How does it work?
Holistic medicine is a general approach to health care and is the result of harmony between the body, mind and spirit. Stress is a natural part of daily life and some stress can be positive but excessive negative stress without redress will affect our health and create blockages, which ultimately causes illness.
Our bodies have a natural ability to heal itself e.g. when we cut a finger it will naturally heal but stress will affect the bodies natural ability to do so.
Although Reflexology cannot prevent stress it is a method of re-balancing our body’s natural ability to heal itself and treat the person as a whole and not as a list of symptoms. It is also a wonderful relaxing treatment, which in itself will promote a more positive life experience.
The foot is one of the most sensitive areas of the body. It contains over 7,200 nerve endings which are stimulated during reflexology treatments.
Reflexology is based on the principle that areas or reflexes in the feet, hands and other areas of the body relate to structures and internal organs of the body. In reflexology the hand and feet are seen as microcosms of the body. Microcosms are a ‘a small system regarded as a little self contained world that contains all the qualities, activities of something much larger’
Feet represent the body with body parts laid out in a similar arrangement with the big toe representing the head area and the pelvis and lower back in the heel area.
Reflexology is based on longitudinal and transverse zones or channels in the body. The Reflexologist can stimulate the body to clear out blockages and congestion which help the body rebalance by accessing these zones.
Pressure on points in these areas helps to achieve balance in the body by normalising the function of internal organs through a system of zones that link particular reflexes with particular organs
Dr Fitzgerald described ten longitudinal zones extending from the feet up the legs and up the body to the head and down the arms to the hands. The zones are of equal width and extend right through the body. They can also be described in reverse starting at the hands and running up down to the feet. There are five zones on the left side of the body and five on the right. Within the zones, energy flows from the reflex points to the corresponding areas of the body.
The right foot represents the right side of the body and the left foot represents the left side of the body. For example the spleen is located in the left side of the body and has its reflex point in the left foot.
Transverse Zones help to divide the foot to identify more clearly which parts of the foot relate to which parts of the body.