PROGRAM

Additional special programme featuring presentations on:

• Integrated Medicine
• Quantum Physics
• Spiritual Care
• Parallels with Taoist and Buddhist philosophy and their relevance for a deeper understanding and practice of Shiatsu.

Speakers will include Medical Doctors who have introduced Shiatsu into hospital settings, Physicists and experts in Quantum Mechanics, University lecturers from the Master’s programme in Spiritual Care, and Shiatsu Practitioners.

In the coming weeks, we will reveal the names of the special guests along with details about their presentations.

Sei-Ki is the name that Akinobu Kishi Sensei gives to his own expression of manual therapy.
Sei-Ki is a further development of his Shiatsu, and also a return to its origins. What is Ki?
Ki is “resonance” that is the work in Sei-Ki, just being there in empty space, doing nothing.
That makes us who we are, that makes us shine, that connects us.
Human bodies have a natural capacity to move towards health and balance. When this capacity
is weakened we become a shadow to ourselves.
Sei-Ki respects & works with this innate ability. And we regain our original vitality and health.
The focus of Sei-Ki is on allowing and working with the natural inner movement towards health
and balance, enhancing the ability of the individual to engage with life and employ their
personal talents more fully.
Kishi Sensei encourages practitioners to dispense with once learned techniques of treatment
and meet their clients in the moment, with ‘no-mind’ which allows the natural intelligence in
the bodies to show. It means the Ki “resonance” which is present in the meeting is guiding the
session spontaneously.
I will try to share this experience with you.

Information about the speaker

KYOKO KISHI

Kyoko Kishi lives in Maebashi, Japan.
As a former kimono master, she is deeply rooted in Japanese culture. For several decades she accompanied her husband Akinobu Kishi, the founder of Sei-Ki, as an assistant.

For many years they taught Sei-Ki workshops together all over the world. Since 2012 Kyoko has been carrying on her husband’s legacy. She has found her own unique style of Sei-Ki, which she shares heartfully.

Local work plays a special role in shiatsu alongside meridian work. It is invaluable when the focus of a treatment is on local complaints, or when local areas of a client’s body become noticeable during treatment and require further investigation. Local shiatsu significantly increases the effectiveness of shiatsu treatments.

In this course, I will demonstrate the basic Local Shiatsu techniques: how to examine a local area of the body, identify its patterns and work with them physically and energetically. By doing so, we can see how the situation begins to change during the treatment. A key tool in this process is our relaxed yet focused attention, which enables us to directly address important areas. This triggers substantial changes and simultaneously gives our clients the feeling of being understood.

The steps of local shiatsu are as follows:

• Requesting precise information about the local area.
• Holding the area in your hands and focusing on it with inner awareness to recognise energetic patterns.
• Choosing a specific area and touching its centre with pure awareness.
• Supporting the body’s natural movements.
• Supporting pure awareness through external touch.
• Examining and treating the integration of the local area into the immediate environment.
• Connecting the local area with the whole body.

More detailed information can be found in the article ‘8 Steps for Performing Local Shiatsu’, available to download at https://wilfriedrappenecker.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/W.Rappenecker_Local_Shiatsu.pdf.

Information about the speaker

WILFRIED RAPPENECKER

Is a general practitioner who works primarily with shiatsu. He has been training in shiatsu since 1981, as well as in craniosacral osteopathy. He directed the Hamburg School of Shiatsu from its foundation in 1987 until 2017 and the International Shiatsu School ISS Kiental in Switzerland until 2016. He initiated the European Shiatsu Congresses and directed the first four ESCs. He is also a co-founder of the Society for Shiatsu in Germany (GSD), and has written, co-written or edited seven books on shiatsu, including Yu Sen: Shiatsu for Beginners, Five Elements and 12 Meridians, and Atlas Shiatsu: The Meridians in Zen Shiatsu, as well as numerous other articles and publications. He continues to enjoy working in his practice and teaching.

The practice of shiatsu, thanks to the knowledge of Far Eastern medicine, allows vitality to be sustained through treatments that use the free flow of Ki in a longitudinal direction, high/low or Heaven-Earth in the Taoist vision, together with the body’s ability to connect transversally. 
This also results in a reference between the relationship, or axis, between Water and Fire and the transverse relationship between Wood and Metal. With Earth, the Spleen, my body, in a central position.
A treatment will be illustrated and practiced that follows the ascending and descending directions of both the two extraordinary central channels and the main or regular meridians, combined with lateral pressures that cross these energy structures. In fact, a sequence can be performed on the back, which will logically follow more Yang channels, and one on the front, which will use more Yin meridians. This is combined with the treatment of three front lines (the support line, the deep nourishment line, and the opening of the Breaths) and two back lines (the strength line and the breath line). 
Just as in a tree, we have the ascent and descent of the sap that sustains it and the opening to life thanks to the branches and leaves that nourish it.

