Description
The growth of complementary and alternative medicine, or integrated healthcare as it is now often called, has been driven over the past 30 years by patients who have wanted individual, patient-centred care that looks holistically at them as human beings rather than a group of conditions.
The demand for this type of care has come about because of the inability of conventional medicine to help with a range of common conditions, often long-term and chronic conditions where orthodox drugs and treatments have little success. Patients have increasingly sought non-invasive treatments with little or no side effects in preference to pharmaceutical drugs and surgical interventions.
Government and policymakers have been slow to catch up with the modern demands of patients, but groups such as the Parliamentary Group for Integrated Healthcare have driven the agenda centrally, whilst organisations around the UK, such as the British Reflexology Association, have worked to improve standards and professionalism among practitioners, provide patient choice and enable patients to access the kind of patient-centred care that modern healthcare demands.
I recall the Parliamentary Group for Integrated Healthcare hosting an exhibition at Westminster many years ago, and we decided that the therapy we would showcase was reflexology, because it was non-invasive, gentle and easy for Parliamentarians not familiar with complementary therapies to engage with. Reflexology was well received by all those who experienced it, which is not surprising because the philosophy behind reflexology epitomises why complementary therapies are so successful – it treats not just the symptoms, but the causes of the symptoms.
I have known Nicola Hall for almost 20 years. Since she trained in 1977 she has written eight or nine books on reflexology and is Director of the Bayly School of Reflexology, which was the first reflexology training school to be established in Great Britain in 1978. Nicola trained with the founder, the late Doreen Bayly, and is now regarded as a leading figure in the reflexology world and an important contributor to the development of complementary healthcare more widely. She previously had a clinic in London, is chairman of The British Reflexology Association and continues to be a valued member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Integrated Healthcare.
Nicola is well-respected throughout the field of integrated healthcare, far beyond the practice of reflexology. I have no doubts that with her vast knowledge, experience and professionalism, this book will prove to be a valuable publication for anyone wanting to learn about hand reflexology.