A brief history of reflexology.

Since then, there have been varied pictures, charts, and written documentation of reflexology-type practices all over the world; traveling most likely from Egypt to Greece, Arabia, and then on to Europe through the Roman Empire. Reflexology can also be traced back to Africa, China, India, Japan, and Russia.

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Modern reflexology in the United States began with an American physician who used “Zone Therapy” to anesthetize his patients during minor surgery. The theory behind Zone Therapy is that there are 10 energetic zones in the body that run from the head to the toes and the head to the fingers and that anything that happens in one part of the zone can effect the rest of the zone. Dr. Fitzgerald observed that if he maintained constant pressure on a zone at the toe or finger, it would anesthetize that zone.

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In the 1930's, another physician, Dr Joe Riley, trained by Dr. Fitzgerald had a physiotherapist on his staff named Eunice Ingham. Eunice discovered while working on Dr. Riley's patients that an on and off pressure, rather that a strong steady pressure, would be therapeutic instead of anesthetizing.