| Description | History | Benefits | Sessions | Do In | Meridians |
Shiatsu is based on the principles of the Chinese Traditional Medicine and its objective is to improve the health, stimulating the inner natural healing powers of the body through the contact, that is the primary form of communication which human beings have since we are born.
In a treatment, Shiatsu makes focus in the individual as a whole that includes its physical level as much as the emotional and energetic ones, combining these philosophical principles with practices alike those of acupuncture, but performed with no need of needles.
The word Shiatsu is rooted in the combinacion of the Japanese words 'shi' that means 'finger' and 'atsu' that means 'pressure'. Its work technique can be described basically as pressings made in different degrees on the body, in which the hands are used as much as the thumbs, elbows, forearms, knees and feet.Besides these pressures, Zen Shiatsu includes different forms of manipulations like strechings, rotations of joints, frictions and many others that altogether point as much to a physical work as to a deep movement in an energetic level .
Like the mentioned Eastern acupuncture or other practices, Zen Shiatsu used as a treatment is not simply a massage or bodywork, but a particular mix of holistic therapy and art, in which the effects of the work that is made affect the physical, mental, emotional and energetic levels of the patient.
Its basic conceptions lean in the idea that the states of health and disease are related to the balance of the flow of the energy through channels known as meridians, specific paths throughout the body around which the energy travels.These meridians are related to our internal physical organs and also with our emotions or psychological and spiritual states. The underlying idea is that all the levels and functions of the body are related and any problem that happen in any of them will have a reflection in the other. Because of this, it's impossible to deal with a symptom without taking in accout its interactions or dependencies, an thus a succesful treatment must consider the human being as a whole.
In Japan, Shiatsu is used as a preventive therapy more than like a treatment for a specific disease. In the West, however, it is used mainly like alternative by those who have some alteration of health which they have not been able to surpass through the conventional therapies.Today Shiatsu is recognized and appreciated as a simple and effective way to maintain health and physical and emotional well-being, and everyday more and more people approach it regularly as a form to improve their life and daily activity.
- Orígins and history
Theoretical Foundations- Frequently Asked Questions
The origins of the Shiatsu went back to more than five thousand years in the past, when in the mountains of the north of China, Taoist priests practiced Do-In Ankyo, a form of corporal manipulation and meditation that revealed and harmonized the vital force. Along the time, other disciplines as Qi-Gong and different forms from martial arts derived from this technique.
Through all of them, the goal was to influence qi (also known as chi in China, ki in Japan and prana in India), a force that cannot be separated from life itself and considered to be responsible for everything in the Universe, manifesting through two opposite and complementary principles they denominated as yin and yang.
What we know today as Chinese Traditional Medicine has its foundations and origins in that philosophy oriented to preserve health, based on understanding and harmonizing of the universal energy. Later, within this conceptual frame, different healing metods were developed directly oriented to improve the health looking for the balance in the interchange of the flow of this force and our bodies.Thus were born arts like Acupuncture, Tui-Na, Moxibustion and practices that today are more familiar to our culture, likeTai-Chi. All of them, along with herb based remedies constituted, and in many cases they are still, the most frequently used healing methods in China by centuries.
In the first centuries of modern era and through the cultural interchange, Japanese monks students of the Buddhism in China observed these healing methods and took them to its native country when returning. As the practice of japanese medicine consisted basically of diagnosis, herb based treatments and practices similar to massages, they quickly adopted these ideas. Soon, as time went by, they added their own viewpoints and gave these elements a defined identity, giving origin for instance to therapeutic herbs based prescription methods like japanese Kanpo.
During the XIX century and with the advance of the modern western medicine, much of these traditional knowledge was forgotten and relegated to the folk. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the XX century they were recovered and revalued by the many teachers and students who caused a return to the sources of the old natural healing arts.
Thus then, the philosophical part of those original bodywork techniques and ideas were systematized under the generic name of Shiatsu. The first modern reference we have comes through a teacher named Tamai Tempaku, who in 1919 published the book 'Shiatsu Ho' where he combined traditional knowledge of Anma, Ampuku and Do-In along with western anatomy and phisiology.In the middle of the XX century, Shiatsu awaked again great interest and was spread through two main currents: MasterTokujiro Namikoshi's and Master Shizuto Masunaga's styles. Whereas the first put its focus in pressure techniques and takes many references from the Western Anatomy to locate the energy points, Masunaga's vision carries Shiatsu back to its roots returning to the concept of meridians and to the Five Transformations Theory from Chinese Traditional Medicine, adding traditional techniques like the abdominal or Hara diagnosis and new concepts applied to the description of the energetic quality of meridians.
In addition, being Masunaga a Western Psicologist and also interested in the old Chinese medical texts, his vision unifies the physical, spiritual, psicological and emotional aspects from the individual based on both sources.Of this global conception Zen Shiatsu arises, as a method of meditation in movement in which, besides learning of the technique, the goal is also to capture and to cultivate the essence of 'shoshin' or 'begginer's mind', refered as the attitude of having neither prejudices nor expectations in our relationship with the other, plus the search of a meditative mental state alike the one pursued by buddhist monks in their practices.
Since year 1955, Shiatsu has been recognized by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Japan as a form of individual therapy and it has been incorporated as a practice in the Health System of that country. Its technique has been defined in the following way:
'Shiatsu therapy is a form of manipulation administered with the thumbs, fingers and palms, without the use of mechanical or similar instruments, using them to apply pressure on the human skin, to correct internal disfunctions, to promote and to maintain the health and to treat specific diseases'
In later years, some other styles or variations derived from these original schools arose, like for instance Barefoot Shiatsu or Macrobiotic Shiatsu from Master Shizuko Yamamoto, Ohashiatsu from Master Wataru Ohashi orTao Shiatsu from Master Ryokyu Endo.
