Peetz man turns hobby into reflexology practice

Morris Hartman turned to his mother and grandmother’s self-help reflexology books in search for material more interesting than his high school course work, and in 1975, he started practicing on friends and family members as a hobby.

Reflexology is defined as a system of massage used to relieve tension and treat illness, based on the theory that there are reflex points on the feet, hands and head linked to every part of the body.

The practice of reflexology revolves around the idea that parts of the foot correspond to different areas of the body, and by manipulating these areas; the body’s natural healing process is stimulated.

“Push a pressure point on the foot and the body gives a response. Maybe it works in the brain, maybe it works in the kidney, maybe it works in the intestines, whatever we need to work on,” Hartman said.

There are about 208 pressure points on the bottoms of the feet, as well as roughly another 150 on the tops and sides.

He worked on a woman that had a number of health issues per the request of her husband. “She was all but dead, it was really bad,” Hartman said. He was able to get her health back to the point where she was able to drive a car. The family knew that she had a disease that was going to take her and she passed away two years later, but Hartman was able to reduce her suffering.

After his wife’s passing, Laryl Richards told Hartman that if he would take the classes for reflexology, they would be paid for as a memorial. Hartman completed correspondence classes out of Arkansas in about five months and has been practicing reflexology full-time for the last ten years. He has helped patients with a number of dramatic cases.

“One lady came in and said, ‘Okay, my doctor said I cannot get pregnant because I was in a car accident, had an injury, plus I’ve had a really severe infection and the doctor said it wasn’t possible. But, my husband and I really want to have children. Is there anything you can do?’ I said, ‘Lets give it a try. What have you got to lose?’ The second time she came in, I worked on the spot for her fallopian tubes and all at once, she said, ‘Ouch! That kind of bites,’ as she grabbed her side. Then I didn’t see her for a while. She’s had three kids the last I knew,” Hartman said.

Reflexology can be used to treat a number of health issues including headaches/migraines, asthma, premenstrual syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, dementia, incontinence, diabetes, back pain, cancer-related pain, kidney problems, bladder infections, arthritis, prostate issues, acid reflux, sinus congestion and even macular degeneration.

“There’s a spot on the hand that we work on for macular degeneration. Doctors say that it’s impossible to reverse the condition, but it does. We had one gentleman that was completely blind in one eye, had been for four years. I worked on him several times and after the third time, I think it was, he walked out of the office and started down the stairs and said to his wife, ‘I don’t know whether to say anything or not.’ She said, ‘Just spit it out, Jean. What is it?’ and he told her that he could see out of his bad eye. She made him cover his good eye and prove it to her,” Hartman explained. “We were able to get about 80 percent of his sight back in that eye, which is pretty awesome considering he was blind to the point where he couldn’t even see shadows.”

In Hartman’s ten years of practicing reflexology, there has only been one case of severe migraines that he has not been able to reduce. He has worked on a patient that was going to have to drop out of school because he was having six to eight major migraines each day causing him to go temporarily blind. After about six sessions, Hartman was able to reduce his migraines to one or two a month, and eventually lessening to a couple per year.

The number of sessions to fix different health issues varies depending on the problem and your body’s response time.

Many people are skeptical of the results reflexology has on patients. Some opinions are that reflexology is only effective because the feet and genitals are right next to each other in the sensory map of the brain and those who swear by reflexology could delay seeking appropriate medical treatment for serious illnesses.

Others say that patients experience a great deal of relaxation from a foot massage and reflexology simply has a placebo effect.

“That’s not true, because actually what we do is stimulate the part of the body that we need to work on by pressing those pressure points on the foot,” Hartman said. “We’re not trying to force the body into healing, but we keep nudging it in that direction. Yes, it will relax you. Yes, it will, you know, make people feel more calm. Relaxation is awesome, but that doesn’t necessarily heal the things that are causing the problem.”

There is little scientific evidence to support some treatment claims. However, physicians generally agree that relaxation is beneficial. Studies supported by the National Cancer Institute suggest that reflexology treatments help with sleep patterns and anxiety, and may reduce certain pain symptoms.

Hartman has been asked many times, “Do I have to believe in this for it to work?” He says, “It’s not a faith thing.”

People have called his practice “some kind of voodoo,” because they do not understand how it works.

Reflexology “works” by unblocking energy fields, removing toxins, releasing endorphins, altering electromagnetic fields and increasing blood flow to internal organs.

Hartman had a skeptical patient come to him and say, “I’m only here because my wife made me come and she won’t shut up.” Hartman worked on the patient for about a half hour and fixed some bad spots in his back and other things that were bothering him. When the patient got off the table, he said, “Okay, skeptics move over.”

Hartman’s practice is located in Peetz, Colo., and he averages about 17 patients per day.