Total Reflexology of the Hand

An Advanced Guide to the Integration of Craniosacral Therapy and Reflexology

Martine Faure-Alderson

• Publisher: Healing Arts Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781620555316
• eBook ISBN: 9781620555323
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Acupuncture

How to apply the precise treatment techniques of Total Reflexology, which combines craniosacral therapy and foot reflexology, to the hands • Explains the special relationship between the hand and the brain, making hand reflexology ideal for treatment of neurological, mental, and emotional disorders • Details how to use the occipital zones of craniosacral therapy to pinpoint which zones and points on the hands to treat • Includes full-color detailed maps of the pressure points and zones of the hands One of the most defining physical characteristics of humanity, the hands contain reflex zones and pressure points related to the systems and organs of the body just like the feet. The reflex zones and points of the hands present the most effective means of treating psychological and neurological disorders due to their sophisticated relationship with the brain. Applying her ground-breaking combination of reflexology and craniosacral therapy to the hands, Dr. Martine Faure-Alderson explains how to use hand reflexology to treat the brain and each of the body's systems, from the digestive system to the human energetic system. She provides precise full-color mapped hand diagrams illustrating the exact placement of the points according to the bones of the hands, the result of more than 40 years of research and clinical practice. She explains how to use the occipital zones of craniosacral therapy to pinpoint which zones and points on the hands to treat. Examining the psychological level of brain-hand interactions, the author reveals how neurological dysfunctions and mental disorders respond more readily to hand reflexology than to other forms of therapies. She explains how many physical ailments have a psychological component and how reflexology automatically triggers the release of endorphins by working directly on the autonomic nervous system. The author explores the role of nutritional supplements, including Omega 3s, as a support to reflexology therapy and shows how finely tuned reflexology stimulates the body's self-healing abilities and cellular regeneration, making this an indispensable resource for holistic health practitioners and for home self-care.

PART ONE

Introduction to Reflexology

It is because he has hands that man is most intelligent.

ANAXAGORAS

History

The healing art of reflexology is thousands of years old. The Chinese employed acupressure therapy some five thousand years ago, and by approximately 2,500 BCE they had divided the body into longitudinal meridians, as found in the traditional Chinese medicine practice of acupuncture. Likewise, the ancient Egyptians were familiar with a form of therapeutic massage of the feet and hands, as shown in a fresco found on a Sixth Dynasty tomb in Saqqarah that depicts two men receiving this kind of treatment on their hands and feet.

Moving forward, in 1582 two European physicians, a Dr. Adamus and Dr. A’tatis, together published a book devoted to zone therapy. A year later, in Leipzig, a Dr. Bell wrote a book on the technique of “pressure therapy” that was practiced at that time in Central Europe among all classes, from peasants to courtiers. A form of reflexology also existed among tribal peoples of Africa, America, and Australia.

In the nineteenth century there was a flurry of scientific interest in the field that came to be known as reflexology. In 1886, the noted neurologists Henry Head, John Hughlings Jackson, and Charles Sherrington founded the Neurological Society of London, one of seventeen societies that merged with the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London to form the current Royal Society of Medicine, to encourage the collection and exchange of ideas on all matters concerning the human brain and nervous system. In 1893, Head further developed one of Jackson’s ideas, which viewed the nervous system as consisting of layers, in which each layer is covered by a higher layer. While treating patients suffering from spinal cord lesions, Head discovered sensitized zones on the skin surface that were connected to certain illnesses of the internal organs. He used his discoveries to draw up a map now known as Head’s zones. This map identifies the dermatomes, i.e., the areas of skin supplied with afferent nerve fibers by a single posterior spinal root. This map proves that a neurological relationship exists between the skin on the surface of the body and the body’s inner organs.

Meanwhile, Head’s associate Charles Sherrington (who later won the Nobel Prize in physiology in 1932) demonstrated that sensitive nerve endings collected stimulations from within the body. He coined the term synapse in 1897 to describe these nerve endings. These are Sherrington’s fields of inter-receptor sensitivity, which became part of what has come to be known as Sherrington’s law of reciprocal innervation. In 1906, Sherrington wrote The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, in which he explained how the brain, the spinal cord, and numerous reflex paths react and adjust to internal and external stimuli.

