Integrative Eclectic Shiatsu

Integrative Eclectic Shiatsu is exactly what it says on the tin: it is eclectic, picking and choosing elements of eastern and western medicine, and integrative, in that it synthesizes them into one comprehensive approach to treatment.

In 1950, Toshiko Phipps was the first qualified shiatsu therapist to begin working in the US. The techniques have taken a firm hold in the US and proliferated into divergent styles. The Integrative Eclectic approach has become popular in the west due to its emphasis on both eastern methods and ideas, which are popular with New Age enthusiasts, and scientific approaches to anatomy and physiotherapy, which increase its scientific credibility.

Shiatsu is an approach to physical therapy that works to restore balance to the body’s energy system. By doing so, it can affect the health and function of superficial and deep tissues, and the fascial, myofascial neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, circulatory, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, eliminative, and craniosacral systems. It works through the application of pressure or stretches using the fingers, thumbs, hands, forearms, elbows, knees, and feet, to the purpose of promoting the unobstructed flow of chi through the body. Shiatsu may also include external herbal medicines, therapeutic exercise, dietary or other lifestyle guidance, and other appropriate supports.

Shiatsu wasn’t even officially recognized in Japan until 1964. The government at that time acknowledged that it was a distinctive therapeutic form, separate from amma. Shiatsu emphasizes energetic healing, and depending on the client’s needs and receptivity, the practitioner can offer pressure point shiatsu, attunement, energetic healing and cranial sacral techniques. The patient can relax deeply during a shiatsu session. Sometimes the patient even falls asleep briefly, they are so relaxed. The rest has restorative powers. The client is generally allowed to remain on the table until he or she feels ready to get up. When the patient finally does get up they will feel calm, restored, and peaceful, as well as re-energized.

Shiatsu is about the transfer of energy. Integrative Eclectic shiatsu combines ideas from Traditional Chinese medicine and contemporary Western anatomical knowledge to address the patient’s overall health through therapeutic touch. The defining aspect of shiatsu is the application of pressure using the fingers, palms and thumbs. Some styles incorporate other parts of the body in the application of pressure; Integrative Eclectic styles are inherently eclectic and incorporate anything that works. The traditional pressure point approach involves the application of pressure directly to pressure points related to the nervous system.

In addition to anatomical principles from Western medicine, Integrative Eclectic Shiatsu also incorporates ideas and techniques from Traditional Chinese Medicine, holistic form of medicine that attempts to understand the relationship between the parts, and the relationship of the parts to the whole, of the human body.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, health and disease are viewed in the context of the entire person. Chinese medicine treats the body as an energy flow system. This system is always in flux, and shifts from harmony to disharmony and back. Energy pathways called meridians or channels run throughout the body and circulate energy, which is known as qi or chi. These channels are sometimes a focus of Integrative Eclectic Shiatsu.

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