Start a New Career as a Reflexologist: A Suggestion for Stay-at-Home Mothers

Nowadays, there are many young ladies or stay home mothers prefer to having home business rather than being employed by other people. Some mothers can't afford to pay daycare for their children, so they stay home instead depending on their husbands' income alone. Some choose to start a career as a massage therapist and open up a massage therapy business in their home.

A Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida said that she could make between $250 and $300 by working only 10-11 hours a week. On a busy week she would make $500 and as low as $90 on a really slow one. She said she wished she would have done it earlier. She quit from her job when her first daughter was 5 months old. Then after having 3 kids, she became a single parent. She was thinking of going to a massage therapy school, but her friends discouraged her. They thought that it would not be giving stable income for her. Her will was stronger than anything, so she enrolled in a 6-month-night school program. Before deciding to enroll in the school program, she made some major research. She found some schools to be very commercial with hardly any emphasis on the healing part of therapy. Fortunately, she ended up attending in a school she liked and she took reflexology as her specialization.

The cost of the course was $3000 and after graduate she needed to buy equipment such as a massage table for $500-700 and other supporting materials such as clean towels, sheets, soothing oil, some music tapes and a small cabinet. She used an unoccupied room in her house for the massage therapy, but some people should probably rent a space for $300-400 a month to be considered as a cost.

She advised that if someone wanted to become a massage therapist, do not just stick with massage. She chose Reflexology among other branch because it requires less energy output and they are not physically demanding like any other massages.

Reflexology itself is a type of massage therapy in which pressure is applied to specific areas of the skin, mainly in the hands and feet. It simply gives pressure by using fingers to reflex points. A further effect is that it triggers the body's own inner healing process. It is believed that these reflex points are related to the internal organs and glands and are laid out in the same arrangements as that in the physical body, forming a "map" or microcosm of it.

Massage technique from all over the world have contributed to modern reflexology practice. The Mediterranean, Italy, North Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, and China are believed to be the roots of Reflexology. In traditional Chinese Medicine (T.C.M.) each organ of the body has a meridian line that acts on Yin or Yang energy. Yin and Yang are two universal principle of polarity underlying T.C.M. philosophy. Yin is the principle embodied by femininity, darkness, night, coldness, softness, receptive, descent, interior while Yang is the opposite of masculinity, light, day, heat, hardness, activity, ascent, exterior. These two opposite principle also complement each other and mutually dependent. The correct balance between these two opposites, the negative and positive, is necessary to maintain good health; the same principle of balance is applied in Reflexology treatment.

Any health problem, whether the symptoms are primarily physical or mental, is in fact a condition of the whole person. Social factors also have to be taken into account in any illness, as emotional stress and mental strain all contribute to ill health. Similarly, physical injury and illness precipitate mental symptoms such as depression. Holistic medicine demands that we be open to a whole spectrum of therapies and practices of health maintenance. Everyone should therefore include that reflexology treatment some principle of self-care, self-healing, and practice for the prevention of ill health.

These days, a lot of massage therapy industry offer a lot of kinds of massage, Swedish massage is one of the most popular branch. But being a reflexologist will give you advantage such as:

- It is mostly done on the feet or hands, so the therapist exerts less energy
- It doesn't require complicated equipment and can be done in your home
- Earn the same or even more than other massage therapy job

As a native of Asia, I, myself, have been enjoying being treated by a reflexologist. There is an uncomfortable feeling when the reflex point is pressed. I often sweat just to resist pains. Afterwards, there is a feeling of relief. I go to see my reflexologist once a week, usually after work. I work in a manufacturing plant site which requires physical work. This has become a very pleasant stress reliever for me.