Information about the speaker

MAURIZIO PARINI

He began studying Shiatsu in 1981 with Mario Vatrini. A Rehabilitation Therapist, he holds a diploma from the Permanent Training Center in Manual Therapy.

He served as President of the Italian Shiatsu Federation (FIS), and currently plays an active role in FISieo as President of the Evaluation Department and a member of the Executive Board.

Since 1993, he has been a speaker at numerous national and international conferences organized by leading Italian Shiatsu associations.
A passionate scholar of Far Eastern Medicine, he has deepened his study of moxibustion and how Traditional Chinese Medicine principles can be applied to Japanese manual practices.

Since 1986, he has been teaching at the Hakusha School of Shiatsu and Moxibustion, where he has served as Educational Director for the Milan, Varese, and Como branches.

Together with Dr. Corradin and Dr. Di Stanislao, he co-authored the book “Medicina Tradizionale Cinese per lo Shiatsu ed il Tuina”, and contributed to the text “Visceri e Meridiani Curiosi”.

More and more people today are affected by one or more chronic illnesses. Supportive therapies can vary and may be required for life. Increasingly, affected individuals seek support through the complementary therapy of Shiatsu.

This seminar shows ways we can support patients through accompanying conversations, sensing the relevant Shiatsu meridians, extraordinary vessels/meridians, specific Tsubos, connective tissue techniques, as well as breathing and body exercises (including during the dying process).
The focus will be especially on the Masunaga diagnostic meridians perceived during assessment, their vibrational levels, and three first-generation extraordinary meridians.
This means we consciously integrate Masunaga meridians with the extraordinary meridians Chong Mai, Ren Mai, and Du Mai into the treatment.
We will also sense the vibrational levels of the Masunaga diagnostic meridians and which energy centers (chakras) resonate with each one. We will activate supportive zones, points, and much more.

Seminar contents:
– what it means to live with chronic illness
– how chronic illness can manifest energetically
– learning and experiencing specific elements in Shiatsu treatment for chronically ill people
– learning and experiencing supportive breathing and body exercises
– accompanying conversations, supporting resilience and resources
– therapist’s possibilities and limits

Detailed handouts will be provided for the entire seminar.
Over the past 17 years, I have gathered and analysed experiential knowledge on supporting patients with chronic illnesses such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune diseases, clinical depression, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, eating disorders, Parkinson’s disease, Crohn’s disease, fibromyalgia, rheumatism, arthritis and arthrosis, as well as type II diabetes. This seminar includes information on all of these conditions. My work as a therapist is experience-based and practical. 

Information about the speaker

MICHELINE PFISTER

I grew up in Rüschlikon. After high school, I studied ethnology in Zurich and Montpellier.
As a single mother, I had to reorient myself and began Shiatsu training at ESI Switzerland, which I completed in December 1999. Later, I became an assistant and then teacher of beginner levels at ESI Switzerland.
Since 2000, I have been teaching my own seminars in Switzerland and Europe.

Even during my training, people who were chronically and seriously ill came to me for shiatsu therapy. From their feedback and my energetic perception, I learned that certain Shiatsu tools, which I will show at the congress, can be very supportive for them.
From my professional experience, an expanded Shiatsu treatment field has developed, which I will share at the congress based on years of accompanying affected people.

Since 1996, Shiatsu has been integrated into the rehabilitation pathway provided by the “Child Neuropsychiatry Unit and Regional Center for Eating Disorders (DNA) in developmental age” at Bellaria IRCCS Hospital in Bologna, currently directed by Professor Antonia Parmeggiani.
The activity has developed and been shaped according to the needs of the young patients. Currently, it is offered as group work for the Day Hospital and the Ward, carried out in a midweek session lasting one hour and thirty minutes for each service.
The exercises proposed during the activity, shiatsu and the drawings produced by participants are all practices aimed at expanding perception and awareness of the body, mind and spirit.
Their purposes are to:
– contain and reduce discomfort caused by eating disorders
– modify, through the reciprocal exchange of Shiatsu, the passive and self-centered attitude of the involved subjects
– develop relational capacities through contact
– induce a deep and beneficial state of relaxation in the individual
– enhance individual physical and psychic resources
– improve psychomotor processes, cognitive and intuitive abilities
– stimulate interoception
– promote a new body image
– activate and develop individual bodily and energetic knowledge-awareness
– encourage respect and care of one’s own body in the suffering subject
– develop greater self-awareness and a better relationship with the external world

The aspiration of this pathway is to integrate and make synergistic medical-psychological therapies and Shiatsu techniques, with the primary goal of supporting the person in their rehabilitation and transformation process; to make them the protagonist of their life project, according to a holistic vision.

