My name is Sandra Hedges. I am a Registered Therapeutic Reflexologist and Integrative Wellness Therapist, offering individually tailored treatments with a focus on naturally promoting health, vitality and balance. I am in Private Practice in Nottingham Road & in Howick in the KZN Midlands.
I am also a Yoga Instructor and offer Hatha/Restorative/Therapeutic and Aerial Yoga classes.
I grew up on the coast of Durban, and spent many exciting early mornings fishing with my dad and sister in Durban Bay, and many enriching family holidays in an array of Game Reserves across South Africa. I acquired my mom’s love of horses at an early age, and have worked and played with these exquisite equines on and off all my life. I was privileged to work with marine mammals at Sea World, as a Biotechnologist/Veterinary Assistant for an amazing two years. My passion for wildlife and conservation further flamed, my high school sweetheart (now my husband) and I qualified as Nature Conservators, and embarked on a 10-year adventure through the African bushveld, gaining a true appreciation for nature and her wonderful ways!
Eventually, my interest in medicine coupled with my love of nature to channel my path towards holistic healing practices, and the rest is history…
I am a registered Allied Health Practitioner (Therapeutic Reflexology & Meridian Therapy), with additional qualifications in Complementary Therapies, including Auriculotherapy (Ear Reflexology), Foot Mobilisation, Holistic & Sports Massage, Shiatsu (Japanese Acupressure Massage), Basic Nutrition & Counselling, Hypnotherapy & Regression Therapy, Iridology, Chinese Cupping & Herbalism, Applied (Energy) Kinesiology, Reiki (Masters), Life Coaching, and Hatha, Restorative, Therapeutic & Aerial Yoga (instructor), as well as short courses in Homeopathy, Astrology, & Medical Herbalism & Astrology. My approach to healing is thus holistic, and incorporates assessment of your whole being (body, mind and spirit) and application of relevant modalities in providing support for you on your healing journey to lasting wellness, joy and fulfilment in life!
My Yoga journey began in the heart of the African bushveld, where I met my first yoga teacher. As we weaved our way through various poses while watching the river wend its way through the wilds surrounding us, my heart began to beat to a new rhythm…and my Spiritual Path was ignited…
I studied Hatha & Restorative Yoga through Aura Wellness Centre in the USA, Therapeutic Yoga online with The Traditional Yoga Foundation and Aerial Yoga with Simone Finck of Hohm Yoga & Wellness in South Africa.
More about the healing modalities I practice:
THERAPEUTIC REFLEXOLOGY
Uses pressure points, mainly in the feet, to stimulate the body’s own healing potential, unblocking energy pathways that are congested, causing illness and pain.
Foot mobilisation – relieves structural misalignments, useful for sports injuries.
Auriculotherapy (ear reflexology) – effective in relieving pain and treating allergies and addictions.
Foot Reading – involves the assessment of feet to determine the physical and mental/emotional meanings on the reflexes of the feet. In other words, it gives a glimpse into the deeper meanings behind markers on the feet, providing insights into what underlies your symptoms, and how you can balance your life and get it back on track!
HOLISTIC MASSAGE & AROMATHERAPY
Massage stimulates circulation and rids the body of toxins, providing pain relief, relaxation and general well-being.
Aromatherapy incorporates essential oils, producing a physical, spiritual, emotional and mental sense of healing and harmony.
SPORTS MASSAGE
The use of massage to treat lesions and/or pathologies affecting the osteomusculotendinous system. Soft tissue manipulation techniques are also employed to relax, stretch or strengthen muscles, and advice on remedial exercises to further aid recovery from injury or enhance sports performance is given.
SHIATSU (Japanese Chinese Massage)
A form of Oriental Massage, where rocking, kneading and stretching techniques apply pressure along energy lines in the body to balance body, mind and spirit, promoting pain relief and overall health.
NUTRITIONAL & HERBAL THERAPY
By fuelling our body with nutrients it requires, it can function efficiently and ward off infections and illness. Specific herbs can assist with healing and enhancement of wellbeing.
IRIDOLOGY
Patterns, colours, and other characteristics of the iris are examined to determine information about a patient’s natural constitution, as well as their health. Various zones of the iris correspond to specific parts of the human body and specific markers can indicate overactive, inflamed, or distressed bodily systems. This information demonstrates a patient’s susceptibility towards certain illnesses, reflects past medical problems, and can predict future health risks.
COUNSELLING, HYPNOTHERAPY & REGRESSION THERAPY
These therapies provide insights into basic human behaviour and cognitive functioning, including aspects of the conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind. An understanding of these faculties of human nature allows the therapist to support clients in making shifts in thinking and behaviour to facilitate positive life changes.
