History of reflexology
Ancient traditions. A modern profession.
Reflexology has no single, proven point of origin. Its story brings together long traditions of hand and foot work with later developments in physiology, zone therapy, education and professional practice.
Early reference points
Many places. Shared attention to the feet and hands.
Written, visual and oral accounts connect foot and hand treatment with Egypt, China, India, Japan, Greece and Cherokee traditions. These are influences and parallels, rather than evidence of one continuous route to modern reflexology.
Egypt
Images describe hand and foot treatment, including a wall scene in the tomb of the physician Ankhmahor, discovered in 1897.
China
Accounts trace early acupuncture to c. 2500 BC, refinement by c. 1558 BC, and a bronze acupuncture-point figure cast in 420 AD.
Greece
Homer wrote of massage for warriors. Later traditions associate Hippocrates with the disciplined use of massage in healing.
India and North America
Ayurvedic practice included pressure work on the feet. Cherokee communities maintained foot-treatment knowledge through generations.
Japan
Acupuncture reached Japan, adding to a wider Asian history of touch, pressure points and energy-based practices.
Central Europe
Dr Adamus and Dr Atatis published a book on zone therapy, recording an early European form of reflex treatment.
From reflex action to reflexology
The route to modern practice.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, clinical observation, nervous-system research and practical experimentation brought new language and structure to the field.
Early clinical use of acupuncture
Dr Tweedale reported treatment in Lyme Regis in 1823. By 1827 acupuncture was in use at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, and St Thomas’s Hospital, London.
Marshall Hall and reflex action
The English physiologist distinguished unconscious reflexes from conscious actions governed through the spinal cord and decision-making.
Pressure, touch and motor response
Filippo Pacini, Angelo Ruffini, Karl Ludwig Merkel and George Meissner identified sensory receptors. Johann August Unzer, Dr Alfonse Cornelius and Hermann Oppenheim advanced ideas about reflexes, pressure points and motor response.
The nervous system becomes central
Dr Joseph François Félix Babinski described the plantar reflex in France in 1892; Sir Henry Head published on skin, spinal segments and organs in 1893; Charles Sherrington and Edgar Adrian advanced nervous-system research, with Sherrington publishing on reflex action in 1906; Vladimir Bekhterev founded the Psychoneurological Institute in Russia in 1907.
William Fitzgerald and Zone Therapy
Dr William Fitzgerald, working with Dr Edwin Bowers, described ten longitudinal zones and the use of pressure on the hands and feet. Fitzgerald led the ENT unit at St Francis Hospital, Hartford, and also worked or studied in London and Vienna.
Eunice Ingham takes the work to the public
After learning through Dr Jo Shelby-Riley and Elizabeth Shelby-Riley, Ingham developed a foot-focused method and published Stories the Feet Can Tell in 1938 and Stories the Feet Have Told in 1945.
Practice and training expand
Gladys Evans practised in London from the early 1960s; Doreen Bailey returned from the USA in 1966; Joseph Corvo brought Zone Therapy learning from Canada; Hanne Marquardt met Ingham in 1969 and published in Germany in 1975; Dwight Byers taught in London in the late 1970s at Tony Porter’s invitation.
An individual of importance
Renée Tanner
Renée Tanner helped shape modern reflexology practice, teaching and professional standards in the UK and internationally.
Raised in Ireland, she trained as a nurse before moving to London in the early 1960s. Work with Chinese therapist Candice Wong, encouragement from school principal Marion Ayers, and later study with reflexologist Edith Holmes in Africa helped Tanner develop her approach. As principal of the first School of Beauty and Complementary Therapy in the UK, she added reflexology to the curriculum and went on to establish teaching in the UK, Ireland and many countries.
Developed Chinese foot therapy in London.
Published her first reflexology chart.
Introduced independent anatomy, physiology and pathology study for reflexologists.
Published her teaching notes as a monograph.
IFR was established; Tanner later served as its Chair.
Published her first step-by-step reflexology book.
Represented reflexology and aromatherapy at the BCMA launch at the House of Lords.
Invited to the All India Symposium and the Parliament in Cape Town.
Published reflexology guidance for cancer and palliative care.
Contributed to national guidance for complementary therapies in supportive and palliative care.
International progress
People who carried the profession forward.
Training, research and professional organisation grew through local leadership in many countries.
United Kingdom
Douglas Bell, Michael Endacott, Ann Gillanders, Nicola Hall, John Hopson, Clive O’Hara, Wally Sharps and Mo Usher contributed to training, recognition and common standards.
Australia
In the mid-1980s Vera Shephard established the Verona School. Susanne Enzer and Elsa Reid also advanced specialist practice and education.
India
Dr S. K. Agarwal led the Indian Board of Alternative Therapies, established in 1991, linking education with science, research and charitable work.
Japan and Korea
Kazuko Sasai and Nao Oba promoted education and research in Japan. Ki Cheol Ham developed professional and university-linked training in Korea.
New Zealand
Alys Noys established her school in the early 1990s and lectured nationwide. Michelle Higham contributed as practitioner, lecturer and examiner.
South Africa
Jean Hale helped bring reflexology to government attention. Sharon Durran, Liz Graham and Ing Dougan also supported recognition and registration.
Across Europe
Peter Lund Frandsen supported practice and research in Denmark. Anthony Larkin and Maura Barry contributed to standards and historical record in Ireland.
Further international work
Ann Lewis developed education in Barbados. Mildred Carter, Kevin Kunz and Barbara Kunz contributed in the USA, alongside many other practitioners worldwide.
Continue the story.
Explore reflexology today, what to expect from treatment, and the standards behind professional practice.