What will you experience after you received a therapeutic reflexology treatment? In today’s post, we’ll have a look at the healing response patients may experience.
Every person reacts differently to therapeutic reflexology treatment and understanding what you may experience after a session, is important for you to understand the process ahead. Therapeutic reflexology is a healthcare therapy and therefore more than one session is often needed. Some people may have the perspective that since they visit their general practitioner or medical doctor once for a consultation, they want to do the same with therapeutic reflexology and then expect results afterwards. That is the wrong perception, because medical doctors are diagnostic practitioners that prescribe medication to you that will work in your body for a few days.
Therapeutic reflexology is a therapy and can be seen more in line with the profession of physiotherapy rather than with the medical profession, because it is therapeutic in nature and not diagnostic. That also means, that therapeutic reflexologists do not prescribe medication, but that therapy provided may take more than one session to have desired results, however, results can never be guaranteed and each person will react differently on treatments.
In my practice, I have seen patients that received the desired results within 3 to 5 sessions, but I have also seen those patients that have desired results after only 1 session. For others it may take up to 10 sessions and others never really receive the desired results they so long for, but they do experience other positive results that may increase their quality of life.
With that in mind, remember that each person reacts differently on therapeutic reflexology sessions, but generally, patients feel very relaxed, calm, destressed and they usually sleep extremely well after a treatment.
Some patients say that they experienced some “negative” reactions, but even though it is seen as negative, it is in actual fact positive. Therapeutic reflexology stimulates the body to balance itself or attempt to heal itself from the inside out, thus the body’s own healing ability is activated and a result of this may be that the body rids itself of toxins and this “detoxing” of the body, may have certain symptoms that may be perceived as negative.
This is called the healing response.
Some call it a “healing crisis” (Dougans, 2005:249), but I have heard the phrase healing response from an international reflexologist that just resonated with me, because it is natural for the body to respond by getting rid of toxins in the body when it is attempting to heal or balance itself and this cannot really be seen as a crisis, but instead the word response is preferred.
To understand healing response, have you ever heard that somebody said that you first need to get worse before you can get better? Well, that is referring to the healing response. When your body is full of toxins due to modern-day lifestyle and diet and the body is attempting to heal or balance itself, then these toxins need to be excreted and to do so, may lead to some symptoms that certain patients experience. These healing response symptoms are different as each person reacts differently to therapeutic reflexology; some patients never experience it, others experience some of it after the very first session and others experience it after 3 to 5 sessions. As said, each person is different and reacts differently.
Let me not scare you away from therapeutic reflexology. It is not terrible symptoms, but has to do with the excretion of toxins, thus you may experience increase urination, better bowel movements, runny nose, sometimes dizziness or a bit of nausea, tiredness, headaches or increased discharge and mucous (Dougans, 2005:249-250).
These are similar symptoms as you would experience when busy with detoxification, but do not feel alarmed. Drinking enough water after a therapeutic reflexology session, especially after the first session, will help the body with excreting the toxins and often helps to reduce the healing response symptoms.
The healing response is needed in order to get rid of toxins in the body so the body can balance itself and then attempt to heal itself from the inside out. The healing response symptoms are therefore not a negative, but a positive and a sign that the body is attempting to heal itself.
Every patient does not experience these symptoms, but it may occur and you should be aware of this fact in order to be prepared to understand what is happening with you. It is not the therapeutic reflexology session that causes the symptoms, it is the body itself in an attempt to rid itself from unwanted toxins; all a natural process of healing.
If you have any questions or concerns, please speak to your therapeutic reflexologist that will gladly explain the healing response to you.
It is crucial to make use of qualified and registered therapeutic reflexologists formally regulated by the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA) in order for your therapist to understand how the body works, being able to explain it to you and to adjust treatment if necessary in order for you to experience the best possible results from your treatment sessions.
References
Dougans, I. (2005) Reflexology: The 5 Elements and their 12 Meridians – A unique approach. London: Thorsons.
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Christo A. Scheepers: Therapeutic Reflexologist
Dip.T.R.(Cum Laude) [IARAMT]
AHPCSA: A11945
Pr. No.: 1080000737453
Tel. 072-800 7243