In clinic today I did well except for a pregnant client who wanted to be treated face down, I used the body pad and about 5 minutes into the treatment she said I could use more pressure, which I did including forearm and elbow and my foot. When I was graded she gave me a 2 out of 7 and noted she enjoyed Rolfing kind of pressure which I'm now trying to find out about. I am told I am holding back and need to stop holding myself back. Frustrating.
RE: Pressure
One of my clients decided she did not want any more treatments from me because it did not hurt enough!!!
Artemis
RE: Pressure
In Shiatsu it is not how hard you press but how you press hard. The natural body response to pain is stress and the harder you press the more stress you cause. The object of treatment is not to increase the stress that would seem counter productive. If you think for a moment ..... we are to apply pressure to release stiffness and relax but if it is a challenge of wills as to how much pain i can apply and how much pain the client can take then the client will always lose cause we as practitioners can always apply too much pain. This is not the way to affect good stress relief but only a good way to increase stress and achieve the opposite effect to what is desired.
Note.. I noticed that one of my truthful posts was deleted but that wont stop me from telling the truth.
RE: Pressure
Hi jbarry, I am not a shiatsu practitioner, but a massage therapist so I hope I can help. I have had shiatsu though.
It's all about 'feeling' what is going on. This comes with time and experience. I'm not sure if you are new to this? Sorry if you aren't.
When you first start out it is perfectly acceptable to ask throughout the treatment if the pressure is ok and get feedback. After a while you don't need to do this so much and you just 'feel' for it. I can't really sum it up any other way.
You can't please everybody though and some people can hardly bear any pressure at all, but they usually tell you that right off.
Good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine.
RE: Pressure
Depending on the conditon of the receiver, you can use a LOT of pressure, and hardly anything will be felt, or very light pressure, and the person will have the feeling that you are putting a ton of bricks on them.
It is nto so much abotu how muc pressure you put, but about how deep you go into a meridian. How well you "contact" that meridian. But if people are used to massage, th eonly way they can phrase it is "more pressure, please", when in fact they may mean "more energetic connection, I don't feel you connecting here".
Artemis
RE: Pressure
This person is a regular at school and is probably looking for something other than Shiatsu, she mentioned liking Rolfing so I suspect she doesnt appreciate the more subtle aspects of shiatsu. I will consider a different mix of techniques probably.
RE: Pressure
Have you tried barefoot Shiatsu on her?
BTW, which school are you training with?
Artemis
RE: Pressure
Bah hum bug, energetic connection.. sounds like acupressure to me:eek:
RE: Pressure
Hello SP,
Do Shiatsupractors not work with energy (Qi, Ki, Chi, whatever spelling you preferat)?
Zen (Masunaga) Shiatsu does work a lot with energetical connections.
Artemis
RE: Pressure
Energetic connection is not the focus. Shiatsu therapy is based on western sciences and it has been since it conception. Masunaga shiatsu was a derivative that he came up with after being a practitioner for a few years. (Late 60's) Masunaga sensei had always intended one to be a fully qualified practitioner before taking the work shop on his style. Talk about best intentions. 😀 When I work as a shiatsupractor I let my fingers and palms do the walking and my mechanorecptors do the talking. As a Registered Jin Shin Do Acupressure Therapist, it is a different story, but I learn to separate the two. Now if an individual wishes to combine therapy and concepts that is up to them but my opinion is that it takes the best from each and leaves little time to take advantage of the uses for western or eastern modalities. I will stand by acupressure is acupressure and Shiatsu Therapy is Shiatsu Therapy both are distinctively different and separate.
To conclude I am not talking about the many derivatives, just the accepted and legislated form of Shiatsu Therapy from the Japanese Ministry of Health (1955, 1957, 1964)
Shiatsupractor
RE: Pressure
Shiatsu Therapy from the Japanese Ministry of Health (1955, 1957, 1964)
Do you have any links to an English translation of them? Just out of interest.
Artemis
RE: Pressure
look for the article "Shiatsu and its over seas diffusion". at the bottom there will be bibliography and references.
Also another book you can try is;
"Tsubo Shiatsu" by Kiyoshi Ikenaga
ISBN0-9688100-2-0
"The scientific Explaination of Keiketsu/Meridian Points for Shiatsupractors"
Shiatsupractor
RE: Pressure
Here is an interesting link to the new art of Jin Shin Do
[DLMURL] http://www.bodymindeast.com/about.html [/DLMURL]