A Reflexology Spa Treatment to Renew Your Client Partner
Our bodies are constantly discarding and regrowing new cells. Scientists tell us we create a new body every seven years. How this happens is pretty much shrouded in mystery but the endocrine system is the hub of this process.
Glands making up the endocrine system regulate this renewal as they control the growth and development of the body. One important thing our endocrine system does is boost the body’s ability to resist disease and fight infections.
A Renewal Spa Treatment is not a luxury. It’s a necessity for the client partner who wants to be as healthy and alert as possible.
Begin this session plan by selecting the essential oil you’ll use. My preferred essential oils for a spa session encouraging renewal are:
frankincense
Idaho balsam fir
lavender
lemon
myrrh
Roman chamomile
Once you select the oil, you’ll be guided to the music, the decor.
My favorite oil is lavender. However, some people don’t like lavender so it helps to move on to something else if your client partner resists.
So, when you book the appointment you need to find out if your client dislikes lavender. If so, you have other oils to choose from. But, settle this when you book the appointment so you’ll know how to coordinate the decor…music…
After you choose the oil, it’s time to choose the music. When my client partner is open to lavender, lemon, or Roman chamomile, I choose one of two CD’s I’ve had for years:
“Shamanic Dream” by Anugama
or
“Spiritual, Spiritual” by B Tribe.
If you don’t have either of these CD’s, you probably have something in your collection which will work. Whatever you choose, select music which is powerful and healing. You’re working with your client partner’s endocrine system here…a very spiritual part of his/her being.
Decor for this Spa Treatment may not take much work. You may not have to do much beyond taking away some clutter and adding a ceremonial throw for the table or chair.
Have your selection playing when you your client partner enters your healing space.
Offer your client partner a luscious water feature to begin this Spa Treatment. I suggest either a foot bath or simply washing the feet with wet terry cloth cloths that have been warmed in the microwave for a few moments.
If you go for a foot bath, think about a generous bucket or plastic water container filled with about four inches of warm water with a few colorful stones in the bottom. Let your client partner sit with the feet soaking in this essential oil scented water for 2-3 minutes before drying the feet. Then have him/her get on your healing table or reflexology chair.
When your client partner is comfortably situated face up on the table or in your reflexology chair, wrap the feet in warmed towels.
Begin by anointing your client partner with your selected oil. Put a few drops of essential oil in your client partner’s hands. Have him/her rub the palms together and hold them over the face and take a deep breath. Then, have your client partner rub the hands over his/her face,, head, and halo.
When you offer reflexology to the feet, add a bit of carrier oil to the essential oil and use this blend throughout the reflexology session. If you are using lavender or lemon, you may be able to find a commercial lotion which you like.
Move to your client partner’s head and bring in Reiki and offer three Reiki holds to the head.
Now, move down to your client partner’s feet.
Selecting the first foot, offer five minutes of delicious warm ups. Then offer five more minutes of general reflexology to your client partner’s foot.
Now, you have your client partner’s first foot prepared and ready to receive the Renewal Session on this foot. In this part of the session, you’ll stimulate the glandular parts of the body as you work the reflex areas listed below. You’ll encourage your client partner to heal, and rebuild.
Work the following reflexes for twenty minutes on the first foot in the following order:
1. Work the solar plexus to relax the body even more.
2. Work the pituitary gland because this is the gland which regulates everything.
3. Work the thyroid and parathyroid to balance the body’s metabolic rate.
4. Work the liver to enhance the immune system and remove wastes.
5. Work the adrenal gland to offer energy to the body.
6. Work the reproductive glands (ovaries/testicles) to balance this system.
Finally, work the solar plexus again to finish the rejuvenation path.
When you have worked these glands for twenty minutes on the first foot, spend five more minutes offering general reflexology. Then, finish up the first foot with five more minutes of warm downs.
Now, move to the second foot and repeat the process. This means you’ll offer five minutes of warm ups, five minutes of general reflexology and then you’ll spend the next twenty minutes working the body’s glands in the following pattern:
solar plexus
pituitary gland
thyroid and parathyroid
liver
adrenal gland
reproductive glands
solar plexus
Finally, offer five minutes of general reflexology and then five minutes of warm downs.
When this is completed, offer your client ten minutes of Reiki therapy on the feet.
It is now time to seal the Reiki therapy part of the Spa Session.
Let your client rest for a moment while you get a bottle of water for him/her.
