EBC Balkan’s interview with Asja Dupanović, a psychologist and a reflexology therapist! She shared with us:
- what reflexology is,
- her personal experience of recovery from illness, and
- how we can help ourselves from the comfort of our home using this technique!
WHAT IS REFLEXOLOGY?
Basics
Interestingly, reflexology has nothing to do with reflexes, which often confuses people. It is related to reflection. The entire body is mirrored in certain zones of our body.
These are ancient practices used by all civilizations on our planet. Reflexology, or reflex therapy, is a completely natural, non-invasive healing technique. It is based on the idea that certain parts of our body, such as our palms, feet, earlobes, entire face, and skull, contain reflex points. These points are clusters of nerve endings, and when they are stimulated, two things happen.
- “FEET AS REMOTE CONTROLS”
First, imagine you’ve come to a foot reflexology session, and your two feet are in front of the therapist. When the therapist stimulates them, they act like two remote controls through which the therapist communicates with the central processor—your brain.
For example, when the therapist presses the point for the liver, a message travels through the central nervous system to the brain, saying: “Hey, pay attention to what’s happening in their liver!” Based on this, the brain sends a signal to the liver to check its balance.
Balance is the optimal state in which the body can function perfectly, which is why it is so important to constantly restore it. Using this feedback, the brain initiates all the processes needed to restore balance to that organ.
You can see that the reflex zones for everything located on the right side of our body are found on the right foot, while the left foot contains the reflex zones for everything on the left side of our body.
In the mentioned zones of the feet, palms, earlobes, face, and skull, there are reflex zones for absolutely everything in our body. Every organ, organ system, structure, and muscle fiber we have is represented by its own specific point.
2. The second thing that happens when reflex points are stimulated is the activation of four vital flows in our body:
Blood flow, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to the cells.
Lymph flow, which circulates throughout the body, cleansing every corner.
Electrical flow of the central nervous system.
Vital energy flow through subtle channels called meridians.
All the body needs to function optimally is for these four vital flows to run smoothly and without obstruction. The best effect of this stimulation is like taking all the “pipes” inside the body and clearing them out. A person lying on the therapy table can physically feel everything starting to flow.
What reflexology does, similar to techniques like acupuncture and acupressure, is simply stimulate the body’s natural mechanism to regenerate and heal itself.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE – HOW IT ALL STARTED
We were living in India, in New Delhi, where our daughter, Tara, was born, and I was feeling extremely unwell—dragging myself across the floor. After numerous tests, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a severe, progressive autoimmune disease.
Today, I no longer have that diagnosis, but it was the catalyst for revolutionary changes in my life. At that moment, my entire life took a sharp turn. I asked the team of doctors to briefly explain how this disease develops, and they didn’t know. For me, that was a clear sign they didn’t truly know how to treat me either. I simply walked away, and they never saw me again.
At that point, close family friends who were advanced yogis stepped in to help. I had never before turned to any natural approaches—I had always relied on doctors for whatever I needed. However, during that conversation with the doctors, something clicked. A light bulb went off in my mind, and I realized that their approach wasn’t the solution. Those friends took me to a very unusual place—a small village on the edge of a forest, right on the border between Romania and Ukraine. There, I spent five weeks with a man who completely changed my perspective.
He explained to me that I am a part of nature and that to be healthy and feel good, I needed to start living in harmony with it again. He said the cure for me was in the forest, in nature, in plants and greenery—not in any synthetically produced pills. He told me that the right food for me is what you pick from the ground or pluck from a tree, not the packaged products lining supermarket shelves.
He told me to stop eating meat and to eat only raw food for three months. He juiced natural plant-based juices for me, and I drank a tablespoon of freshly squeezed wild garlic (sremuš) juice before every meal. He explained that wild garlic is very powerful for disinfection, to the point where it could be used to disinfect operating rooms.
