What is Reflex Zone Therapy?
Reflex Zone Therapy, more informally called Reflexology, is a method of healing by which the soles of the feet (or the palms of the hands) play an important role. There is an invisible map of all the organs in your body, drawn in the hands and the feet. Applying pressure on the different Reflex-Zone points, the therapist restores the normal natural balance in the human structure. 
How come we get ill?
In the art of Reflexology we do not speak of illness; we speak of a dis-balance. The normal function of the different organs - the necessary, concerted interplay - is often disturbed, for whatever reason: A stressful life, wrong eating habits, not enough rest or sleep, too much work and too little relaxation - in the final analysis all these well-known states cause illness (or disease).
The Reflexology therapist who is called on then applies a slight pressure on the different Reflex Zones in the feet, and more often than not so succeeds in restoring the balance.
Pain.
The patient (we prefer to say the client) and the therapist sit opposite one another on chairs of equal height, so that the therapist can see the facial expression of the client. On applying the pressure on the different (more or less 35) points in the feet, the client feels a pin-point of pain, much like an electric current. That’s normal. If we find a more painful area, that indicates that the organ we are treating is affected, and needs to be cured. The larger the painful area, the worse the state of our client.
For the client the pain sensation is an indication that his body is re-aligning. After the interference of the therapist it does its part to become healthy again. We do treatments every other day, because the body needs time to re-align, and to undo itself of toxins which come undone because of the treatments.
The therapist has to pay special attention to the pain-reaction of his client; that’s why they sit face-to-face - the client should not suffer. Therefore also we have the ‘three seconds application’; we apply the pressure not longer than three seconds, that’s enough - ‘..or else your client will run..’ as we were taught during our Reflexology classes.
Hands or feet?
We prefer to treat the feet; the Reflex-zone points are easier to be found on the soles of the feet, than on the palms of the hands,
And philosophically we are obviously ‘grounded’ through the feet. That’s why, for longer lasting treatments, we often advice our clients to take bare-footed walks on the grass, or on the sand of a beach.
There are a few restrictions, though. We cannot treat people with fungi on the feet or under the toenails. This is because we’d be causing contamination; treating the next patient means transferring the fungi to his skin and so possibly causing an epidemic. We are also very careful with scars from operations or accidents, and with varicose veins or blood-clots; these can be extremely dangerous to the client if allowed to ‘travel through the body’.
If there is any reason why we cannot treat one or both feet (or in case of emergency treatments), then we treat the hands, with equal results.
And smelly feet?
Too bad, you can’t deny this poor client - you spray the foot with rose splash and you gently and tactfully ask him to wash his feet well before the next treatment.
Faith St Francis,
Licensed, practicing and committed Reflexology practitioner.
Tel.: 679 23 00
http://healinhands.org