In Germany in the 1890s, Dr. Alfons Cornelius discovered that pressure applied to certain parts of the body, while likely following the nerve pathways, triggered mental and physical reactions such as variations in temperature and humidity, as well as alterations of blood pressure. There are more than seventeen thousand nerve endings in the feet and an equal number in the hands. It appears that by stimulating them, reactions are produced in the rest of the body. In 1902 he published a book titled Pressure Points, Their Origin and Significance.

Dr. William Fitzgerald (1872–1942), a general practitioner and ear, nose, and throat specialist who worked in Connecticut after many years of working in hospitals in Paris, London, and Vienna, began studying a technique that he called zone therapy. Observing that some of his nose and throat operations were virtually painless for the patient, he deduced that this local anesthesia was produced by the pressure that the patient personally exerted on his or her own hand. He gradually integrated zone therapy into his practice, using it to deaden pain, thereby replacing painkillers in minor operations. In this way he treated lumps in the breast, uterine fibroids, respiratory problems, and eye conditions. Over time Fitzgerald drew up a chart in which he divided the body into ten zones (five on each side of a median dividing line), each of which terminated in a finger and a toe.

Fitzgerald’s theories on reflexology would later be refined by an American physiotherapist, Eunice Ingham (1889–1974). Author of the books Stories the Feet Can Tell, Zone Therapy and Gland Reflexes, and Stories the Feet Have Told, she created plates that show the placement of the different organs on the foot. These books constitute the foundation of modern reflexology, yet are considered both too symptom-oriented and not scientific enough, as the anatomical and physiological basics are omitted.

The late Doreen Bayly was a student of Eunice Ingham. Bayly developed her own method of treatment, in which pressure is applied to reflex points with a flexed thumb or fingers using a firm but not heavy pressure. This method is less stressful on the thumb and finger joints, and the less rapid movement is considered to be more relaxing to the patient. The Bayly School of Reflexology (www.londonreflexologycentre.co.uk), the official teaching body of the British Reflexology Association, was the first reflexology school to be established in Great Britain, with Bayly herself running courses until 1966. Doreen Bayly was my teacher, and my training with her inspired the method you are about to learn in this book.

General Principles of Reflexology

Webster’s Dictionary defines reflex as “an action or movement of the body that happens automatically as a reaction to something; something that you do without thinking as a reaction to something.” This definition touches on why and how the practice of reflexology works to create healing.

The method of total reflexology therapy that I present in this book is based on the following fundamental observations:

• The principle of holism is the idea that systems, whether physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic, etc., and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not as collections of parts. In terms of healing, this implies that everything is in everything, and that everything is the cause of everything. Holism focuses on the dynamic oneness of the body, which is intrinsically self-regulating and self-healing.
• The craniosacral principle, central to osteopathy, is based on the study of the fluctuations of cerebrospinal fluid that work on the nervous system by means of the primary respiratory mechanism, or PRM.
• When the occipital zones, whether they are structural, sympathetic, or parasympathetic, are disrupted, they are painfully sensitive to reflex massage; this is confirmation of the precise zones on the foot and hand that need to be treated.
• The human being is an emotional, mental, and physical (e.g., bones, muscles, nerves, organs, fluids) whole. For this reason, any treatment of a strictly physical nature applied to this or that reflex point or zone can produce an effect that goes beyond the physical and into the psychological/mental plane governing this or that area of the body, thereby triggering a healthy emotional reaction. For example, a painful reflex point that corresponds to the stomach can reveal not a food that is hard to digest, but rather a traumatizing event that is equally “indigestible,” even one that occurred a long time ago.

These basic observations are rooted in rigorous scientific methodology. This means that the appropriate treatment always requires an exact diagnosis; only after the problem has been correctly diagnosed can pressure be applied to the precise corresponding points and zones of the foot and hand. This precision can only occur when one takes as references certain anatomical landmarks that are infallible and unchanging; only the human skeleton can furnish such landmarks that are necessary to achieve this precision, which can be almost microscopic. For example, this protrusion at the base of a finger, or that joining between the bones of the inside edge of the finger, hold this cardinal point or that reflex point of a specific vertebra.

