• The Importance of Healthy Feet
• Foot Self-Assessment

Foot Self-Assessment

How fully you can do these movements?  What do you feel?  Do you have any pain?
Let your answers guide you in determining if you’d like to gain increased flexibility & comfort. Distinguish between stiffness, fatigue or pain. Never force any movement!

NOTE: Please check the list of contraindication & cautions at the end of this section to learn if you need to exercise caution when seeking Reflexology & Passive Foot Mobilization.

Bend your toes fully as you walk
Can you bend all of your toes like in this photo?
Are you able to push off the ground with each toe?
Are you able to do this while wearing shoes?

Spread your toes wide
Do all toes open?
Can you do this while wearing shoes?

Curl your toes strongly
Does this hurt anywhere?
Do you notice less motion than you’re used to?
Does each toe & each joint move?
Can you pick up a pencil with your toes?

Rotate your feet in big circles at your ankles
Watch & feel the circles you make.
Is this easy, with both feet?
Does your leg move when you try this?

Point your toes
Do all toes & joints move?

Climb stairs
As your weight shifts notice how each foot holds you.
Does anything slow down your movement?

Rise onto the balls of your feet
Can you walk up here?
Notice your feeling of balance.

Grasp and balance
Balance on a railroad track, are your toes engaged?
Are you able to walk if you feel balanced?
Notice how each part of your feet is involved.

Walking barefoot
Is this liberating or painful?
Does carpeting, hard floor, sand or grass alter your ability?

Footcare:  How do you treat your feet?

• Do you assume they get clean because they are in the shower with you?
• Do you look at them?
• Do you have calluses, corns or warts that don’t go away?
• Do you have bunions, plantar fasciitis or Morton’s neuromas?

Footwear

• Do you buy shoes that your toes can move in?
• Are any bones feeling pressed on or together?
• Are you using effort to hold your shoes on?
• How do you feel when taking off your shoes?

Good Ideas  It is a good idea to look at your feet.
Paying attention to them when washing will give you valuable information & cleaner feet. If your movements are completely free & comfortable, keep up the good work!

Notice Signs of Stress
Blisters can turn into calluses & signal that your feet are being repeatedly squeezed or rubbed. Ditto for corns. Warts should be gotten rid of because they are contagious & often painful.

The work of Reflexology & Passive Foot Mobilization honor your feet & your entire body! This work encourages strength, comfort, rest, & full mechanical & physiological functioning from the ground up.

Reflexology & Passive Foot Mobilization are recommended for anyone looking for profound stress relief anywhere in their body & especially for people with foot pain caused by the normal movements suggested above.

Stress created maladies of bunions, plantar fasciitis & Morton’s neuromas respond very well.

Fascinating fact “An infant’s foot has 20x the toe grasping capacity of a shoe wearing adult. In shoeless cultures, people retain the prehensile abilities of their feet throughout adulthood, using them for sewing & even threading needles.”
–Trail Guide to the Body, 2^nd Edition Andrew Biel pg. 289

NOTE: If you have one of the following contraindications or cautions please check with your doctor first so that the procedures & benefits of Reflexology & PFM are understood & approved by them. I am happy to speak with your doctor about the benefits of this work.

Contraindications: You may not receive sessions with these conditions.

Reflexology
Acute athletes foot, nail fungus or plantar warts

Passive Foot Mobilization
Osteotomy
History of thrombosis
Unknown swelling
Athlete’s foot and fungus
Open wounds
Stress fractures in the feet

Cautions: You may have this work after consent granted by your doctor

Reflexology
Clients receiving chemotherapy should be mindful about not scheduling too soon after a treatment because reflexology facilitates detoxification & can stimulate quicker detoxification through the body thereby increasing a client’s reactions. Nausea is often eased when Reflexology is given in the later part of their chemotherapy cycle.

Clients with diabetes must monitor their foot health & have a doctor who is aware of how they are addressing their health.

Passive Foot Mobilization
Recent sprains
People on blood thinners
Osteoporosis
Fragile capillaries
Infected ingrown toenails
Torn ligaments with swelling
Swollen limbs