He also corrected my spine, and we went through a lot during those five weeks. Among other things, he pressed certain points on the soles of my feet. Some of those points were very painful, but overall, the effect of the stimulation was extraordinary—I felt as though I was flying. One day, I asked him, “What are you doing to my feet?” and he said, “This is called reflexology.” He then explained to me roughly the same thing I had explained earlier.
After those five weeks, I felt like a woman who had been given a chance for a new life. I felt as though someone had replaced all my blood, as if I had entirely new cells in my body. It was a combination of everything we had done together, plus the fact that I had truly nourished my body with pure energy from completely raw food.
When I returned to Delhi, I found myself a reflexologist and started going to her sessions once a week. Again, the effect was absolutely fascinating. I don’t know how else to describe it—I’d go in feeling unwell, and I’d leave feeling as though I were floating.
It was so incredible that soon I started learning foot reflexology. The education was even more magical for me because my teacher insisted that I constantly practice and apply everything I learned immediately. So, I literally started “catching” people around the house to practice on—whether someone had a headache, a toothache, a stomachache, or a stiff neck. Whatever she taught me, whatever I did for people, it helped them. It was truly amazing to see how it made a difference.
So, it was love at first sight between me and reflexology because, even before, I had made a decision in my life that I wanted to do something with my ten fingers, something that would go with me wherever I went. It was the perfect match.
WHAT CAN WE DO ON OUR OWN?
The answer is, literally everything!
It is a type of stimulation that is completely natural and non-invasive for the body, with a holistic approach, regardless of what someone is experiencing. When someone visits a therapist, the focus is not on the symptoms, but on the root cause of the problem. For example, there are many reasons why someone might have a headache. The approach never targets just one part of the body or a specific organ; instead, it addresses the whole body. In that sense, the approach is holistic, and in every session, we touch on every corner of the body, everything that exists in it, because we don’t know where the problem originates from.
This type of stimulation is completely safe, and everyone can use it on their own. People often fear that they might do something wrong or “overdo it,” but the fantastic thing is that with this kind of stimulation, the brain can never be “overstimulated.”
At the point where the spinal cord transitions into the brain, there is literally a kind of “lid,” and the moment a point for an organ is pressed, the brain receives a message, and that lid lowers. The therapist can continue stimulating that point for the next 15 minutes or half an hour, and nothing will happen. The impulse has passed, the message has been delivered, and that’s it. The brain no longer needs that information—it has already initiated all the processes required to restore balance.
The therapy is very pleasant, and on my therapy table, most people end up falling asleep, which is truly wonderful. The first effect is a deep, deep relaxation. Sometimes, in order for our body to heal, it simply needs to relax, to let go of everything and enter into profound relaxation.
Additionally, this stimulation is safe regardless of age, and it is often used for premature babies. We can help them a great deal, and it can be practiced throughout life without any side effects. I’ve had several clients who continued coming for sessions until the very last day of their lives, and reflexology greatly improved their quality of life.
This type of stimulation can also help with any of the over 21,000 medical diagnoses that are defined. The only exception is when someone is on their deathbed, in the terminal phase of a disease.
I would like to encourage people to do the following:
You can massage the earlobes, touching every millimeter of them. The reflex points on the earlobes are very sensitive, so, with stimulation, they react quickly and warm up. You can use this when you wake up in the morning feeling in a bad mood or not ready for the day ahead—massage your earlobes to stimulate the flow and allow energy to circulate. You can also do this in the evening before bed to bring your body into a state of relaxation and gently drift into sleep.
Reflexology works on all four levels of our being: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. We all know how we feel emotionally when we’re sick—we often feel down. But when we heal, we instantly feel rejuvenated. Reflexology isn’t just used for pain and illness; it can also be applied, for example, when a child comes home upset from school, or when someone is experiencing significant mental stress at work. In all situations, massaging your earlobes or palms can help.
