Touching Feet, Touching Lives is the motto of Christo Scheepers Therapeutic Reflexologist. I believe that therapeutic reflexology is much more than just touching the feet of patients; it is a healthcare modality touching the lives of people.
Every time a patient entrusts me with their feet, it is a huge privilege and humbling experience as it is accompanied by a huge sense of responsibility. As a therapeutic reflexologist I practice within a scope of practice as established by the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA), a statutory council regulating the profession and safeguarding patients. Being a registered and formally regulated professional therapeutic reflexologist, provides the ethical and legal boundaries within which to practice, but when touching the feet of any patient, there is so much more than just staying within these boundaries.
Touching the feet of a patient means that I have been entrusted with the feet, the body and ultimately the life of the person. It is a humbling experience being allowed to touch another person and to do so within the healthcare industry with the purpose of adding positive value to the person brings with it a huge responsibility. No, I’m not talking about a responsibility of staying within the ethical and legal boundaries accompanying physical touch in my profession; that is a given as I’m a registered professional. What I’m referring to, is the responsibility that when touching a patient, it should be a healing touch bringing about positive change and it is not my touch that is doing the healing, but the therapeutic reflexology skills and tools imparted to me during training that provides me with an amazing opportunity to touch with the intention of helping the person’s body to heal itself or at least balance itself from the inside out.
God created us with this amazing body that has an innate ability to heal itself. Just think about it. When you cut yourself, you will bleed, but innate blood clotting factors will attempt to restore the imbalance by making the blood clot and thus stop leaking out of the body. When an organ is removed, your body will compensate for that loss and other parts of the body may take over the function. When you are sad, you cry and tears flow from your eyes in an attempt of giving the body a physical way to balance the upset emotions. This is how wonderful God has created our bodies.
Therapeutic reflexology is a tool that I am able to use to help your body to restore balance in an attempt to heal itself from the inside out. Being part of this awesome opportunity is putting the responsibility in my hands to touch each patient in the best possible way and with maximum skill to be part of this opportunity of restoration and healing.
Let’s be honest, you won’t allow just anybody to touch you; would you? I do not take that lightly and when I’m entrusted with a patient’s feet, it is with a humble sense of gratitude that I’m being trusted enough be be allowed into your inner sphere. I have experienced this with every patient I have worked with since 2003 when I started doing reflexology, but this has been especially appreciated when I worked with trauma patients that went through a sexually related trauma like rape and thereafter being allowed to work with that very patient. This is what I mean when saying that it is a huge privilege to touch a patient, especially those who have been violated and touch is seen as something unhealthy, but when given the opportunity to provide healthy touch by means of therapeutic reflexology, amazing results and healing are seen. With this comes the responsibility of ensuring that the patient is experiencing the touch in a very healthy and healing manner.
Touching the feet of patients has a physical benefit in that I would work on the nerve endings in the feet to induce deep relaxation which in turn assists in the excretion of endorphins in the body which brings about healing and a sense of wellbeing.
There is also an emotional component with touch and in a society where touch is often frowned upon and even discouraged due to the modern lifestyle of online communication, it results in people craving closeness. When being allowed to offer such a person a healthy form of touch through therapeutic reflexology, it becomes my responsibility to do so in a healthy way so the patient may experience the optimum benefit. Often this will result not only in a physical rebalancing in the body, but also the accompanying emotional restoration and balancing.
It is not strange for me to provide therapeutic reflexology to a person and while working on their feet, they just start crying and an emotional release is occurring. As human beings we are created in such a way that if we choose not to deal with certain emotions, it is literally being stored in our muscles and bodies; therapeutic reflexology has a way to help this to be released by just offering the patient a relaxing treatment.
Therapeutic reflexology helps with pain reduction and it assists with the increasing of wellbeing. It is not only a therapy for a condition, it is a modality affecting lives. When you are in constant pain and receive therapeutic reflexology and then your chronic pain gets alleviated or even disappears, then you realise, it was not only about the elimination of symptoms for you, it was a change in lifestyle.
Therapeutic reflexology is therefore much more than merely a physical healthcare modality; it is a form of holistic health through physical touch therapy. Therapeutic reflexology is the touching of feet that results in the touching of lives.
As a therapeutic reflexologist my motto is Touching Feet, Touching Lives, because each patient is an individual and unique in his or her own way. Each patient walks in the door with a unique set of circumstances and needs a unique approach to assistance. As I believe I am not only touching feet, but also touching lives, I ensure that all treatments are customised to the specific needs of the patient to ensure optimum results and in the process, I am touching the patient’s feet with the purpose of touching the person’s life. So when you entrust me with your feet, I realise you are also entrusting me with your life.
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Christo A. Scheepers: Therapeutic Reflexologist
Dip.T.R.(Cum Laude)[IARAMT]
AHPCSA: A11945
Pr. No.: 1080000737453
Tel. 072-800 7243