Footprints of Innovation: The Pioneering Journey of Barbara and Kevin Kunz in Reflexology Research and Practice

Barbara and Kevin Kunz are internationally recognized reflexologists, authors and educators. Beginning with work with clients paralyzed by spinal cord injury in 1980, the Kunzes’ research and development over the years shaped ideas and theories of reflexology practice within the nervous system. Their work lead to interest from the scientific community resulting in an fMRI research project conducted in 2023.

The research project Neural Pathways of Applied Reflexology was launched at the suggestion of Dr. Stefan Posse of the University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Medicine who had become interested in the Kunzes’ ideas and theories.

Scientists from the UNM School of Medicine and University of Minnesota School of Medicine directed the research.

fMRI brain scans were acquired from healthy participants and stroke patients as reflexology technique was applied to specific reflex areas of the foot by Kevin Kunz.

To date preliminary results indicate proof of concept for reflexology, demonstrating that foot reflexology application activates areas of the brain aside from those related to the foot. Demonstrated as well is effect on stroke patients.

The Kunzes raised the funds for the privately funded study administered by the non-profit unmfund.org with contributions from more than 151 individuals and individuals from around the world.

Kunz and Kunz written works represent their ideas researched and developed over the years. They are the bestselling authors of 24 reflexology books. The books are published in 17 languages with 56 editions. Kunz and Kunz have written more than 100 editions of the newsletter Reflexions and numerous articles. The Kunz’s written works are quoted by researchers in more than thirty research studies.

The launching of the Reflexology Research Project in 1980 and www.reflexology-research.com in 1996 established for them the purpose of pursuing the goal of legitimacy for reflexology through research. Innovations have resulted from more than forty years of Kunz and Kunz research and development including many firsts:

• Illustrated how-to instruction book for foot reflexology, The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology (1981) ( Revised in 1993, 2008)

• Development of self-help hand and foot reflexology techniques. The illustrated how-to instruction book for self help applications of reflexology, Hand and FootReflexology, A self-self-help guide

• Development of hand reflexology techniques. The illustrated how-to instruction book Hand Reflexology Workbook.

• Theory about how reflexology works: pressure technique application to the feet and hands

•Explanation of how reflexology works in the nervous system

• Legal parameters and defense for reflexology practice; definition, categorization system and code of ethics for reflexology

• Tracking and cataloguing reflexology research

• Development of an assessment system for hand reflexology and foot reflexology:reading the foot and hand with a cues and inferences method common to nursing

• Exploring the reflexology paths of the world

• Work with clientele including: paralysis (spinal cord injury), stroke and resuscitation leading to defined protocols

• Understanding the problems of sitting too much as a lack of pressure experienced by the feet as described in Un- Sit Your Life (2015), Intermittent Moving (2019)

• Exploring the health and wellness benefits of creating reflex activity through the sensory experiences such as sight, sound, Proprioception,

Kunz and Kunz Published Works

The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology (RRP Press)

The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology (Prentice Hall)

Also published in Dutch, German, Japanese, and Spanish languages as well as in the United Kingdom

Hand and Foot Reflexology, A Self-Help Guide (Simon & Schuster)

Also published in Dutch, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese languages as well as in the United Kingdom

Hand Reflexology Workbook (Simon & Schuster) Also published in Spanish (Mexico)

The Practitioner’s Guide to Reflexology (Simon & Schuster)

The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology (Revised) (RRP Press)

The Parent’s Guide to Reflexology (HarperCollins)

 Also published in Italian

Hand Reflexology Workbook (Revised) (RRP Press)

Medical Applications of Reflexology, Findings in research about the safety, efficacy, mechanism of of action and cost-effectiveness of reflexology (RRP Press)

My Reflexologist Says Feet Don’t Lie (RRP Press)

Reflexology, Health at Your Fingertips (Dorling Kindersley)

Also published in the United Kingdom as well as the languages French (France, Switzerland, Canada), German (Germany, Switzerland), Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, Slovak, Farsi (Arabic), Japanese, Chinese (Taiwan), Korean, Vietnamese and Malaysian languages.

