Theory

We work together to make connections between your body, mind and spirit so that healing can happen in a transformational way, ie not just relieving pain or soothing anxiety but building a bridge of understanding together of how symptoms  can manifest in the body and mind and their connection to each other. In Taoist philosophy the psyche is called the upper spirits and the body the lower spirits, the yang and yin polarities of our experience as humans, for lasting change to occur in our experience, our relationship to ourselves and the world around us the energies at both ends of the spectrum need to be in communication and not separated as individually functioning entities. 

We start with where you are in any given session, using what is present for you as a gateway into our relational experience which can flow intuitively like a conversation on an energetic level. This kind of bodywork is an exchange, the practitioner giving touch with listening and awareness to what feels appropriate in the moment, responding to the client as contact is made in the relational space. So sessions are often different although common themes will arise. You are invited to just be with yourself during the treatment and go with whatever comes, just notice and be. It is a Space for all of you , time to land in your experience ,come home to your body.

The Autonomic nervous system has two major divisions, Sympathetic and Parasympathetic.

The Sympathetic part of the nervous system prepares the body for stressful or dangerous situations, it increases our heart rate, directs blood to muscles and the brain, whilst shutting down digestion, dilates pupils and airways, it is our Fight , Flight or Freeze response.  Due to trauma, the stress and overstimulation of modern busy lives where work and rest are out of balance we are often in the spectrum of our Sympathetic nervous system response which over time is depleting, causes inflammation and burn out which can manifest in a myriad of debilitating symptoms.

Shiatsu bodywork can allow us to drop into our parasympathetic nervous system response where everything slows and calms down allowing healing and space for change in our systems. It is the ‘rest and digest’ part of our nervous system where our heart rate and breathing slow down, our digestive tract relaxes, blood flow to organs increases, our systems can reset after acute stress or learn to relax during chronic stress.

We live in a culture which flourishes on a self identity of separateness. We strongly identify with a sense of self that is separate from everything else where it’s all up to us. Living within our separate enclosed experience of ourselves can feel hard, isolated and lonely when everything is down to us and what we do or don’t do. Our culture of self improvement which chases an illusive promise of wholeness can be confusing and exhausting and tells us that we aren’t ok as we are. The philosophy and experience of Shiatsu gives us connection to something bigger that can offer an alternative to the culture of slogging it out on our own by rooting us back into the more expansive experience of being part of everything else. In 5 element theory we find a way of understanding ourselves in the context of nature and its cycles and rhythms, and in TCM a way to look at our human experience as physical, emotional and spiritual and begin to understand the connections in ourselves , to each other and to the Earth. With this different understanding of ourselves there is then a possibility of trusting our own bodies and life processes within a greater whole, being part of something bigger which we can allow to unfold and flow with.