Everyone knows reflexology is about feet (and, to a lesser extent, hands). You press or massage a spot on the feet and thereby relieve a pain or illness elsewhere in the body. It’s a fairly simple concept. When you first hear about it, you may be somewhat skeptical — why should pressing a spot on the foot help a pain in your head? In fact, many AMA doctors are skeptical about reflexology, though reflexologist Mike Witort likes to reply that skepticism about AMA-sanctioned treatment would have been wise in instances such as breast implants and thalidomide. Witort also points out that reflexology does have a history. He identified Eunice Ingham as the founder of reflexology; sources I examined also cite an earlier physician, Dr. William Henry Fitzgerald, as Ingham’s predecessor.
Anyway, if you get relief from a headache or a sinus pain that’s been bothering you for years, you care less about the reasons than you do about the results. To get such results, at least if you’re inclined to try reflexology on yourself, you need a map. You need to know which spot on the feet to press or massage for which pain. If you have a pain in the lower back, where do you press? For that matter, which foot do you press on? You also need to know how to press. How much pressure? A stroke or thrust? You head to a good bookstore for a book and a foot map, and thus armed, you find a new route to self-help through reflexology. The limited but palpable relief you feel leads you to seek out a professional, someone trained in the subtleties of the art. At least, that’s how it went with me.
After many years of amateur experimentation with reflexology, in which I found some relief from various pains, I made an appointment with certified reflexologist Mike Witort, who offered to bring his table from suburban Westchester to my house in the city. Witort clearly has a passion for the practice of helping and healing, as evidenced by his frequent donation of treatments to worthy cases. He especially promotes the use of a reflexology point in the hand as an aid to those in need of greater bladder control. "I’m going to need a six-by-eight space to set up my table," he announces as he steps into my jam-packed living room. We manage without much trouble to rearrange the furniture. Witort sits in a chair at the end of the table and I lie down with my right leg resting on a rolled up towel and my foot extending beyond the table’s edge.
As he begins the treatment, Witort explains that while his training taught him about nine pinpoint locations on the foot corresponding to important glands and organs, he himself thinks in terms of a higher number: twenty-seven. He goes on to explain that, even more important than dealing with pain in certain areas, reflexology treatment is intended to revitalize organs such as the adrenal glands and those in the lymphatic system.
If in the abstract it seems unlikely that pressing hard on your foot could affect a gland somewhere in your head, the idea doesn’t seem that strange when you experience a treatment. I could feel, for example, some kind of swallowing reflex when a certain point on the foot was pressed. Witort demonstrated a method of pulling the top of the foot toward him so that the pressure of his thumb on the foot is increased. One press on my foot felt more like a needle than others: this was the point corresponding to my brain. I hesitate to interpret this.
I was thankful that Witort followed up the pressure on my foot by showing me how, after he hit a pinpoint spot hard on the foot, he always rolled the foot between his hands to let it "cool down." (Not all reflexologists do this.) Overall, I’d say the treatment of both feet was vigorous, thorough, and extremely relaxing.
Before he left me, Witort cautioned that a reflexology session may be followed by a period of "healing crisis," of feeling almost like you have a mild case of the flu, because the treatment gets toxins moving around within the body. It may take a day or so for these to be properly eliminated. In talking about his practice in general, he explained that reflexology works through nerve channels and meridians in the body, though he commented that "nobody knows exactly how or why it works." In terms of activating glands and hormones, anyone can benefit from seeing a reflexologist, according to Witort, and "even the least competent treatment can have a benefit." Witort generally sees a client just once, to stimulate the body’s healing powers.
Jim Markgraf, who practices in Schaumburg, offers an intense program of detoxification in which he sees patients twice a week for four weeks. He says that "reflexology is great at eliminating garbage from the system." Not everyone requires the detox program, according to Markgraf. Some people’s complaints, for instance a sore shoulder, might be treated successfully in one visit. Others might be long-term. Someone who has a hair analysis that shows too much copper in the system would need a series of treatments. Markgraf offers a reduced rate to clients who require a more prolonged treatment.
