Shiatsu is my primary bodywork modality. It is based on ancient Asian bodywork which makes use of energy meridians that channel the life-force energy of the body. It is also what Wilhelm Reich called Orgone energy. It is the universal energy is present in all living matter, and this was clearly understood in many human cultures for thousands of years before the scientific era, and particularly in East Asia.

 

This energy, called Qi, can sometimes get blocked, or become stagnant, or deficient in body and mind.  When this happens, the body-mind or embodiment that we are as human beings becomes armored and our state of well-being becomes compromised. In terms of Qi or life force, an energetic condition is encoded into the body, its organs, and its structure. This can be the source of our ‘pain body’ as well as for character traits in our identity and causes the familiar moods that are felt in daily living that we suffer from. 

 

In my work, Shiatsu and other de-armoring techniques are combined to liberate the embodied self we experience in body, mind, and emotion in the living of our life. Through Shiatsu the client experiences meditative awareness of sensation and feels grounded in the body as the Qi that has not moved is made to move freely.  This stuck energy becomes moving energy, and deficiencies of that energy are also strengthened. After the session, the client integrates and discovers a new awareness, that is like a new observer of their own experience in the living of their life. Thus the client is able to do what they are doing more naturally and with greater ease and wellbeing. 

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Body Mind Shiatsu is a blending of Zen Shiatsu, which is based on the ancient Taoist healing system at the root of traditional Chinese Medicine which addresses the organs and the energy meridians associated with them, and Shiatsu Shin Tai which is a modern structural approach to this ancient healing art that works through the structurally determined nature of health and well being in the body through the coordinated elements of of fascia, ligaments, tendons, muscles, bones as well as organ systems.  These approaches to the body recognize the self-generating nature of our body's biology together with the mystery of our presence and consciousness in the body and in the world that we inhabit. Body Mind Shiatsu therefore treat the the client as a whole person in all aspects of their well-being.