Next, the reflex zones that correspond to the different regions and different systems of the human body—for example, the nervous, circulatory, or skeletomuscular systems—are mapped out and developed between these reference points. The organs and ipsilateral (on the same side) limbs whose reflex points belong to the same zone are treated simultaneously and by analogy. For example, the foot/hand, elbow/knee, and shoulder/hip are relationships that are defined as cross-reflexes.

Reflexology Stimulates Self-Healing

Practiced regularly, reflexology leads to a true regeneration of the body. Why? Because just like the genome, the genetic material of an organism, the human body is innately capable of self-healing because it possesses all the restorative and immunity factors it needs. All natural medicine therapies work on this principle, by helping the person provide a favorable environment that allows for an increase in the energy needed to restore the balance necessary for the body’s systems to function harmoniously. This process is called homeostasis. In this way, reflexology provides an incontestable sense of well-being that helps a person withstand all the challenges of life, be they emotional, physical, or mental.

An economical therapeutic and preventive modality, reflexology makes it possible to better grasp the nature of each individual’s case and understand all the disorders that may be involved. It offers an excellent adjunct to both preoperative and postoperative treatments. In chronic diseases characterized by cellular degeneration, its effect is not merely palliative but offers concrete support that compensates for the degeneration of tissues.

Indications for Use

Reflexology can have equally successful results for newborns and elderly alike—and everybody in between. There are many indications for the use of reflexology:

• All disorders affecting the functional, hormonal, digestive, nervous, vascular, respiratory, renal, and genital systems lend themselves to reflexology treatment.
• In the case of pregnancy, it is important to avoid treating certain zones, and attention must be focused on respecting the lunar calendar; otherwise reflexology can be used to soothe aches and pains in the back and can provide relief from morning sickness, heartburn, swelling in the legs (if not due to preeclampsia), constipation, high blood pressure (again, as long as it appears without the other symptoms of preeclampsia), insomnia, bladder problems, mild cramping, and even hemorrhoids.
• Reflexology offers invaluable assistance for tolerating both serious illnesses and the medicines required to treat them.
• As an adjunct therapy, reflexology is just as helpful as acupuncture, homeopathy, phytotherapy, and psychotherapy. As well, for balanced health, one should not only look to lifestyle but make sure that you get proper rest, nutrition, and physical exercise.
• Reflexology can be used for one who is seeking to lose weight or for the treatment of insomnia, poor digestion, painful menses, or infertility; in such cases practitioners of reflexology should always start by assessing the extent of stress the person has suffered and the degree of dysfunction or degeneration of tissues.

Advantages of Hand Reflexology

Exactly like foot reflexology, hand reflexology works on the body’s energetic system by stimulating specific areas, or reflex zones, located on the hands. Each of these areas corresponds to a specific region of the body, mainly the organs and the glands. This connection with the different areas of the body is the basis of the zone concept. The stimulation of a reflex zone encourages the healing process within its corresponding region of the body by restoring the flow of energy and relieving stress, as well as by improving blood irrigation and the transmission of the synapses. Another major benefit of hand reflexology is that it establishes a deep state of relaxation conducive to healing.

Most people think of the feet when they hear the word reflexology, but hand reflexology offers certain distinct advantages. For example, it is quite practical when time and space factors make it impossible to work on the feet. It is also good for people who are quite ticklish, or whose feet are unduly sensitive or prone to perspiring. Furthermore, because hand reflexology is so discreet, it is possible to practice it on yourself in a public setting without attracting attention.

