Reflexology & Cerebral Palsy – a Case Study

One of our Australian students emailed me that she was volunteering with special needs kids – this email inspired me to write the following article.

Several years ago in my West Vancouver, British Columbia clinic I experienced my first client with Cerebral Palsy (the British Columbia Association of Cerebral Palsy explains that CP is a term used to describe a group of disorders affecting body movement and muscle coordination developed during pregnancy, at birth or for up to three years following birth).

A lady phoned requesting weekly appointments for her twelve year old son, lets call him “Jimmy”.

He presented with difficulty in walking, severe speech impediments, and severe hearing difficulties coupled with involuntary muscle movements (spastic) and as with many kids a very limited attention span. He was relatively pleasant and surprisingly ready for a treatment. His mom stated she was incredibly stressed, a single mom with no support, a full time job and a lack of financial means. She appeared weary, drawn and exhausted but declined a treatment.

I requested Mom remain in the room during the treatment. Jimmy was wide-eyed and showed interest in the Reflexology wall charts.

He enjoyed playing and following me with a foot model. The session was short, primarily lots of gentle relaxations combined with thumb-walking techniques applied intermittently. Jimmy fidgeted occasionally, but was generally calm and relaxed and happy. Following the session and subsequent sessions I gave Jimmy a pack of baseball cards to open and keep.

A few days later Jimmy’s mom advised that he enjoyed the session, loved the cards and could hardly wait to return.

Thereafter Jimmy arrived with a case-worker as mom was at work. The case-worker advised he had to stay in the room for legal reasons. Jimmy’s mood was miserable. He was angry, yelled at the case-worker who simply ignored him and read a book during the treatment. I advised the mother of the stresses Jimmy had with the case-worker.

This situation was unacceptable and thereafter I arranged for the case-worker to be present albeit in the doorway out of sight. For the most part the working conditions improved with this change, but Jimmy was unhappy to be in the presence of the case-worker. It was obvious that Jimmy’s health had little if any improvement following several treatments. Finally, on what was to become the last session with the case-worker present, Jimmy became hostile insisting the case-worker leave the premises immediately. To continue was impossible and I sent them both home.

I explained to Jimmy’s mom that to continue was simply too stressful for Jimmy as long as the co-worker was present. I suggested she bring Jimmy in on her next day off.

Lauren Slade, founder of Universal College of Reflexology happened to join me in my clinic that day. I advised Jimmy’s mom that we were very lucky to have a world-renowned Reflexologist here today and she agreed for Lauren to join us. Lauren and I suggested she get up on the table for some stress relief following Jimmy’s appointment. She agreed. First we worked with Jimmy and it was a wonderful and miraculous Reflexology session. Lauren purposely softly whispered to him while working his feet, incredibly he responded and he heard every word she said – remember he was diagnosed with a severe and chronic hearing problem! His mom and I had never seen him respond to whispers before.

We worked on his mom next. She became extremely emotional – you can only imagine the incredible stresses this lady had been under for all of these years. Mountains were moved that day and the session ended with a sense of calm and well-being. Before leaving we taught both of them techniques that they could use on each other. This was their last session.

Several weeks later Jimmy’s mom called. She cried tears of joy when she told me how much better they both were. She said you have no idea how you have changed our lives. She thanked me from the bottom of her heart, and I remembered all over again why I do this work with the wonderful healing art and science that is known as Reflexology!

Jack Marriott CMR
Certified Master Reflexologist