History of Hand Reflexology
Hand Reflexology Workshop
Hand reflexology is an effective and deeply relaxing therapy. Teresa Rich, ATL, MICHT, explains its history, benefits and uses. Workshop in Hand Reflexology are delivered on 23rd September in Bournemouth 10-4pm for reflexologists.
Our hands are of the utmost importance when it comes to touching, sensing and communicating with others. Perhaps this is why they have such a powerful role in the healing process, whether they are providing a treatment – or indeed, receiving one.
Hand reflexology is a very simple yet effective therapy that most clients find pleasant and deeply relaxing. Although some consider it to be the poor relation of foot reflexology, hand reflexology is often more convenient and can be just as effective as its sister therapy.
History and principles
Many reflexology books make reference to an ancient Egyptian painting found in the tomb of Ankhmahor at Saqqara that depicts pressure being applied to the hands and feet in a way that looks similar to reflexology as we know and practise it today. If this picture was from the tomb in question and does actually depict reflexology in its earliest form, this would indicate that the therapy is more than four and a half millennia old.
Ancient Chinese writings also allude to a pressure therapy that involves the fingers and thumbs, as well as wringing or rubbing the hands together in order to benefit the body as a whole.
However, it wasn’t until the 1920s that Dr William Fitzgerald wrote a book about ‘zone therapy’, explaining how the body is divided into 10 vertical zones, which run from the top of the head to the tips of the toes and fingers.
All of the organs and structures that fall within the same zone are believed to be linked by a flow of energy and can be ‘accessed’ or rebalanced by applying pressure to specific points on the feet or hands where their relevant zone terminates – a theory Eunice Ingham went on to develop in greater detail in the 1930s.
Why foot reflexology became more popular than hand reflexology remains unclear. However, Eunice states in her first book, ‘Stories the feet can tell…’, ‘Reflexes exist in our hands in the same proportion, location, and so on, as in our feet. Only it is more difficult to locate them for they are not so pronounced and the added amount of exercise we give our hands keeps the tenderness worked out, which would otherwise be found.[1]
It is true that the reflexes are much deeper in the hands and therefore more pressure is required in order to produce the same results as foot reflexology. However, if a gentler treatment is desirable for a particular client, then hand reflexology may be more preferable to foot reflexology as it is generally considered less powerful.
