Reflexology for Fibromyalgia is  a natural and complementary therapy available to support the residents of Bridgewater, Lunenburg County, or the South Shore of Nova Scotia who live with this chronic condition  and are looking for natural solutions. You may wonder whether every reflexology session is the same. The short answer is no.

When you are living with fibromyalgia, you already know that your pain isn’t “just sore muscles.”

One day you may feel like you have the flu. The next day your skin hurts to touch. You may wake up exhausted even after sleeping all night. Many people also struggle with headaches, brain fog, anxiety, digestive problems, and poor sleep.

When every part of your body seems to hurt, you need an approach that understands how fibromyalgia affects the whole body.

The typical relaxation that results from any reflexology session is an important part of pain relief, but there is more.

My reflexology sessions for fibromyalgia are different because they follow a specialized assessment and treatment process designed specifically for people living with chronic pain.

What Is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition that affects the way the brain and nervous system process pain signals.

This means the body becomes more sensitive to pain. Things that normally wouldn’t hurt can become painful, and small aches can feel much worse than they should.

Common symptoms include:

• • Widespread pain

• • Tender points throughout the body

• • Fatigue

• • Poor sleep

• • Brain fog

• • Headaches or migraines

• • Stiffness

• • Anxiety or depression

• • Increased sensitivity to touch, sound, light, or temperature

There is no single cure for fibromyalgia, so many people use several therapies together to help manage their symptoms.

Living with Fibromyalgia Isn’t Just About Pain

Fibromyalgia affects far more than muscles.

It can influence sleep, digestion, emotions, energy, and daily life.

That’s why I don’t simply work on sore feet.

I look at the whole person and adapt each treatment to your symptoms that day.

No two reflexology sessions for fibromyalgia are exactly alike because no two days with fibromyalgia are exactly alike.

Fibromyalgia affects the whole person, so treatment needs to look at the whole person—not just sore muscles.

Fibromyalgia vs. General Muscle Pain

Fibromyalgia	General Muscle Pain
Widespread pain	Usually one area
Lasts months or years	Often improves in days or weeks
Often includes fatigue	Fatigue less common
Brain fog common	Brain fog uncommon
Poor sleep common	Sleep often unaffected
Pain sensitivity increased	Pain linked to injury or strain

Why Fibromyalgia Hurts So Much

Researchers believe that fibromyalgia changes the way the brain and nervous system process pain. This is called central sensitization.

Think of it like turning up the volume on a speaker. The pain signals coming from the body may not be louder, but the brain hears them as if they are.

This can make everyday activities feel painful. A gentle hug, carrying groceries, or even wearing certain clothes may become uncomfortable.

Many people with fibromyalgia also notice that stress, poor sleep, illness, or overdoing activity can trigger a flare-up.

Because the nervous system is involved, treatment often focuses on helping the body relax and reducing stress on the nervous system rather than simply treating sore muscles.

This is one reason why many treatments that work for muscle injuries don’t always work for fibromyalgia.

 

Isn’t Reflexology All the Same?

Most people assume it is. Every reflexologist approaches reflexology differently. Before I studied reflexology, with a limited knowledge I focused on only the reflex on the chart that corresponded to where the person was experiencing a symptom.

After my first reflexology course I followed a very specific routine treating each system of the body in sequence. This is all good, but there is more.

We begin to specialize as we learn more. Some reflexologists focus on stress and overwhelm, others on just the feel good spa effect. There are reflexologists who focus on Menopause or Maternity Reflexology or another area. 

While reflexology can help in each of these areas and there is special training for these, my focus from day one has been specifically about pain relief and pain management and I have taken every opportunity to learn more about helping chronic pain conditions.

Specialized reflexology in any area steps out of protocol and routine into a very specific session that depends on the need of the client at the moment and changes with each session as the client’s condition changes.

Why I Chose to Specialize in Chronic Pain

As a former Registered Nurse, I’ve always been interested in helping people find relief from pain. Years ago I treated a friend who had suffered from chronic headaches for years. After six reflexology sessions the headaches disappeared. More than seven years later they still haven’t returned.

That experience changed my life and led me to taking my first reflexology course.

Three years ago I treated another person with an autoimmune disease, Lupus. After four sessions she was pain free. After eight she no longer has the Lupus “butterfly rash”.

That experience inspired me to pursue advanced training in chronic pain and also, more specifically, reflexology for pain in fibromyalgia and autoimmune disease so I could help people living with conditions that often don’t have simple solutions.

My Specialized Fibromyalgia Training

After the positive experience treating the client with Lupus my interest in helping people in pain and especially those with complicated conditions that feel like there is no hope was increased. When I heard there was reflexology instructor coming to Missisauga, Canada from the Kruchik Institute of Specialized Reflexology to teach two courses on chronic pain conditions, one of them being entirely about reflexology for fibromyalgia and autoimmune disease, I bought my ticket right away and enrolled.

