Almost every new client I see asks how I got interested in reflexology. At first this would send my mind whirling down a rabbit hole in search of the most efficient way I could consolidate 35 years of experience into my answer without taking up their precious appointment time. In my first blog, Journey to Put Your Best Feet Forward, I give the answer I would normally reply with, but there is more I haven’t shared.
When I was 22 years old I realized how powerful reflexology was when someone asked if I could help him with a problem he was having. He lived just around the corner from me and heard that I helped a friend of his (I’ll call him Brian-not his real name.) I was very intrigued by his sincerity, even though I wasn’t exactly sure what I did to help his friend, except for giving him a reflexology session. Upon talking with him he disclosed he was having difficulty urinating. Being young and naive, I felt overwhelmed by this information and asked if he had seen a doctor. He pushed this question quickly aside and assured me he wanted to try reflexology–and further explained, he felt confident it would help. At the time I was practicing reflexology only on the feet of friends and family, but because of our friend-connection I agreed to give him a session.
The reflexology session lasted about 45 minutes. After completion he stated he felt relaxed and comfortable and then he walked home. I was concerned about Brian’s wellbeing and checked in with him later that day. My sense of balance quaked when he told me shortly after this reflexology session he developed an increasingly sharp and almost unbearable pain. I panicked at first and then calmed down after he continued to say he had passed a kidney stone and since had felt much better. This was my first wake-up call about the power of reflexology. I know I should have been elated–but the opposite was true. I decided at that time reflexology was much more powerful than I had anticipated. This experience scared me and I wanted nothing further to do with it. My respect for reflexology left me feeling unprepared and I felt under-qualified to handle what may come. Even though I’d been learning about reflexology for 3 years, the need to gain more education and experience before continuing seemed to be a must.
It was the encouragement of friends and others who experienced reflexology from me that sparked my confidence and motivation to continue practicing. Later, in that year of 1984, I taught my first reflexology class at the Burlington School of Massage in Vermont. I soon began to realize that practicing reflexology healed me too; and like a loyal dog, it has not left my side since.
I have always felt inspired when reading books about reflexology with a sense of awe toward the authors who were able to put this somewhat mysterious practice into words. At a young age, I remember telling my mother ” One day I will write a book.” Although I didn’t have a grasp on what the content would be, I knew the seed was inside of me being cultivated. The time had come one day in the mid-1990’s when the germination of this seed began to take form after hearing a gentleman named Bill Runquist give a fascinating presentation on foot function at a National Reflexology conference. I knew in that moment reflexology had found it’s home in my mind and I could completely relate reflexology with foot function. After apprenticing with Bill for over three years, I began to integrate reflexology with foot function with every session and soon realized, their unity was undeniable. After trademarking Structural Reflexology in 2013, I finally found the words to express this revelation in Put Your Best Feet Forward.
