Why did I become a reflexologist?
Two years after we married, my darling hubby had an accident at work.
We saw a doctor then two consultants. The consultant in charge told my hubby that his back injury was so severe he would be in a wheelchair within two years.
Rocked by this news - we were both under 30 - we tried other avenues, mainly manual therapies that included manipulation. We had limited improvement.
Hubs couldn't work, but I carried on working in management accounts at a magazine publishing firm. One day, one of the editors, the blessed Helen Gill, asked why I was looking sad and on hearing the news, she let me loose in the health book section of her stock cupboard.
There I found the book which would change our lives, literally.
Joseph Corvo's Backache Cure. It showed you how to do a form of reflexology in pictures. I tried it on my hubby. He only started to improve!
I thank God for Helen and for that book. For giving me the gift of understanding and doing.
I looked for further training and found it in the British School of Reflexology.
To take the course and an exam, I had to agree to do a minimum of sixty case studies. Even though I only wanted to help my hubby, I agreed.
Being ill takes a toll on carers, family and friends. We lost so many along the way, that I had no idea how I would meet this target.
Again, I asked at work and was thrilled to have so many volunteer "guinea pigs" that I actually completed approximately 500 case studies for the exam.
There were two blessings to this.
Firstly for me, every one of these wonderful people knew the situation with my hubby and they knew I was funding my own training from limited funds. Thanks to the wonderful Mary Bird, they all gave me a little something towards my course. I am grateful for them every day. I am blessed to have Mary still in my life.
Secondly, every one of them reported some benefit from the treatment and they gladly filled in a report form cataloguing their benefit.
Not all was sunny in the world of work, though. My accounts office had a new boss and he was vile. Rarely do I use such strong words, but that person deserves it. In his favour was he was vile to all he 'managed', so I knew it wasn't just me!
Hubby, my greatest supporter, encouraged me to leave the magazine publishing world and become self employed as a reflexologist.
It was scary, making that leap, but I've never regretted it.
My proudest moment was five years after hubby's initial diagnosis, when I watched him ride off on a new motorbike.
To this day,seventeen years later, he still walks. He walks Missy our rescue jack russell dog, twice daily. He now works in a teaching capacity at the local college, where he changes lives, daily.
It wouldn't have happened without reflexology.
I could have stopped at helping hubby - that was my first idea, after all. But when I saw how it helped others too, there was no way I could just hang up my thumbs!
I count myself blessed, I've met some wonderful people, perhaps even the vile one was meant to be to push me towards this new career. Hubs and I have endured some pain and anguish and we've had some wonderful joyous moments and have come out of it stronger together.
That's why I became a reflexologist. To help. To make a difference.
My reflexology site
HERE
