Vertical and Horizontal Zones

The invisible horizontal and vertical lines of force of zone therapy form one of original tenets of reflexology. This philosophy is as old as traditional Chinese therapy. The division of ten vertical zones is based purely on the fact that we have five digits either side of the body and the five horizontal sections nicely divide the body into easy to analyse and treat sections. The vertical lines are probably used much more in clinical practice. The thumb and great toe together with the very medial aspect of the body are placed in the most medial zone, whereas the little finger and little toe, together with the most lateral aspect of the body are in the outer zone with the intermediate three in between. Sensitivity and tension in the reflected area indicates a problem in another part of the zone. Let me give you a couple of examples of how it may be used -

** If the client has acute discomfort in the shoulder joint, which lies in Zone Five (the most lateral one). There will be another tender spot ( not necessarily on a recognized acupoint) along the same zone. This will often be found half way between the outside of the knee and the lateral malleolus of the ankle.

**If they complain of pain in the inside aspect of the knee, which represents Zone One, another tender point should be found on another Zone One point, usually the outer aspect of the elbow.

There are two treatment approaches with this philosophy. The first (and most popular) is to hold the reflex point for anything up to 5 minutes with a finger pad, together with focus and intention. The pain will start to ease after a couple of minutes but it is best to keep the pressure on until you are sure that there is a change. You are just using one hand and the other one is redundant. Please be aware that you are NOT curing a musculo-skeletal condition, you are just easing the pain to enable the condition to be properly treated. The second method is to place the hands or fingers either side of the painful region but in the same zone. This may take less time to create an energy balance than the first one. I tried to upload a diagram but couldn't!!

We'll discuss Parallel Zones next time. I hope you are finding this stuff interesting and useful to your practices - feedback always welcome!