Massage dates back to 3000 BCE or earlier in China and was considered a sacred system of natural healing also for ancient cultures of Egyptian, Greeks and Roman as well. Massage therapy was a daily practice which was passed down through generations for eons to heal various injuries, relieve pain, prevent and cure some illnesses. It was used also by Hindus in Ayurveda and Japanese ancient people.  All of these cultures share in common the holistic approach since they believed to the vital link between the mind-body-spirit and the healing of the whole person rather than just symptoms or condition. Pehr Henrik Ling a Swedish physician, developed the Swedish Gymnastic Movement System in the early 1800s. This system incorporated massage with medical gymnastics and physiology, stroking, pressing, squeezing and striking were techniques used to manually treat physical issues. Sport Massage for example, was originated in Greece and Rome and has a history of thousands of years (Cenacle Treatment Centre).                                                                                                                                                                                                              

The first treatments performed by working through the feet were applied in China in 5000 BC. and in India (Ayurveda), contexts in which finger’s pressure was used to influence the body's energy fields (acupressure in Shiatsu). Although the principle is the same, that is, by stimulating the reflex zones in the feet it is possible to trigger effects on the corresponding areas of the body, they develop with different premises: Chinese Reflexology is based on the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TMC), while Western Reflexology draws on the principles on which conventional western medicine is based. Western Reflexology was born in the context of the first experimentation and discoveries of a neurological character in the West carried on by Sir. Henry Head and Sir. Charles Sherrington. The practice was exported to the West thanks to the famous Greek Physician Hippocrates who taught his disciples foot massage 460 BC. 377 B.C. In fact, he visited Egypt and Libya where he was initiated into the knowledge of the ancient secrets held by priests. From this it can be deduced that the Western current of Reflexology results thanks to its gradual introduction to the mysteries of Egyptian Medicine and through its long initiatory path in the field. Hippocrates said: "Nature is the doctor of diseases, the doctor must only follow its teachings!"

​The ancient Egyptians 4000 years ago used that healing art and many other skills, in several different ways. Doctor Joe Shelby Riley, a pioneer of reflexology during the 1930 s claimed that it was from Egypt that this practice spread throughout the Roman Empire. In a tomb (Akmanthor) at the huge burial ground at Saqqara in Egypt, there is a famous wall painting dating back to 2330 B.C. The tomb is referred to as physician's tomb, because the painting within depicts two figures giving what is clearly a form of hand and foot massage to recipients, indicating a well-established practice. Some theorists also believe that a certain form of Reflexology was passed down to the Native Americans by the Incas of South America. The Cherokee people are certainly known to apply a type of pressure therapy to the feet, often using wooden probes (similarly to some Thai-therapy practices), to work on the reflex points in order to unblock energy pathways and restore balance in the body. One of the identifiable differences in Western and Eastern Reflexology treatments is in the intensity of the pressure applied by the therapist. Western Reflexology operates below the patient's pain tolerance threshold in order to optimize the effects of the stimulation of the reflex areas by taking advantage of the condition of deep relaxation, while the Eastern Reflexology aims at a deeper stimulation. Both modalities have positive effects on various disorders and pathologies, such as an increased energy, lymphatic and blood circulation, the improvement of the functions of the nervous system and other various systems as well as the strengthening of the immune defence. Another difference are the maps of the reflex points that in the Traditional Chinese Medicine corresponds to those of acupuncture and Shiatsu acupressure.

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In the 20s of the twentieth century, Reflexology was reinvented by William Fitzgerald, a doctor from Boston who discovered that sedation would not be necessary by exercising pressure on the feet for minor operations; the practice was in fact used by dentists, and when the New Yorker doctor Edwin F. Bowers became acquainted with the Fitzgerald technique he decided to spread it in the United States thanks to treatises containing the operating principles of Reflexology based on Fitzgerald's theories. The method called "zone therapy" focused on the pressure carried out both with the hands and with other instruments, the body was divided into ten zones, from the big toes to the head, along which the energy flows. In the 1930s the work of Fitzgerald and Bowers was carried out by the American therapist Eunice Ingham, who published two books entitled "The stories that the feet could tell" and "Stories told by the feet". She focused her work exclusively on the feet, her dedication and passion in Reflexology earned her the nickname 'Mother of Reflexology'. In Italy the two pioneers of contemporary reflexology were Professor Giuseppe Callegaris, neurologist and lecturer at the University of Rome from 1910 to 1939 and Doctor Nicola Gentile who in the first decades of the 20th century carried out various studies and published written materials which at the time were very innovative but unfortunately not received with enough attention. A famous assertion of Doctor Callegaris was that "the human being is made up of body, mind and soul. This triple essence is reflected on his skin!"

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