It is vital that healing take place in the etheric body (auric body surrounding the physical body), as this holds the pattern for the physical body. If belief systems interfere with healing or health, then the effect of energy healing work will not result in the change in the ‘self’ where it is needed. If those belief systems can be transformed, and new images and affirmations put into the etheric body, positive changes can reflect in the physical body. Ongoing therapy encourages emotional blocks from past experiences to emerge so that they may be processed and removed.
The unconscious mind contains a complete record of all one’s past experiences. The subconscious mind deals with a continuous influx of impressions, each of which acts as a stimulus demanding a response of some kind. Some responses are instinctive and others are conditioned (the outcome of training or learning from experiences). The conscious mind is that area of subconscious activity where, through focussed attention, awareness is.
Hypnotherapy and Regression Therapy work to bring to consciousness that which is unconscious, and in so doing awareness and understanding of problems and ways to alleviate them increase. All problems are symptoms of core issues. Each core issue has its own belief structure which is formed from a past experience and is based on self-judgement. The core issue produces consciously held symptoms and patterns which may repeat in a series of traumas as the unconscious mind attempts to resolve the hidden issues. Therapy aims to uncover the original components of the core issue so that they may be processed consciously. New, more appropriate behaviours and emotional responses can then be chosen over old reactive patterns. Suggestion is used in hypnotherapy to replace specific conditioned negative responses, which in turn manifest as types and specific patterns of behaviour, with positive responses. Counselling supports the client to integrate and follow-through with new ways of being and doing, and to deal with any negative reactions to past traumas.
LIFE COACHING
A Life Coach guides a client to keep their focus on their intention to change in order to enable them to change their behaviour for the better, to become an automatic way of being.
METAPHYSICS
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the essential nature of reality, including the relationships between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality. It examines the associations between mental, emotional, physical and spiritual elements, and provides greater understanding of the interconnectedness of all of creation.
ENERGY KINESIOLOGY
Energy Kinesiology is the assessment and balancing of energetic systems of a person through education, recuperation, training and generative processes to re-condition the neurology, and using muscle monitoring as a primary tool to obtain holistic feedback and identify priorities for treatment strategy to restore and maintain overall health and wellbeing.
REIKI
Reiki is a spiritually guided hands-on healing system, which stems from the principle that every living being has a life force, which Reiki-attuned practitioners harness and channel, using a set of techniques based on ancient Tibetan healing methods that allow one to tap into an infinite and limitless source of life energy to heal.
CHINESE HERBAL THERAPY
This modality makes use of the flavours & energetic qualities of food & its effects on the body (warming or cooling) to address disease through the application of the theories of Yin & Yang & the 5 Elements. Pulse & tongue diagnoses are used as tools to assess imbalances and advice is then given on suitable nutritional support.
CHINESE CUPPING THERAPY
This is the application of suction cups onto specific areas of the body (areas of pain, chronic tension, acupressure points, meridian lines) to address specific illnesses. A vacuum is applied which causes tissues to be drawn into the cups, effectively improving energy & blood circulation to the area to aid healing, relieve tension and remove toxins.
ACUDETOX™
Acudetox™ is a specialized form of acupuncture and is performed by gently placing five thin, sterile, single-use needles into specific points on the ears. The needles are generally left in place for 35 – 45 minutes, and the effects are generally balancing, calming and supportive of healing.
In South Africa, training is provided by the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA). The NADA mission exists to utilize the principles of both Oriental medicine and Western addictions and behavioral health models to bring significant benefit to persons in recovery from addictions and a variety of mental disorders, including detoxification, withdrawal, emotional trauma, craving, stress syndromes, relapse prevention, rehabilitation and recovery maintenance. This may include persons with coexisting chronic mental illness, HIV/AIDS, PTSD or persons at risk for substance abuse.
YOGA
Yoga incorporates controls and techniques to achieve balance – of mind, body and spirit, with the aim to improve fitness, health and longevity, to enhance quality of life, and to achieve relaxation and peace of mind through spiritual enlightenment.
Hatha Yoga involves slow, strong and mindful movements to improve strength, endurance and flexibility, while connecting body and mind. Restorative Yoga endeavours to deepen and soften the practice of Yoga, encouraging the letting go of all resistance, allowing one to yield to the Earth and be truly present in each moment. Therapeutic Yoga employs traditional practices of yogic cleansing, meditation, pranyama and asanas to achieve a deeply disciplined and integrative way of incorporating yogic living principles and practices into daily life. Aerial Yoga challenges us on a whole new level, daring us to extend ourselves beyond the norm, allowing us to face fears, reach deeper, and find more flexibility without the usual resistances and restrictions of gravity and weight, and then cocooning us in a soft, floating veil of safety, comfort and bliss, an experience not to be denied!
