So, there are four basic foot reflexology techniques. I am going to add one. There is reflexologist named Dr. Manzanares from Spain and he does something called a press and slide which I think is really effective. The other four will be, thumb walking, finger walking, a hook and back up and rotation on a point.
So, let’s start with thumb walking. With thumb walking you’re basically going to be using the little part of, just this joint. Right, so you’ll just be doing that. A lot of times people will say to kind of come up and back down. I want to really stress that if you can come down and maintain pressure and just come up a little bit and then back down again.
So, you are moving infinitesimal, you’re barely moving. You can practice on your forearm here. You’re going to be doing that.
So you’re just inching ahead and again you’re not going to pop up. A lot of people when they are teaching that, they pop up, so just be sure not to do that.
You’re going to with a foot, you’re going to press down just a little and come up and press down and come up, press down and come up. Now sometimes just wave the foot a little bit towards me and that will allow you to go a little deeper. As similarly, you could do finger walking. With finger walking I generally use it on the top of the foot. We could also use it on the sides of the foot.
But generally not on the bottom plantar aspect.
So, with that, you’re just going to be doing the same kind of thing where you come down and come back up and back down again. And you’ll see, I am supporting the foot with my thumb on the other side. So, my thumb is moving to, you could actually move down between all of the metatarsal’s here. Hook and back up, you’re going to be using our thumb and you’ll go into a point and then you press down and then you’re going to have pull out just a little bit.
It can be very deep. So, just be mindful and check in with your person, make sure you’re not hurting them.
So again, you’re going to press down and lean in a little bit and then back up. Generally points that are really good to use that on are the spleen reflex and the gall bladder reflex which are on either side of the feet. So, with this side you’ll go hook and back up.
Rotation on a point. You’re going to also use that thumb walking and you’re just going to rotate the foot. So, it’s right under the metatarsal heads, you come down and you just rotate over. I am actually going to walk the, what is called the diaphragm line. So, you go in and you’re just going to rotate there.
You can go over the entire diaphragm line.
Again, if somebody is you know, really anxious or feeling stressed out, that diaphragm line, the solar plexus point, which is right here, and the adrenal gland reflex are really powerful. And the last point is the press and slide with Dr. Manzanares. This is if you really want to get deep and you don’t want to miss any points within there.
So you’re going to actually press down, you lean in, and you just slide a little bit and check in with your person, make sure you’re not hurting them. You know, you want to kind of kick into it a place of parasympathetic, you know, relaxation. If you go beyond that, it’s not serve going to them. So, again you press in and then you go up. Press in and slide and there will be continual pressure.
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