Dear Reflexology Friends,
The year began for me in the Eastern Cape, Free State, and Northern Cape as I was on vacation. The vacation was a promise I made to the family; “on completion of the Ph.D. degree, I am taking a vacation without even opening a laptop.” We had a well-deserved break, but it was also a time of reflection and decisions had to be taken for the year ahead with regard to the therapeutic reflexology private practice.
January 2023 marked my 20 years in reflexology as I professionally started doing reflexology in January 2003. This is a journey I shall never forget as my first professional practical training was facilitated by the German reflexologist, Hans Gerspacher. What a journey it has been. Over the past 20 years, I had the privilege of touching the lives of many people through touching many feet.
In 2022 I completed a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in the Management of Technology and Innovation with extensive research that was conducted over a seven-year period into entrepreneurial healthcare management with a special focus on practice management of healthcare practices. With the completion of this SAQA-accredited NQF Level 10 degree came the responsibility of sharing my expertise and teaching at a higher education level; something I have always done on a part-time basis, but after graduating more prominent opportunities arose, compelling me to consider the way forward as many hours will be spent on university campuses.
I originally moved to Cape Town to get involved in higher education while also living out my passion for reflexology. It always amazes me that providing therapy on your feet, it may have such a tremendous impact on your health and life.
That brings me to the year 2023 and the way ahead, but to do so, let me go back a few years. In January 2018 I opened a therapeutic reflexology private practice in the Tygervalley area, where I am still located, although in a different building. The practice opened in the Buena Vista Office Park on Durban Road, Eversdal; those of you that journeyed with me since then will remember that light face brick building with the dark windows that had huge parking challenges and even bigger stairways of steps challenges. Amidst the challenges, the practice grew rapidly necessitating bigger premises and after a five-month search, I finally found the ideal premises about two kilometres down Durban Road in The Bridge, 304 Durban Road, Tygervalley, where I am still located. The premises were bigger making it possible to have two therapy rooms to offer additional treatments and a waiting room, offered lots of free parking, and even had an elevator for easy access to the second floor. I signed a three-year lease agreement and moved into the new office on 1 March 2020, literally a couple of weeks before a national lockdown was announced for the COVID-19 pandemic; a huge setback nobody could ever imagine.
I changed one drywall in the office, saw one patient, and then the COVID-19 lockdown was in full force. It was an extremely difficult time trying to survive in bigger (and much more expensive) offices while the entire world was not operating. The journey was tough, but we survived amidst the coronavirus and are still in operation. The COVID-19 pandemic period has illuminated many things for me as a private practice owner and where some of my regular patients returned and continued to support me in the new premises while new patients visited the practice (thank you to each and every one of you), it was also a time where many of my regular patients never returned after COVID-19 and have not visited me at all in the new premises in the past three years. As if this has not been challenging enough, then Eskom decided to shut off our national electricity supply leaving me on the second floor in my office without the use of an elevator; should I also state that many people, including me, have been stuck in the elevator during times when Eskom unexpectedly decided to increase load shedding stages and then we get stuck in the elevator. To make things worse, Eskom cannot supply electricity, but simultaneously keep on increasing electricity prices with a ripple effect throughout people’s available income. The result has been that even many of my current regular patients have scaled-down appointments considerably and where some have seen me weekly, I now sometimes see them only once every two or three months, that is if they still visit me. Even more challenging, is that some patients and potential patients make appointments, but then at the last minute cancel the appointment or sometimes do not even show up for appointments, leading to wasted time in my schedule, even after I had to show other people away who are then not available to fill up those time slots.
With all of this said, I had to make some serious decisions as my three-year lease agreement in my current premises is coming to an end on 31 March 2023, and with the constant huge increases in operational expenses with unpredictable patient numbers, it has become a certainty that I cannot renew the lease in the current premises. I am thus vacating the office at the end of March 2023.
New Premises
It is with great excitement that I can announce that a new lease agreement was signed as I found the ideal premises up the road; more details will follow in due course, but let me say, it is a ground floor unit so no more struggling with elevators. The premises is smaller to make it more cost-effective but still more than ideal to offer good quality therapy in a professional environment. The idea is to put everything in place to ensure that load shedding will not negatively affect any appointments in the near future to avoid having to reschedule appointments amidst my hectic schedule.
Practice Hours
I have been offered many hours of higher education academic opportunities at three different universities for the year and have thus accepted that, but that means that the practice hours will have to be adjusted. The idea is to still offer reflexology on the days and hours that I am not involved at the universities, but that will mean I can no longer be available at any time at a moment’s notice, but instead, will have certain timeslots available during the week; appointments will be limited to those timeslots. This should not be strange, because that is how any other healthcare practice operates; when you visit your medical doctor, you cannot choose a time convenient for you, you have to take one of the available timeslots the doctor offers you. If people take an appointment slot and then do not show up for the appointment or cancelling it in less than 24 hours, there may be cost involved for the patient now.
My time is going to be limited this year due to the many hours on the university campuses which means that the times I am available to offer therapeutic reflexology will have to be optimised and I request your assistance in this regard to not prevent somebody from getting therapy due to no-shows and last-minute cancellations. There should be sufficient time available to continue offering you the amazing therapy of therapeutic reflexology.
Online Appointment Booking:
Our new online appointment booking system has been embedded in our website and you may find it at https://www.christoscheepers.co.za/bookings. Please visit that page to see the different therapy options offered and when choosing an option, you may also see the available timeslots. You may still make bookings via Telephone/WhatsApp/Telegram, but the online booking system will make it easier for you to see availability.
Prices
I have always worked on medical aid rates and will continue to do so, but I have also standardised appointment fees and therefore first-time patients will no longer pay more than regular patients. There has been only a slight R50.00 increase in fees for 2023.
Conclusion
Please bear with us during this time of transition as we embark on a new and upgraded therapeutic reflexology experience to continue offering you the best possible therapy in a similar standard and fashion as other professional healthcare practices.
Let me end this long story by thanking every one of you for supporting my private practice over the past 20 years. It has been such a privilege to be entrusted with touching your feet (and bodies) and providing you with amazing therapy. I am committed to offering only the best therapeutic reflexology available and have thus completed another Continued Professional Development (CPD) training programme recently on all the latest information about Infertility and the use of therapeutic reflexology for infertility for both males and females. I have also updated my first aid level 3 certificate. Therapeutic Reflexologists only need a valid level 1 first aid certificate, but since I am an avid hiker and a qualified rescue diver, I renew my level 3 first aid certificate every three years to ensure I am updated to provide first aid not only in an office environment but outside in nature and the ocean as well.
Thank you for reading such a long story at a time when we all just scan through information.
I shall keep you updated about the move to the new premises, but for now, I am continuing to practice from my current practice office.
Foot Greetings
Christo