Reflexology Workshop - Training for Practitioners

 

THE CASE FOR SUPERVISION

 

As a teacher and practitioner of reflexology and a Gestalt counsellor, I consistently see the reflexology student develop as an individual throughout their training.  To assist and encourage this developmental process to take place, the implementation of Supervision, self-development and possibly personal therapy can be considered as important adjuncts in offering support to the student and practitioner.

 

We have seen reflexology gain a wider acceptance within the medical profession over the last ten years and a consequent increased responsibility from the therapist towards the client with, possibly, the client’s doctor involved in the therapeutic alliance.  Unlike professional health-care workers within an orthodox environment, the working reflexologist has no-one to turn to for advice and support about their case-load and can often find themselves thrown back on their own understanding and training about a client’s condition. Without guidance within a professionally contained boundary where an exchange of concerns, ideas, thoughts and feelings about a client can take place with a reflexologist more experienced than themselves, the practitioner can feel isolated and lacking confidence in their decisions.

 

Clients will bring unconscious memories and feelings into the therapeutic space, which may have had an effect in the body.  The reflexologist, who, like the client, has no idea what the response to treatment will be, can suddenly find himself or herself presented with a situation that can include:

 

·         Release from chronically held emotions and memories from childhood and adulthood.

 

·         Physical conditions that have their origin in somatic and psychosomatic factors.

 

Confidentiality of the client’s case-history and related factors necessarily precludes the reflexologist discussing details at random about a client with a friend or colleague and thus an additional isolating situation can evolve where the therapist feels unsupported.

 

Whether working in a medical setting or in private practice, provision of a support system for the reflexologist would ensure optimum benefit between the client and practitioner.  My experience as a working reflexologist in both a medical setting and private practice and as a teacher of reflexology, has often presented me with a situation in which I would have welcomed the emphatic advice and support from a fellow colleague who had had a similar experience. 

 

In my work as a Gestalt counsellor, Supervision is an essential part of the therapeutic relationship, where the client’s and therapist’s welfare and safety are contained in a supportive relationship with the Supervisor.  We have seen that reflexology can also be viewed as one of the body-oriented therapies, alongside Gestalt, Bioenergetics, Rolfing and Feldenkrais all of which can release unconscious memories and feelings.

 

Reflexology has the additional ability of providing not only a psychological map by studying the structure of the feet and bodymind that can help the client to ‘ground’ more ably in the world but it is also a study of internal environmental balance (homeostasis).  This complexity defines and identifies distinctions between somatic, psychosomatic, body structure and internal functioning - a vast amount of information from one pair of feet! It would therefore seem advisable and even necessary for the reflexologist to have the availability of regular Supervision in which to discuss and gain advice and support about their clients.

 

Supervisors have necessarily gained considerable experience as working therapists within a discipline and can give a different perspective on a problem and offer support.  The newly qualified reflexologist needs to gain confidence and solidarity in their day to day practice. Feed-back from practitioners who qualify and suddenly find themselves ‘out there’ on their own, describe the one thing they require as on-going support; maybe when they are unsure how to proceed with a client, or when the client presents symptoms, medication or a condition that leaves them feeling uncertain about their professional boundary of responsibility towards the client.

 

Some basic principles of Supervision should include:

 

·         Strict boundaries of professionalism, for example, the supervisor should not be a personal friend or personal therapist.

 

·         A similar training should have taken place between the Supervisor and Supervisee so that the underlying principles of working the feet and hands are reasonably understood.  For example, an intuitively trained reflexologist would be suited to an intuitively trained Supervisor and a more physically oriented training to a physically oriented Supervisor.

 

·         Regular meetings in which areas of difficulty with clients can be discussed in a confidential environment.

 

·         Practitioners may attend group supervision.

 

·         Fees and a contract to be discussed at the first supervision session.

 

Very often, basic counselling skills can be a necessary requirement in the therapeutic alliance.  The reflexologist who is an untrained counsellor, can find himself or herself floundering with the client’s need for advice, support and to be told what to do in a given situation.  This can often overwhelm the therapist; especially those newly qualified as the client sees the reflexologist as the local oracle with answers to all their life problems!  As flattering as this may feel to the reflexologist, to enter into sympathetic responses can destroy the working relationship, leaving the client and reflexologist disillusioned with each other - and reflexology.

