You may never make a million dollars as a reflexologist, but you will be
rewarded by seeing positive results in clients -- and that's priceless.
That's the view of Donald Bisson, who is the dean of a college program
in reflexology. He became interested in reflexology about 30 years ago. That's
when he watched as his mother recovered completely from her arthritis thanks
to reflexology treatments. That was an incredible development, considering
doctors had told her that she would have to use a wheelchair for the rest
of her life due to arthritis of the spine.
Five years later, Bisson took his first course and has been going ever
since with beautiful results.
"There is no one single modality, including medicine, that will cure everything.
A person -- not a therapist -- takes his or her own responsibility for their
bodies and minds," he says.
A personal experience is also what brought Maria Krohmer to reflexology.
Krohmer was born in Switzerland, where her mother always relied on natural
medicines when the family got ill. Years later, Krohmer's husband became ill
and he also recovered with the use of holistic therapies.
Since then, Krohmer has been practicing reflexology. She says her results
prove this discipline's worth. She has plenty of success stories.
For instance, there was the client who came to her after having a cancerous
salivary gland removed. Because of the removal of the gland, he couldn't produce
saliva. Without saliva, you can't eat very well. As a result, this man had
to have his food blended so he could eat.
He and Krohmer went to work, meeting two or three times a week over a period
of about a month.
"One day, I was working on his feet when he sat up the middle of the session
and said, 'Maria, I can swallow! I have mucus!'"
Krohmer smiled to herself; this was what she had expected. The patient
became a regular client.
"The other week he came to me, and he said that if it weren't for me, along
with his change in attitude and diet, he'd be six feet under."
As mysterious as reflexology is, there's nothing mysterious about the results.
"In the long run, we know very little about our bodies and how we function,"
Krohmer says. "If we knew what we do to damage our bodies, I think we would
change our lifestyles dramatically."
Tapping into the body's ability to heal itself is only part of the attraction
of this job for Krohmer. "I love to be able to help people and I love to see
them get well," she says.
"The other thing that I also really enjoy is that people look up to you.
They share so many stories with you and you become a good listener. I love
to be a good listener."
Some people learn reflexology so they have one more way to help people.
Jae Dean was trained as a massage therapist.
"When I started doing reflexology, I found that it worked better than massage
therapy for relieving stress and tension. That's because it worked on balancing
all the body systems from the inside out, rather than [working] on only two
or three systems from the outside in, as with massage."
Dean also has many success stories. "When you start seeing miracles happen,
it's great. And it only takes one to get you pumped for the next six months."
As an example, Dean tells of a client who was left partially paralyzed
by a stroke and couldn't use his right hand.
"His right hand was quite paralyzed at first, but with just a few weeks
of therapy he could move his fingers better. [After five months] he's got
full use of his hand back. He will give you a handshake and you can't get
out of it."
There was also the child with knees full of fluid. He was on an anti-inflammatory
drug, but his affliction was crippling -- he could barely walk. At first,
Dean couldn't even touch his knees, they were so painful. But they kept at
it.
Dean worked with the boy for six weeks, until he went off the drugs and
the crutches and returned to school.
There's nothing like great results. Yet reflexologists point
out that they're just helping the body do its own thing.
"To me, the body's capability to heal is amazing. You and only you have
the power to heal. The only thing I do is facilitate your body's healing."
Reflexology is both a groundbreaking and ancient practice. "It's very satisfying,"
says Dean. "People call this work 'new age,' but new age is really just about
reintroducing ancient ways."