As a Traditional Naturopath, I specialize in relaxation, since I believe that when body is deeply relaxed, it can start healing itself. My main tool (along with castor oil packs, of course..) is reflexology. For me, exploring a person’s feet is like reading the book of their life. There is so much information hidden in feet, which contain these reflexes, that are connected to internal organs, and actually express their story: physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally.
Before delving deeper in reflexology, I would like to take a short detour, talking about our body, since I meet so many people living in fear, that a horrible disease will fall on them. And it keeps amazing me how most of them truly believe that it will be a sudden thing. Really? Are there no signs?
Picture by Amit Shlagman
Truth is that signs do not start at the moment we drop on the floor. Signs start many many years before that: With our first acid reflux. With our first head ache. With our first pain or discomfort any where in the body. Because our body doesn’t speak English (or any other language learned at home or taught at school). Our body speaks to what we Feel. If I feel pain, I must have done something that my body doesn’t like. But what do we do when we feel pain? We take a pill.
So, not only we insult our body with chemicals, we insult our body by not listening. Basically, sending our body a message like: “Hey, you better be quiet there, since I have million and one other things to do, that are much more important than listening to you whining!”
Picture by Amit Shlagman
And we forget that our body is our buddy. Our room-mate. We reside together in the same building. For life. No exchange. No return (yes, even in America!).
The first thing we need to have as room-mates is respect. Respect starts with Listening. When our body talks – we need to listen.
Picture by Amit Shlagman
In my eyes, one of the best ways to listen is reflexology, because it is making the connection between what I do and how I feel. Foot reflexology is described as the study of the areas in the feet, corresponding to all parts of the body, and when being touched they manipulate the corresponding part. Either through our nervous system, meridians, energy pathways, combination of all, or possibly other means.
I believe that reflexology works in two ways, which, at first, may look opposing to each other, but when we understand them better, we can see how they compliment each other perfectly:
First and for most, reflexology deeply relaxes the whole body. With that, it stimulates every cell, every tissue and every organ that are being touched. Nature has a very sophisticated way to teach us how deep relaxation and stimulation work beautifully hand in hand.
When body is deeply relaxed, it can tap into wisdom that resides in our genes. Knowledge that exists in our body and has been descended from generation to generation for thousands of years. Body has the knowledge to deal and heal itself, but we cannot tap into this knowledge when we are busy surviving. We cannot reach this information while our nervous system is in a fight-or-flight mode. We have to bring our nervous system to a very deep state of relaxation in order to utilize this wisdom.
And then we stimulate. This wisdom resides in every cell, every tissue, every organ and is being stimulated with reflexology. This is how our body can start healing itself.
While a reflexology session can be amazingly relaxing, we cannot underestimate the power of self reflexology. As I have witnessed time after time in my workshops, when asking the participants at the beginning of the workshop to work for 2 minutes on one foot, and then place both feet next to each other and compare. It never failed to reveal the liveliness of the foot which was touched versos the dullness of the untouched foot. Only 2 minutes of care can make a remarkable difference. Will all the healing mentioned above happen in one session of self reflexology? Probably not. It is a practice. Like yoga, like meditation, the best is to make it a routine, even for few minutes a day. Then body learns to trust our intentions and opens up to deeper relaxation.
Healing our bodies starts inwards. The more we connect with our body – the more we understand its messages and the more we can be proactive in helping it to create the perfect environment for healing. It is a process. And may be a long one. But truly the most rewarding for each one of us.
“When a flower doesn’t bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
Alexander Den Heijer
Picture by Amit Shlagman
Further resources:
The complete guide to foot reflexology – Kevin & Barbara Kunz
The family guide to reflexology – Ann Gillanders
The parent’s guide to reflexology – Kevin & Barbara Kunz
Anat Shlagman is a Traditional Naturopath and founder of Traditionally Empowered Healing LLC (Trad Em). With a practice established in 2012, Anat developed a unique session to relax the autonomic nervous system, creating the right environment for the body to heal itself. Her work dives deep into the root causes of physical, emotional, and mental conditions.
