Florence Cohen, Reflexologist IIR, MAR

A Certified Reflexologist practising in Madrid, Spain (www.reflexology.es), I graduated some years back from the International Institute of Reflexology in London, I am a member of the Association of Reflexologists in the UK and a member of the International Council of Reflexology. I am lucky to be able to say that I was trained by the very best – and I continue to attend seminars given by the best professionals the world of Reflexology has to offer. No healthcare provider should ever consider that he or she is done learning. I am also the owner of this website and the writer of all its contents. Having suffered greatly from back pain in the past myself – before I even knew what Reflexology was -, I wanted to create a purely informative website which would explain as clearly as possible both back pain and Medical Reflexology. It had to be easy to understand for all while at the same time based exclusively on scientific facts and analysis.

I wasn’t always a Reflexologist. I used to be a businesswoman. I studied economics and then went on to get an MBA from a prestigious European university. At the time I was already suffering from incredible chronic back pain which provoked unbearable migraines. I was taking pain killers almost every day and being severely sleep-deprived due to the pain. As I entered the workforce, things just got worse. I had a demanding job which I was performing with a maximum of 2 to 3 hours of sleep per night. The pain in my back showed no signs of improvement and the migraines were increasing in number and in intensity. I was a wreck but I didn’t want the whole world to know. I had consulted doctors, had a bit of physical therapy but with no results whatsoever. Then one day, it became clear that I simply could not go on like that. I made the difficult decision of stopping with work and decided to focus on my health. Little did I know the battle I was in for. I was 27 at the time. I asked around, did my research, and embarked on a crusade from medical specialist to medical specialist throughout Europe that was to last 7 years. X-rays, MRIs and the many other tests that I underwent were inconclusive. It looked like I had nothing, so I heard it all: from “it’s all in your head” to “you probably have Funky Syndrome X, we should schedule surgery and remove a rib or something”, and everything in-between! Fortunately, perseverance usually pays off in life. And so, 3 years into the crusade, I had an appointment with the President of the Kovacs Foundation, Dr. F.M. Kovacs, one of Europe’s top experts in matters of back pain. For the first time I had the impression someone was listening to me and taking me seriously. He assured me my pain was real and not in my head. And believe me, at that point I really needed to hear that. I truly thought that if one more doctor told me it was all in my head I was going to have a nervous breakdown. I began treatment for pain and inflammation with Neuroreflextherapy (his own medical invention against back pain and completely unrelated to foot and hand Reflexology) at the Kovacs Clinic 6 months later. Finally something was working. The pain in my back substantially subsided but, most of all, over the course of the following year the migraines almost completely disappeared. This gave me back a quality of life long forgotten since I was spending on average 3 days a week in bed in the dark due to the migraines. By eliminating a number of my pains it became apparent that the source of the problem was not in the back but in the shoulder. I was slowly losing the ability to use my left arm, overusing my right arm as a consequence, and this was having dramatic effects in my back: muscle atrophy, muscle overuse, muscle imbalance, muscle spasms and nerve irritation. So now came Crusade Part II: find the right shoulder doctor. Tired of hitting walls and with the migraines almost out of my life, I took it upon myself to learn everything there was to learn about shoulder conditions and their solutions. And while I still went to consult one or the other specialist in Europe – unconvincingly -, I finally came to the conclusion that in order to get the right help for my problem I needed a center of excellence, a place where they were used to fixing the unfixable. By the time I was 34, I had completely lost the use of my left arm, couldn’t get dressed or undressed by myself, couldn’t drive anymore, and still had severe upper back and neck muscle spasms that made me want to rip my head off more often than not. So for those of you who think no one understands how much pain you’re in, I was there. That same year I was operated in New York City at the Hospital for Special Surgery by a fantastic surgeon who made sure I had one of the best physical therapists in the weeks following the operation. The problem in my shoulder was simply an adhesive capsulitis in a very advanced stage – probably the result of an old injury. So much scar tissue had built up inside the joint that I couldn’t move my arm anymore. A simple problem had gone unnoticed for years and caused absolute havoc in my back even though there was nothing wrong with my back. But all is well that ends well. I have met incredible people during this ordeal, learned a lot about myself, became much stronger, and love the fact that it has led me to Reflexology and the possibility of truly helping others whose pain I understand so well.

Stories like mine are not uncommon, and by this I mean that so many patients are told to give up, that they are beyond help, that they need to learn to live with their pain, or undergo very invasive surgery which has a very low rate of success, and so on and so on. And having been through all that myself and regularly meeting patients who come to me for Reflexology as a last resort, my answer to that is: HOW DARE THEY! Of course there is help when it comes to back pain, and do not let anyone tell you otherwise. My specialty is Medical Reflexology and I have never seen or heard of a case of back pain which did not improve in the hands of a good Reflexologist. This doesn’t mean that other therapies cannot be beneficial. As you read, Neuroreflextherapy worked for me. All it means is that I can only tell you about what I know well. However, whatever therapy or treatment you choose, always remember that the therapy is only as good as the therapist. This is one of the reasons why I created this website, to enable you to find the right kind of Reflexologist.

I also wish to take this opportunity to thank the four people who tried so very hard to help me when I was unwell, and succeeded. Each of them is an amazing individual and I am truly grateful to have met them. Each of them did his or her part, and together they gave me back my life - both my back and my shoulder are in top shape and can handle almost anything today:
Dr. Francisco Kovacs, for taking away a lot of the pain, for killing the migraines, for the best bedside manners I have ever seen, for making himself so available when there was a crisis, for all the medical advice, guidance, and brainstorming over the years.
Dr. Frank Cordasco, for being such an excellent surgeon, for having such great humor, for taking so much pride in a job well-done.
Hans Tossijn, physical therapist, for trying so hard to help me during so many years before the operation and for being so helpful during rehab.
Dana Gordon-Geller, PhD. in physical therapy, for being so incredibly good, so determined, so compassionate, so involved, and so kind, for making my recovery possible, for teaching me so much.