Spend a couple of minutes with your client while s/he drinks the water and returns to “now”.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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It is my sincere hope that you are able to use this article in your healing practice.
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Thurman Greco
Artwork provided by Jennette Nearhood.
Time-Out for Sharing then Moving on to the Chakras.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing with you. I’ve offered information in each post for you, in turn, to share with your client partners. I’m following the advice of my teacher and mentor Marge D’Urso who emphasized the many things we can all do in conjunction with reflexology to encourage homeostasis.
Not all of this information applies to all of your client partners.
Some people come to our tables in order to feel better. Others want us to help them take greater charge of their own health. Yet others simply want to hop on the table, receive their reflexology session, and go away blissed out. And, there’s nothing wrong with that.
One special group wants to add other things to their lives which will help them
feel better
look better
avoid chronic disease
live longer
enjoy better health.
By sharing this information slowly, in small increments, you can, along with your reflexology sessions, give your client partners an opportunity to completely change their lives for the better in a non threatening way.
These gradual changes when mixed with reflexology offer dramatic improvements over time. The idea is to be sharing opportunities for good health without complicating lifestyles any more than they already are. You’ll be leading your client partners to a a more healthy lifestyle. They can completely change their lives 1 step at a time.
Slowly
Easily
Comfortably
Not all client partners will adopt every suggestion offered. Some won’t choose any suggestions. Some will try everything suggested for a time. Then, they’ll drop the health step after a few weeks. There’s something here for everyone. We are all different. Our attitudes, ages, and lifestyles are all different.
What’s important is that you are gently, without pushing, sharing suggestions for a healthier lifestyle.
When your client partners are ready, they’ll have this knowledge to use in the way which works best for them.
I’m taking a break with this series of posts to offer you, the reflexologist, some more hands-on posts. Then, I’ll return to these wellness posts for awhile longer…until I feel you have something to offer most client partners over a period of a year or more. You want to be sharing something which a person may accept and live with for awhile before taking on another health giving change. It’s important to let an adopted change settle in so they become lifetime habits.
Beginning next week, I’ll offer posts about Chakras and the feet. We have reflex points for Chakras in our feet. I hope you find these articles interesting. I hope you can use this information in your work!
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Thurman Greco
Tara Sanders: Healing, Yoga, and Reflexology
healing, yoga, and reflexology
As reflexologists, we add new clients to our practice often. Healing, yoga, and reflexology are important here. Depending on your personality, or your practice, you may ask a few or many questions from them on the intake forms and in the initial interviews.
Trauma is one area of a person’s life which we rarely approach. It is just too hidden, too destructive.
This is wise. Trauma is a subject which our client partners need to bring up when the time is right for them to share. Because nothing is said doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. It just means that the person isn’t comfortable discussing it.
Because, in reality, 1 woman in 4 has experienced domestic violence and/or sexual assault. Personally, I question the 1-in-4 statistic. No woman reports domestic violence or sexual assault if she can possibly avoid it. Reporting is simply too painful.
When I first spoke with Tara Sanders, a Woodstock based yoga instructor and program director in the nonprofit Exhale to Inhale I was suddenly very alert. I realized that we, as reflexologists, need to be more sensitive to the secrets and hidden traumas of our client partners.
Exhale to Inhale yoga works to empower survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to heal through yoga. Exhale to Inhale yoga guides women through postures, breathing, meditation. Taught in trauma sensitive style, practitioners are enabled to ground themselves in
their bodies
their strength
their stillness.
As this happens, the women connect to themselves. They work toward empowerment and worthiness. This practice can be transformative for survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence when they shed the cloak of victimhood.
Healers, reflexologists, and body workers have long known that when a person is traumatized, the event is stored in the muscles.
We also know that reflexology sessions are given a boost when combined with other modalities such as yoga, meditation, breathing, Reiki therapy, and massage.
Tara teaches the classes without music. She does not touch the students to correct a posture. Lights remain on throughout the class. These sessions offer survivors an opportunity to reclaim their lives through the healing and grounding of yoga.
Tara uses the yoga classes to help her students feel safe, strong, in the present moment. As she teaches, she is a conduit for healing and healthful programs in our community. Reflexology for the Spirit practitioners are also conduits for healing as we work the reflex points to encourage homeostasis.
