An Interview with Jane Sheehan
Jane Sheehan is author of "Let's Read Our Feet!" "The Foot Reading Coach" and "Sole Trader: The Holistic Therapy Business Handbook."

Jane, tell us how did you first get involved in Reflexology?

I joke that I didn't choose reflexology. I think of it as reflexology having chosen me! I look back at who I was then and who I am today and I can't believe the path that I've been on. You see, I was brought up in the North-West, so you can imagine, very down-to-earth, practical. In those days, if you'd have told me what reflexology was, I'd probably have laughed at you, been extremely cynical and I certainly wouldn't have signed up for a treatment. It's just as well that I didn't know what it was, when my friend Claudine told me that for her birthday she fancied reflexology. I thought it was a beauty treatment because I'd seen it on the price list at a local beauty parlour. I didn't hold any truck with what I called "sadism for beauty" so I only knew about the beauty parlour because it was accessed from a set of stairs in the card shop! You get the idea. So as it's Claudine, I book us both in for a treatment. The appointed day arrives and she goes first. They're telling her all about her health and I'm thinking "Well, I know that about her, but how do you know that?"

Then it was my turn. Every time they touched my big toe, I had tears streaming down my face. I had no control over it. And worse, it was repeatable on both feet. I'm apologising to the therapist, "I'm so sorry, I don't understand it, I never cry in public" and she's saying "there, there, better out than in..."

When she'd finished I felt as if the whole world had been speeded up and I was in slow motion. It was the strangest sensation. Like stopping your world. Well, I had to know more. I signed up to the Chiltern School of Reflexology for a year's course. I devoured books on the subject and if anyone put their feet anywhere near me, I'd be practicing my new skills on them. I was working in those days at an e-business agency and I even obtained my boss's permission to use the boardroom after hours to practice on some of the staff.

Of course, they all thought I was a bit bonkers, but hey, what do I care!

How did you first get involved in foot reading?

At the end of my reflexology course, you had to do 65 hours of case studies. All my case studies had emotional reactions. I knew that reflexology was a holistic treatment, meaning that you were supposed to look at the person as a whole rather than as a list of symptoms. But it seemed to me that there was something missing from my training. I'd learned all about how to work the body as a whole, through the feet and I knew from my own experience that through working the feet you could release not just physical issues, but also affect an emotional release. But what was that emotional connection with the feet? I still didn't know. You see, I only learned reflexology because I thought it would help me to understand my own emotional experience. But if anything, it left me with more questions than answers because my case studies had added to my curiousity.

Some time later, I came across a book by Louise L Hay called "You can heal your life". It was my first encounter with the idea of physical illnesses having an emotional and spiritual background. I have to admit, I thought it was ridiculous. What about viruses? What about bacteria? However, once you've read something, you can't not know it. So I'm seeing more and more clients and I'm hearing their life stories as I'm treating them and I'm realising that there is a correlation between the emotions and the physical. I'm not discounting viruses and bacteria – they're real. But I'm warming to the idea that these viruses and bacteria are around us all the time but not everyone falls prey to them and that maybe a multi-pronged approach to health would be more beneficial. I know that if you eat badly, you will compromise your health over time. I'm now warming to the idea that if you ignore your emotional state for too long, or if you get stuck in a single emotional state for too long, you can also compromise your health.

So after warming to the idea of the mind/body/spirit connection, I came across a chap who'd interviewed 5000 people about their toe shapes and their personality and created a toe alphabet. This was the first time I'd found anything directly linking the feet to emotions. I memorised his toe alphabet and started using it to "show off".

Soon it got to the stage where people would offer me a foot before they'd offer me a drink on arriving at a party! Then one day, a lady at the local playgroup asked me if I would help out at a fundraiser. I thought she meant helping to set up or serve. But when I got there she pointed out my "stall." I was to be doing foot readings. Talk about being unprepared. I didn't know how much to charge, so we did it on a donations basis. I didn't have a booking sheet so we had a queue of people going right out of the door. I learned a lot that day. I learned that if people are paying for a foot reading, they take it so much more seriously. I learned that by saying exactly what you see, you are holding a mirror up to that person so that they then have the opportunity to change. They'll either see it as confirmation that they're on the right track, or they'll think "Crickey! If you can see that just by looking at my feet, then maybe I'd better do something about it".

Why take it further to reflexologists and to the general public?

I learned that foot reading gives people an opportunity to see themselves as they are. They'll either like it and see it as confirmation that they're OK as they are. Or, they'll not like what they're hearing (whilst recognising the truth of it) and want to do something about it. So in that respect I see it as a catalyst for change. Yet I'm not directing what they change or how they change or even that they should change. As adults, in our society, we're seldom given positive feedback. I see foot reading as a valuable feedback tool, a mechanism for personal development and growth, and an opportunity to bring therapy through the back door. If someone books me for a foot party, very often, they're doing it for fun. They have no idea that there's a whole lot more going on than just a bit of fun. It is fun. But it's also so much more.

