Can shiatsu heal anything?
Personal Development, Shiatsu Practice
Gary on Relax Shiatsu has written about his concern about healing with shiatsu. He wonders if shiatsu and working simply with points can ever actually heal. On a similar note a post on the Shiatsu Blog talks about turning away a client seeking shiatsu for a phobia.
I agree with Gary that the websites for some alternative therapists, including shiatsu, seem to claim miraculous cures for all manner of ills. Some seem to contain the same testimonials which rather cheapens them in my eyes. In particular there is an alzheimers success story that seems too popular!
My own practise advertising and marketing are at the forefront of my concerns and that includes what I might claim to offer. It is better to advertise only what you are confident of delivering and have some experience of success with. I too would turn away that client simply looking to cure a phobia but if that phobia was part of a pattern in a client with lower back pain then I would use it to inform my approach and advice; but I would continue to offer shiatsu.
I think that being restricted in how I practise by my college has benefited in this respect. I may have been limited to family, friends and friends of friends but it has given me the opportunity to see shiatsu help in physical and emotional issues. I have witnessed clients become more connected with themselves and in a small way cure issues that I was not aware of when we started working together. I have made a difference but can I claim to have cured anything?
Does point work achieve anything at all? I use points on myself and my Wife with some success and have started suggesting points to clients as homework. As yet the jury is still out on these recommendations but that will not stop me exploring them over the coming months.
Ultimately I want to offer more than a health spa massage service and I think that by limiting myself as a stress busting service would do that. On the other hand I do not want to make the mistakes of some practitioners by claiming shiatsu is a cure to all ills.
Confidence in the techniques I am learning is the key and while I am training I am willing to explore anything that I am taught. I have tried the less physical techniques like scanning and off body shiatsu in my own treatment sessions and some pieces work others do not. Be sure that I will discard anything that does not fit well with my own approach once I qualify.
In deciding on a brand for my own shiatsu it is this aspect of change and adaptability that I want to encompass. The shiatsu that I deliver needs to be true to me.
Tony Brown @ July 30, 2007
I love all the capital letters on that success stories page.
OMG, shiatsu like TOTALLY CUrED MEEEE!
Very MySpace
Hi Tony,
I agree that we need to be cautious with how we approach our successes and don’t give people false hope.But why not say that you have had positive results but follow that up by explaining that different therapies work for different individuals?
In the Midlands Shiatsu isn’t that well known so positive marketing of real stories can help to pomote it, especially if people are willing to relay their own experiences.
A fellow student on my course did get fantastic results with an Alzeimer sufferer who had Shiatsu. Maybe this is an area that needs to be researched if a number of therapists are getting similar results?
You’re right, we do need to work to promote Shiatsu in a way that reflects ourselves as individuals but I think anything that can generate positive interest in Shiatsu can only be a positive thing.
Yours in Shiatsu
Trace
Hey Tony
Claiming we can cure is always a tricky issue (and occasionally a legal one). One of my teachers mentioned to me once that we as practitioners don’t really cure anything, we only encourage people back to a more balanced state, and their body does the curing.
Bevan
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