Many view health practices such as ‘reflexology’ as alternative forms of medical treatment but Dise Withers (DW), a practitioner for more than 30 years, refers to his work as the creator’s original means of healing. While living in Iowa in his mid-20s, he was introduced to what would become his career destiny and after working with a chiropractor for a few years, he moved to Colorado in 1981. Today he is self-employed with a decades-long portfolio of clients whose health issues have improved or disappeared as a result of his healing hands. His own mother recently saw all traces of brain cancer disappear from her body after extensive reflexology treatments by her son. Withers himself practices only natural healing methods in his own life as he does not seek out medical doctors or offices when faced with a health problem. He strives to remain in tune with nature and his body and practices what he preaches to his many clients. He recently spoke with The Black House News’ (BHN) Adeeba Folami and shared more about the work he has grown to love.

 NOTE: As with all practitioners of what are called “alternative” healing methods, Mr. Withers is restricted from promoting what he does as medicine or a “cure,” however, he can and does testify to the results he has witnessed over the years.

What is reflexology?

(BHN) – Can you go over the basics as far as how reflexology works?

(DW) – All throughout our bodies we have areas that are connected to other areas, for instance, you can work on the shoulder to help the hip or work on the wrist to help the ankle. There are connections all through the body but the only parts of the body that have all the connections, are our extremities – hands, feet, and ears. Every organ and gland in our body has nerve endings and those nerve endings reach into our extremities. By applying specific pressure to the nerve endings, you send a signal to the corresponding organ and gland and, how that signal is sent, most reflexologists don’t actually know but I happen to work with a mad scientist here in Colorado who has a reflexology school where I worked for many, many years. He did a lot of research.

The science of how reflexology works, when you hit a point and it’s tender or there’s discomfort, that discomfort is a signal to your brain because that’s how we as human beings know that something hurts – [a] brain signal says, ‘That hurts.’ Let’s say I work on your big toe and it’s tender, that sends a signal to the brain, then the brain, in turn, sends an electrical signal back to the corresponding organ and gland and it’s called the negative DC current. That signal goes down to the corresponding organ or gland and is the healing energy in our body. It heals our bodies.

That’s why – I don’t try to torture people but you want to find the spot where there’s discomfort, where there’s a signal or pain. That pain activates an electrical signal in the brain and the brain sends the signal back to the body and the body begins to heal itself.

(BHN) – Anytime we have a shock or pain, that’s activating the healing?

(DW) – Yeah. Anywhere through the body, whenever we have a pain, our brain will try to self heal our body even if it’s not reflexology. Now, does that always work? No. Sometimes the problem is greater than what our body can self heal but our bodies are always trying to self heal us. That’s why sometimes you can be in pain and don’t do anything and eventually the pain goes away and the body self heals by itself and that has to do with the strength of our immune and other systems. That’s where diet and lifestyle come in because some people can self heal themselves better than others.

(BHN) – What inspired you to get involved with reflexology?

(DW) – A book that a friend gave me. I lived in Des Moines, Iowa but was out visiting my mother in Southern California. She was having migraine headaches and I said, ‘Mom, I read this book and it sounds really weird but let me work on your feet.’ [The book] said the big toe is connected to the head and I started working on her feet and her migraine went down to a low grade headache. She still had a headache but it wasn’t a migraine anymore and that’s what inspired me to search out reflexology a little more.

As fate would have it, I get back to Des Moines and in the newspaper I saw an ad that said ‘Learn reflexology’ and it was in Davenport, across the state. I got my money together, drove to Davenport, went to a weekend seminar and was a double minority: I was the only younger person, [at] 25, and was the only person of color there.

(BHN) – From there, how did it progress into you doing this for a living?

(DW) - I go back to Des Moines and was just breaking up in a relationship, trying to figure out what I should do with my life and I had 2 choices: move to California where my mom was and try to see what I could do, [or] make a career out of this reflexology. I was wondering, ‘Who would hire a reflexologist?’ My mind said maybe a chiropractor, some alternative way of healthcare might hire [one.] I went to the phone book and the very first name of chiropractors, there weren’t any A’s, but it was a Dr. Brockman. I called his clinic and they said, ‘Come in for an appointment and talk to our personnel person.’ I go to the clinic, I’m sitting in the room with the personnel director and the chiropractor was walking down the hall. He looked into the room and said – out of nowhere – ‘Hire that guy.’ They hired me and the rest is history.

(BHN) – You only had a weekend of training?

(DW) – Yeah. Then the chiropractor says, “We want you to do reflexology and massage, you can work under my license.” He gave me a couple of hours of massage training and then I was massage therapist and reflexologist.

(BHN) – How long did you stay in Des Moines?

(DW) - I worked with him six years but I had no training in anatomy so someone would come to see me and they’d name a body part and I’d go, ‘I’ll be right back.’ Then I would go to the anatomy book, come back and work on them and people would get better. It’s like I found my gift. From that day to this, I’ve been doing classes for different kinds of modalities and actually have students.

(BHN) – How have you seen Black awareness about reflexology increase over the years?

