The ancient practice of reflexology offers the potential for relief from many modern ailments

‘Touch comes before sight, before speech… and it always tells the truth’

MARGARET ATWOOD

Lie back, relax and imagine a therapy that can energise you, help you let go of stress and improve some health conditions, all through the massaging of your feet. We’re talking about reflexology, a practice that is, of course, more than simple massage: it’s a highly developed system that’s natural, noninvasive and nurturing. On top of being calming, it can help rebalance your energy, hormones and emotions.

If you’re not familiar with reflexology, here’s how it works: it’s based on a theory that different points on the feet, lower leg, hands, face or ears correspond to different areas of the body.

Thus, every bodily structure and organ is reflected in miniature on the feet and so on, in kind of mini-maps. These reflex areas can be worked on by applying pressure to them, stimulating the body’s innate self-healing power to help improve wellbeing. Tenderness in different parts of the body is said to reveal which organs or areas are in a state of disorder.

Ancient beginnings

Far from being a modern therapy, reflexology dates back to ancient times in China, India and Egypt. The earliest evidence of its use has been found in the form of pictographs from around 2330BCE in the Tomb of Ankhmahor, also known as the physician’s tomb, in the Egyptian village of Saqqara.

The practice was rediscovered in the 19th and 20th centuries, when scientists found that pain could be alleviated in one area of the body by applying deep pressure to another, leading them to develop zone therapy, which divides the body into 10 sections or longitudinal zones. In the 1930s, American physiotherapist, Eunice Ingham, was the first to create foot and hand reflexology charts based on reflexes of the body, earning her the title, ‘the mother of reflexology’. Thirty years later, it was introduced into the UK by one of Eunice’s students, Doreen Bayly. The two main methods taught in reflexology training schools today are those originally devised by Eunice or Doreen.