Mapping the Feet

Reflexology is where this entire journey started for me. I didn't intend to work with feet; I didn't even consider it an option until I had hit a personal wall in my bodywork practice back in 2010. I was working too hard and blew out my shoulder. I subsequently threw myself into workshops on massage technique and tried to learn how to work smarter to save my body and better serve my clients. Exploring other manual therapies, I realized that they were mostly, with a few quality exceptions, trying to force their will onto the tissues of the body. I knew that the body's pain was a message that begged to be listened to, not simply hammered on until it relented. I needed to find a practice that listened and addressed the body's call for help and that spark of a desire dragged me into my first Reflexology class against my will.

The flyer for that fateful Reflexology class, I had actually thrown in the trash. Seriously, that's what happened. It was my partner Richard who literally reached into the trash, pulled the flyer back out, handed it back to me and said the magic words of, "Try it. You might like it." At the time, I didn't expect to find everything I was searching for within the feet, but I did end up going to that class. The experience taking the course was average, nothing special, but the practical side of the work is what blew me away. Taking the foot techniques back to the table, I witnessed a first-hand account of the body's palpable response to the hands-on application of pressure when targeting the sensitive nerve endings on the feet.

From back problems to digestive upset to hormone imbalances, all symptoms were touched by the power of the foot reflexes. Pain that I wasn't able to influence through manual therapy was melted away when I addressed the feet. As a mysterious bonus, clients were reporting emotional relief, habit cessation and profound inspiration during our sessions. The work that I had thought was irrelevant was in fact the first real glimpse of what I was looking for all along – a modality that allowed me to bring balance to the entire person. From those first moments, I began to develop my Reflexology practice with the feet as my sole focus (that was a pun).

Diving head first into a formal certification in Reflexology and sitting for two national Reflexology exams through the American Reflexology Certification Board, I began to max out my credentials. Still thirsty for more knowledge, I started to explore how others practiced the art and science of foot work. By chance, I came across a small book on foot reading. The book was less than stellar and the content, I would later find, was largely a reprint from the works of others; but a basic idea was conveyed: The reflexes for the physical body aren't the only thing that can be mapped onto the feet. Additional research revealed to me that there was an entire sub-culture of foot assessment that no other Reflexology literature had mentioned.

The painful fact emerged that Reflexology is a myopic technique; only concerned with the hands-on manipulation of the reflexes. The primal idea of press-reflex-fix-issue pervades Reflexology literature and there is little to no mention of assessing those same reflexes – let alone considering the mental/emotional aspect of the feet. Instead, there are only rumored tales of expert Reflexologists who are able to truly see into the body through the foot reflexes after many years of practice – rarely do these Reflexologists explain their approach or document their work. What Reflexology has developed into is a limited definition that defaults to a manual therapy. In some states, Reflexology cannot be practiced without extensive licensure, which further ignores the practical application of assessing the very reflexes they are then licensed to apply pressure to.

I wish to correct this trajectory. Instead of blind technique and operating by routines based on concepts such as press-point-fix-issue, Reflexologists and indeed the general public should be taught foot reading; adding how to appropriately assess the physical and internal signs of stress through the window of the extremities to the conversation. This new approach will emphasize and implement an active dialogue between someone assessing another or self-assessing, facilitated by the theories outlined in this text. Courageously listening to the body's voice is a missing element within the current Reflexology atmosphere. We could dramatically increase the value of Reflexology applications with the addition of assessment, or even creating a consultative approach that does not include manual therapies and relies strictly on lifestyle correction to achieve results is the needed alignment moving forward. Hence, this book was created in an effort to start a new dialogue within the Reflexology community.

The Origins of Reflexology

Essentially, the origins of Reflexology begin with a seminal concept that the body and its parts can be mapped onto the extremities. Different cultures have adopted and transformed this idea to include or exclude the surfaces of the tongue, face, eye, hands, the thumb alone, the feet and other surfaces. Each emergence of the Reflexology theory has its own reasoning and vocabulary behind the mapping diagrams and technique. However, the core idea remains the same: We have access to the whole through the part. A perfect book for this is Reflexology: Art, Science & History by Christine Issel, which I will let illuminate the exact dates and timelines independent of this work. We are more focused on the immediate theory of assessment here.

