Reflexology at Water Point Wellness- Foot Massage is Medicine

If you didn’t already know, I offer Reflexology, and I have been spending time studying the modality with my mentor Angie in San Francisco. Angie is retiring soon, and there is no time like the present to try and learn as much as I can from her. For as long as I have known Angie she has had a dedicated clientele, eager to receive the benefit of her intense and skilled treatment. There is no one like her, which I suppose we can say about any person who decides to devote their time so endearingly to one thing, and it is felt in the waiting area in her small clinic where one session bleeds into another’s, while us patient’s, spurred on by Angie, share stories and exchange tips for withstanding the deep massage. She is like an adept party host, helping to break the ice, and break us out of our more isolationist tendencies. 

Reflexology is a lot like Angie’s waiting room, it’s the melting away of blocks and boundaries, and restoration of “flow”, a concept I have come to understand as the basis for most acupuncture treatment. Simultaneously simplistic and profound, the way bodies flow internally, or water winds through arid land, the pulse of the tides, and the ebb and flow of water plays an important role in the cycles of life. Reflexology is yet another modality that can profoundly break the stasis that can lead to imbalance in the body. With strong hands the practitioner adeptly locates areas of stagnation in the feet, and patterns them to the organs they reflect. Looking for areas that may feel hard, bumpy, or sandy the practitioner can coarse out the blockage and help to harmonize the organize systems implicated. 

Reflexology is not only for the body, it is for the mind as well. One of the most remarkable sensations I have noticed after receiving a treatment is the sense of lightness and ease that washes through the emotions. There is an obvious correlation there, a vicious cycle of the emotions stressing the body, and the body stressing the emotions. The benefit of regular treatment can help to train and remind the nervous system what it feels like to drop into the parasympathetic response, it can remind us what joy feels like, a sometimes arduous task! While in parasympathetic we can truly heal, our digestion can right itself, and our delicate hormonal balance can run it’s diagnostics. Psychically, this is also where we can have our more rational and productive thought patterns. To be strong, you must get soft, and so on and so forth. 

People often ask me how acupuncture works, and I fumble through rote responses that I have tried to come up with over the years; something that can fit into two minutes or less… However, it has been reflexology that has allowed my mind to visualize what acupuncture channels might be: the pathways that connect the points on the foot, to the organ itself. The concept of Microsystems in the body is further unpacked by Dr. Daniel Keown’s The Spark in the Machine, which uses embryology to explain the development of pathways, and thus the existence of Microsystems. Briefly explained, as we develop in utero there is a blueprint for the whole organism contained in each fold of the cells as they replicate and specialize, and it is the folds which form the channels, and the blueprints which continues to exist in ears, hands, feet, and face, just to name a few! The body is incredible, and the ability of our East Asian and Chinese Ancestors to tap into this knowledge so early and so effectively is a wonder and a gift. 

If you would like to try reflexology, I offer it as an “add on” much like cupping, for an additional $30. Reflexology can also be booked on its own for only $75. 

I urge you to try it if you fall into the category that simply loves deep tissue massage, or maybe doesn’t enjoy needles as much as the next person!