Markgraf mentions that for some people, he does reflexology on the hands rather than the feet. "The only time I do hands alone," he says, "is when people for some reason don’t want me to do their feet." The reason for such a request is usually some kind of embarrassment about their feet. "You get a better surface to work with on the feet. Hands can be bony and hard to work — there’s not enough meat. You end up with bone pressing on bone."
Sylvia Parnell, who practices in the Lincoln Park area, explains that reflexology is quite different from a foot massage, though both can be beneficial. Massage, says Parnell, "is the movement of the soft tissue and underlying muscles by using the entire hand and applying various massage strokes to ease muscle tension and improve circulation of blood and lymph fluid in the foot." Reflexology, on the other hand, "is the application of pressure using mostly the thumb and fingers to all the reflex areas of the foot, which induces a physiological reaction in the body."
She feels that reflexology can be especially helpful to people with foot problems; with stress-related muscle tension in the neck, shoulders, and back; and with diabetes. "The loss of sensitivity by diabetic people in the nerve receptors on the feet and the poor circulation of the blood and lymph in this area are greatly helped by reflexology. The benefits of stimulating the other important reflex areas like the kidneys, pancreas, bladder, and adrenal glands are many." Parnell stresses that no matter where disease originates, "the body is affected throughout."
When I ask Parnell if most clients were seeing her about a specific pain, she replies that they were "almost evenly divided between those in relatively good health and those who have a particular health problem." She notes that not all of her work shows results that are easy to see, but that she has learned to trust her method, because results do ensue. She goes on to recount a story from her pre-certification training. "One of my volunteer clients was a forty-eight-year-old man with an eight-year history of multiple sclerosis. I performed weekly sessions on his feet for over a year. Results were not easily seen and I often wondered if I was helping him." Toward the end of her training, however, Parnell’s reticent client revealed that "he always had more feeling and movement in his feet and legs for several days after our sessions."
Bill Furlong, who is President of the Reflexology Association of Illinois (RAI) worked part-time in reflexology for some twenty-five years before becoming a full-time reflexologist four years ago. He and his wife, Kay Jean Furlong, who is a teacher and reflexologist, sometimes work together on a client, with his wife working on the hands while he does the feet. Furlong emphasizes that reflexology restores balance, which always increases health. He points out that while Eunice Ingham developed reflexology into a modern system, there is plenty of evidence of therapeutic work on hands and feet for millennia in China and India, even ancient Egypt. "Life is nothing more than balance," he explains. "When you’re balanced you can tackle the world."
Referring to reflexology as the art and science of stress management and reduction, Furlong notes that solving stress-related problems often requires more than improvement in diet and exercise habits. Reflexology can be a significant aid, according to Furlong. He says it’s not uncommon for clients to "feel outstanding for three to six weeks" after a treatment.
To find a reflexologist for yourself, Furlong recommends contacting the RAI or the Reflexology Association of America. "Anyone who is certified and qualified is a member of these two associations."
Furlong, Parnell, Markgraf, and Witort have reinforced what I suspected about reflexology: whether you do it yourself, practice with an amateur partner, or visit a certified reflexologist, you have nothing to lose through reflexology but a lot of unneeded stress. On the other hand, you may gain for yourself a healing modality that will help you find your balance and serve you well for years to come.
Resources
Reflexology Association of Illinois, P.O. Box 5515, Buffalo Grove, Illinois 60089-5515
Reflexology Association of America
Bill Furlong (Reflexology by Relaxus), 847-506-1944
Jim Markgraf, 847-891-5040
Sylvia Parnell, 773-520-5365
Christina Singh-Taylor, RMT, D.D., 773-871-0342
Mike Witort, 708-562-8512, pager 708-266-4298