Challenging Careers: Healing hands for ailing patients’ feet
“According to studies, 70 percent of disease is caused by stress,” asserts Mary Peck, reflexologist practicing at the Cold Spring Healing Arts Center. “Reflexology is a noninvasive treatment using fingers and thumbs, which helps to balance the body”™s ability to heal itself.”
A road map discloses body parts served by reflexology points throughout the foot, Peck explains. So, in addition to reflexology”™s helping clients to reduce stress or to sleep better, she notes that if an individual has a specific complaint about a troublesome body part, she can focus on the reflexology point, offering the patient potential relief.
“Given the extensive number of nerve endings found in the foot, one can imagine the effect that manual stimulation has on the entire body,” Peck reflects. She points to a Spanish doctor who spent years testing foot tissue to confirm findings depicted on ancient foot maps that show a correlation between particular reflexology points and individual body parts.
Reflexologists work to improve their patients”™ quality of life, Peck reports. To be nationally certified by the American Reflexology Certification Board, aspiring reflexologists must complete 110 hours of study, pass an examination and present reports of 90 hours of work on clients. Peck received her training on weekends and evenings at the New York Open Center while employed by Bank of America Securities.
Her success stories range from the 8-year-old affected by severe constipation who had a bowel movement ten minutes after treatment to improvement in the pain level of a man with mangled feet from several motorcycle accidents.
There is an occasional disappointment, Peck acknowledges. “I offer gift certificates. A woman came in with one but couldn”™t overcome a personal issue of not wanting anyone to touch her,” she recounts.
Although she makes house calls as needed, bringing required equipment with her, she finds her Cold Spring office more conducive to the patient”™s relaxation. “Family members, barking dogs, cellphones and television are all detriments to total relaxation that my patients deserve,” she notes.
Peck finds it unfortunate that the U. S. medical establishment has yet to fully embrace reflexology. “In Germany and Denmark reflexology is covered in national health plans,” she reports.
For Peck, reflexology represents a midlife career change from the worlds of music education and corporate America. After graduating from Kingston High School, she enrolled in the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam, earning a bachelor”™s degree in music education.
“I taught music at the Devereux Foundation in Dutchess County,” she begins. “It”™s a residential school for multiply handicapped children. After several years I was burned out.”
Involved musically with the Rise Up Christian Fellowship in Carmel, she headed to South Africa to assist with missionary work in Johannesburg and Pretoria. “I remained there for six wonderful years, also working in industry.”
While there she was introduced to reflexology when seeking stress relief.
Back in the U.S., she enrolled in reflexology training. “The timing was stunning,” she recounts. “I completed my reflexology training the very week that the bank laid me off.”
Encouraged by her beau, Michael Carosella, now her husband, she opted to open her own practice. But, she has not abandoned music. A lyric soprano, she performs with the Hastings-based Angelica Women”™s Chamber Singers and Collegium Westchester, based in Ossining. She will journey to Verona, Italy, with Angelica to participate in the Verona Garda Estate Choir Festival on July 10- 13.
Peck resides in White Plains with her husband, an accountant, and three felines. “The newest, Josie, is a bully who rules the household,” Peck reports.