Reflexology and back pain.

When I tell people that as a reflexologist, I have experience in using reflexology to reduce back pain, they think I’ve lost the plot.

But, it’s true. I have clients come to me who are unable to move because they’re in so much low back pain. And these clients aren’t just one demographic, chronic back pain, or acute afflicts most men and women at some point. I mean, who hasn’t had to complain of back pain at some point in their lives?

I work with them all* ranging from serious back problems where surgery is the only option, to men with mechanical chronic low back pain to a niggling discomfort. I treat your back pain with reflexology techniques specifically designed to target the muscles and bones in your spine.

They stagger into my therapy rooms, cringe in pain as they lower themselves into my padded reclining chair and eek their legs up to get their feet on the pillow from which I work during their treatment.

Give them an hour of either relaxation or chat and they spring up at the end of their spinal foot reflexology session like they’re different people. Relieved of the pressure in their back and neck. And all this from what on the surface appears to be little more than a foot massage. What’s more is that these techniques work equally as well at relieving pain whether you’ve been suffering with back pain for many years or if it’s a recent issue.

Invariably, clients aren’t fixed after one session. It often takes at least two spinal reflexology appointments in close succession for them to no longer feel any pain or experience only slight problems. But, the effects of that first therapy are always an absolute delight, to both me and my clients because, let’s face it, serious back problems result in us being less mobile, and ultimately enjoying our lives less.

So imagine my glee when I found there is a research study to support the link I found between reflexology and back pain. Although I guess me finding this research means that I didn’t discover the link, but I’m happy to skip over that if you are).

The research was listed in the Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research was conducted with 50 female and male nurses who each suffered from chronic lower back pain which is great because they are in the top ten careers to suffer with neck and back pain due to them constantly lifting etc. They each had three sessions of reflexology for back pain a week for a period of two weeks.

And guess what the results showed! Yep. That after this two week period during which they had intensive treatments such as those that I provide at Essential Feeling in Gidea Park, the nurses who had received reflexology had a notably lower level of lower back pain than those who didn’t receive the complementary therapy. This led the researchers to draw the conclusion that reflexology therapy can be effective in reducing the severity of chronic back pain with reflexology. It is able to reduce pain from moderate to mild and they recommend it for nurses which is good news if you’re one of the many suffering from work induced sciatica pain.

Now, bear in mind that these groups of people by the sounds of it only had standard reflexology as opposed to the spinal and nerve therapy that I do at Essential Feeling in Gidea Park, and you can see why I jump up and down at the results. I have clients who have been told their only option is to have spinal surgery, and then a few one hour sessions with me and they’re like new people. I truly think that reflexology is amazing.

*Other than patients suffering the kind of pain associated with a physical break in the back, or severed nerve etc.