Stefania Ferri
Shiatsu Teacher/Practitioner, responsible for activities in the Ward and Day Hospital of the “Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Regional Center for Eating Disorders in developmental age”
stefania.shiatsu@gmail.com

Information about the speaker

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.

Masunaga described the connection we have in Shiatsu as sharing the ‘Echo of Life‘
In this practical workshop we will be discovering how to maximise that connection to support the positive life-force of our receiver.
How can we best communicate with our receiver on all levels, and work with them to optimise the effects of the Shiatsu and the value of their experience?
Recently Cliff has been collaborating with both Dr Cindy Engel and with Nick Pole. Cindy’s breakthrough work on Somatic Empathy (‘Another Self – How Your Body Helps You Understand Others’) reveals the extraordinary ways in which our body’s innate pre-verbal intelligence helps us to ‘read’ what’s happening for our receivers. Nick specialises in using Clean Language and Mindfulness to allow body and mind to communicate and support somatic change (‘Words that Touch: How to Ask Questions Your Body Can Answer’).
Inspired by these collaborations, Cliff is excited to share how we can integrate these insights from somatic empathy, psychobiology, clean language and mindfulness – into our practical Shiatsu energy work!

Together we will be exploring how to:
• Access the positive movement of Ki – using the ‘Outcome Question’
• Develop our Somatic Empathy – using Mindfulness
• Connect Kyo and Jitsu with the receiver’s whole Ki Field
• Integrate practical techniques and assess the effects of Tsubos

Information about the speaker

CLIFF ANDREWS

Cliff started his Shiatsu studies at the Brighton Natural Health Centre in 1981, and in 1986 he co-founded the Shiatsu College UK.
In the same year, after studying with Pauline Sasaki at her annual UK residential workshops, she invited him to the USA to become her full-time apprentice.
In 1987 Cliff embarked on a 20-year collaboration with Pauline, further developing Masunaga’s Zen Shiatsu system, in a series of workshops in Europe and the USA. During his 30-year international teaching career, Cliff was regularly invited to teach in Europe, the USA and Australia.
Cliff is now semi-retired and has a part-time Shiatsu practice in Norwich and Zurich. He continues to direct the www.newenergywork.com project, which has grown to be the world’s largest online Shiatsu learning community with almost 4,000 members and over 100,000 course enrolments.

Quantum Shiatsu is a bodywork style that recognizes the various manifestations of Energy within the Human Being: a Shiatsu that goes beyond the three dimensions of the material world to open up to the multidimensionality of the Human Being.

Many Shiatsu styles base their theory and practice on the ancient principles inherited from Oriental medicine and Ayurveda. Quantum Shiatsu goes one step further and incorporates concepts from Quantum Physics, which explain how the body functions as a field of energetic vibrations contracting and expanding. When we access this aspect of our body, we open ourselves to the full energetic spectrum available to humans.

Opening up and having access to our entire energetic spectrum means being fully present in our physical reality (the predominantly contracted manifestation of our energy) and, at the same time, being fully in contact with our spiritual reality, the predominantly expanded manifestation of our energy.

This new approach to health implies the activation of the Energetic Body. When we speak of the Energetic Body, we refer to the Human Being considered in its inseparable unity of Body, Mind, and Spirit.

When this activation occurs, the qualities that define our spiritual reality (love, compassion, forgiveness, harmony, beauty, etc.) can manifest in our physical reality, thus promoting a process of spiritual healing and evolution.

“Our spiritual reality has no meaning until it manifests in our physical reality. And our physical reality cannot change and evolve until it is organized within the context of our spiritual reality.”

In Quantum Shiatsu, moreover, the old healing paradigm focused on “correcting what is wrong” becomes obsolete and is replaced by a new paradigm requiring “alignment of our physical energy with what is right.”

An approach that takes into account the body’s natural tendency to find in its healthy energetic aspects the way to “correct itself as a whole.” In short, we contact that vital aspect of the body capable of healing itself, thus interacting with the strengths and potential of our receivers rather than with their weaknesses.

Information about the speaker

GABRIELLA POLI

Gabriella entered the world of Shiatsu in 1986 and graduated from the Ohashi Institute in New York in 1988. In 1990, together with a group of European teachers and organizers from the Ohashi Institute, she founded the European Shiatsu Institute. In the same year, she founded its Rome Center.

