Put Your Best Feet Forward: Exploring the causes and cures of foot pain with Structural Reflexology® - Softcover

Villeneuve, Geraldine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1504373235 ISBN 13: 9781504373234

Verlag: Balboa Press, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

Foot pain is something with which most Americans suffer, and yet most ignore or have simply surrendered to it. In Put Your Best Feet Forward, experienced Structural Reflexologist Geraldine Villeneuve outlines not just the types of foot pain and their sources, but also how this pain can manifest itself throughout the body. From depression, to lower back pain, to common foot problems themselves, freeing our feet from the shoes that bind them can be the answer for which we?re searching. Villeneuve educates readers on the importance of foot health for that of the body and mind and empowers them to take their health and vitality into their own hands. Put Your Best Feet Forward is for anyone interested in improving health, youth, and vigor. Readers will find themselves saying ?Ahhh?? in relief!

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Geraldine Villeneuve has been practicing Reflexology for over 30 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Therapeutic Recreation, is a Licensed Massage Practitioner specializing in injury remediation, and is an American Board Certified Reflexologist. She is also a member of the International Council of Reflexologists. She founded the Seattle Reflexology and Massage Center where she produced and taught a popular Mastery Level Reflexology Certification training series from 1992 - 1999. Geraldine trademarked Structural Reflexology(R) in 2013 as a revolutionary motion to promote foot health awareness by providing education for more healthful and therapeutic options to resolve foot pain and compensation in the body. Ultimately her goal is to encourage public awareness to rise into a culture of individuals with vital feet rather than a culture of foot-pain sufferers. Her experience, clarity, and dynamic teaching style invoke great respect and admiration in the health forums she leads on the subject of Structural Reflexology(R). Since her busy practice comes mostly from word of mouth she appreciates referrals and collaborating with a variety of health care professionals including chiropractors, MDs, NDs, and others who see great value in Structural Reflexology(R) because they have either witnessed recovery from their patients' foot pain or have personally experienced successful and lasting relief from their own. Geraldine now happily resides in Essex, Vermont with her husband Neil. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing the violin, stained-glass window-making, skiing, rock collecting, nature, and learning new things.

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Put Your Best Feet Forward

Exploring The Causes And Cures Of Foot Pain With Structural Reflexology

By Geraldine Villeneuve

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2017 Geraldine Villeneuve
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-7323-4

Contents

Note, ix, 
Acknowledgments, xi, 
Preface, xiii, 
Introduction, xix, 
Chapter 1 Serendipity: How Reflexology Found Me, 1, 
Chapter 2 Shoes, 9, 
Chapter 3 The Foot Reflexology Map, 17, 
Chapter 4 Reginald's Brain Reflexes, 21, 
Chapter 5 The Relationship between the Arch of the Foot and the Spine, 25, 
Chapter 6 The Gravitational Line, 29, 
Chapter 7 What It Means to "Reflex" the Feet, 33, 
Chapter 8 Theories about Foot Reflexology, 37, 
Chapter 9 The Controversial Reflexology Map, 41, 
Chapter 10 The Disappearing Little Toe, 47, 
Chapter 11 Learning How to Walk Again, 51, 
Chapter 12 Madeline, 57, 
Chapter 13 Columns of the Foot, 61, 
Chapter 14 The Cinderella Stepsister Complex: Understanding the Silent Breakdown of the Foot, 67, 
Chapter 15 Flat Foot or "Fallen Arch?", 73, 
Chapter 16 The Nature of the Foot, 81, 
Chapter 17 Long Foot Muscles and Their Reflex Sites, 89, 
Chapter 18 The Calf Muscles and the Heart, 107, 
Chapter 19 Arch Supports: "'To Be? or Not to Be?' That is the Question", 113, 
Chapter 20 Common Foot Problems Revealed, 119, 
Conclusion, 131, 
Postscript : The Fossils Story, 135, 
Appendices, 137, 
Works Cited, 151, 
Index, 153, 

CHAPTER 1

Serendipity: How Reflexology Found Me

It was the summer of 1981. I had just finished my sophomore year of college and was much in need of a job. Given my studies in therapeutic health and physical education, I decided to take a job as a nurse's aide in a nursing home. At the age of nineteen, I willingly entered into the world of geriatrics and was happy to have a job.

