Reflexology in Australia

Background:
Reflexology is becoming more accepted by the general public as are many other natural/alternative therapies – it really does depends on what area you live in, country or city. There are some good articles now being published in womens magazines on reflexology plus segments on lifestyle shows on television.

Associations:
There are 3 associations in Australia that reflexologists can join.

Reflexology Association of Australia - Membership of approximately 900. Formed in 1989/1990.

Even though the Reflexology Association of Australia is a ‘national’ association – it is that in name only as each state (except ACT & NT) was formed independently of the others (except South Australia – formed last year). Each association has its own constitution, memberships fees, etc. The ‘National Body’ has no financial backing at this stage and each state association has its own financial arrangements with its members. There is currently a move to a National Association but this will take some time to work through. 

Each year each ‘state association R.A.A.’ sends two delegates to a national meeting where they try and get uniform standards across all the ‘branches’. Education standards were one of the first things that were agreed upon and are now standard across Australia. We are now trying to get one uniform constitution but this will be extremely expensive and hard to do as legal advice will have to be obtained. The reason behind a national constitution is so we can get reflexology accepted by the national health funds (insurance companies) such as Medibank. Medibank have said they won’t accept reflexology until there is one national constitution. Other state based health funds accept reflexology – but only up to about $300.00 per year.

The Professional Reflexology Association
is open mainly to nurses and has around 20 members.

The Australian Traditional Medicine Society – this covers many modalities – it has about 300 reflexologists listed with them. (it has over 6000 members across about 20 modalities). 

Training:
Varies from a weekend workshop up to 200 hours in an accredited school. The breakdown of the educational requirements (this is being constantly updated) for accredited schools is:

50 hours of anatomy & physiology
60 hours hands on training on the feet, hands and sometimes ears
40 hours reflexology principles (different theories/history)
20 hours charts and reflex locations
30 hours of supervised clinical practice

Number of hours and types of subjects depends on the school. Students are certified by their school. The students agree to follow a written code of ethics and professional standards.

Research:
Basically there is very little research being in Australia but Sandi Rogers of the National College of Traditional Medicine is a reflexologist and author of Professional Reflexology for Everybody and co-author of Reflexognosy, has done research.

Books:        
The following books have been written by reflexologists living in Australia:

Professional Reflexology for Everybody by Sandi Rogers
Maternity Reflexology by Su Enzer
The Ear Work Book by Sherryll Thomas
Chi Reflexology by Moss Arnold
Reflexognosy by Chris Issel & Sandi Rogers 

Conferences:
The Reflexology Association of Australia holds a conference every two years. The Association has held conferences in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2000, with the next conference in Melbourne, Victoria in October 2002. The conference usually runs for two days with a large number of speakers, both local and international. Delegates come from around Australia and at the last few conferences delegates have travelled from New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and the USA.