Kathy Sykes

Reflexology as researched by Professor Kathy Sykes on BBC 2 last night, followed the same format as a programme about homeopathy shown last year.

First find some people who have benefited from the therapy, then consult conventional medical professionals who cannot explain the results, then declare that therefor the therapy itself does not work and the only requirement is 'belief'. ie it is all in the mind.

Obviously some of the result is 'in the mind'. Most complementary therapies work thro' body mind and spirit.

However I KNOW the results do not depend on belief. To quote just one example, I have a client who is a GP ( I mention this as most people expect GPs to be, at the least, objective if not sceptical). She came to me because reflexology was helping her cope with the stress of her profession.

At one treatment, she was obviously congested in her sinuses, speaking in a very nasal manner. Without saying anything, I worked on the sinus reflexes. After a few minutes, she said, 'Pauline, I don't know what you are doing, but I can breathe again'.

So, no belief needed there. And I could mention many other similar examples.

I also KNOW that the reflex map of the feet is true. Now, I don't go along with the picture of the little man on the foot, or the ear come to that, but I do believe that reflex areas on the feet cause an involuntary reaction or response in the body. Again, to quote one example from many, I have a client who is one of my 'sensitives'. She regularly knows whereI am on the feet because of the sensations she feels in her body. At one point in the treatment recently she announced - you are working my pelvis - and I was!

The theory that was put forward, and then disputed,about reflexology dissolving uric acid crystals in the feet is very old fashioned. I do not know any reflexologist who subscribes to this process. What I feel in the feet I describe, for want of a better word, as 'scrunchy'. Because that is how it feels to me. When I feel a 'scrunchy' reflex it unsually indicates a problem area, or one that has been a problem in the past.

Conventional medicine will never be able to provide an explanation of energy based therapies until it is accepted that healing involves more than the state of the body, but also the mind and the spirit. And these need to be worked on together, not in isolation. Hence the phrase - complementary medicine.

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