THE POWER OF REFLEXOLOGY
It never ceases to amaze me how powerful reflexology is and how useful it is as a complement to orthodox medicine. More and more local health authorities are recognising it's value and I was fortunate enough to work within the palliative care team at my local teaching hospital. All my patients were terminal and the palliative care team's job was to make patients last days on earth as comfortable and as pain free as possible. I worked both as an aromatherapist and a reflexologist there.
Some patients were still receiving chemotherapy and of course having unpleasant side effects such as loss of appetite and nausea essential oils played a great part in helping the nausea and helping with the understandable anxiety knowing that their illness was terminal. Because these patient's health was very fragile, the treatment generally was centred on treatment of the hands and feet, as they were too fragile to have a full body or back and shoulders treatment, none the less, these treatments were very helpful and the feed back from the patients and their relatives was very good. The patient's relatives also benefited from therapy too as caring for a loved one who has not long to live is undoubtably stressful.
One case study I recall however was from a client at my local practise, she had been diagnosed as having a terminal brain tumour. Although the tumour was not malignant, it's place in the brain was inoperable and as it had been slow growing it was hard to say how the prognosis would go. She was experiencing tremendous headaches and her eyesight was now being affected as the tumour was growing near the area of the brain that governs sight. Her doctors could no longer do anything but help with the pain and wait and see how things panned out. She was suffering extreme anxiety, as you would expect and she was not sleeping at all well. She explained to me where the tumour was and she had the permission from her doctor to have reflexology, this is very important as reflexology is a very powerful tool and in some cases can stimulate the body so much medications may be affected.
On examination of her feet, the area of the big toes corresponds in reflexology as the head with the base of the big toes as the neck, I discovered a lump like reflex on the pad of the big toe on one foot, it wasn't uncomfortable to work this area on the client, but on the big toe of the the foot although there was no lump like reflex present, it was very sensitive and painful. This did not strike me as unusual given my experience as we know the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa. As I worked her feet, she fell asleep and when I completed the treatment she told me she felt more relaxed that she had for some time. I advised her to come back a couple of weeks later for a follow up treatment.
When I saw her a fortnight later she was smiling and very eager to tell me when she returned home after treatment she slept all afternoon and woke up headache free and her sleeping was much improved, something she had not experienced for a while. I saw her regularly at fortnightly intervals for around six treatments in total and her headaches had lessened to almost negligible. Now I can't say if this was down to the reflexology or the aromatherapy oils I used in the foot cream for massage, but it helped where nothing had previously. Her doctors were pleased with her progress and possibly it was the nature of her tumour, but I do know from the case loads of patients I have worked on complementary therapies are a valuable addition to orthodox medicine.
Up until a century or so ago medicine was all holistic, where the whole person was looked at and ailments were not pigeon holed, I am glad to see, there has been a turn in the tide and physicians are now seeing the benefits of Complementary (holistic) therapies after all, we are all 'mind, body and spirit'.
Some patients were still receiving chemotherapy and of course having unpleasant side effects such as loss of appetite and nausea essential oils played a great part in helping the nausea and helping with the understandable anxiety knowing that their illness was terminal. Because these patient's health was very fragile, the treatment generally was centred on treatment of the hands and feet, as they were too fragile to have a full body or back and shoulders treatment, none the less, these treatments were very helpful and the feed back from the patients and their relatives was very good. The patient's relatives also benefited from therapy too as caring for a loved one who has not long to live is undoubtably stressful.
One case study I recall however was from a client at my local practise, she had been diagnosed as having a terminal brain tumour. Although the tumour was not malignant, it's place in the brain was inoperable and as it had been slow growing it was hard to say how the prognosis would go. She was experiencing tremendous headaches and her eyesight was now being affected as the tumour was growing near the area of the brain that governs sight. Her doctors could no longer do anything but help with the pain and wait and see how things panned out. She was suffering extreme anxiety, as you would expect and she was not sleeping at all well. She explained to me where the tumour was and she had the permission from her doctor to have reflexology, this is very important as reflexology is a very powerful tool and in some cases can stimulate the body so much medications may be affected.
On examination of her feet, the area of the big toes corresponds in reflexology as the head with the base of the big toes as the neck, I discovered a lump like reflex on the pad of the big toe on one foot, it wasn't uncomfortable to work this area on the client, but on the big toe of the the foot although there was no lump like reflex present, it was very sensitive and painful. This did not strike me as unusual given my experience as we know the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa. As I worked her feet, she fell asleep and when I completed the treatment she told me she felt more relaxed that she had for some time. I advised her to come back a couple of weeks later for a follow up treatment.
When I saw her a fortnight later she was smiling and very eager to tell me when she returned home after treatment she slept all afternoon and woke up headache free and her sleeping was much improved, something she had not experienced for a while. I saw her regularly at fortnightly intervals for around six treatments in total and her headaches had lessened to almost negligible. Now I can't say if this was down to the reflexology or the aromatherapy oils I used in the foot cream for massage, but it helped where nothing had previously. Her doctors were pleased with her progress and possibly it was the nature of her tumour, but I do know from the case loads of patients I have worked on complementary therapies are a valuable addition to orthodox medicine.
Up until a century or so ago medicine was all holistic, where the whole person was looked at and ailments were not pigeon holed, I am glad to see, there has been a turn in the tide and physicians are now seeing the benefits of Complementary (holistic) therapies after all, we are all 'mind, body and spirit'.
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