It's a great way to build trust very quickly. If you can see someone as they are, and show them that you understand them at a fundamental level, then you have the opportunity to have some very meaningful interactions. As a reflexologist, I can't understand why all reflexologists aren't trying to understand foot reading. It's such a fantastic tool to bring about a much more holistic understanding. With the reflexology, you're understanding a person's physical state and with foot reading you're understanding who they are and what emotional issues are affecting them.

I've had people tell me that I'm crazy teaching others how to do foot reading. They think I should keep the information for myself so that I can mop up the foot reading market. But when you see the beneficial effect it has on everyone you read, and when you realise that in Britain alone there are 55 million people, then you'll understand that I can't reach that many people all on my own. Most religions and philosophies put a value on knowing yourself. This is a tool for just that. I'd love for everyone to experience it. Not just the few.

How do you think this skill is of benefit to practicing reflexologists?

Reflexologists are taught to read the feet for physical issues. Yet sometimes they see things, ask about the physical aspect and it doesn't ring true. Understanding foot reading from an emotional perspective gives you an extra tool to understand that what you see on the feet isn't always physical. Sometimes it has an emotional background. When you've reached a plateau in the treatment of your client, exploring the emotional aspects can very often lead to a breakthrough. Dealing with the physical alone is just part of the bigger picture. I believe in a multi-pronged approach. Next time you see the "lungs" represented on the feet as being yellow, before you accuse them of smoking or congested lungs, ask yourself if they are feeling fed up. Lung area in foot reading relates to emotions and yellow relates to feeling fed up.

There are so many benefits, I was thinking what's the one thing a reflexologist would really benefit from. How would your practice benefit if you could tell just by looking at the feet whether the client had a need to talk to someone about a specific area of their life, and you could tell what that issue was? Or what if they didn't want to talk at all and you could see it immediately when they put their feet up?

 

What's the single most obvious thing when looking at a foot for the first time?

First impressions. First impressions are the most important thing. As soon as the client takes their shoes and socks off, what are your impressions. Do the feet look healthy, happy, sad, grounded, depressed... First impressions count. No two foot prints are the same. They're as unique as your fingerprints. You can tell an awful lot about feet just by looking. The first exercise I give my students, before they even know any foot reading, is to get their first impressions. It's amazing what they can pick up, even before they know how to interpret it.

What was your blinding flash moment?

I'm lucky. I've been blessed with an innate sense of cynical curiosity! It helps keep me grounded yet it leads me to all kinds of experiences. Apart from the experiences I've already told you, about how I first got into reflexology and foot reading, I've had some other major insights. When I was training as a reflexologist, I learned that you can feel what the other person feels. I knew before I started the treatment that I was in good health. But as I was working on this client, I noticed that it felt like I had swallowed a golf ball, but I knew that it wasn't my stuff because moments earlier I had felt fine. I asked my client "is your throat all right?" She admitted that she felt like she'd swallowed a golf ball. I told her which side of her throat was affected and she concurred. I knew because I could feel it was only on one side. How is this possible? I don't know. Does it happen every time? No. Does it happen too frequently to be put down to chance? Yes. When you have strange experiences like this, it helps to pay attention to when it doesn't happen, as well as to when it does. From there you can start to form your own theories.

Another blinding flash moment was when I realised that to become something, you just have to do it. I was described as a publisher recently, and I thought "no I'm not". But I have published three books now. So of course I am. I just had a pre-conceived notion that publishers were huge organisations that pay big sums of money as advances to their authors. So in order to become a publisher, I just had to publish. In order to become an author, I just had to write. In order to become a self-employed reflexologist, I just had to get paid to do reflexology. Of course, there was a lot of learning that came with each of these aspects. But ultimately, you just have to take action.

Where can we learn more?

If you'd like to learn how to do foot reading. I teach a two day class in many UK locations. Details are on my website at www.footreading.com/seminars.htm

If you're overseas, there's an e-learning seminar that is the equivalent of the first day of my two day workshop.

I've also written three books:
Let's read our feet! which is about how to read feet and requires no prior knowledge.
The Foot Reading Coach which assumes you have read Let's read our feet! but explains the coaching tips that you can add to your foot readings.
Sole Trader: The Holistic Therapy Business Handbook which contains everything I wish I knew then that I know now about starting and running a holistic therapy business. Forget what you think you know about business handbooks. This is not dry and dreary. It tells you lots of interesting stuff, includes stories from other therapists and has things you never even knew you needed to know such as how to overcome the fear of asking for your money or how to negotiate, or how to do a business forecast when you've no idea about what money will be coming in.

 

You can always contact Jane Sheehan via www.footreading.com or call 07739 802175