Distinctive Features of Total Reflexology Therapy

Reflexology acts holistically on three levels: the physical, the emotional or psychological, and the mental. We can therefore define health as:

• physical freedom, the absence of pain, a sense of well-being
• emotional freedom, serenity
• mental freedom, the relaxed exercise of all our faculties

We have inherited this notion of our triple nature from Plato, and I have retained this fundamental principle in my method of total reflexology therapy for the analytical clarity it brings to human behavior. By distinguishing these three levels—formerly identified as body, soul, and spirit—we should not forget that they are absolutely inseparable and interdependent, continuously interacting on one another. Therefore, an emotional shock such as the one caused by news of the death of a close friend or relative will first engender an unbalanced state in the person on the physical plane (tears, loss of energy, muscle fatigue, loss of appetite, digestive dysfunction). At this point a mental reaction will often intervene (reasonable analysis of the event, the desire to get past the ordeal, the decision to restore the rhythms of everyday life) that in some cases permits a return to psychic equilibrium, then finally to physical equilibrium—or the opposite.

The Emergence of Reflexology as a Viable Healing Modality

Reflexology is enjoying growing interest thanks to the broader acceptance of alternative and natural healing modalities, as well as for its effectiveness in stress management and the treatment of all kinds of diseases. There are numerous hypotheses concerning its mode of action, which involve the nervous system, pain and how it is perceived, endorphins, the energy pathways, therapeutic touch, blood circulation, the placebo effect, and, most importantly, the zone concept.

All reflexology techniques are based on the development of the sense of touch and its intelligent evaluation. This is proprioception, the reception of stimuli produced within the organism. This proprioceptive sense of the fingers that feel and send information to the brain on the state of the tissue involved is not something that can be acquired in a day’s time. Like any healing art, much study and practical experience is necessary for a practitioner of hand reflexology to acquire this refined sense of touch, but when it is acquired it ensures that these proprioceptive feelings are intelligent and reliable. Like a finely tuned instrument, the fingers of the reflexologist will know exactly what is actually taking place, especially when the practitioner is equipped with previously visualized imagery that guides her or his feeling. In this way, the practitioner does not imagine; she or he feels.

For this reason, knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the human body is necessary; it allows the reflexologist to detect, uncover, and analyze the disrupted zones, and to determine whether they are hard, tender, congested, blocked, or too relaxed—all possible symptoms that can occur when there is a hindrance in the circulation of the veins, arteries, nerves, or lymph. It is only when this analysis has been completed that the reflexologist can move from perception to applying the appropriate treatment. This is of primary importance in both craniosacral therapy and in reflexology.

The other major principle underlying hand reflexology is that of holism, the dynamic oneness of the body, which is self-regulating and self-healing. Accordingly, my method emphasizes the dominant role of the autonomic nervous system, the control system that acts largely unconsciously and regulates bodily functions such as heart rate, digestion, respiration, pupillary response, urination, and sexual arousal, as disorders in the body are often connected to autonomic nervous problems caused by stress.

Over the years, working in collaboration with my students, I have integrated the following key principles of osteopathy into my method of reflexology.

The Craniosacral System and Primary Respiratory Mechanism

The bones of the skull retract and expand, flexing and extending. The cerebrospinal fluid, which serves as a shock absorber in the brain, transmits to all the cells of the body the fluctuations that the rachis (spinal cord) nerves and autonomic nervous system transmit to the fasciae. These fluctuations of the cerebrospinal fluid work on the nervous system by means of the primary respiratory mechanism.

The PRM concept is central to osteopathy. Though primary respiration has two phases, inhalation and exhalation, this is a different concept from, and not to be confused with, secondary respiration, which refers to the more familiar process of breathing that occurs with the movement of the rib cage involving a change in volume of the lungs, with an oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange. Primary respiration is a deeper, more basic process to life. PRM can be perceived in all the body’s tissues at a rate of twelve to sixteen pulsations a minute. The cerebrospinal fluid thereby strengthens the bond that exists between the body’s structure, connective tissue, bones, muscles, fluids, and brain.

The Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems

The autonomic nervous system is made up of two antagonistic yet complementary systems, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic, which are in a constant state of self-regulation. These systems govern all internal functions that are not subject to the conscious will: respiration, digestion, elimination, and reproduction. They contribute to the body’s ability to defend itself, restore, and achieve balance, thereby assuring the protection of life itself.