Her unique session, Trad Em®, is combined of Castor oil packs on abdomen and chest, Reflexology, Lymphatic massage on areas covered with castor oil and embedded in Trance Mediumship Healing Energy and is designed to bring the autonomic nervous system to its parasympathetic state (peace response). Following her belief that, when body reaches this very deep state of relaxation it can start healing itself, this session shows great benefits to those who suffer from digestive issues, depression, anxiety, any type of feet pain/issues, joints issues, autoimmune issues and any other condition that cannot be resolved by the medical establishment.
When realizing that castor oil packs have an amazing impact when applied on the abdomen and complimented with herbal infused oils, Anat has developed a longer session (Special Condition Session), successfully targeting more conditions, as frozen shoulder, arthritis, depression, autoimmune, digestive, soft tissue injuries, pain, sciatic issues, nerve injuries and more. While each case is individual and each person responds to the session differently, improvements have shown with many patients after the first session.
Anat’s sessions delve deep into the root cause of any condition – may it be physical, emotional or mental. A profound change is being manifested through the session and is clearly felt by the person on the table. This change generates the beginning of whole healing.
In 2023, Anat started implementing in her sessions Trance Mediumship Healing, as she is continuously learning from Chris Ratter, Psychic Surgeon. This type of Energy Healing created a very unique combination of Energy guided touch which tremendously enhanced her sessions.
Born in Romania, Anat’s family has moved to Israel when she was 5. In 1990 Anat graduated high school and joined the Israeli mandatory military service for 2 year. She has achieved her BA in Health Services Management in 1997 and her MBA in Business Management in 2002, both from Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva Israel. Moving to Michigan in 2004, Anat quit her 6-year job as a project manager in Ramat-Gan municipality, overseeing the computers’ hardware and software in the municipality public schools, becoming a full-time mom and wife. In 2005, Anat has become a Reiki master and a holistic practitioner, employing energy healing among her family and friends. In 2014 she graduated as a Traditional Naturopath from the Naturopathic School of the Healing Arts in Ann Arbor, completing a 3-year Diploma Program.
Adopting the Traditional Naturopathy approach, Anat and her family went through many lifestyle changes seeking a healthier way of living. This included eating real foods rather than processed, utilizing ways to relax mind and body, introducing herbs as food and medicine and much more. These changes brought Anat’s family to a whole new level of health, including weight loss, increased energy levels and clarity of the mind. Experiencing these amazing shifts, Anat became passionate in helping families and individuals go through changes, which sometimes regarded impossible, to support higher levels of health.
In 2014, Anat conducted a 6-month research, with a group of 7 women, showing that improving digestive issues will improve many other conditions in the body, as skin conditions, depression, aches and more. These women have gone through a major transformation. While stabilizing their eating habits, these women’s digestion system has improved, and many other changes occurred – Inflammation decreased, weight lost, relaxation occurred, cravings lessened, aches disappeared, and many more.
In 2016, Anat took Lindera – Herbalist Jim Mcdonald’s Herbal intensive – enriching her understanding of herbs, and their assistance with healing our body.
In 2017, Anat accomplished 800 hours of massage and advanced medical massage training at Flint School of Therapeutic massage, achieving her license to touch.
Since then, Anat kept developing her sessions, and in 2023 she started learning with Chris Ratter, Psychic Surgeon , deepening her understanding of Spirit Energy healing.
As a mother of three, Anat realized that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle it is more productive being Relaxed rather than being Perfect. Therefore, she designed her sessions, her workshops and her herbal remedies to fit each person’s individual situation, working to Encourage minor (almost invisible) changes in one’s life, which have been showing an amazing long-lasting healing effect with many.
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Traditionally Empowered Healing LLC 
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