HOW I DISCOVERED SHIATSU

In 2003 a friend of mine came back from a Shiatsu treatment she had been given as a gift. She'd thought about me in the treatment as the approach and pressure was similar to the massages I gave her from time to time. I trundled off to check out this thing called Shiatsu, that I'd never heard of. I lay on the floor on a futon, fully clothed as the therapist gently, but deeply pressed and stretched different points and parts of my body. I felt subtle changes in my body and my breathing that I couldn't quiet describe or explain. When the treatment ended I came too and felt like I'd floated off and away out of North London for the last 45 minutes. I wanted to know more and the therapist gave me some information about an introduction course that was running at the British School of Shiatsu where she also taught. I attended the course, enrolled on the foundation year, and three and half years later, I qualified as a Shiatsu Practitioner.

I continued the journey I started in that treatment room in North London and have learnt that Shiatsu is a incredible art and science; that it approaches each person as a unique combination of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, which is diagnosed and influenced through touch. Sometimes the touch required is the subtlest of placements of the finger, sometimes an elbow or a thumb in order to encourage a shift of lactic acid, a misalignment vertebrae, a mindset that is holding you back or an emotion that is no longer required.