History of Reflexology
Reflexology dates back thousands of years to ancient Egypt, China and India. There has been evidence found in The Physician Tombs of Egypt around 25000 BCE of a wall carving that demonstrates practitioners pressing the hands and feet of two other people.
In Tibet around the seventh century there is written medical texts which illustrate points of the body which are believed to be important to the flow of energy known as vital energy points. In China and Japan there is footwork traced to 4000 years ago, documented in The Yellow Emperors Book of Internal Medicine about 12 energy pathways located throughout the body and vital energy points.
In Europe in the late 15th century, zone therapy was first written and practiced by people for selfcare and by physicians healing the wealthy to relieve stress and pain. Zone therapy is claimed to have derived from Chinese medicine. In England around the late 18th century Sir Henry Head concluded that a relationship between the skin and the internal organs existed and named this “Heads Zones”. In the 19th century Dr William H. FitzGerald an ear, nose and throat specialist was accredited for introducing zone therapy to the American medical profession he documented that there are 10 longitudinal zones in the body, 5 on either side.
In the 1940s Eunice Ingham narrowed the reflexes to the feet and perfected the finger, thumb and hand techniques naming them reflexology. She is known as the “mother of reflexology”.