I will not attempt to explain the Eastern variations of Reflexology practice as they are not my purview. However, in the West, the popular re-emergence of Reflexology is credited to Dr. William Fitzgerald who practiced a technique he called Zone Therapy. Fitzgerald passed on his work to Dr. Joe Shelby Riley, who then passed it on to Eunice Ingham. Ingham created the modern interpretation of the reflexes on the feet and hands that we know as Reflexology today. Again, here we see the work has evolved to echo the body's likeness on the feet and hands. It is from the work of Ingham's lineage that I initially learned to practice the hands-on technique Reflexology.

The shocker came when foot reading was introduced to the equation as most Reflexology maps only focus on physical reflexes of organs, glands and joints of the body. The integration of foot reading brought forward the missing mental/emotional interpretation of the foot's sections into my practice. I had been trained to focus on reflex locations such as the hip reflexes, the eye and ear reflexes, the lower digestive reflexes, glandular reflexes, etc. Foot reading is the opposite and maps the manifestations of internal stressors such as one's sense of security, family and relationships, career, emotions and mental state.

The two schools of thought are opposite in content, yet both propose a similar teaching. Each of the two schools of Reflexology theory details half of the full picture. One limits itself to mapping the physical body structures, while the other limits itself to the subtle personality traits of a person and coaching someone based on the messages held within the feet. In this tome we will be weaving both perspectives together. Helping you learn to offer both meanings and understand the true interconnected nature of the body. The discussion of the subtle and gross aspects of assessment work together and give a complete story of what is happening on all levels of an individual. Moving into a more holistic framework of how symptoms originate and fine tuning all aspects of the self brings Reflexology into a whole new realm as a craft. Understanding that united perspective, is the message I impart most onto my students.

How we Map the Feet Physically

In anatomical studies, imaginary lines are drawn onto the body to distinguish between major sections based on location, function and structure. Likewise, we divide the feet into major sections through the use of lines we call Guidelines. There are four Guidelines in total, each named after the area where it rests. With these Guidelines we can establish a general overview of how the feet are mapped and where specific physical reflexes are located. Based on this foundation, we will continue to build both physical and mental/emotional meaning onto the outlined sections of the feet.

What will commonly differ from Reflexology school to Reflexology school is reflex location. However, this should not happen. If the foot mirrors the body, then why isn't there one map? The first explanation is that each school's theory is different. Some Reflexology institutions have maps that don't necessarily follow a mirrored body model and the reflex locations are shifted based on lineage (i.e. this is how we've always done it). Others slightly deviate their mapping based on copyright laws, which require that no one can copy another person's design even if they are referencing the same theory (i.e. covering their butt). The combination of these two deviations creates a lack of standardization, but ideally there should be as close a match between the arrangement of physical anatomy and the arrangement of the foot reflexes as possible.

In the image below, you see the five Horizontal Zones of the foot in all their glory as made clear by the location of the four Guidelines. This will serve as a visual aide as we begin to delve into the location of each reflex zone and outline what body reflexes are located within each section of the foot. However, there is also a strong mental/emotional component to each zone. Beside the physical label of 'Head & Neck' you will see the mental/emotional label of 'Thoughts & Opinions' and so on, in order to display the full interconnection of the internal and external scope of Foot Reading. After detailing the physical location of the reflexes there will be a further description of those subtler interpretations of the zones.

Also in the image below, you see what are known as Vertical Zones. After learning the physical and mental/emotional meaning behind each area of the foot, we then add context through adding these vertical sections to our map. The full name of these sections are Vertical Zones of Influence and they tell us which physical and mental/emotional stressors are influencing a marker to manifest in the feet. All of this information is placed within the picture below to give you a visual aid when learning about the various placement and meanings of the zones. I will continue to clarify these aspects as we go along, but it would behoove you to stare intently at the image below and memorize the following Horizontal and Vertical Zone locations and meanings. It should also be mentioned that the image displays Horizontal Zones on the right foot and Vertical Zones of Influence on the left foot, but both zones are present on each foot. Can you imagine how chaotic the image would be if I combined the two into one graphic? Instead, I separated and color coded them for simplicity. Just make sure you don't let the instructional picture limit you to one side of the story per foot!

