Shiatsu is a system of natural health care that brings about harmony and balance. Broadly speaking, shiatsu would fall under the umbrella of massage therapy, but it is so much more than that and labelling it as just a massage does it an injustice. The roots of shiatsu lie in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and to a large extent, shiatsu has more in common with acupuncture than it does with western massage based systems such as Swedish massage. By and large, shiatsu is a system of acupressure that brings about wellbeing by balancing the flow of Qi in the body's meridians.
In fact, when it comes right down to it, shiatsu is very difficult to define. The word shiatsu literally means "finger pressure" referring to one of the main techniques of shiatsu which is to stimulate the meridians of the body with sustained but gentle pressure using the thumbs and fingers. Shiatsu was developed in Japan and the phrase was probably first used in the early 1900s. Zen Shiatsu, which is the most popular form of shiatsu and the system that I practice was further developed and refined around 1970 by a man named Shizuto Masunaga, who really spearheaded a movement back to more traditional healing methods while Japan was furiously embracing western medical practices. Masunaga realised that there was still much value in the older traditional methods of healing and worked tirelessly to find the right balance between traditional approaches that were heavily influenced by chinese medicine and the western medicine. In doing so, he brought shiatsu firmly into the modern era and incorporated western anatomy, physiology and pathology into shiatsu teaching, giving shiatsu practitioners a far greater canon of information than they would previously have had to inform their practice.
At the core of many traditional eastern healing methods such as acupuncture and shiatsu is the notion of Yin and Yang, and the idea that to be healthy, a person must be in harmony physically, mentally and emotionally both within him or herself and in relation to the world they live in. This idea is very simple, but very profound, and promoting this balance is the basic aim of any shiatsu treatment. Shiatsu tries to bring people into balance by working on the meridians or energetic pathways that run through the body.
Shiatsu, while sharing much with acupuncture, differs slighly in it's approach in that shiatsu doesn't use needles. Instead various techniques of massage and stretching are used to stimulate the meridians and promote the smooth flow of energy or Qi through the body.
So what is a shiatsu treatment actually like? Mostly it is very soothing and relaxing. Shiatsu therapists use a combination of bodywork techniques that include massage and stretching and you will leave a treatment feeling calm and collected. Treatments usually last about an hour. One of the most soothing things about shiatsu is the fact that one of the principles of shiatsu is to use two handed pressure - with one hand being yin and one hand being yang. One hand will be relatively static while the other hand will be moving over the meridian that is being worked. The reason this is so calming is you always have a connection to your practitioner. One of the most disconcerting things that can happen in a massage is when the therapist breaks contact with the client and you are left there wondering where they are going to massage next. With a good shiatsu though, the use of the yin or mother hand gives you constant sense of where your therapist is working.
At the end of the day, describing shiatsu is no substitute for enjoying an actual treatment! Book now.
