Facial reflexology

According to its advocates, facial reflexology is effective because the face has a large number of nerves and blood vessels.Facial reflexology combines massage with theories based on acupuncture and Chinese concepts of energy lines, or meridians.According to Chinese medicine, our energy flows through the body via 12 invisible meridians. If these energy lines become blocked, imbalances occur, and this imbalance can result in aches, pains, insomnia and even irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).Facial reflexologists say they can feel a change of texture as a result of these ‘imbalances’ under the upper layer of skin on the face. They are said to feel like sugar, lumps of porridge or grains of sand.By working over the face with the fingertips, they can help to break down these deposits, boosting the energy, circulatory and nervous systems.‘The brain is the control centre of the body and the face is much closer to it than the feet are, so I find combining face reflexology with foot reflexology is an incredibly powerful treatment ,’ says leading facial reflexology practitioner Jules O’Driscoll. Jules who has a clinic in Perth, explains that by stimulating the acupuncture points on the face and the feet using acupressure (pressing on them with the fingertips and rotating them on the spot). As well as being ‘energy points’ they are, according to Ms O’Driscoll important blood circulation points.  The theory is that the face and the feet are where all your nerve endings begin or end, it is a micromap of the body so, by working on a particular point of the micromap, you can affect the corresponding body part, calming it if there is inflammation or stimulating it if there is sluggishness.The reflexologist uses the fingertips to make deep, sweeping massage movements or short, fast strokes. Sessions last for 45 to 50 minutes.Ms O’Driscoll  says: ‘The treatment relaxes the entire body, and when the body relaxes, you start to heal. It’s no longer putting all its energy into stress.’Often clients are so relaxed by the therapy that they drift off into a dreamy state that some describe as being like ‘going under’.The treatment is popular with those suffering from conditions that may be stress-related such as insomnia, tension headaches and IBS. In some IBS patients, for example, there is a strong link between stress and symptoms, especially constipation. If stress can be alleviated, gut symptoms such as constipation can be alleviated too.Although IBS is normally treated through changes to diet and, if necessary, medication to alleviate abdominal pain and constipation or diarrhoea, there are those for whom such treatments do not work or who are reluctant to stick to them, and for whom reflexology may provide relief.The medical director of digestive diseases charity Core, Dr Anton Emmanuel, also consultant gastroenterologist at University College London, cites a study in which constipated patients received reflexology and bowel behaviour was monitored.In 18 out of 19 patients, not only did they feel less stressed, their bowel movements became more normal. Dr Emmanuel believes that the effects of reflexology on IBS-sufferers are about more than relaxation. ‘I think it may have an effect on the nervous system. Pain is perceptual: any intervention to alleviate pain has to work on the brain and the nervous system.‘It’s plausible that reflexology could do something to the brain’s reflex control of the gut and how pain is processed, in a way that is comparable with how conventional IBS treatments work.’