Exhale to Inhale is a New York-based nonprofit offering free weekly yoga classes to survivors of domestic and sexual assault. After June 20, Exhale to Inhale yoga classes will be taught free of charge to women in area shelters in Upstate New York.
Not everyone has a Tara Sanders available in the community. However, it’s possible to suggest reflexology sessions offered in tandem with yoga, meditation, breathing classes. Whether or not you are aware of your client partner’s experience with trauma or domestic violence is not important. What is important is that you invite your client partner to experience this boost to your modality. Think of healing, yoga, and reflexology as a package.
Hopefully one day soon, there will be more Tara Sanders yoga teachers in communities everywhere.
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Jennette Nearhood provided the media.
Thurman Greco
In a Perfect World…
We would all be disease free
Our brains would stay sharp
We would all experience good energy levels
Physical fitness would be very common
Everyone would feel young.
But, we don’t live in a perfect world. The question is this: How can we be disease-free physically fit, have sharp brains, experience less stress, feel young?
One way is to honor our immune system. It is our immune system which keeps us healthy, disease free, physically fit, mentally sharp.
People visit reflexologists regularly as they strive to prevent as much disease as possible. And, they are correct to do this. As reflexologists, we work to facilitate homeostasis – bring balance.
Focusing on the immune system is important, not only for the diseases we think about: colds, flu, etc., but for many other diseases we consider to be lifestyle or aging diseases:
MS
thyroid disease
colitis
rheumatoid arthritis
diabetes.
When the immune system is out of balance, it can become overactive. An overactive immune system participates in the aging process as it encourages autoimmune diseases.
As a Reflexology for the Spirit practitioner, you are important to the health maintenance of your client partners. Your client partners will be healthier when their immune systems function at peak levels. An immune system functions at its peak when it successfully fights off viruses, bacteria, parasites.
Encourage your clients to contribute to a healthy immune system. As a reflexologist, you offer sessions and you also work to ground your client partners so they can do everything they need to do to keep themselves healthy:
breathe properly and therapeutically
eat a diet which is healthy for the individual
sleep sufficiently
exercise
smell the flowers
This is really what Marge d’Urso meant when she emphasized that reflexologists work with the whole client partner as we offer homeostasis.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Other blogs by Thurman Greco:
photograph by Jennette Nearhood
The Fountain of Youth
On April 12, 1513, Ponce de Leon landed on what is now Florida. He is believed by many nowadays to have been seeking the Fountain of Youth.
Whether he was seeking a magic potion or not is irrelevant because he never reported discovering such a Fountain of Youth. And, today, it’s pretty well agreed by all leaders in the health field that a Fountain of Youth does indeed exist. However, we don’t drink it.
The Fountain of Youth is called Exercise.
Are you interested in being healthy?
Do you want your body to last a long time?
Do you want to have an active daily life?
Exercise daily!
Begin your journey to wellness and longevity and homeostasis by choosing an activity you’ll enjoy doing.
Walking is a good first choice. It costs very little to walk. Walk a few minutes each day. Begin by walking about 10 minutes the first day and then increase both the speed and the length of each walk until you get to a brisk 30-minute session each day.
When you walk you experience a mild detox and you heal on some level.
Organizing a walking group is a good way for you as a Reflexology for the Spirit practitioner to motivate client partners, neighbors, friends, to become healthier. Walking is a social event as you see the same people on your walk every day. It’s fun to see how everyone’s doing on your walking route.
There are literally hundreds of exercising options: gym, cycling, running, swimming. It really doesn’t matter what you choose – the fountain of youth can be found in pretty much any activity that you’ll like well enough to do at least 3 times every week. What matters is that you move. Whatever your age, the state of your health, moving helps.
It’ll be even better if you can do your favorite activity in short bursts throughout the day if you are sedentary.
Yoga is a good choice because you compete only against yourself. It keeps you well stretched. Many people “grow” an inch or 2 when they take up yoga.
Whatever activity you choose, when you move, you get the blood circulating. The brain and nervous system become more active. It’s harder for muscles to go into atrophy. The immune system gets a boost.
Regular exercise helps you feel better about yourself, increases your energy level.
Some forms of exercise, if they are “right” for you, can be very grounding. This is important for a Reflexology for the Spirit practitioner. Encourage not only yourself, but your client partners to find that activity which is physically challenging as well as spiritually uplifting – this is the fountain of youth!
Guideline: Move – partake of the fountain of youth!