Gabriella has continued to deepen and update her professional training by studying in Italy, Europe, and the United States, completing, among other programs, the Shin-Tai training with Saul Goodman.

From 1992, she enthusiastically and gratefully followed the teachings of Pauline Sasaki and from 2003 until 2010, the year Pauline left our dimension, she had the privilege of participating in a small study group on her Advanced Quantum Shiatsu.

Currently, besides her Shiatsu practice in Rome, she teaches workshops in Italy and Europe on “Fascia and Shiatsu” and a Post-Diploma Master on “Quantum Shiatsu Evolution®.

This title, which paraphrases the theme of the conference, is no joke, but an obvious truth
Shiatsu supports life, and life supports shiatsu with unpredictability, mystery, strength, creativity, coexistence, evolution, relativity, richness and intelligence. All of these characteristics are present in shiatsu, making it a precious means of care and healing.

Life is relationships, movement, complexity, intelligence, mystery, contact and the coexistence of different rhythms and qualities, all of which are closely connected. Shiatsu can bring all these components into being to become the extraordinary technique/path that it is. All these characteristics of life can be present in the shiatsu we practise.

We will see how, during a treatment, we are supported by all of these elements simply by remaining open and listening.
We will work with understanding, relationships and intelligence, and bring into being the basic principle of yin and yang, for example. The yin/yang triad gives shiatsu an unparalleled power.

Many years ago, we defined shiatsu as ‘the art of touch’. This is another fundamental, vital principle that nourishes and strengthens shiatsu, providing it remains a guiding principle for every touch.

Information about the speaker

ANDREANA SPINOLA

Andreana Spinola began in 1973 assisting people to regain better and more skilled functionality in moving through life, as a rehabilitation therapist. From 1992 onward, she continued to support people during difficult moments in their lives as a shiatsu practitioner. She worked with children with disabilities, then with shiatsu in hospitals with patients of all types, gaining valuable experience in supporting and listening to premature babies, the elderly, patients in intensive care, pediatrics, surgery, and patients with severe syndromes such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Alongside this experience with people during hospitalization, when they were ill, she has worked with more than 900 clients who seek shiatsu for a wide variety of imbalances. Shiatsu continues to be her passion and interest, and over time her way of “intervening” and “working” has become simpler and clearer.

In 1999, she founded the Igea Shiatsu School in Rome.
She is the author, in 1992, of pioneering work on 30 premature babies treated with shiatsu in hospital. In 2017, she published Shiatsu, Life, and the Meridians: An Energetic Philosophical Resource (NOI Editions).

Shiatsu for cancer care in chemotherapy wards and private practice: presence, touch, adaptation
In this workshop, I will share my weekly experience in the chemotherapy ward of the Tivoli Clinic in Bordeaux, as well as in my private practice, where I have been supporting people undergoing cancer treatment for many years.
The aim is to show how Shiatsu can provide real support during an intense medical journey: a respectful, adaptable and deeply human practice that restores space for the body and the therapeutic relationship in a highly medicalized context.
The workshop will offer practical tools to support people undergoing chemotherapy: which postures to adopt (physical and relational), which areas of the body to prioritize, how to adapt the touch depending on side effects (nausea, neuropathy, fatigue, pain, hypersensitivity…).
We will explore specific techniques to relieve side effects and improve patients’ quality of life.
A particular focus will be placed on understanding the medical mechanisms of chemotherapy: its physiological effects, why certain symptoms appear, and how these elements can be related to energetic readings and imbalances in Chinese Medicine.
This cross-approach helps refine Shiatsu choices and fosters better communication with healthcare professionals.
A large part of the workshop will be devoted to hands-on practice, allowing participants to experience sequences that can be used in private practice or hospital settings, while respecting the medical and emotional constraints of this type of support.
This workshop is intended for Shiatsu practitioners wishing to expand their skills in oncology care.

Information about the speaker

FANNY ROQUE

Fanny Roque is a Shiatsu practitioner and trainer, specialized in supporting people with cancer and in menstrual cycle disorders.
She is the President of the French Federation of Traditional Shiatsu (FFST), and advocates for a rigorous, accessible practice grounded in clinical realities.
She offers certified training programs recognized by professional bodies in France, aimed at practitioners and healthcare professionals.
She also runs a private practice in Bordeaux and gives weekly Shiatsu sessions directly in a chemotherapy ward at a clinic, as well as with the French League Against Cancer.

Nicola’s workshop is based directly on the work of Pauline Sasaki. It is on the chakras and we will experience the chakras in their different aspects. 

