Work on entire foot or hand

Last week we talked about how to begin and end the reflexology treatment with relaxation techniques. This week we are going to talk about how we can do an actual treatment on ourselves and others. First of all, while you don't need to know where the reflex points are on the feet and hands in order to do an actual reflexology treatment, it is certainly helpful and convenient to have that information. So, see any foot and hand chart that you can find on the Internet, since most of them are fairly accurate, and there are some really clear ones out there. Basically though, the toes are the top (head) of the body, and the heel is the bottom (butt) of your body, and the bottoms of your feet are the front of your body with the tops being the back part. Once you have seen a foot chart and studied it for some time you will quickly be able to recognize the various reflex points.

Sensitive
Again, though, the actual reflexology treatment will not require you knowing anything about the reflex points, because the important thing in reflexology is that you conduct a complete treatment on the whole body anyway. Keeping that in mind, if you make sure that you cover all of the reflexology points, concentrating particularly on the sensitive areas then you will most certainly be doing a beneficial reflexology treatment, even though you don't know anything at all about the reflex points. Plus, doing reflexology, no matter what anyone says, you really can't harm the body in any way, because the pressure on the various reflex points simply encourages the body to do its own healing. After all, that is the beauty of reflexology in the first place, in that it is totally non-invasive, and totally safe.

So, once you have begun by doing several of the suggested relaxation techniques, you will then be ready to begin the actual treatment. Before giving you the techniques, I will suggest a method by which you can work. Personally, I work the entire foot (or hand) in a way that helps you to make sure that you don't miss any of the points. If you do the treatment in a haphazard manner, you are likely to forget one or more of the points, which will not be very productive. So, my treatments always begin on the right (either the hand or the foot), and I find it convenient to begin on the large toe (which represents the main part of the head). You work over the entire right toe, from the base to the top, making sure that you don't leave out any area.

Represents
Give plenty of concentration to the base of the toe from all angles, since that represents the neck which is often tight and tense and in need of softening. From there you can work on each of the other toes one by one from the top to the base also. They also represent the head, including the brain, sinuses and neck, the same as the big toe. Then you will concentrate on the pads directly under the smaller toes, where the bases of those toes connect to the foot. Those areas represent the eyes and ears. You will then work over the pad of the foot (the ball), (which represents the chest/breast area), the bottom of the foot in the part below the ball (which represents the abdominal area, including the stomach, liver, intestines, etc), and the inner boney part of the foot (along the inner edge all the way from the big toe down to the heel) where the spine is represented.

Then, after that you will move to the outer edge of the hand or foot for the points of the arms and legs. Along with this the top of the foot will be systematically done in order to make sure the shoulders, legs (also), and other points are thoroughly worked. Finally, you will work on the areas around the ankles. This would be the place you would find all the reflex points for the male and female sexual organs, with the ovaries and testes being on the outside parts of the ankles, and the uterus or male organ being on the inside parts of the ankles on both the hands and the feet.

Technique
Once you finish the right hand or foot completely, then you can move on to the other one and work systematically through that one also. You must always make sure that you are covering every part of the foot or hand and not leaving out even the smallest area. This is one reason why learning the reflex chart for both the hands and the feet is important. Some of the reflex points are so small that unless you know exactly where they are you might not ever reach them (like some of the endocrine glands).

Reflexology Techniques:
Thumb and Finger Walking: This is definitely the most important technique that you will use in reflexology. It is the one that is used on almost all the areas of the treatment. It can be done effectively while you are holding the foot firmly between the hands and you use either your thumb for covering the reflex points by bending it while holding your hand firmly on the foot (for example). You bend it in a way that gives you strength and leverage, so that you can make it inch forward with a certain amount of strength. You keep on inching it forward in order to put pressure on all of the areas, like the ball and bottom of the foot, the top of the foot, and the sides, for example. Using this technique allows you to cover all the areas, without leaving anything out, while you work systematically forward and over all the points. The idea is to keep on working back and forth, using both of the hands (fingers and/ or thumbs) in tandem with each other. Naturally, doing this effectively will take a fair amount of practice, because it will require some coordination on your part, but after doing a few treatments, you will be doing just fine, I'm sure.

Email me: miaponzo@yahoo.com
(To be continued)

By Mia Ponzo
Special to the Arab Times