 

 The crossover point between the body-worker-therapist (reflexologist) and counsellor can present a thin line and care must be taken by the reflexologist that they do not slip into ‘would be’ counsellor role.  Supervision would enable the reflexologist to assess a given situation and their role within the therapeutic relationship and an opportunity to learn about their boundaries with the client.

 

 

Is Personal Therapy Necessary for the Reflexologist?

 

If we consider the role of the professional reflexologist in terms of working as a professional health-care worker, not only supervision but personal therapy can be viewed as appropriate for the neophyte reflexologist in training and as on-going commitment to professional practice with the already practising reflexologist.    Emotional stability and commitment to understanding our projections onto others must be a part of all professional health-care workers’ concerns.  How can we help others if we cannot help ourselves?  If a client attends treatment presenting an emotional situation that you are also experiencing, how can we be of help if we have not already sought help?  Comparing notes with the client can lead to both parties feeling upset, unsupported and feeling lost as to how to contain the relationship in a beneficial way.  A part of the responsible commitment from the practitioner to the client is to be able to support them with empathy, where understanding, kindness and compassion exclude emotional involvement, or sympathy.  Offering sympathy and entering into self-disclosure muddles the relationship by dissipating the safety of the boundaries between the client and practitioner.  Therefore, in the first place, self-knowledge sought for the self can be a route to offering empathy and compassion to others.

 

What is a Boundary?

 

A boundary is what each of us perceives to be ‘out there’ or ‘in here’: a physical boundary between the edge of our body and the external environment, or experienced as an internal boundary between the conscious self and others.  In the working relationship between the reflexologist and client, creating and maintaining safe and contained boundaries is essential - and just as essential between the student and the teacher of reflexology.   Boundaries provide a contained foundation on which to build a stable, trusting relationship incorporating respect and mutual understanding that allow self-healing to take place at the client’s pace or provides a respectful relationship between student and teacher; thereby creating a solid sense of self and other.  This can be described as a state where true empathy is possible with another.   Without healthy boundaries in all our relationships, there can be no ‘ground’ or foundation on which to build responsible relationships with empathy.

 

 It has been my experience that all to often the neophyte reflexologist imagines helping others before they have learnt how to help themselves.  There exists an unconscious aim towards self-healing that becomes projected on to another, whilst their own need goes unheeded.  The quote: ‘healer heal thyself’ should necessarily be brought to the attention of any health-care worker, as those who enter the caring professions often do so in an attempt to displace and deny their own need for healing.   Whilst they can maintain care for others a state of avoidance exists with their own need.   An awareness of issues that may have gone unheeded for the practitioner allow a clearer definition of the boundaries between carer and cared -for and hopefully, prompt the practitioner into taking on board his or her own need for healing.

 

Difficulty in forming boundaries can be the result of a need to merge with the other by losing sight of the self in that of the other.  This situation creates muddling and confusing relationships where there is little or no self-identification and includes the sympathetic response.  For example, my budgie may have died on the same morning as a client’s - she is very upset and so am I.  If I become upset with her, she or he may be the one supporting me!   This is an example that destroys the boundaries between the practitioner and client, undermining trust and feelings of safety in the relationship and can leave the client confused about the nature and professional standing of the reflexologist. 

 

 Another example of poor boundaries is reflected in time keeping where consistently early or late arrival can be an expression of anxiety or a need to control the environment. Where the client ‘forgets’ their chequebook or appointment the real message is that they do not value your time, knowledge and effort.  Sigmund Freud maintained that there is no such thing as ‘forgetting’, only denial!

 

 Attending Courses in self-development enables the reflexologist student or practitioner to understand how their own sense of boundaries may affect the therapeutic relationship.

 

The direction of reflexology, may in the future, include recognition as a major contributor to other body-work therapies, where the inclusion of supervision and self-development are prerequisite to training and practice.  This on-going support provided to the reflexologist would reflect a capable and confident practitioner, able to build healthy relationships with those who come to them for help.

 

To be a practitioner in complementary medicine involves a path of self-exploration, development and of assuming self-responsibility for our personal journey over a lifetime.  The reward for such effort for the practitioner contains a greater sense of inner freedom and thus, inner growth - and a more joyful spirit!  When the client treads the path of self-knowledge and inner-growth, with healthy support and encouragement from the reflexologist, the reward for such effort provides inspiration in continuing their own personal journey of self-discovery. 

Printed as an article in the Association of Reflexologists’ quarterly magazine.