Reflexology practitioners work systematic pressure across charted zones of the feet, hands, or ears, each said to correspond to a specific organ, gland, or body region, on the premise that stimulating the correct zone can relieve tension or support function in its corresponding body part elsewhere. A typical session moves methodically across the whole foot regardless of the client's presenting complaint, since the theory holds that the entire body is represented in miniature on that one surface; tender or gritty-feeling spots are often interpreted as signs of congestion or imbalance in the linked organ. Reflexology is usually offered as a relaxation and wellness service rather than a substitute for medical care, and many practitioners are careful to describe it that way, while some marketing and popular belief goes further, framing it as a genuine diagnostic and treatment method.
The zone maps themselves descend directly from William Fitzgerald's zone therapy, which divided the body into ten longitudinal zones and proposed that pressure on one part of a zone could numb or affect another part of the same zone. Eunice Ingham adapted and elaborated this idea specifically for the feet from the 1930s onward, publishing detailed charts that assign each toe, arch, and heel area to a particular organ or gland, charts that remain the industry standard today with only minor variation between schools. Because the underlying zones do not correspond to any known nerve pathway, dermatome, or circulatory structure, reflexology's claimed mechanism has no accepted grounding in anatomy or physiology, and its diagnostic and therapeutic claims rest entirely on the tradition's own internal framework rather than on any independently verified biological pathway.