Some of my responsibilities entailed keeping the residents comfortable and feeding and bathing those who needed assistance. I was also given the job of taking blood pressure and pulses, recording the intake of fluids and output of urine, and testing sugar levels for those suffering with diabetes.

As the summer continued, my knowledge and responsibilities grew. I got to know my patients and greatly enjoyed the warm and simple exchanges that occurred as these relationships developed.

In the process of carrying out my responsibilities, I couldn't shake the phenomenon of the appearance of most of my patients' feet. I referred to them as "mushroom-capped" feet because this is what they looked like when it came time for me to take their shoes off. The tops of their feet looked swollen and bulbous, while their toes and heels were shriveled and slight. It bothered me deeply, and I instinctively washed and rubbed their feet and watched their faces melt with relief as their feet relaxed into a more normal shape. I felt happy to be able to provide comfort in this way.

One midsummer day I was perusing a book that described many ways to heal the body, and I came upon a diagram that illustrated the organs of the body drawn on the bottoms of the feet. Both amused and amazed at the absurdity of this image, my interest was piqued, and I could not let this pass by. I had to prove or disprove this and was intent on figuring it out.

I copied the page, brought the diagram with me to work, and began investigating the possibility of its truth.

Having access to the medical charts, and with permission from my patients, I was able to associate the image of the foot map to their feet. With my thumbs, I palpated sites on their feet to investigate correlations with their medical chart. For example, if a patient was experiencing constipation, I palpated the areas where the map cited as the reflex area to the colon. I would then compare this texture with that of another patient's foot who was not experiencing constipation. I was amazed how tactilely different they were.

The possibilities of learning about this intrigued me to no end, and my patients loved it. With permission from the charge nurse, I began to take a few of my patients' pulses and blood pressures before and after I palpated sites on their feet and noted a significant and positive change in the measurement. I even took the opportunity to test blood-sugar levels to see if reflexology could influence pancreatic function by decreasing the sugar levels in urine, and I was thrilled to see that it did.

I began to see obvious changes in the dispositions of the patients I was working with over that summer. I knew reflexology was benefiting them, but it was still very mysterious to me, and like a new best friend, I took this newfound knowledge with me wherever I went to test it and to learn from it. I bought every reflexology book I could get my hands on, and in my spare time throughout the remainder of college, I practiced on my friends and family and read all I could about reflexology.

As part of completing my bachelor of science degree, I was required to fulfill an internship, which I chose to do in the orthopedic division at the Children's Hospital in Boston. My job was to provide therapy to the patients through play and activity. I loved this job and am so thankful for the experience of working in this superb establishment.

While I was there, reflexology again beckoned to me, this time to the autism division as I passed this floor on my way to the orthopedic unit.

I couldn't help but think how wonderful it would be if reflexology could create a calming effect for children with autism who were confined to cribs, waiting to have dental work. With permission from my supervisor and the charge nurse on duty, I was able to calm a wonderful child with autism with a ten-minute reflexology session. The two of us then peacefully took a walk in the garden courtyard below without incident. This event was a topic for conversation for quite a while after, as typically this child was not able to focus long enough to stand still. Needless to say, I was thrilled.

Toward the end of my internship, my supervisor asked me what I planned on presenting during the required public education forum at the hospital. I froze. At the time I was not comfortable speaking in public, and my head became foggy in my attempt to figure out what I could talk about for forty-five minutes.

After a few days of thinking it through, I bravely asked my supervisor if she would allow me to talk about reflexology. Since she was privy to my extracurricular reflexology sessions with children with autism at the hospital, she acquiesced to this idea with excitement about learning more. I then asked if I could demonstrate on her, and amused and delighted, she agreed.

The day of the presentation soon came, and so did a "eureka moment." While speaking and demonstrating the reflexology technique I had developed over the last two and a half years, I found myself repeatedly palpating a particular raised texture on my supervisor's hand that was a reflex site associated with the ear, until she shrieked, "Ouch!"

My face reddened, and I apologized for hurting her, but she promptly stopped me midsentence and said, "No you don't understand — my ear has been plugged up for two years, and it just popped open!" She thanked me, and the audience "oohed" and "ahhed," and they were almost as amazed as I. It worked, and I didn't even know there was a problem! Needless to say, I received an A+ on this presentation.

After receiving my bachelor's of science degree in therapeutic...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Balboa Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1504373235
• ISBN 13: 9781504373234
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 180
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland