I was lucky to be in on the beginnings of the flowering of Shiatsu in the West. I had studied massage before, but I always felt that Shiatsu was my goal as soon as I heard about this “acupuncture without needles”. From the moment I saw an advert for Ohashi’s workshop in my local health-food shop in 1978, my life was dedicated to Shiatsu.
Shiatsu is a unique form of bodywork for many reasons:
- It is part of the legacy of Taoism. The Shiatsu practitioner comes from a point of stillness within, and training for this is a lifetime’s work
- It involves an offering of self, in the applying of relaxed bodyweight. Shiatsu is a dance in which we are completely at one with our receiver and it is a joy to give
- It works through supporting the weak and neglected parts of the bodymind, so that the tense and armoured parts can relax
- It is part of the framework of East Asian medicine, which covers all aspects of lifestyle, posture, exercise, breathing, diet, clothing and even sex. As Shiatsu practitioners we can give informed recommendations to improve our clients’ overall well-being, mental and physical
Being “in at the beginning”, one of a very small band of practitioners of this novel form of bodywork, I enjoyed many opportunities during the ’80’s. I contributed the Shiatsu section to the best selling “Book of Massage” and presented a series on “Massage” for Thames TV, with an accompanying book, which featured Shiatsu techniques. Here is the title sequence of the series:
In the 90’s I was offered the chance to write a Shiatsu textbook for Churchill Livingstone. The result was “Shiatsu Theory and Practice” (now re-issued by Singing Dragon https://uk.singingdragon.com/products/shiatsu-theory-and-practice) which has been translated into several languages.
I had found little to help me in my theoretical understanding of Shiatsu in my early years of practice, so I enrolled in an acupuncture course, qualifying in 1982. I have never been a big fan of needles, so Shiatsu remained my main practice till I got older and appreciated how much physical effort the needles saved me. I focused increasingly on acupuncture practice, combining it with my international Shiatsu teaching, until I retired in March 2022.
Now I teach online
but if you are interested in the physical aspect of Shiatsu practice, the meridians, I have produced a series of videos illustrating the meridians and how to treat them