History of Reflexology

Reflexology science is very ancient. It was practiced in China, Japan, Korea, and India. Also, Egyptians seem to have practiced it. In Sakkarah, outside Cairo, wall paintings were found at the tomb of the physician Ankhamor that depicted reflexology treatment, dating from around 2330 BC. In the early 1920s, William Fitzgerald of Connecticut brought back this science by developing a system called “Zone Therapy.” He noticed that by pressing on specific areas on the foot, he was affecting corresponding parts of the body on that same zone line.

Later, in the 1930s, Eunice Ingham who worked at that time with Dr. Fitzgerald, continued to develop Zone Therapy and devoted all her time to reflexology by researching, studying, and developing techniques that we now use. She was the first one to create a “Reflexology Foot Chart or Map”. She published two books, Stories the Feet Can Tell and Stories The Feet have Told. She started the National Institute of Reflexology and traveled all over the country teaching and sharing her knowledge at a time when women rarely worked or even worse, rarely traveled to teach or work. Later her nephew, Dwight Byers, took over and the school became The International Institute of Reflexology in St. Petersburg, Florida. He travels around the world and the United States to teach.

Principles of Reflexology

Dwight Byers says “the principles of reflexology embody the techniques designed to keep the body’s systems operating at peak efficiency, keeping your body tuned up.” Some of the benefits of reflexology are:

1. It relieves stress and tension. Many doctors agree that over 75% of our health problems can be linked to stress.
2. It helps nature achieve homeostasis (a state of equilibrium or balance) or helps nature to normalize.
3. It allows deep relaxation.
4. It improves blood supply.

Reflexology is a simple and safe therapy that can be helpful to balance the blood supply, to allow deep relaxation, and to bring balance to the entire body by using pressure on the feet and hands. This pressure will affect the internal organs and glands by stimulating reflex points that we have in our feet and hands.

Client lies down fully clothed on a massage table. The Reflexologist applies precise pressure to the reflex points on the feet and sometimes the hands to release stagnation or blockages that are creating discomfort, pain, and dis-ease in the body. The pressure is gentle yet profound. It is known that there are 7200 nerve endings in each foot. These nerves are interconnected to all areas of our bodies via the spinal cord and the brain. The pressures work around these reflex points to break up the lactic acid and calcium crystals that tend to accumulate around these nerve endings, therefore allowing the energy to flow freely again in the body.