Reflexology
The Benefits of Reflexology are:
- Cleanses the body of toxins/impurities
- Improves Circulation (improves blood flow)
- Balances the whole system
- Revitalises energy
- Stimulates creativity and productivity
- Preventative health care (helps to balance systems and helps to reduce stress)
- Reduces stress and induces deep relaxation (good for insomnia)
- Induces a feeling of well being
The History Of Reflexology
The precise origins
of Reflexology are not known, but it may well have originated around the same
time as acupuncture – about 4000 BC – for the two share the same principles.
Drawings of historical evidence of Reflexology, massage and shiatsu were found
on wall paintings from the physician’s tomb in Saqqara, Egypt, dating from 2330
BC.
Illustrations and paintings
found in old archives have also established that the early Chinese, Japanese,
Indians, Russians and Egyptians worked on the feet to promote good health. They
found out that using special thumb and finger techniques to work on small areas,
or reflexes on the feet acted as a pick–me–up for people who were run –down
or convalescing after illness. It was also used for relaxation and was particularly
effective as a preventive medicine.
Its modern origins, however,
are easier to trace. In 1913, an American Ear, Nose and Throat physician, Dr.
William H. Fitzgerald, became interested in pressure therapies, having read
the works of several European doctors involved in this area in the 1500’s, and
had probably become aquatinted with these works whilst he was practicing in
Vienna. He noticed that when using pressure therapy on different patients for
the same disorder with minor operations, some would feel considerable pain and
others would feel little pain.
He also discovered that
he could relieve pain in other parts of the body by applying pressure to certain
parts of the fingers with his hands and various mechanical devices. By developing
his work further, Dr Fitzgerald was able to describe a system of ten zones in
the body. This postulated the existence of ten zones of energy, dividing the
body from head to toe, i.e. five on each side of the body. The importance of
these was that within each zone there was an energy link between certain areas,
allowing one area to affect another. In 1917, he laid the foundations of the
science with his “zone therapy” and he is mentioned in all literature relating
to this subject.
The present science of
Reflexology was established in its present form mainly through an American therapist
called Eunice Ingham, encouraged initially by Dr. J. S. Riley, the physician
for whom she was working. It was Eunice Ingham who was the first to describe
Reflexology in its modern form. Having learnt the work of Fitzgerald and his
colleagues, Mrs Ingham realised that the whole body could be treated by applying
pressure to the zones found in the hands and the feet, and her two books Stories
the Feet Can Tell and Stories the
Feet Have Told were probably the first written on this subject. From the
early 1930’s until her death in 1974, Eunice Ingham worked ceaselessly to develop
Reflexology into the science it is today. The international Institute of Reflexology
was founded in 1973 to carry out her work.
Reflexology was introduced
to Great Britain in the early 1960’s by Doreen Bayly a pupil of the pioneer
Eunice Ingham. Mrs Doreen Bayly showed considerable strength and determination
in order to enlighten people on Reflexology and instructed many of the early
practitioners in Great Britain and on the Continent. She set up the Bayly
School of Reflexology in the UK, for training practitioners, which is the official
teaching body of the British Reflexology Association.
From the early work of
Dr. Fitzgerald involving the zones of the body and Zone Therapy, Reflexology
treatment has now evolved. Zone Therapy is still practiced by some but is not
so common.
Reference:
- Reflexology – A Way to better Health by Nicola M Hall.
- The Reflexology Handbook by Laura Norman with Thomas Cowan.
- The Book of Massage by Clare Maxwell – Hudson.
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