Has anyone made any successful integration of reflexology with their reiki
practice? What were your experiences? I found a couple of articles over
at docstoc with reflexology charts, and am curious how it would work
with reiki. Would reiki the specific spot be benefical, or would physical
pressure be required? I'm asking due to the current swedish law which very
strongly forbids any non-authorized massuse to give any kind of massage,
and pressing like that even on spots like that would be considered massage.

Kindly,

Erik

Hi Erik,

I'm a recently qualified reflexologist, and for me integrating reflexology with Reiki would be problematic - although it's not impossible.

The use of (variable) pressure in reflexology is a key to the modality. The foot has been mapped to the body, and pressure on the foot effectively stimulates the "reflex" zones in the body that relate to that area of the foot. If you're not going to stimulate with physical pressure then I doubt it would be recognised as reflexology.

Physically, reflexology pressure can result in the breaking up of grains or crystals that can sometimes be felt in the foot and often correspond to issues in the corrsponding zones of the body.

There's no doubt that reflexology works on an energetic aswell as a physical level, but physical pressure is key to the technique. Reflexology actually developed from zone therapy - a technique created by Dr William Fitzgerald which was very clearly based on physical pressure (clamps, etc...)

But sure, why don't you give it a try... it isn't reflexology, but you might be on to something.

You might be interested that the feet are not unique in being mapped to the body. There are also the hands (hence hand reflexology) and the ears, and the iris (iridology).

John

Hiya

It wasn't until I'd qualified in reflexology that I came to understand that it's actually an energy-based therapy. There's a book by someone called Cross which goes into it in more detail. Later this pm I'll give you the reference.

Pandora wrote:Hiya
...reflexology..it's actually an energy-based therapy.

As are all forms of massage too...

I'm qualified in Reflexology......and whilst training I had flashbacks of some of my earliest healing experiences with spiritual healers....... A lovely lady called Gretchen Stevens was one of the first people I received healing from and as well as touching me gently on various parts of my body she also placed her hands and fingertips very gently on a couple of different places on the soles of my feet....the connection only struck me when i was learning reflexology..... Gretchen wasn't qualified in reflexology, clearly she just new intuitively to 'touch' certain points on the soles of my feet....

Although it is not exactly the same thing, when I lived in China I studied a system of qigong involving acupressure points and the passing of qi energy from the fingertips into the points on the body. Like I said, it isn't exactly the same as Reiki and Reflexology, but perhaps involves similar themes.

doesnt all healing and energy work involve similar themes?