Time for relaxation

Seven years ago, Aya Sletmoen felt helpless as her father was battling cancer and she could do nothing to relieve his constant, chronic pain suffered after multiple treatments and being in the hospital.
Sletmoen eventually lost her father to cancer and only wishes she had the skills back then to help alleviate at least some of the aches and pains he had when he was alive.
“I’m doing reflexology and body massage for free for people who have cancer,” Sletmoen noted.
“My father died of cancer seven years ago and back then I couldn’t do anything and it was so hard,” she remarked. “I know how hard it is for the patient and for the family, too.”
Sletmoen wants people to know that if somebody has cancer or knows someone who is in pain, her skills are available at no charge.
“I don’t want people to hesitate to come here, I want them to just relax,” she stressed.
A trained Japanese body massage therapist as well as a reflexologist, the recently-emigrated Japanese woman could fool anyone when she says she’s almost 40.
She is the picture of health, and she’s worked hard at living as healthy as she can. She also makes her patients feel as though they are able to live their lives to their full potential after having her treatments.
Japanese body massage is something few of us have been able to experience because of its relatively new emergence in town and the rest of Canada.
In Japan, the technique is very popular and is used widely—as popular as many of us would use a chiropractor or physiotherapist.
“My massages are for taking out stress and improving circulation,” she explained. “What people don’t realize is that they are under strong stress and then because of that, they get sick.”
The use of the therapy is largely preventive as well as something that people use to relax.
Jade Dittaro has been seeing Sletmoen for more than two years now and she has nothing but positive things to say about the practice.
“I really feel a difference after I see Aya,” she said. “You wouldn’t think that it would have such a quick effect, but my stomach will gurgle or something right after she’s done some of the points in my feet.”
Dittaro’s mother, Donna, has seen Sletmoen longer than that. She comes weekly and says it’s what she looks forward to every Friday at 5 p.m.
The stimulating practice of human touch is something many patients believe to have real benefits to their overall health.
Reflexology is a practice that’s been used in Western medicine but isn’t widely associated with being a therapeutic modality. However, feet are more important than many of us are led to believe, says Sletmoen.
There are 3,200 nerve endings in the feet and they all correspond to areas of your body.
“Sometimes people don’t believe that their stomach is tired,” Sletmoen noted. “There is a point that I can stimulate that stimulates the stomach and I can receive the reaction.
“It’s a sandy, crystal feeling.”
She believes it is only when symptoms begin to mount that people tend to pay attention to what their body is trying to tell them, but sickness is what stems from an individual allowing multiple symptoms to get out of control.
“You always abuse your feet, you know, pound, pound, pound . . . so feet need to be pampered, too,” she explained. “We take care of our hands and face, but we tend to forget about feet.”
Sletmoen said she often can tell that a person isn’t feeling well, or isn’t in good condition, just by looking at their feet.
There’s even scientific proof behind the practice of reflexology.
“There is a picture in Egypt, a wall picture of them [Egyptians] doing foot massages,” said Sletmoen. “People knew something about the feet thousands of years ago.
“In China, 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, people started doing these practices, too—reflexology.”
Sletmoen has had her practice in town for three years now, working out of Wright Physiotherapy Rehabilitation Clinic on Scott Street (across from Safeway).
Married to Mark Sletmoen, she has started to feel very comfortable in Fort Frances. Originally from Hitachi, Japan, Sletmoen emigrated to Canada after meeting Mark.
Her husband works for AbitibiBowater and now that Sletmoen has had a successful practice in town, she doesn’t see herself moving back to Japan for the time being.
“My schedule gets booked at least one or two weeks in advance and if there is a cancellation, someone is waiting for the appointment. I am very happy to work,” Sletmoen said in her humble demeanor.
She misses her home and, culturally, Fort Frances is completely different than what she was accustomed to.
Sletmoen worked for the electronic company, Hitachi, as an office worker and she found herself tired, stressed, and unhappy at her job. It was after 11 years of working there that she finally decided to go to school to become a therapist and reflexologist.
“I was always as interested in reflexology,” she conceded.
While she learned and interned in Japan, Sletmoen had many people wanting to be her “model clients” (i.e., guinea pigs) so she could try out what she had learned in regards to how to massage certain areas of the body.
As calming music fills the room, Sletmoen is keen to learn about her client, but at the same time is reserved enough to let your mind become still—if only for a moment in our increasingly hectic lives.
Sletmoen’s treatments range from $21 for a 30-minute back massage to $95 for a full body massage that lasts for two hours.
Her reflexology is $32, with seniors getting a $6 discount.
Sletmoen’s passion for making people feel better is likely what makes her practice so successful. She is happy to work, and is happy if she’s made you feel better walking out of the room than when you walked in.