In the early 1900s, Dr. William H FitzGerald theorized that the human body was divided into zones (ten) connected by nerves that carry currents or impulses of energy. He expoused the system of mapping the body with Meridian Lines. One of his students, Dr. Riley, a Chiropractor expanded knowledge on the meridian lines by identifying reflex points of the face, ears, hands, and feet. In 1918, Dr. Riley published a book in which contained charting of the first reflex zone points of the feet. The, in 1930, Dr. Eunice Ingham, under the training of Dr. Riley, mapped the reflex points on the feet and recognized that the points were an exact mirror image of the organs of the body. Dr. Ingham is considered the “mother of reflexology” and the first one to provide these maps.

In 1939 in Norway, a man named Charles Ersdal was running a shipping company. Stressed, he suffered a stroke resulting in left side paralysis. A chiropractor / reflexologist friend was able to cure Ersdal's paralysis over a two-year period.  This drove Ersdal to learn more about reflexology, why it worked for him, and why it wasn't working for others. One night in a dream, Ersdal received the answers to these questions. He was shown the map of the body on the feet and was told “to heal the body you must treat all four bodies(physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental) as a whole.” He began testing this theory and found it worked 100% of the time on every person.

In 1989, a student of Ersdal's, Katri, moved to the United States and brought the Foot Zone technique with her along with Ersdal. The Foot Zone therapy modality has continued to grow and expand since that time.