The first 3 days were dedicated to the course, TOP I, covering specialized reflexology for the treatment of pain in general using reflexology with ice, reflexology with motion and reflexology with effort. Some uses for these techniques would be for treating Osteoarthritis, Sprains, Sciatica and Back or Joint Pain.

The next 3 days were the TOP II course. This was the icing on the cake. For one and half days we learned about fibromyalgia and practiced techniques for managing the pain associated with it.

The other day and and a half was dedicated to in depth study and techniques for treating Autoimmune Diseases, covering several of these diseases in detail with specific techniques and approaches. These included: Chron’s Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Parkinson’s, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Type II Diabetes among others.

I am always continuing my education in the treatment of pain through reflexology to offer more benefits to my clients.

What Makes My Fibromyalgia Treatment Different?

1. I Begin with an Assessment Specific to Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is diagnosed based on symptoms after blood work and other tests have ruled out other possible causes of the pain such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is possible to have one of these autoimmune conditions as well as Fibromyalgia.

The main sign of fibromyalgia is widespread pain in at least four of five areas of the body for at least 3 months. These regions include left upper region, right upper region, left lower region, right lower region and the axial region.

In my reflexology practice, for a person with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, I begin by assessing sensitivity in eighteen different reflexes corresponding to these areas of the body and asking for a score out of ten to understand which of these areas need the most attention on that particular day. 

You can see a diagram showing the eighteen points at the top of this page.

2. Every Treatment Is Personalized

Fibromyalgia changes. For people with fibromyalgia every day is different. The area of pain today may be different from what it was last week, therefore treatment changes. The treatment is personal each time based on the assessment for that day.

3. I Use Gentle Specialized Techniques

Although the initial assessment may be a little painful as I need you to give me a pain score when apply pressure for a couple of seconds to each of the specific assessment points, after that the treatment is gentle.

Treatment begins with some techniques to relax the nervous system and bring the body out of the stress response “fight or flight” into the parasympathetic response “rest and repair”. From there I stimulate the pituitary gland reflexes to fill your body with endorphins, the body’s natural pain killer. After the relaxation is complete I move into treating the specific reflexes that were most sensitive during the assessment.

I Don’t Believe “No Pain, No Gain”, but often, after calming the nervous system I can use deep pressure on the reflexes without it being painful. If there is a lot of sensitivity in the reflexes, I will use craniosacral reflexology techniques for fibromyalgia, which involve a very light touch and are very effective for many people. Whichever way I work on these reflexes, I will ask you to do some simple exercises with the part of the body I am treating to enhance the effect.

If you get too tired with a particular exercise we move on. You are in control of how many reflexes I treat and how many exercises you do in a session.

4. I Reassess Before You Leave

When the session is complete I will reassess each of the eighteen reflex points we assessed at the beginning of the treatment and again ask you for a score out ten. Usually this score will be significantly reduced and most likely the pain you feel in your body will be too.

I’ve found that beginning and ending each session with the same assessment allows both my client and me to observe changes over time. This structured approach helps me tailor future treatments to each individual’s needs.

What Does the Research Say?

A number of small studies done suggest that reflexology for fibromyalgia as a complementary therapy helps reduce pain intensity in patients living with this condition and has a cumulative effect of continuing to decrease the pain more over a period of six weekly sessions.

Personally I began treating a client with fibromyalgia before I learned this method and even with general reflexology there was a little less pain each time (3-4 sessions) until the treatments were interrupted by circumstances in her life and the sessions ended.

Reviews suggest reflexology may improve pain, sleep, fatigue, and quality of life for some people who have fibromyalgia. More high-quality research with larger study groups is needed to confirm this finding.

Frequently Asked Questions

• • Can reflexology cure fibromyalgia? 

Reflexology does not claim to cure any health problem. It is a complementary therapy that can be used alongside medical assessment and treatment to help improve quality of life and when treated regularly may reduce the amount of medications required to control the condition.

• • How many sessions?

The answer to this is individual as the response to reflexology is individual. The longer the condition has existed the more sessions are likely to be needed. Chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia will usually need ongoing sessions for maintenance after several initial sessions closer together.

• • Is reflexology safe during a flare?

Generally reflexology is safe during a flare, however with certain conditions such as Chron’s Disease it is not recommended during a flare.

• • Can reflexology help with sleep? 

Reflexology because of its relaxation effects often helps to improve sleep.

For more frequently asked questions click here.

My Philosophy

I don’t believe people with fibromyalgia need to be told to simply “push through the pain.”

I believe they deserve to be listened to.

Every reflexology for fibromyalgia session begins by understanding how you’re feeling that day because fibromyalgia changes, and your treatment should change with it.

About the Author

Former RN.

Registered Reflexology Therapist.

Member of ACART (Atlantic Canada Association of Reflexology Therapists)

Advanced chronic pain training.

Located in Bridgewater, Lunenburg County