To massage your feet, you’d have to bend over completely, which isn’t very convenient. But if you have anyone at home who can massage your feet for 5-10 minutes before bed, it’s one of the most magical things. I swear that a child can’t resist falling asleep after having their feet massaged for more than 10 minutes. For a long time, my daughter would fall asleep this way, with me massaging her feet, and I’ve witnessed this countless times. This effect leads to the deepest relaxation, which gently carries people into sleep. In any situation, you can apply this, and you can’t do any harm—you can only help.
The golden rule is that, no matter which part of the body you’re stimulating, it’s important to touch every millimeter of that area. There’s no need to worry about the exact points, technique, etc. The technique itself isn’t what matters.
People often ask what to use for massaging. It’s recommended to use natural, cold-pressed plant oils, such as avocado oil, almond oil, or olive oil. There’s no need to overthink it. The important thing is to always work on both sides—both ears, hands, both sides of the face, etc.—and to cover every millimeter.
If you’ve tried it, you’ve probably noticed that the ears respond very quickly because we rarely touch them, while the palms react much slower since we constantly touch things with our hands, making the reflex points somewhat dull. The reflex points on the feet are also very sensitive. A long time ago, humans were much healthier when they walked barefoot. Today, we’re very cautious about protecting our feet, especially on the beach. It’s incredibly beneficial to walk on smooth pebbles that absorb the sun’s energy all day and massage the feet.
For example, when you’re by yourself, you can massage your hands in various ways, pulling your fingers with the other hand or massaging your palm in circular motions with your thumb. The only thing you need to remember is to cover every millimeter, and besides the palm, you should also massage the area around the wrist, as it’s linked to the zone of our reproductive organs.
Personally, in many different situations, I massage my palms or ears—even while traveling or during long drives when I’m waiting at a traffic light.
When we bring both palms together, with the thumbs touching, it represents the entire body. The back of our palms corresponds to our back, while the palms themselves are for the internal organs. In the middle, where the two thumb bones touch, that’s the reflex zone for the spine.
The ancient Egyptian fresco from the tomb of a physician, dating back to 2330 BCE, depicts medical practices and provides valuable insight into the healing methods of that time.
It depicts a doctor stimulating the palms of his patient and another stimulating the feet. The inscription on the fresco says: “I will act in a way that is beneficial for you,” which means these teachings are thousands of years old. When I discovered them, my reaction was, “How is it possible that we didn’t learn something like this in school?!”
I was very fortunate to learn foot reflexology in India and I asked my teachers when I was leaving from whom I should learn this in Europe? They told me it was Lone Sorensen, a Danish woman who was awarded for her contribution to humanity for the technique she discovered and developed. The most powerful reflexology technique she discovered is facial reflexology.
The face is very specific and complex. On the face, there are some points that do not exist on any other part of the body.
Black points represent the place where a blood vessel, a branch of a cranial nerve, and a branch of one of the meridians meet and intersect. These are highly potent points that are very gently stimulated, and the effect achieved is absolutely incredible.
Our face is closest to our brain, so there are points on the face that communicate with every part of the brain, and with facial reflexology, we can help people who cannot see, hear, walk, children who cannot swallow, crawl, walk, etc., very fascinating things that people have no idea about.
In Denmark, before surgery, doctors send people to a reflexologist to clear the channels and determine where the problem originated to see if it can be removed. In Denmark, it is also a law that every company with up to 50 employees must have a reflexologist on staff. They conducted a large national study with the postal service, an airline company, and the railways and found that if a company has a reflexologist on hand, people miss work much less, are much more satisfied at work, and much less money is spent on lost working hours.
For example, in England, women after childbirth, depending on the nature of the delivery, receive a certain number of reflexology sessions in which the therapist helps the woman recover her body with this non-invasive therapy.
Reflexologists can attend births because they know how to speed up labor if it is too slow or slow it down if it is too fast.
Many countries like Oman and Vietnam are also investing resources to re-examine and apply ancient healing methods in order to implement them in the healthcare system so that people can simply be healthier.
No technique that involves chemistry or synthetic treatment has longevity.
Today, ancient knowledge is called alternative, but in fact, it is original and should be primary in healing.