Shoulderline Guideline:

An imaginary line that divides the head and neck structures from the chest, lung and shoulder area. Likewise, dividing the toes from the ball of the foot by drawing a line at the intersection between where the toes grow out from the foot.

Diaphragm Guideline:

An imaginary line that divides the chest, lung and shoulder area from the structures of the upper digestive system and upper core. Likewise, dividing the ball of the foot from the distal (farther from the body) arch of the foot by drawing a line where the planted ball of the foot begins to lift into said arch.

Waistline Guideline:

An imaginary line that divides the upper core from the structures of the lower core and pelvic area. Likewise, dividing the proximal (closer to the body) arch of the foot from the distal arch of the foot by drawing a line from the proximal head of the 5th metatarsal across the midsection of the arch.

Pelvic Guideline:

An imaginary line that divides the lower core and pelvic structures from the lower body. Likewise, dividing the proximal arch of the foot from the heel by drawing a line where the thick padding of the heel begins to form and plant down from said arch.

These four lines give us a reference point to then map the specific reflex points onto the structures of the foot as they would appear in the body. As you can see by the image above, these Guidelines create sections within the body and the foot. These sections are termed Horizontal Zones and these zones give us an overview of what reflex/body section we are referencing. Especially when reading the feet, speaking in zones gives us shorthand when referring to areas of meaning, such as: "There is a patch of dryness in Horizontal Zone Two, indicating weakness and exhaustion in the chest/lung reflex area."

These zones then give us a baseline vocabulary to communicate our findings with ourselves, people we are reading, and other readers. That being said, the first step of mastering foot reading is to learn the landscape by memorizing these zones and their meanings. We will now expand on the zones by adding the locations of the physical reflexes, but know that we will also associate each zone with a mental/emotional component as well. Without first memorizing the zones we have no context for pinpointing deviations in the reflex tissues. All of the future work in this book is based on learning the zones and what reflexes are contained within.

You will note an asterisk by some of the following reflexes mentioned below. This is due to the mapping variations mentioned earlier. Certain maps may differ in their placement of the following reflex areas, but for our purposes we are using a more exact mapping protocol that mirrors the body. Another important point is that we are dividing the body in half with the right foot representing the right side of the body and the left foot representing the left side of the body. This distinction becomes very important as we map the organs that only appear on one side of the body.

Horizontal Zone One

Location: The Toes

Guideline: Shoulderline

Physical Reflexes Present: All structures of the head, neck and face.

Including: Brain, Skull, Sinus, Eyes*, Teeth, Jaw, Ears*, Thyroid, Cervical Spine, Muscles/Bones of the Head and Face

To Reinforce: The toes represent the head and neck. Specifically, the necks of the toes (proximal and middle toe bones, also known as phalanges) represent the neck of the body. The pads of the toes represent the head itself. While each of the toes do represent the head and neck, later in this section we will discuss the meaning behind each individual toe as being influenced by another physical/mental/emotional aspect adding deeper levels to the reading.

Horizontal Zone Two

Location: The Ball of the Foot

Guideline: Shoulderline & Diaphragm

Physical Reflexes Present: Shoulder, Lung, Heart (more left side), Ribs, Thymus, Breast, Arm*, Diaphragm (technically on the Diaphragm Guideline), Lymph Drainage, Upper Half of Thoracic Spine, Muscles/ Bones of the Chest

To Reinforce: Let it be known that as we move from the midline of the body (medial) to the outside of the body (lateral) we follow the body's structure as well. The heart, which is located more on the left, will have its reflex more on the left center of the foot's ball. Muscles and bones like the pecs and ribs that traverse the expanse of the chest also can be found throughout the entire ball of the foot. The shoulders and their supporting musculature can be found laterally towards the outside edges of the chest areas and so can their reflexes be found more laterally in the ball of the foot with the actual shoulder joint in line with the 5th digit in Horizontal Zone Two.

Horizontal Zone Three

Location: Distal Arch

Guideline: Diaphragm & Waistline

Physical Reflexes Present: Liver (right foot), Gallbladder (right foot), Pancreas (more left foot), Stomach (left foot), Spleen (left foot), Adrenal, Upper Half of Kidneys, Solar Plexus (technically on Diaphragm Guideline), Lower Half of Thoracic Spine, Muscles/Bones of the Upper Core