This article was written about Cheryl Speen, a graduate of SWIHA's MT 1000 Master Massage Practitioner program.

By Heather Riley

Professional toe readers maintain that toes and feet document past journeys, not future destiny.

Kim Hacht recalls her first meeting with local toe reader Cheryl Speen. "I had lost my mom - my best friend - about thirteen years before," she says, "and Speen could see there were still unresolved grief issues surrounding my mother's death," Hacht says.

Cheryl Speen, a Mesa resident, uses her intuition along with years of toe training to uncover repressed emotions, simply by inspecting the toes. Unlike palm reading, toe reading isn't a psychic endeavor. In fact, Speen is one of about 200 toe reading graduates now deciphering digits across the nation. Toe guru KC Miller, founder of the Southwest Institute of the Healing Arts, taught Speen the art of toe reading.

Speen's toe-reading career began after 20 years as a computer programmer. "For eight yaers I'd been telling my husband, I really want to go into healing," Speen says.

In 2004 she enrolled at the Southwest Institute of the Healing Arts. A fellow student noticed Speen's flair for feet and invited her to a toe reading class. At first, she resisted. "I thought it was like palm reading," Speen says. "And I don't believe in that stuff."

Speen says toe reading is actually a tool for revealing tendencies in a person's personality, clarifying that while your toes say a lot about your past, they won't predict your future.

Rather than read lines, like a palm reader, Speen looks at the direction of the toes, the crooks and bumps on the feet, and how the feet have changed over the years. "I look at the patterns that people have right now," says Speen, adding that she believes all emotions manifest in the body.

"If I can see a belief system in someone's feet, I can be more in tune with what's going on inside their body."

Speen has built her clientele by word of mouth,often reading the toes of 10 clients a week out of her home office, a guest bedroom she hijacked for toe reading purposes. There she creates a mini retreat for her clients. Surrounded by soothing music, bamboo plants, strategic lighting and decor, clients relax in the Zen-like atmosphere.

Today, Speen's neighbor and client, Kim Hacht, settles onto the massage table while Speen examines her toes. Speen stretches and massages each toe - and after close inspection, asks Hacht if she's been feeling more stress lately.

"The readings help me to be more aware and read myself better," says Hacht, whose husband also frequents Speen for toe readings. "She is usually right on."

Speen's instructor, KC Miller, says toe reading works because it follows ancient massage techniques, which connect what's happening in the feet to different parts of the body.

"Reflexology is 5,000 years old," she says. "And it's so predictable."

According to Miller, the foot on your dominant side represents the self a person presents to the world; the other side represents the inner self.

"If I had to describe toe reading," Miller says, "I would say 'it's a metaphoric exclamation of a path on earth.'"

Miller says life experiences are documented in the feet, and people can learn about their beliefs based on the shape and details of their toes.

Miller studied toe reading for six years before introducing the craft at the Southwest Institute of the Healing Arts in 2004. "It became a workshop, the workshop became a book and then the book became speeches," she says.

Interest grew, and in 2006, Miller taught approximately 200 students the art of toe reading. the attraction, she says, is that toe reading reveals more about a person. "People like to know about themselves. That's the key," Miller says.

More than just bridal party entertainment, Miller's toe reading is gaining national attention. Last month she appeared on NEXT, an MTV reality dating show.

Now a publishing house is producing Miller's previously self-published toe reading book, Toe Reading - Are You Walking Your Destined Path.

"Toe Reading has been that little bright shining star that people are curious about," Miller says.

www.toereadingonline.com