What is Shiatsu?

Shiatsu is a deeply relaxing form of Japanese bodywork based on Traditional Chinese Medicine. As opposed to other types of massage, it is practised with full clothing, leaving you comfortable all throughout the session.

Shiatsu also has wonderful health benefits, as it can help with headaches, sleep disturbances, stress and anxiety, neck and back muscle pain and stiffness, and pregnancy discomfort.

​

​​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

Scientific Research on Shiatsu

​

Andrew F Long from the University of Leeds did a landmark reference study on the effects of Shiatsu in 2007.

 

In Andrew's words, "Shiatsu, a body-based life-energy therapy, is a holistic health care method developed in Japan and influenced by Western knowledge. It is also inherently a safe modality.

 

Shiatsu uses Oriental energetic diagnosis and body energy techniques to correct imbalances in the body and focuses on the whole person, mind, body and spirit, as an interconnected whole, together with the environment in which the person lives.

 

All aspects of the client's life-energy system are addressed in understanding the condition, making an energetic diagnosis and giving a treatment. A highly developed sensitivity of touch enables the practitioner to feel and interpret the quality and flow of ki, the body's life-force.

 

Treatment thus embraces both the application of gentle pressure to the energy channels on the body surface and commonly includes advice-giving, centred on raising self-awareness, modes of living and lifestyle to sustain good health.

 

While there are many different styles of shiatsu, variations in theoretical content and cultural dimensions surrounding its delivery, shiatsu training in Europe is grounded most commonly in the fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) philosophy and theory and by the approach of Shizuto Masunaga (Zen shiatsu)."

(Andrew F Long, "The potential of complementary and alternative medicine in promoting well-being and critical health literacy: a prospective, observational study of shiatsu", BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicinevolume 9, Article number: 19 (2009))

​

The full study can be accessed here