Also recently, adaptations have been made of some of Shiatsu techniques to use them for working in the water, like for instance Watsu or Jahara techniques.
- How is a Zen Shiatsu session performed?
- Personal Sessions
- Effects and Benefits
- Do In and Self Treatment
At the start of the treatment, the therapist generally does a brief interview with questions which, along with his own observation and direct experience of the person, what the client manisfests as his actual problem and the different physical answers received from the body throughout the session, are used as form of diagnosis to drive the work that is made. In some cases and as complement, also a palpation checking of the back and of the abdominal zone or hara of the receiver can be performed.
In order to receive this technique, both therapist and patient gets dressed in comfortable and loose clothes, preferably made with natural materials like cotton. The workplace, if possible, must be a room ample enough so that the therapist and the patient are comfortable, aired and away from noises that might disturb or bother them.
The receiver remains lying on a heavy mattress, blanket or futon placed on the floor, so that he is comfortable and the therapist can move easily and use different parts from his body to perform the work. In case of sessions taken in offices or for people who have some limitations or impediment to be in the floor, work can also be performed with the patient seated in a chair.As mentioned before, during the sessions the therapist uses different combinations of techniques that will depend on the effect he's seeking. These may include strechings, pressures of palms, thumbs, other fingers, forearms or elbows, rotations of joints and others, focusing alternatively on different parts from the body of the patient. Generally the work is done in silence, although music can be used if therapist and patient feel confortable with it.
- Effects and benefits
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Theoretical Foundations
- Do In and Self Treatment
It's important to clarify that in Zen Shiatsu's philosophy we did not speak about treatment of a symptom or disease, but to stimulate the mechanisms of self healing of our bodies. And like we said above, its effects and influence reach ot only the physical aspects of the individual, but also the emotional and spiritual ones.
There are no limitations of age to approach this therapy and and it can give excellent results in children, young, adults and elder people.
Zen Shiatsu is very effective alleviating sport injuries, to calm all type of back or headaches and of cases of stress and insomnia. It has a sedative effect on the nervous system and on the organism in general. It aids creating conscience of the own body and to improve the position, helps preventing the appearance of common diseases and modifies states of depression or chronic fatigue.
It can also be used by those who need to balance their energy or are going through a significative or important moment of their lives or wish to put aside the daily tensions and emotional overload our organism is exposed to by these situations. Also, a regular treatment improves the skin tone, the muscular flexibility and the nervous system, favors mental clarity and concentration, fortifies the ligaments, stimulates the digestive, respiratory and lymphatic systems, alleviates the menstrual problems, foments a healthy pregnancy and eases the childbirth.
It is recommended to have precaution in the application of this technique in the cases of osteoporosis, states of very high fever and in general, to avoid zones of the body where cutaneous injuries, serious inflammations, twists or fractures exist. In these circumstances it will be necessary to always consult an experienced therapist.Zen Shiatsu helps to maintain a better health and stimulates people to pay greater attention to which their bodies say. Increasing the conscience about what is going on in the physical aspect, it also turns out simpler to see what is good and that harms us in other aspects of life, helping thus to understand and to take then, more beneficial decisions for our health and daily activity.
An easy analogy to understand and illustrate its function is to compare them with a system of channels, where the water that runs through them represents the ki or universal energy. In the same fashion that along the way of these channels things like stones, fallen branches or other elements can appear and prevent or make difficult the passage of water, the flow of energy throughout the meridians also can present blockages. When this happens, we have areas in where the water or energy will be stagnated and others in which the flow will be almost null. The longer this situation lasts, the greater the difference perceived between the state of a zone and the others will be.
In our bodies, those blockages will be perceived like stagnations in which some places will feel like plenty or jitsu, showing symptoms like pains or aches, and other emptinesses or kyo that will feel weak or with lack of energy. The deficiencies of the flow of the ki throughout the body will be translated in physical states of fatigue, pains, emotional depressions, changes, common rigidity, headaches and many other problems. The work of the Zen Shiatsu therapist is to identify these deficient areas and through all the different techniques already mentioned, to try to stimulate and to help the body to recover its balance.Throughout the meridians there are specific energy points also known as tsubos where the ki is more active. It is in these points that the blockages can be perceived more clearly and also, the places on which the therapist will work preferredly, since they are most efficient to release the energy stagnations. These tsubos are also the points used by Chinese Acupuncture.
The easiest way to define to each meridian in Chinese Medicine is in relation to its function. Although the meridians receive names similar to some physical organs, this doesn't mean that they are only related to them. More than thinking about meridians in terms of pathways connected to an individual organ, we should think about them like concentrations of an energetic quality. When that quality reaches its maximun intensity, then a physical organ is created to perform that function.
Meridians and their actions were known in China before the specific physical functions of the internal organs were discovered. Thus, although there are many points in common between them, the functions and associations of each meridian are generally broader that those of the organ from which it takes its name.Twelve main classic meridians exist and their names are Lung, Large Intestine, Stomach, Spleen, Heart, Small Intestine, Bladder, Kidney, Pericardium, Triple Heater, Gall Bladder and Liver. Additionally two extraordinary meridians are added to these and their names are Conception and Governing Vessel.
This english section of our website is still under development and the information for this header is avaliable in Spanish only. Please click here if you want to go to that page.
This english section of our website is still under development and the information for this header is avaliable in Spanish only. Please click here if you want to go to that page.
This english section of our website is still under development and the information for this header is avaliable in Spanish only. Please click here if you want to go to that page.
Click here if you wish to know the structure and programs of our Zen Shiatsu regular courses and intensive seminaries, their duration and our goals for those students who approach to study with us at our School.
These are some images taken along our courses and intensive seminaries.
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