Helping Your Family with Reflexology

Helping Your Family with Reflexology
The Reflexology Mom and the Extended Family Tackle Health and Fitness

by Barbara and Kevin Kunz

Drawn to reflexology are mothers concerned about helping a child’s health problem, interested in seeking family wellness outside of the medical model, or living in a rural area with poor accessi- bility to medical care. The reflexology mom, we’ll call her. Her primary motivation is helping a loved one or loved ones. This admirable character extends the care of her family and their needs, taking into her own hands through reflexology their health and well-being.

This time she’s been joined by the many others who make up today’s caring, extended “family” unit: grandparents, life partners, friends, aunts, and the many other loved ones who are part of our lives. As you read through the following, keep in mind that we’re really talking about any one of these individuals who people our lives.

One recent example is a Mom we heard from and got to know over the Internet. She wrote that she had received help for symptoms of her Meniere’s disease by following information in our book Reflexology, Health at your fingertips (Dorling Kindersley). She went on to talk about how, once she felt better, she used reflexology to help her family with their health concerns. Her matter-of- fact letter about getting better so she could help loved ones was a truly touching testament to mom power. When we wrote another book and volunteered to send her one, she declined. While she appreciated the offer, she had totally personalized and customized Her original book to meet the needs of her family. She had marked pages with Post-Its and taken notes in the book’s margins to easily find the information she needed to work with the health concerns of each individual mem- ber of her family.

When we consider the reflexology moms we have known over the years, their stories are truly remarkable. Through their own efforts, they single-handedly made life better for themselves and their families. A low-cost health care system grows on its own as reflexology is applied by mom, the individual most in touch with the health status of her family, as she serves as the health care giver to their children, elderly parents, spouses, and friends. There’s no way to calculate concerns alleviated thanks to women’s use of reflexology. Then there’s also money saved over the years from costs of medication, side effects of medication or time spent sitting in a doctor’s waiting room.

One of our favorite Mom stories was our client Kathy’s. Alarmed at waking at three in the morn- ing unable to breath due to asthma and concerned that she had de-sensitized to a growing list of medications, she sought reflexology help. In addition to applying our reflexology work, we showed her a self-help technique and suggested five minutes of application. She came back to report not only that she could breath more easily after applying the technique but that it only took her three minutes. 

We met Kathy’s daughters as well. On one memorable occasion, Kathy called to cancel her daughter’s appointment. They were, after all, on their way to the emergency room due to her daughter’s extreme abdominal pain. Following standard procedure, no pain medication was administered during the five hours it took to diagnose the need for an appendectomy so Kathy uti- lized a reflexology technique to alleviate her daughter’s extreme pain. We met another daughter when she injured her ankle playing soccer. She was concerned that she would not play the final game of her high school career in a few days time unless the coach was satisfied the ankle had healed sufficiently. We showed her how to apply technique herself. She played in the game. We gradually lost Kathy as a client. She “graduated” and came to control her health concerns and those of her daughters.

And, yes, the mom stories are personal to us. More than thirty years ago, the mother of a college friend helped launch our own interest and careers in reflexology. For this mother, her daughter’s childhood injury, resulting in partial blindness and a “wandering” eye, became a cause to tackle. Through reflexology she succeeded in helping the injured eye track more normally. Then, there was the friend who was enrolled in a reflexology class with Kevin. She wanted to help her daugh- ter who had been injured in a car accident resulting in brain injury and partial paralysis. Told by doctors to institutionalize her daughter in a care facility, the mother instead applied reflexology. Not only did Janey recover sufficiently to live independently but she returned to her teaching career.

Today, research shows how reflexology can help families help each other. The use reflexology by families has been shown to help individuals with cancer. A study by Dr. Nancy Stephenson's study showed a “significant decrease in pain intensity and anxiety” with partner-delivered reflexology applied to patients with advanced cancer.” In a landmark study Barbara Zeller-Dobbs of Switzer- land noted: “Our purpose for using reflexology with these patients was to decrease their pain but we soon realized the beneficial effect of reflexology on the morale of patients and families. Some- thing was being done for them. Patients expressed feelings of being less abandoned and the fami-

lies expressed satisfaction at seeing that something painless existed that could aid their relative.”

Mom-powered and family-powered reflexology is more popular now than ever before. Many are attracted by reflexology’s easy usability and result-getting potential. In addition, it’s a natural therapy that provides a quiet moment of touch and communication with a loved one. Also, many many now believe in reflexology fitness, maintaining wellness in general by applying reflexology for such a goal. For others, disenchantment with medical care or even economic necessity make reflexology an attractive complement to health care for the family.

Resources

Using reflexology is a matter of applying pressure technique to the relevant reflex area of the foot or hand. There are resources detailing such information to match your level of interest. Listed here are resources to launch your use of reflexology providing information about: reflexology charts, how-to technique descriptions and how-to apply a pattern of techniques to address your health interest.

Complete Reflexology for Life by Kunz &Kunz / DK (2007)

The complete book of reflexology use. Color-photo illustrated instructions guide you through foot reflexology and hand reflexology application: basic techniques, how to apply foot reflexology to yourself or another, how to apply hand reflexology to yourself or another, how to use self- help foot reflexology tools, how to use hand reflexology self-help tools. In addition, you’ll find full ses- sion patterns for each. Fully illustrated instructions guide you through work with every stage of life including babies, children, teenagers, senior citizens, men women and pregnant women. Mini- sessions focus your efforts for recovery from injury, easing pain, first aid and relieving stress. Included are directions for soothing tired feet, yours or another’s, as well as working to better foot concerns. Instructions to rejuvenate the hands and work with hand concerns are included as well. Also included are how to address: health concerns, systems of the body (e. g. the digestive sys- tem) and each body part listed on a reflexology chart (e.g stomach).

The Parent’s Guide to Reflexology by Kunz & Kunz

Keep The Parent’s Guide to Reflexology handy to use as a reference, pulling it out when you need some reflexology information for your child. Or, use it as a learning tool for studying reflexology information specific to your child: how-to do reflexology techniques, hints and tips for working with children, benefits of reflexology for children, alphabetical section for applying reflexology specific to common children’s disorders. (160 pages)