acupressure point related with dizziness is congested or have stagnation what whatever you know that delivery is causing the dizziness so you don't have to go and search further but sometimes it happens that that point is related with energetic emotional and physiologic functions so doing the connection between both of them will help you to build the puzzle and understand in the first glance what is happening to with your passion this will be a powerful tool to help you to to develop your plan of the session you know what to do first and what techniques to use because if the imbalance is mostly emotional i won't work physical techniques so i will direct for more emotional techniques or more energetic techniques that i have different kinds of techniques so um i think that's very useful especially for understanding what's really happened to your passion because many times the symptoms or the complaints doesn't show up in medical exams or in blood tests or many doctors don't find the reason for that and people came to reflexology as a last resource so many times the source of the imbalance is not physical but it may be energetic and in these specific cases what clear talked about is really important because when you are able to make the connection between the meridians and the feet and the reflexes on the feet you you get a quicker answer another thing that i can add it's when you start to make the connection not only with the meridians and the reflexes but also with the elements the five elements in the feet then the answer is more clear and more faster so i think you're on the good path clear i don't know if i answer you but thank you that's wonderful vanessa thank you so much al donna i just want to thank you so much for waiting patiently for so long and you have our final question uh i believe your fa your question was for moshe so would you be able to read your question to us please i i actually got answers throughout the previous questions or partially the answers i have because i need to admit that pain is um something that i'm very interested in that's why i would like to address my uh question or questions because the question a little bit developed since i originally sent it to you that's fine no sure but uh he already answered and partially for that um is the reflexology for pain and sorry moshe i'm not very familiar with your technique so i'm not sure whether is a set of different techniques or a sequence that's why my question is quite generally general sorry um but uh that top you call it here top techniques uh using for reflexology in pain is it used just for them or it's more effective when using it for the structural pain when it comes to bones joints um or is it also for use very useful and effective for neurological pains or in autoimmune disorders and pains that come from them or when the cause of the pain is not known i had them in client with their pain in the in the left side of their stomach and no no no examinations tests as friends etc and kind of find found out what was the cause of the pain but the pain was there also um my question is developing a little bit uh more um because i see and either i understand the physical body that is um um mirror of the emotional and mental body and of course energetic body as well and often the imbalances in those energetic and emotional and mental body show in the physical body so my um further question to that um top techniques is when they are very effective or how long they are effective if the client um himself doesn't address the um the original um um source of of suffering which is often in physical in in emotional mental trauma or in even spiritual um disturbance and um can we come again because otherwise we're never going to remember the whole question no no no worries i remember and uh you know as a and while as donna was asking her question i was stretching my mind mentally so where to hit first and and and so but do you have time until the evening because the answer will be a bit long and i would do not i would not like to abuse of your time let's make you know let's answer this and this a very nice question in sections first section let me explain you what top is top doesn't is not a trademark top is treatment of pain it is an acronym that comes from a stands for treatment of pain now why the treatment of pain and not pain management because i don't like the term pain management the pain management suggests me that there is something that i have to manage and i have to let it exist while my approach my therapeutic approach with reflexology is that we have all the sources to help the person get rid of the pain as long as the body allows it and therefore you would see you would probably see that there is top one on top two and the main difference between this point these two things these two things explains a part of the question top one is directing well because because it it is a it is a long course of you know when i give it online is approximately 16 sessions i have i have divided it into two sections top one and top two being the top one will deal with all the pain that is curable the pain that means if you have tendinitis or a borscitis or a structural pain or a pain due to an injury or any source of pain this is top one and of course it works with the whole body not only with the structures but giving you enough skills and tools to deal with the pain in every single part of the body being it for example when i do do when i give this course and please excuse me david because this is not advertising for the course but no you never know it's fine it's fine it is a part it is a part of the of the answer it is when i when i address the pain i try to address the pain in all the possible aspects in top one for example i i teach my techniques for migraine and for premenstrual syndrome explaining that these two illnesses are related to some emotional issues so what is the underlying emotion that is behind the problem so to understand it and to and to favor some kind of communication with the client as it was the first answer of this of this meeting today that vanessa answered so the pain goes everywhere and the the most important thing is in the concept of top is understanding where the pain comes from or where it is originated and how it it behaves where does it go how does it affect the functionality of the whole body and the person etc etc etc because i believe that we have enough tools to eliminate the pain in most of the cases and if we have if we can if we can eliminate the pain so well maybe it is a question of time maybe it is a question of how do you work with the client not only the reflexes that you use it is how do you combine the whole sequence how do you combine or choose uh bits of uh of techniques because the whole top the whole top concept is about 32 techniques so far 32 on the other 20 i have the non-curable diseases and this is the top two and in top two i have included fibromyalgia and autoimmune diseases when i say that there are not curable it is because i don't believe that fibromyalgia is curable because of its origin first of all and i don't believe that autoimmune diseases are curable at this moment because there is not enough knowledge to say or to pinpoint what is exactly the perfect answer to explain the origin of an autoimmune disease and therefore when we treat the pain in a patient with an autoimmune disease first of all we have to understand what an autoimmune disease is second what is the specific autoimmune disease that this person suffers and the third thing is how can i make that this person enjoys the better possible the better quality of life possible knowing that an autoimmune disease will behave in the body as a as a succession of flare-ups and remissions so for me it is very important to prevent all the flare-ups and to expand all the remissions so the person can trust the body again and of course trying to stimulate in the better and smoothly and friendly way possible all those tissues that are affected by the illness and all the others that are affected for the malfunctioning of the body when you ask for a specific a specific case like in multiple sclerosis we enter uh we we enter a very complex syndrome which is an autoimmune disease but it is 100 different diseases so you have to better know what is well the origin of multiple sclerosis is exactly the same for all the patients but the expression of multiple sclerosis in every one of the patients that suffer it is a completely different illness because sometimes in some it can affect coordination and movement in some others can affect uh probably you know the well the grip and the eyelids and the on the and the swallowing because it is where is the part of the brain that has been affected by multiple sclerosis so when we in in my approach of these illnesses i try to to make a differentiation what is every illness so to adapt a general concept for everyone and the general concept is sedation relaxation and boosting the the parasympathetic system has to work as a sedative for the stress and then work on specific on specific techniques for every one of the illnesses and this is top two which is the 20 of the clients did i answer you thank you that was complex question and complex answer but thank you very much yeah i i i need to admit that i haven't had an idea of of of the top i i've i've read on on facebook on it but i was i was thinking that it was more or like a treatment set up like you know in the certain sequence of treatment of techniques that you use and how we can use that but yeah that is more more complex and as you said you know there is a big knowledge behind it and um different techniques so thank you thank you very much it is now my great pleasure to say thank you so much to everybody that's asked questions and thank you also so much to the panel for sharing your knowledge um i have learned so much um during this session um i'm sure we all have and may i just say that this has been an amazing time of sharing of knowledge of being able to be with like-minded fellow reflexologists as well so may i say to everybody thank you from my heart stay well stay safe and see you another time for another panel thank you very much and david thank you and for creating this fabulous space i think it was absolutely amazing and i am ready to participate in another panel if you want to wonderful thank you so much [Music]