Medical Applications of Reflexology (Revised) (RRP Press)

The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology (Third Edition) (RRP Press)

Reflexology Deck (Dorling Kindersley)

Hand Reflexology (Dorling Kindersley)

Also published in the United Kingdom as well as in German and Italian languages

Complete Reflexology for Life (Dorling Kindersley)

Also published in the United Kingdom as well as Italian and German languages

Total Reflexology (Kit) (Barnes & Noble)

Total Reflexology for the Hands (Kit) (Barnes & Noble)

Evidence-Based Reflexology Research for Health Professionals and Researchers (RRP Press)

The Reflexology Path (Kit) (Barnes & Noble)

Reflexology for Children (RRP Press) (Re-Issue of The Parent’s Guide to Reflexology)

Medical Applications of Reflexology (Post-Operative Care, Cancer Care, Maternity Care) (RRP Press)

Un-Sit Your Life (RTS Publishing)

Re-issue of Reflexology, Health at Your Fingertips (Dorling Kindersley)

Medical Applications of Reflexology (Cancer Care) (RRP Press)

Intermittent Moving (RRP Press)

Reflexology Research and Mechanical Ventilation (RRP Press)

It was the book that would save an idea and launch a world-wide industry: The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology by Barbara and Kevin Kunz, published in January 1981. It made available illustrated how-to manual leading the way for a world-wide reflexology industry of reflexology practice, reflexology classes, schools and further illustrated how-to books.

Reflexologists from 94 countries responded in 2023 to reports of the Kunz research project, Neural Pathways of Applied Reflexology.

Starting with no money and no experience in 1980, the Kunzes have created over the years a library of books, self-publishing and working with publishers. Reflexology in the United States was a verbal tradition. Concerned the idea would die without a written work, the Kunzes set out to write, illustrate and publish a how-to books.

Barbara learned to draw and illustrate, design a book and create graphics. She pasted together typeset pieces of paper to create each page of the camera ready copy for printing. (Barbara would illustrate and design graphics for four book as well as create the computer camera ready copy for many more.)

As we struggled to put our thoughts on paper, reflexology client Ken Shoemaker volunteered his skills as professional proofreader and editor. (In point of fact he taught us to write as he “translated Kunzian,” working with our mangled attempts.

The same week Dick Schwengel another client volunteered to print our book at his quick print shop.

Photos guided the books’s black and white ink drawings. Our friends Jan and Rol Schneider shot hundreds of black and white photos in their kitchen with Barbara’s feet as models and Kevin’s hands applying techniques. The Schneiders would shoot photos for four books.

The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology by Kunz and Kunz was finished in January 1981. The book was hand collated on New Years Day..

We threw the boxes of books into the trunk of the car and drove to Long Beach, California where we had rented a booth at a health convention. We sold out.

Two years and 12,000 self-published books later, the book was bought by Prentice-Hall. It would be the best-selling book of the season Fall 1982.

A twenty year project to study the legal and professional practice of reflexology started in 1980, convincing the Yellow Pages of the phone companies nationwide to remove the practice from the troubled “Massage” category and create a “Reflexology” category.

In 1982 with the arrest and conviction for practicing medicine and podiatry without a license of a small town Illinois reflexologist. A Chicago attorney specializing in such areas declared reflexologists may not be able to practice legally due to questions about diagnosis and prescription.

Such concerns eased over the years but questions

about reflexology as a practice of massage grew as cities and states enacted massage laws directed at anti-prostitution concerns.

During the 1980s we examined the issues of professionalism with a sociologist as well as studying relevant laws. We would create a definition for reflexology distinct from massage that would be adopted around the world for a time as well as a code of ethics and categorization system for reflexology practices. During the1980s and 1990s, we talked to individuals battling encroaching massage regulation

in Florida, New York, Tennessee and Texas; fought for an exemption in our state of New Mexico, talked to assistant attorneys general and testified before state

regulatory boards and state legislative committees. We wrote position papers as reflexologists mounted counter offensives and helped obtain exemptions from massage laws in multiple states as well.

Neural Pathways of Applied Reflexology https://www.unmfund.org/fund/npar-fund/