Reflexology does help arm and back problems quite often.
I suppose that most reflexologists have experienced that.
In case of a mouse arm the connected reflexzones on the
feet are most often affected and easily found on the top
of the third metatarsale and cuneiforme. The back will
show up on the feet as well in practically all cases.
The neck reflex of course is the most expected zone to
be painful, but the lower back will be affected too. It
even can be so that the lower back is the primary cause.
With reflexology I have the best results with clients who
are in real pain. We can treat in that case rather
symptomatically the reflexzone of the most painful place
in the arm - very often the wrist - and always the shoulders
and neck. I for one do so in the ear and the hand as well
as on the foot.. In a few treatments and often already
during the first one, the pain will abate and that is
something and needed to give people air to reflex a bit,
to see what further has to be done to get really rid of
the RSI. In this next phase reflexology can be helpful,
I'm sure, although the succesful cases are much less and
it will cost many treatments on average. I use to treat
mainly the reflexzones of the spine and the shoulders
after a massage of the neck and shoulders themselves
with the client lying on the back.
Any illness, the mouse arm included, has to do with the
psyche. So if a physical change for the better takes
place, - pain abades, stiffness lessens or strength
returns - something is happening psychically as well.
It is not always possible / easy to see, but that doesn't
make it less true.
An ill person - no matter if it is called a somatical or
psychical illness - can improve as well by a physical
(self)treatment as by a psychical one. Which one fits
the best depens on the client, the moment and the therapist,
if one is involved.
Reflexology has, as I consider it, a somatic approach in
the main, it effects in the first place the body, but
besides this it had the ability to work directly on the
psyche by special techniques/light touch, as for instance
TT does. Isn't it one of the reasons we love reflexology
as we do? But often there is no or little awareness of
a possible psychical change or it comes much later.
There is nothing wrong with psychical changes, that take
place without much awareness - for some clients it's
the very proper way -, but with a clearer awareness the
change has a greater possibility to be more enjoyed by
the client, what in turn improves the quality of life.
A psychotherapy beside the reflexology can bring this
about. One can think of a cognitive therapy, but for
the kind of illness we discuss here - the mouse arm and
back problems - an approach addressing itself to the
awareness of the body with the traumata and feelings
storaged fits most often better. Breath awareness
therapy is a good one for this. Of course the awareness
in neck, shoulders and lower back plays a main role
during the breathing exercises used in the therapy.
I'm very happy combining this therapy with the
reflexology myself, but working together with an other
therapist can be as good. For an example of a case
where I succesfully used both therapies alongside
eachother, I refer to my article on a Hernia Patient.
The kind of work we do as reflexologists makes us potential
RSI patients. My work as breath therapist gave me
insight that the way of sitting and the techniques used
make a great difference in this respect. We cannot just
go and sit another way than we are used to, but awareness
creates possibilities. The better our body awareness,
the better our therapeutic attitude and the less danger
to develop a mouse arm or any injury on wrist or thumb.
A 'good' and relaxed way of sitting releases the
shoulders and reduces the needed tension og the arm
and thumb muscles and tendons to a minimum while
working.
A very important superadded effect is that through this
minimized tension the sensitivity of thumb and fingers
increases, what makes the possibilities to diagnose the
texture of the foot zone objectivily as optimal as it
can be.
And thus the circle is round. To find the affected
pinpoints / zones on the foot that matter, while
working with a client with a mouse arm and / or back
problems, is not always easy. An optimized thumb and
finger sensitivity may be helpful.
Thijs Versteegh.