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Reflexology Educators, Mentors and Coaches since 1991

Reflexology at the daytime Emmy Awards

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Emmy Presenters & Performers get pampered with Reflexology!

We all hear the stories of the luxury gift bags given to those that work the many award shows each year. The decadent bags that performers and presenters will be able to customize during the 2006 Daytime Emmy rehearsals on April 27 and 28, will include

Dr. Scholl’s® For Her Complimentary REFLEXOLOGY Treatment and Red Carpet Ready Kit- a whole new line of foot care products designed just for women and the shoes they love to wear.

The official talent gift lounge is produced by On 3 Productions. These are the same people responsible for providing gifts at The Super Bowl, The Tony Awards and other exclusive celebrity studded events.

The gift lounge will provide stars with special pampering behind the scenes, and a Kipling’s Coast Tote & Las Vegas Trolley filled with nearly $30,000 of goodies.

Reflexology finding its feet in a modern world

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About six years ago, Debbie Turner was feeling completely worn down. The director of group ads for IPC Media, a magazine publisher in London, said her career had been satisfying. But after climbing the corporate ladder for nearly 20 years, she found her full-time workload to be increasingly stressful. On top of that, she was pregnant with her second child.

To deal with the stress, Turner tried a technique that initially she was skeptical of: reflexology, an ancient practice of stimulating points on the feet to benefit other parts of the body.

“I found it so relaxing it was as though I was on another planet,” said Turner, 45. But it was more than just an exercise in serenity; it was educational, too. “The therapist would say things like, ‘Your kidney reflexes are under a lot of pressure and you need to drink more water,’ and I figured out she was right,” Turner said. “In the end, the treatments wound up giving me energy and making me feel healthier.”

Fascinated by the foot charts posted in the therapist’s office, Turner started studying reflexology one weekend a month while keeping her job. After passing written exams in anatomy and physiology and becoming a certified reflexologist, she decided to quit the media industry and start her own business. Since becoming certified about 18 months ago, Turner has seen her business blossom. She now performs at least 10 hours a week of reflexology.

That schedule, which meant she could set her own hours and pick up her children from school, got rid of the pangs of stress she had been experiencing. “I loved the magazine world, and it had been fun and glamorous, but it was also somewhat superficial,” Turner said. “I never believed that reflexology would be all that lucrative, but I knew it would give me balance.”

The idea behind reflexology is that all the body’s organs, glands, and main joints are reflected in the feet and that applying pressure to specific points on the feet can stimulate the body’s natural healing processes.

The technique, known to the ancient Egyptians as well as the Chinese and Indians, has grown in popularity in recent years, along with other alternative or complementary therapies.

In 2005, a report commissioned by the Prince of Wales urged British doctors to make wider use of a cornucopia of alternative treatments, including reflexology, acupuncture and some herbal medicines under the National Health Service. The report found that alternative therapies could be particularly beneficial for people suffering from chronic musculoskeletal conditions, like arthritis, or from psychological conditions, like anxiety.

The report said that Britons spend about £130 million, or $250 million, a year on alternative treatments, a figure expected to jump to £200 million before 2009. In the United States, many cancer centers are now offering alternative treatments including reflexology to help patients deal with the side effects of the disease. Golf clubs across Britain have hired reflexologists to help players cope with back pain and other aches.
The Association of Reflexologists, which is recognized by the government Britain and can award qualifications, has a membership of more than 8,500 that is growing.

“Reflexology has become more popular in today’s society as people are increasingly conscious of their health and how the stress and toll of daily life affects their bodies,” an association representative said. “Reflexology can be used to help problems experienced by the patient and also as a preventative measure for a person’s well being.”

Jo Lovatt, a West London mother of three, is a client. She said she used reflexology as a “de-stresser.”

“It is quite a big thing to expose your feet to somebody so you have to make sure you find the right therapist,” she said. “I found it a fantastic way to unwind and I felt like I had to literally be pulled out of the chair at the end.”

“A reflexologist can find places of unbalance in a body and is able to increase blood flow to certain points of the body,” Turner said. “There are as many as 7,000 nerve endings on one’s feet, and reflexology can help people to switch off and heal themselves.”
Turner emphasized that her services were supplemental in the health field, not a substitute for the services of a doctor.

