Shiatsu: The Ancient Art of Healing

Never refer to shiatsu as a massage when talking to Graham Crisp, a shiatsu teacher. He will quickly clarify that it is not. To him, shiatsu is a treatment, a therapy to heal the body.

"I don't like calling it shiatsu massage. I like calling it shiatsu treatment. For me, shiatsu is probably nearer to acupuncture than it is to massage.

"The technique may look like a massage, but shiatsu is using your fingers, palm and elbow pressure and leaning the body weight onto a person," says the man who has been practicing shiatsu for 20 years in London, England.

It started when he saw an advertisement to introduce shiatsu one weekend and decided to check it out. The rest, as they say, is history.

"I fell in love with it. It is healing and a form of communication. It is infinite in its scope because everybody is different. When you understand qi, you will look at the world in a different way and see everything interconnected. It gives me pleasure to make people happy."

Crisp was in Kuala Lumpur recently to teach beginning and advanced zen shiatsu organised by the Pacific Spa Academy. He is the co-founder and co-director of Ki Kai Shiatsu Center in London. The school offers the first three-year professional education training program in shiatsu. Over the last 20 years, the school has taught some 600 people to become shiatsu practitioners.

Shiatsu literally means finger pressure. The fingers are used to apply pressure to particular sections of the body for the purpose of correcting imbalances and for maintaining and promoting health.

Crisp says it was never in his plans to make a living with shiatsu. He was using the technique he learned on friends, which then expanded to friends of friends, and eventually his client base grew ...

Crisp is not surprised that a healing treatment originating from Asia is making it big in the West, because he says the people recognize that shiatsu is therapeutic.

"In the West, there is a tendency for a holistic approach to health management. They don't want to go to doctors, because it would mean taking drugs. They want more responsibility for their health. And I think shiatsu falls into that. It is a great therapy to help heal and it is also a great therapy to prevent illnesses. Shiatsu helps people rebalance their energy and rebalance their qi.

"In Japan, shiatsu was originally a home
therapy. When it was introduced in the West, other disciplines such as
psychology were applied."

He said zen shiatsu is the most common branch of shiatsu in the
United States and Britain. It was introduced by Shizuto Masunaga and
combines traditional Chinese medicine, Western psychology and Japanese
bodywork into one form. Zen shiatsu works by rebalancing the qi of the
body by applying finger, thumb and elbow pressure [to complete] the
healing process.

Explaining how shiatsu works, Crisp says that the aim is to
allow qi [spiritual energy] to flow freely through the body, which
helps prevent most diseases such as backache, general ache and pains,
migraine, menstrual problems, digestive problems, sleep disorder and
anxiety.

He says there are 12 meridians running through a person's body
and these carry qi for each of the internal organs. If a person is
healthy, then the qi flows smoothly throughout the 12 meridians.

However, if a meridian is clogged, the qi does not move. This
could be due to stress, lifestyle, living conditions or emotional
trauma.

"So a shiatsu practitioner needs to find which meridian is blocked, and apply shiatsu so that qi can move freely."

Crisp says people are using shiatsu as alternative method of healing because it is nondemanding and noninvasive.

"For some people, the healing touch works for them. And I have seen people make huge changes in their health over the years."

Over the last 15 years, he has been working on three projects to rehabilitate drug addicts in London, England, using shiatsu.

"Part of the rehabilitation process is treating drug addicts
with shiatsu, and I have seen it change their lives. They stopped using
drugs, have healthier lifestyles, and some even became shiatsu
practitioners. Shiatsu works on the emotional and psychological level
as well as the physical. Shiatsu is about energetic change in the body
as well as the lifestyle."

"I am also working with HIV/AIDS patients. Shiatsu can work on
people who are well as well as people who are ill. It would not
necessarily cure them, but gives them a better quality of life."

Source: New Straits Times. Powered by Yellowbrix.