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Spirituality of the Shoulders
On your shoulders, you carry the weight of the world:
the work you do
your friends, enemies, relatives, neighbors
housing
mothers-in-law
loved ones who are sick
The operative word here is RESPONSIBILITY. The important thing here is to not neglect yourself in the midst of carrying the weight of the world.
When you are neglecting your own needs, your own activity may be hindered.
When things in your life are not going as they should, or as you hoped, your body will speak to you with:
hunched shoulders,
tense shoulder muscles,
frozen shoulder,
painful shoulders.
When you experience discomfort or malfunction in your shoulders, stop and ask yourself how you can make changes in your activities and lifestyle which will release blockages which cause pain and stiffness.
Are you hugging the wrong people?
Are you anxious?
Are you fearful?
Are you overwhelmed?
Do you need fun in your life?
Take a few moments out of each day for yourself and your shoulders. Try to focus on solutions instead of problems. Seek out guided meditations which allow you to breathe deeply and release your worries.
Encourage yourself to relax completely for a few minutes each and every day. Find a safe place. Turn on some quiet music, get comfortable and breathe deeply from your abdomen. Encourage your shoulders to heal as you send energy to them. Guide the energy from your heart to your shoulders and down your arms and hands to the tips of your fingers. Open your diaphragm.
Relax. Rejuvenate. Release. Renew.
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I hope you found this post helpful. Please leave your comments below and check out other posts.
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Michele Garner provided the artwork in today’s post.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Spirituality of Blood
Blood is very exciting stuff.
For one thing, we can’t live without it. If we’re in an accident, and lose too much blood, we will die.
Blood tells the whole story. Often, when we visit the physician, a blood test is ordered. The story is here: our past, our present, our future.
In the womb, we shared our mother’s blood, who shared her mother’s blood, who shared her mother’s blood, and on and on and on to the beginning of time.
That being said, each person’s blood is unique. Like fingerprints, no 2 blood profiles are the same. And, blood changes with life events, nutrition, age. Because of this, there are many issues with blood:
high or low pressure,
circulation,
arteriosclerosis
thrombosis,
stroke
hemorrhage,
varicose vein,
anemia.
If you find yourself dealing with one of the above diseases, you are dealing with a spiritual disease. That doesn’t mean you forget the professional medical practitioner. It does mean that you do what that practitioner tells you to do and you deal with the spirituality issues in other ways.
When I think of the spirituality of blood, questions come to mind:
Have you recently found or lost a loved one?
Are you depressed?
Where are the conflicts in your life?
Are you nourishing yourself sufficiently?
Are you under a lot of pressure?
Are you angry?
Is someone or something threatening you?
Are you rigid with yourself and others?
Do you need to become gentler with yourself and others?
Are you afraid?
Are your life patterns stuck?
Does your lifestyle go against your beliefs?
Is too much going on in your life?
Are there too many people in your life?
What, if anything, is draining your energy?
Now might be a good time to try to deal with these questions one-by-one.
In order to develop the spirituality of your blood, proper diet is extremely important. Don’t just go to the grocery or the pharmacy and buy vitamins and minerals haphazardly. Find a nutritional consultant and get what you need.
No one diet fits all. Find the diet best for you…makes you feel better, helps maintain your weight, results in better blood test results. Your goal is to live a life bringing strength, vitality, purity to your blood.
Guided meditations can be instrumental for spiritual healing.
If you are a Reiki practitioner, give yourself sessions in which you offer an intent to heal and regenerate your blood to its optimum state. If you are not a Reiki practitioner, now is a good time to find one. This might even be a good time to learn Reiki therapy for yourself.
As your blood begins to experience this optimum state, you’ll invite joy, free expression, creativity, balance in your life.
Reflexology for the Spirit sessions are appropriate here. Homeostasis is necessary for the blood and for life in general. Reiki and reflexology work hand-in-hand here to help achieve the spiritual health our bodies need….no, crave.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Renee Ruwe offered the photograph for today’s article.
7 Ways the Brain is Enhanced in a Reflexology Session
The brain is the control center for the body. As with other organs of the body, very little is known about what the brain actually does. We know that it houses memories, tells the heart to beat, processes sight and hearing. Scientists are discovering exactly how the brain works.
The brain and the mind are different things. No one knows how the mind works.
When the brain reflex point is worked, several things happen:
The body’s sense of equilibrium begins to activate itself.
The neurological functions become energized.
