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Integrated Medicine: Experiences with Shiatsu at Bellaria Hospital and the S. Orsola-Malpighi Polyclinic

Integrated Medicine: Experiences with Shiatsu at Bellaria Hospital and the S. Orsola-Malpighi Polyclinic

PROF ANTONIA PARMEGGIANI e STEFANIA FERRI

“RE-SENSED BODIES”. Psychonutritional rehabilitation and Shiatsu: findings from a
decade-long multimodal programme in Bologna

Prof. Antonia Parmeggiani (Lecturer in Child Neuropsychiatry, University of Padua) and Stefania Ferri, Shiatsu practitioner and teacher.

Abstract
The available clinical evidence, although still limited, suggests a promising therapeutic potential for Shiatsu as a complementary intervention in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry.

The aim of this study is to investigate the possible integrative therapeutic effects of Shiatsu in a population of children and adolescents with Eating Disorders (EDs).
Shiatsu sessions were administered weekly to patients admitted to the Regional Centre for Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents in Bologna. Before and after each session, patients were asked to draw a picture of their own body, provide a visual analogue representation of any somatic pain, and write down their perceived somatic symptoms and their subjective emotional state.
We therefore analysed the data from 50 patients with a predominant diagnosis of restrictive anorexia nervosa. A preliminary analysis of these data suggests that Shiatsu may improve the somatic symptoms of the patients in the study sample. Furthermore, analysis of the progression of the projective test data revealed a gradual increase in the detail of the body schema.
The analysis conducted suggests a likely positive effect of Shiatsu on the process of developing body awareness in patients. The findings appear to resonate with the literature focusing on the themes of enterception, affective touch and C-tactile fibres in relation to eating disorders.
This study represents, to date, the first systematic attempt to evaluate the efficacy of a complementary, body-oriented intervention on the psychopathology of nutritional and eating disorders in childhood and adolescence.
These results open up new avenues of research aimed at clarifying the underlying aetiopathogenic rationale and confirming whether these Shiatsu protocols share characteristics with those of affective touch.

IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences, Bologna, Regional Centre for
Nutrition and Eating Disorders in Childhood, Paediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit,
Bologna, Italy

Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), University of Bologna, Italy

BIO STEFANIA FERRI "Stefania Ferri, certified Shiatsu teacher and practitioner by FISieo, began her training in Shiatsu and Eastern disciplines at the end of the 1970s in Paris. She continued and refined her studies in Europe, Thailand, Japan, China, Korea, and Hawaii, deepening her knowledge of traditional manual practices, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and meditative practices. From 1986 to 2011 she taught and coordinated the activities of “Lotus Shiatsu School,” a professional school she founded and directed. In 1990 she was a founder of FIS (Italian Shiatsu Federation) and from 2004 to 2006 she was president of ASSI (Association of Italian Shiatsu Schools). Since the 1990s she has developed projects for the practice of Shiatsu in public and private institutional and healthcare facilities, in the field of drug addiction, psychiatry, Eating Disorders (DNA), and the Female Section of the Bologna Prison. Since 1996 she has been responsible for Shiatsu activities for the ward and day hospital of the “Child Neuropsychiatry Unit and Center for Eating Disorders” at Bellaria Hospital in Bologna. From 2015 to 2018 she collaborated with the “Residenza Gruber” in Bologna for the treatment of Eating Disorders. Alongside promoting training activities nationwide, she develops individual treatment paths dedicated to developmental age, adults, the elderly, and people with disabilities." BIO ANTONIA PARMEGGIANI Antonia Parmeggiani is an associate professor of Child Neuropsychiatry at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences at the University of Bologna, and head of the Regional Centre for Nutrition and Eating Disorders in Childhood at the IRCCS ISNB in Bologna. Teaching activities at UNIBO: Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery (Bologna), Degree Course in Vocational Education (Imola), Degree Course in Speech and Language Therapy (Faenza), Degree Course in Physiotherapy (Bologna), Degree Course in Nursing (Bologna), Director of the Master’s programme ‘Eating Disorders: Onset in Childhood, Diagnosis, Comorbidities and Treatment Pathways’, former director of the Master’s programme (Clinical Phonology) and CAF (Verbal Dyspraxia in Childhood). Lecturer on PhD courses, tutor to research fellows. Former Director of the Postgraduate School in Child Neuropsychiatry (Bologna- UNIBO). Former Coordinator of the Bachelor’s Degree in Speech and Language Therapy (Faenza - UNIBO). Member of the CTS drafting group for the Guidelines on ‘Treatment of Obesity Resistant to Behavioural Therapy in Adolescents’.
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