Differences Between Massage And Reflexology

The difference between massage and reflexology is that massage therapists are trained to deal with the entire body, while reflexology practitioners deal mainly with the feet, and occasionally the hands or even the ears. Yet reflexology therapists also believe they are working on the full body, even if they concentrate mainly on the feet or hands. They believe the nerves and reflexes from every part of the body are reflected in different parts of the feet. When you undergo a reflexology session and have your feet methodically massaged, you are supposedly creating benefits in other parts of your body as well.

Massage therapists detect problems directly in the spots where they occur, so they might massage a knot out of a muscle. Reflexology techniques, on the other hand, may detect a shoulder problem, for example, in a sore spot on the knuckle of a hand. Rather than going to the shoulder, the reflexology practitioner would use massage and reflexology methods at the knuckle, in order to ease and open the nerve pathways to the shoulder area, hoping to induce the shoulder muscles to relax on their own.

Because reflexology is sometimes used diagnostically, and also sometimes claims to heal certain illnesses, it’s important that practitioners receive good reflexology training. But because this practice is not regulated in most countries, training may sometimes be uneven or inconsistent.

Therefore, if you’re interested in having a session or want to be sure you’re treated by someone who is completely qualified, it’s important to check a practitioner’s certification. If they’ve been trained in foot massage as well as reflexology at a school recognized by a state or national association, you can be more confident than if the person has been completely trained on their own.

Because massage and reflexology are so intertwined in so many people’s minds, official associations of reflexology seek at least to ensure that their own people are well trained and live up to certain standards of practice and certain ethical codes. Reflexology certification can help to clear up the confusion between a reliable practitioner and one who is not, or about what training a person actually has to acquire to be officially recognized. And the various associations can also help define when a practitioner is engaged in massage alone, and when they are doing genuine reflexology.

David writes on a variety of massage techniques and products that help promote a healthy body and mind. If you enjoyed this article, you might be interested in his opinion on the benefits of a chair back massager, in particular the Homedics Chair Massager.

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