Both physical and emotional reactions seek balance.
The physical and emotional activities are more controlled.
Organic functions are regulated.
Emotional stress is calmed.
Sleep activities are balanced.
Brain reflex points are located on the tips of the toes on both feet – especially the tips of the big toes.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Reflexology Blog – Digestive System
THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS BEGINS WHEN WE CHEW OUR FOOD. It continues as the body breaks down the food we eat and turns it into subtances which can be absorbed and used for growth, repair, energy.
The digestive system is composed principally of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, liver, small intestine, large intestine, rectum, and the anal canal.
IT IS EMOTIONAL AND IS QUICK TO TELL US IF IT ‘S NOT WORKING PROPERLY. That is one strong argument for reflexology sessions. They bring about homeostasis which is important to digestive health. We have a tendency to hold worry in our stomach.
Once food is eaten, it travels down the pharynx and esophagus to the stomach. When the food leaves the stomach it moves to the small intestine. This is where most of the nutrients are absorbed. This is also where fear can find a safe place.
What actually happens in the process of digestion regarding the food and the interaction of the food with the chemicals and how the body absorbs the resulting nutrients is complicated. This process is not completely understood by many people.
A good description can be found in several chapters of “The South Beach Diet” by Dr. Frank Agatston in which he describes the digestive very thoroughly using a vocabulary we can all understand.
Finally, the large intestine moves the undigested and unabsorbable food to the anal canal and rectum where it is excreted.
Eating and digesting food is not just about getting nutrition. It’s a very spiritual process. How do we assimilate things that are happening in our lives and in the world around us? Our digestive system not only absorbs nutrients and discards those things not needed but we also use our digestive system to absorb feelings, sensations, experiences. When we are forced to hold back our feelings, it’s reflected in our digestive health.
It has been said that health begins and ends in the intestinal tract. It is true that an unhappy, angry, frustrated person has a much harder time maintaining digestive balance and health.
WHEN WE WORK THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM REFLEXES, WE ENCOURAGE THEM TO NORMALIZE THE FLOW OF DIGESTING FOOD THROUGH THE SYSTEM.
Although all the parts of the digestive system are very important in a Reflexology for the Spirit session, work the liver during every session. The liver is a large organ and it has a bigger job to do because it’s a detoxing machine. People are becoming more toxic because of the pesticides in our food, the toxins in our air and water, and the things we eat which aren’t really food.
Pay special attention to the large intestine when offering a Reflexology for the Spirit session. Maintaining a healthy large intestine is extremely important to your client’s overall health.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Infertility and Reflexology
EXPERIENCING INFERTILITY CAN BE DEVASTATING TO A COUPLE. People feel they’ve been victimized. Life sometimes ceases to have meaning for some. They become depressed, jealous. Marriages sometimes fall apart. People feel rejected, abandoned, inadequate, sad.
INFERTILITY HAS MANY CAUSES – both physical, and emotional: environmental, hormonal, genetic. Drug usage, stress, blocked fallopian tubes or testicles, unconscious fears, childhood abuse, can all contribute to infertility.
In this country, people don’t often think of reflexology to help with infertility issues. In other parts of the world, people trying to overcome infertility issues use the services of a reflexologist successfully.
If you’re offering reflexology to a couple dealing with infertility, begin the session by working the solar plexus and diaphragm reflexes.
Work the entire endocrine system and then focus on the pituitary gland reflexes, the ovary and testicle reflexes, and finally, the uterus and prostate reflexes.
Finish the session by returning to the solar plexus and then the liver reflexes.
REFLEXOLOGY SESSIONS NOT ONLY STIMULATE THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS BUT THEY ALSO HELP BALANCE ALL THE BODY SYSTEMS. This is extremely important to a couple trying to create new life.
AND, I OFFER A FINAL SUGGESTION. There are many reasons for infertility. Some are spiritual. This may be a time for you to review what may be your life path and goals. There are many, many children and other animals in dire need at this time on our planet. At the risk of totally upsetting everyone who reads this blog, I submit to you that possibly your path includes embracing one or more of these precious beings into your life instead of bringing a new life into embodiment.
IS THE UNIVERSE TELLING YOU SOMETHING? Listen carefully. There are many ways to use your caring, nurturing, and creative energy for the benefit of all mankind. There are many creatures in need of the love you have to offer.
On behalf of the many needy beings on this planet, I thank you for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