Perhaps the only downside to her new career, Turner said, is that some clients see her as more than a reflexologist. “Some clients tend to view you as a counselor and they will use their time to offload all their different problems to you,” she said. “The more you know someone, the more they will chat. But clients should really just shut their eyes and completely turn off.”

Source: International Herald Tribune; March 2, 2007

“Meet the Fokkers” movie Star uses Ear Reflexology for Sex Therapy

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What do Barbra Streisand, Robert De Niro and the Universal College of Reflexology have in common?

They all use Ear Reflexology!

In the hilarious hit movie “Meet the Fokkers” Barbra Streisand plays the role of a Sex Therapist who uses Ear Reflexology as an aphrodisiac technique for her clients. 

Ms. Streisand stimulated libido Reflexology points on the ears of her future in-laws – Robert De Niro & Blythe Danner. The results were instantaneous!

Ear Reflexology is one of the most amazing therapies in the world today. One of the most efficient and effective treatments with often instant results.

Auricular therapy is ancient with its roots going back thousands of years in Traditional Chinese Medicine, eventually evolving into the western world in the 1950s by Dr. Paul Nogier in Lyon France.

In the 1990s, we began experimenting with auricular therapy. We were aware that other senior Reflexologists in various countries were also conducting their own experiments. Soon, we all became pioneers in developing a whole new therapy – Ear Reflexology.

Our research as pioneers in Ear Reflexology, began by studying various texts from Chinese medicine, acupuncture, acupressure plus books from Dr. Nogier and electrotherapy studies by Dr. Terry Oleson from UCLA. We attended classes from the masters – Dr. Vladimir Shmitsman a Russian trained medical doctor, Dr. Rafael Nogier son of Dr. Paul Nogier from Lyon, France, Dr. Terry Oleson founder of the Electrotherapy Association from UCLA in California and Beryl Crane, President of the International Council of Reflexologists from Great Britain.

We have been practising Ear Reflexology over the past 10 years and the successes have been amazing.

In the 1990s we became national teacher trainers of Ear Reflexology in Canada in accordance with the Crane School of Reflexology of London, England system.

Our mandate for the Universal College of Reflexology was to develop a high quality Ear Reflexology program. Accordingly, we elected to combine our extensive training from an incredible variety of masters with our research from a wide body of texts and the results from our many years of personal clinical experiences in Ear Reflexology.

The Universal College of Reflexology offers a world-class Ear Reflexology program delivered either on-campus or through home study.

Plan to attend our FREE Ear Reflexology Introduction session. For more information check out Ear Reflexology on our website or call 1-866-944-2576 for details or registration.

Reflexology: Can it Aid Fertility?

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After three years of trying for a second child, Kath and Murray Chapman had almost given up hope.

Doctors had told them Mrs Chapman had a hormone problem which meant fertility treatment would be a waste of time. But the 40- year-old mother remembered she had read somewhere that reflexology could help with infertility.

With nothing to lose, she had three months of foot massage and, at the end of her course, was delighted to hear that her hormone levels had returned to normal. She soon became pregnant and gave birth to second son Fraser five months ago.

While doctors insist there is nothing to prove the alternative therapy was responsible, she is sure it worked.

Mrs Chapman, who also has a four-year-old son called Jake, said: ‘I am convinced I wouldn’t have become pregnant without the reflexologist’s help. I was absolutely shocked, but obviously delighted, to find I was pregnant after being told we couldn’t have a second child. It’s a dream come true.’

Mrs Chapman, from Deepcar, Sheffield, said she was ‘devastated’ to be told she would never conceive again.

‘I was told that there was no point in attempting IVF treatment because it would be a waste so I would have to resign myself to the fact that we couldn’t have another baby,’ she added. A hormone test – which indicates if a woman is entering the menopause – showed levels were too high, suggesting her ovaries had stopped producing enough estrogen, which controls the reproductive cycle.

To become pregnant, a woman needs a hormone rating of ten or below but Mrs Chapman’s was above 25. Following reflexology, however, it dropped to below eight.

‘I told the doctors about the reflexology but they dismissed it and just said it was possible that hormone levels can drop when you become more relaxed and less anxious.

‘The effect of the reflexology was amazing. It seemed to relax me so much. I became pregnant quite quickly and everything went smoothly. The doctors never admitted that the reflexology had anything to do with it but I have no doubt at all.’