The sympathetic nervous system’s primary process is to stimulate the body’s fight-or-flight response. It is constantly active at a basic level, maintaining a state of homeostasis. The parasympathetic nervous system operates when the body is at rest, especially after eating, but also governs sexual arousal, salivation, lacrimation (tears), urination, digestion, and defecation.

Every time we feel pain, the body releases endorphins. Endorphins are neurotransmitters whose analgesic effects are comparable to the effects of morphine. The pressure applied to the zones being treated during a reflexology session also release endorphins. The signals that inform the brain about this pressure compete with those that inform it of pain. In this way, they cause a traffic jam in the lower nerve fascia of the central nervous system, creating more stimulation than the system can interpret. The result is an anesthetizing effect on the pain. It is the autonomic nervous system that transmits these reactive effects caused by reflexology, and this is why we restore homeostasis during a reflexology session.

The Stress Response

Hans Selye (1907–1982) was an endocrinologist who conducted pioneering work on what has become known as the stress response, the nonspecific response of an organism to stressors. He posited that stress is a major cause of disease because chronic stress causes long-term chemical changes to the body. In his general adaptation syndrome model, he described three phases of the effects of stress on the body:

In the first stage, the alarm stage, your initial reaction to stress is to recognize there is a danger and you prepare to deal with the threat, i.e., the fight-or-flight response. In the second phase, the resistance stage, the source of stress is possibly resolved. Homeostasis begins restoring balance, and a period of recovery enabling repair and renewal takes place. Stress hormone levels may return to normal, but you may have reduced defenses and adaptive energy left as a result. If the stressful condition persists, your body adapts by a continued effort in resistance and remains in a state of arousal. In the third phase, the exhaustion stage, the stress has continued for some time. Your body’s ability to resist is lost because its adaptation energy supply is gone. This is sometimes referred to as overload, burnout, adrenal fatigue, or maladaptation. This stage of the general adaptation syndrome, in which the stress level stays up, is the most hazardous to your health.

Through its ability to adapt to the demands of the environment, the autonomic nervous system plays an essential role in the restoration of balance that gets disrupted by stress. Depending on the stress phase of the person, which can be identified on the person’s hands, the reflexologist will know whether the treatment should be based on stimulation of the sympathetic or the parasympathetic nervous system.

The Occipital Zones

The occiput is the anatomical term for the posterior (back) portion of the skull. Painfully sensitive to massage when there is a disorder present, the zones of this part of the skull are exact reflections of the structural, sympathetic, or parasympathetic regions that are experiencing the disorder. The painful occipital zones on the head confirm which points on the hand are the ones that require treatment. When treated, a visible state of relaxation results, one that is very helpful to establish before embarking on any further therapeutic reflexology protocol.

Hering’s Law

In homeopathy Hering’s law is widely recognized as the second law of cure (the first law in homeopathy being “like cures like”). Hering’s law, named after Constantine Hering (1800–1880), an early pioneer of homeopathy in the United States, pertains to the direction in which a person’s symptoms will disappear during the course of a homeopathic treatment. These are:

• from a more important organ to a less important one
• from within outward
• in the reverse order of the appearance of symptoms
• from above downward

My method of total reflexology therapy emphasizes the importance of Hering’s law, which the reflexologist can use to follow the evolution or involution of a disease in meticulous detail. Hering’s law enables the therapist to monitor the effectiveness of a treatment, to offer the best advice to the patient, and to guide him or her to complementary treatments or medicines.

Front part of a processional chariot in wood polychrome from eighteenth-century Kerala, India—an example of the skilled workmanship of the scuulptor made possible by the sensational connection between the hands and the brain

Table of contents

• Cover Image
• Title Page
• Epigraph
• Table of Contents
• Part One: Introduction to Reflexology
• Part Two: The Sensational Hand-Brain Tandem
• Part Three: The Therapeutic Experience
• Part Four: Hand Reflexology
• Part Five: Beyond Reflexology
• Total Reflexology Training Seminars
• Bibliography
• List of Plates
• About the Author
• About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
• Books of Related Interest
• Copyright & Permissions
• Index