(DW) - Black awareness, very low. Ninety percent of my clients are Caucasian, a small percent are people of color and when I first started out, ninety percent were females but that’s balanced out where it’s about 60/40 now, female to male. It’s always been amazing to me, because of our heritage, that Black folks are more skeptical about the type of work I do.

Our heritage is Africa, natural. Our DNA – it would seem to me that more Black folks would gravitate toward getting away from traditional medicine but it’s the other way around. I don’t have an answer of why it is that way. I’ve even had a client, she passed away a few years ago, she would set me up to do lectures and lots of her Black friends were skeptical about me. I don’t know why.

(BHN) – What’s one of the most dramatic healings you’ve seen?

(DW) - People from all around the country would come to the clinic in Iowa and the first person I worked on happened to be a farmer from Wisconsin – that’s my home state. I worked on his feet and he had sinus problems his whole life but when he came back after one treatment, his sinus problems went away. That was the first person I had ever worked on and that’s the first and only time I’ve ever had that report where [after] one treatment, sinus problems went away. I’ve helped lots of people with sinus problems but not with just one treatment.

Hazards of high heels, tight shoes

(BHN) – How does going barefoot versus wearing high heels effect what’s happening to the foot’s nerve endings?

(DW) – Going barefoot, especially if you’re walking over rocks or pebbles, i.e., you’re going barefoot and you’re stepping on something that sends that signal – if you ever walked over rocks, there’s a little discomfort and that’s sending the signal. Like on the beach, hot sand will send a signal to the body too. I’ve always felt that the original treatment that our creator gave mankind was walking barefoot and getting a signal from the earth to the body and it would self heal the body because that’s a form of reflexology. It’s activating those discomfort zones.

(BHN) – When people have pain from wearing heels, is that a good pain?

(DW) - That’s not a good pain. The body is going to try to heal itself because of the pain but that pain is activated because high heels should be something worn on special occasions and not all the time because [they] throw the lower back out and create problems in a lot of ladies’ bodies – just the fact of wearing high heels.

Wearing tight shoes, people get problems because they had hand me down shoes when they were kids and they weren’t the right size and wearing tight shoes can actually create physical problems besides sore feet. It’s all about compression on those nerve endings and if that compression is the result of tight shoes, or whatever type of shoe, it’s gonna create an imbalance in the whole body, especially the lower back.

When people have foot problems and they hear about me, I have a big following with that because I do a treatment called advanced reflexology which aligns the bones in the feet and I’m probably one of the only people in the area that specializes in that. So if a person has a foot problem where they would have to go to a podiatrist and get surgery and heavy medication, some choose me [instead] and I’ve helped a lot of people with their foot problems, like heel spurs, bunions and foot disorders.

Self treatment

(BHN) – People whose daily routine is to shower and then use lotion, oil or coco butter on their feet – taking extra time to massage – is that a form of unknowingly performing reflexology on oneself?

(DW) – Yes. The nice thing about reflexology is like you heard from me, [one] weekend and I made a whole career out of it. If someone does their self, or someone else massages your feet with coco butter or some type of lubricant, that’s a form of reflexology and anyone can do anyone else and they’re doing great benefits without having any training. That’s the nice thing about reflexology, kind of the one treatment for mankind [where] you really don’t need lots of training to be beneficial.

Through the years, reflexology was the first modality that I learned but most people come see me for the other things that I have put into my career. All the other things I do, you need training, like the cranial-sacral manipulation work, Lauren Berry work and neuro-muscular – which is deep tissue massage – you need lots of training. Reflexology is something you really can be helping someone and you don’t need any training [just] get their feet and massage [them.] Wherever it’s tender, concentrate on that area and you’re good to go.

(BHN) – For areas that aren’t tender, how are you being benefited by reflexology?

(DW) – A lot of reflexologists don’t know about that electrical signal I mentioned but they’ll tell you [reflexology] increases circulation and relaxes the whole body so even the areas that don’t have discomfort, you’re increasing the circulation through the entire body. Where there’s circulation, there’s life and where there’s stagnation, there’s death. When the blood is flowing, it’s healthy. Just like a stagnated pool is not good but a pool of water that’s flowing, is healthy. It’s the same with our bodies.

Then [reflexology] is a stress fighter and, in other words, a relaxer so if you just massage someone’s feet, even if there’s no tender spot, they’ll feel totally relaxed and it helps with stress. Stress relief is very important in this world.

(BHN) – Most of the work is done on the feet. Is it only when you can’t access the feet that you go to the hands?

(DW) - Correct. Even if someone is missing a foot, you can still work on whatever extremity is left. The hands are good to do but not quite as therapeutic because we use our hands so much and the nerve endings are deeper [but] they’re more exposed in the feet. The ears, the nerve endings [there] are so tiny because our ears are smaller but it’s still very therapeutic, however, when I think of reflexology, I think of the feet first as where you go to work on.

(BHN) – Thank you.

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Tags: body is self healing, brain signal, colorado, cranial sacral manipulation, dise withers, hazards of high heels, iowa, lauren berry method, lower back problems, massage therapy, natural healing, negative DC current, neuro-muscular, reflexology, tight shoes