Sample of FAR's eNewsletter

Thank you, all, for reading and responding to the first FAR newsletter emailed to members in January. Welcome to the April 2020 edition. There is much to discuss so let’s dive right in. As always, this newsletter is for you and by you so

please submit ideas, articles, quotes, and/or marketing tips you have used in your practice.

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‘May you live in interesting times’ has never rung so true than the current experience of our world right now. Globally, we are on high alert to COVID-19. In our collective attempts to ‘flatten the curve’, we SIP (sheltered-in-place), shuttered our practices and closed our businesses in an effort to stop the virus from spreading more. We connected - while keeping our distance - with family, friends, clients, co-workers, and neighbors. We sent a thank-you in many forms to the healthcare workers, first responders and animal rescue leagues all across the globe.

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How has this pandemic affected your life and livelihood?

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This morning there was a little colorful bag on my doorstep. It contained a small jar of homemade hand sanitizer and a note, with the recipe, from a neighbor I have yet to meet.

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On another note, due to coronavirus concerns, the Reflexology Association of America (RAA) Conference, scheduled for April 24-26, was postponed until 2021. For future updates, visit the RAA website.

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Please watch your Inbox for some pertinent e-blasts from the FAR Board in the next couple of weeks. Many critical decisions were made in response to the situation we are in now.

 

FAR Membership

Please be on the alert for an e-blast in the next couple of weeks regarding Membership renewals for this year. We think you'll like this!

 

Continuing Education

FAR’s School members have also been forced to suspend live teaching engagements for the time being. Down the road, when you are searching for educational opportunities or need classes or continuing education credits, please support our School members as they grapple with how to rebuild their businesses.

 

and Finally

Please contact me with ideas, corrections, comments, and articles.

In the meantime...

STAY HOME.

STAY CALM.

STAY HOPEFUL.

 

Gail Lanning,

Newsletter Editor

 

Introducing... Sue Ricks

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FAR’s President, Karen Ball, interviewed a familiar face in the reflexology teaching world, Sue Ricks, on January 20, 2020. The following is a transcript and contact information for Sue Ricks. Enjoy!

 

I had the opportunity to chat with UK’s Sue Ricks recently. Sue first came into reflexology in 1989 and is the founder of Gentle Touch Reflexology. As accomplished as Sue is as a reflexology practitioner and instructor, you may be surprised to learn that reflexology was not her first career path. In her younger years, she managed a team that handled hiring for the government’s industrial center where she lived. Part of her job was to scour three counties in the Midlands (UK) to find ideal candidates to fill needed positions within the industrial areas around her. Sue

credits this time of her life for her deep interest in people. She loved her work, but life had other plans for her. Ending up a single mother of two forced Sue to find another means of

support that allowed her to be at home more with her sons.

 

During this time working for the government, Sue was also pursuing a personal interest in energy healing. She explored everything in her path and formally studied Reiki, Feng shui, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. In fact, she built a highly profitable business providing Feng shui

consultations to large corporations! At the same time, her mom was experiencing a lot of physical pain, and at the recommendation of a friend, tried foot reflexology. To everyone’s amazement, her pain diminished. Following a serious ski accident, her father also received reflexology with great results, but Sue rejected the idea of trying it for herself since her own health issues did not involve physical pain. Her new life really started with the difficult birth of her first son. Despite the worry that her fledging infant might need to go to intensive care, Sue opted to keep him with her as long as possible and hold him close to her heart. Sometime during that first night, a woman entered the room and suggested that Sue rub the baby’s feet. She did and again, success! The baby started to thrive. As Sue related to me during our chat, “When I told the nurses in the morning to thank my surprise visitor, no one knew who I was talking about!”

 

What really sealed a new direction for Sue though was hip pain and anxiety/depression that she developed in her teens, and the results she discovered from receiving reflexology herself. She qualified as a reflexologist almost30 years ago and immediately was accepted to work in a landmark study conducted by the Prince of Wales Hospital in Cardiff that looked at the effects of reflexology on people immediately following hip and knee replacement surgery. (Result: patients got to go home days earlier!) Unbelievably, she and the other reflexologists were also invited to provide reflexology care in the Emergency ward of the hospital and demonstrated how reflexology could calm traumatized nervous systems. She was on her way to building the successful clinical and teaching practice she is now known worldwide for.

 

KB: How did Gentle Touch Reflexology develop?

 

SR: When I first started to receive reflexology myself, I didn’t really enjoy

it. It hurt. I kept receiving though since I was getting such positive results. At that time, most reflexologists were being instructed in reflexology from a model that mainly addressed only the physical aspect of the body, and that often included using a lot of pressure to initiate a change in the physical tissues. But, my introduction to the healing arts was through energy work, and I had seen that light, intentional touch could bring about equal changes in not just the physical

body, but the emotional and energetic bodies as well. My experience working with my infant son also showed me how powerful gentle touch could be. So, I just quietly went about exploring and practicing what eventually grew into Gentle Touch Reflexology.

 

KB: What did you do to build your clinical practice?

 

SR: In the beginning, I asked all my friends and family to “lend me their feet”. I was making house visits and as the popularity of my visits started to snowball, I became very tired of carrying everything around with me and being away from my children so much. I decided that I wanted to have a home practice. (Home is now a couple of hours north of London, England, where she lives with her partner, George.) My practice now is fueled entirely by word-of-mouth, but in the beginning, I had to get out of my comfort zone and go out there and give talks on the benefits of reflexology to anyone and everyone who would listen. I sought out opportunities to speak to groups, sometimes just at a small gathering of people in a coffee shop. I totally believed in the health and wellness benefits of reflexology and just kept sharing that information. I promoted reflexology, not myself, and most people chose to come try it out with me, possibly because they felt they already knew me. Having a website has been very useful. People who might be interested in trying Gentle Touch Reflexology with me often will go read up a bit before making contact. I work with adults, teens, and children.

 

KB: What advice do you have to offer to reflexologists wishing to build a successful practice?

 

SR: I think there are three parts to being successful at anything. The first is the idea – what it is you think people would be interested in. The second is energy and passion. You have to believe in your idea and ooze passion for what you are doing. It’s the only feeling that will keep you going when things get rough. And it's contagious! People will want to have that too. And the third is action. Too often I think people forget about the third. They think that just because reflexology is so good for people and that they love it so much, people will just come beating down the door. And that’s not true. You have to take the idea, expose yourself to continuing education and network with other reflexologists to fuel your passion, and then get out there. Talk it up in front of any group interested in hearing what you have to say. I was shy to do that myself in the beginning, but I just made myself do it, and it became easier and eventually a lot of fun. And, it built my practice! Many people are struggling these days. The world needs to know about the benefits of reflexology. We owe it to others to share what we know.

 

Explore Sue Ricks’ website to see all the wonderful information she has to share through her Academy. You won’t be disappointed - you’ll be delighted!