Mr Chapman, who runs a catering recruitment business with his wife, said: ‘We’re just delighted now the family is complete.’ Reflexologist Sue Calvert said: ‘The technique works on pressure points on the feet which correspond to different parts of the body. Massaging these areas helps to restore balance to the body.’

There is little accepted medical evidence to back up reflexologists’ claims. One trial in Denmark examined 108 women with an average age of 30 who had been trying to conceive for up to seven years. Many dropped out of the trial, but 19 of the remaining 61 conceived within six months of completing the treatment.

Polly Hall, of the Association of Reflexologists, said last night: ‘ Doctors would say that reflexology had nothing to do with this.

‘We don’t make any claims to cure any conditions but we have anecdotal evidence that reflexology can help with infertility problems and bring the body back into balance.’

by CHRIS BROOKE, UK Daily Mail
November 3rd, 2005

Happy 150th birthday to Russian Reflexologist

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150 years ago – February 1st 1857 – Vladimir Mikhaylovich Bekhterev, famous Russian neurophysiologist and psychiatrist, who studied the formations of the brain and investigated conditioned reflexes, was born.

To the lay public Vladimir Bekhterev is known for Bekhterev’s disease, pelvospondylitis. Bekhterev’s most important work, however, was in the study of reflexes and the morphology of the brain. He is the founder of psycho reflexology, transmitting to humans the same pattern of thinking that Pavlov had developed in his work on conditioned reflexes in dogs, and he used similar experiments. Bekhterev is thus a forerunner of behaviourism. His works are epoch-making, but at first received little attention as they were published in Russian.

Copyrighting Smelly Feet? What next?

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he aroma of sweaty feet, armpits, dirty laundry, and soiled diapers are all now highly sought-after scents, as companies, pursuing smelly-branding have all lined up, excited for having exclusive rights to aromas which they can use to bring odor to their lifeless products. Like, peachy-smelly-bras or chocolate-smelly-underpants and so on.

All of a sudden, there is a rush to secure a copyright on any distinct smell from our daily lives, and exclusively use it in conjunction with a branded product or a service. Like the smell of bread in a hot oven at the bakery to be used by a sandwich maker, or like the smell of Gouda cheese and the notorious whiff of dirty socks, to be exclusively used by a shoe maker.

So here it is. This is what happened to the most recent aggressive attempts by Paris-based company, Eden Sarl, who tried very hard to get the smell of strawberries exclusively copyrighted for products of soap, stationery, leather goods and clothing.

Initially, EU Trademark agencies refused their earlier applications, so they took it to their regional second-highest courts. They too, rejected Eden Sarl’s application. So what’s all the fuss?

The smell of armpits, dirty laundry, and soiled diapers are all now highly sought-after scents, as companies, pursuing smelly-branding have all lined up, excited for having exclusive rights to aromas which they can use to bring odor to their lifeless products. Like, peachy-smelly-bras or chocolate-smelly-underpants and so on.

There are some not so pungent odors, like apples, bananas and oranges, but all the attempts for exclusive use have failed.

This brand new frontier is said to be giving a big boost to odorless products. The general idea is that by using smell as an exclusive sensory tickler, now considered by many, a stroke of branding genius, marketers can bring life to their already dead brands. Sounds very sensory, but in reality, it’s time to smell the coffee.

According to BBC reports, the EU courts stated “Strawberries do not have just one smell. This means that the different varieties of strawberries produce significantly different smells.” Surely, we now need some wine tasters and keen noses.

On the strawberry issues, the company wanted this aroma exclusively for their product lines, just like the way some companies attempted to claim exclusive corporate colors, which indecently holds no water either and no longer a winning case, as there are only few colors and billions of companies and products. Blue is no longer exclusive to IBM, but equally used by ten thousand other computer companies. What worked in the fifties, as an exclusive color idea, is no longer valid in the post-millennium market. Don’t you smell trouble here?

As part of a new craze for smelly-branding, hip brand managers are desperately trying to project a sensory message with an exclusive aroma. Checkbooks are being scented, clothes are pre-perfumed, and cars are wildly sprayed. Now you know why massage oils are scented, and how aromatherapy became so popular.

Any brand can develop any original fragrance and use it just like any fashion brands have already done so successfully, but to say that the smell of the ocean and sea salt is exclusively copyrighted to a tire company is really having the creative noses buried in proverbial cow manure! Phew, that’s some aroma.