Pauline used the chakras in every aspect of the energetic anatomy.
Pauline’s favourite quote from the Dao De Ching is verse 42. This explains how the chakras work- though we have to look hard.

“From the Dao, the one comes Heaven and Earth, the two. 
Together they create the ‘Chong’, the three. From the three comes the creation of all life and from that comes all things, the ten thousand things.”

As we know, chakras are great wheels of energy. It is where the Heaven and Earth qi creates aspects of life.
On the physical plane- Touch and gesture can activate the chakras and help the physical body move towards harmony.
In the Ether body or the emotional body- the chakras keep the energy body bright and lively and moving.
In the Astral body- the chakras are wheels which help move towards our Divine connection.

And all these aspects are necessary for health.
We can work on them ourselves as part of a yoga or qigong practice.
Having the chakras in alignment is the key to balancing the energy of different meridians and energies in the body.
Finding harmony with the chakras lets all the emotions find their balance and then the whole energy will be enlivened!
Finally when the chakras are all activated and in harmony they can merge as the Astral body becomes part of the ‘oneness’.

Awareness of how the chakras have different aspects which present at different frequencies helps understand their different roles within a healthy person. 
And this workshop should enable you to understand and “see”.

Information about the speaker

Nicola Ley (Pooley) – Bsc, BA, MA, PGCE, MRSS(T)

Nicola turned up for her first Shiatsu class with a friend, thinking it was a martial art. The friend went to Aikido, but Nicola loved Shiatsu from then. This was in Tokyo in 1978. 
Nicola is a founder of the Shiatsu College along with Carola Beresford Cooke and Clifford Andrews. The College regularly hosted Pauline Sasaki in the 80s and 90s when Pauline’s interpretation of Masunaga’s meridian system underpinned Shiatsu teaching throughout Europe.
Later Nicola studied Quantum Shiatsu – Pauline’s new work – alongside Gabrella Poli. We were devastated when Pauline died far too young and before she had fully developed her new work.
Nicola wrote “Shiatsu a step by step guide” previously called “Shiatsu in a Nutshell’. She is working on a book about her experiences of Quantum Shiatsu. 
Nicola has practiced Qigong since the early 80s. She loves this practice and finds that her Shiatsu blends often with Qigong when she is working.
Nicola also loves herbs and plants. Her study and drawing of plants and herbs are her pastime.

I would like to do a talk and also a practical session.
Talk:
Explore how the Extraordinary Vessels develop in the womb and how they hold the memory of your womb life. I discovered the Extraordinary Vessels in the 1990s through working with pregnant women and learning to understand the development of their baby in the womb. I have kept the name of my business as “Wellmother” because I now understand the impact of our first nine months on the rest of our lives. It is partly through our physical development of our body and our placenta but also the symbiotic relationship between us and our mother, which will influence all future relationships. We access our potential through connecting to our conception, when we draw in not only the two ancestral lines of our parents, but the universe. The first week after conception we are whole and self-contained. This is the transformative nature of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.
Practical:
Explore the differences between the Inner and Outer Families of the Extraordinary Vessels through practical exercise to understand them in your own body, especially through connecting with womb movements and experiences, and then practical shiatsu to explore how to work with them during shiatsu sessions.

Information about the speaker

SUZANNE YATES

Is a general practitioner who works primarily with shiatsu. He has been training in shiatsu since 1981, as well as in craniosacral osteopathy. He directed the Hamburg School of Shiatsu from its foundation in 1987 until 2017 and the International Shiatsu School ISS Kiental in Switzerland until 2016. He initiated the European Shiatsu Congresses and directed the first four ESCs. He is also a co-founder of the Society for Shiatsu in Germany (GSD), and has written, co-written or edited seven books on shiatsu, including Yu Sen: Shiatsu for Beginners, Five Elements and 12 Meridians, and Atlas Shiatsu: The Meridians in Zen Shiatsu, as well as numerous other articles and publications. He continues to enjoy working in his practice and teaching.

Workshop: Theoretical and Practical, 2 hours
Languages spoken: Italian and basic English and French
Conducted by: alone

Theory:
Shiatsu takes an integral view of the reality it relates to. Uke is a receiving unit and Tori is a practicing unit.
The symptom is an invitation to change. Personal stories are always implicit, can be unconscious but never separated from symptoms.
Energy at every moment is present in limited, optimal, or excessive amounts.
Life is always present. It can only be limited by lifestyle, behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs.
Life is like grass, fragile when the wind blows strongly, powerful when it seeks the light breaking through asphalt, exciting when observed closely, sacred when lived from within, infinite when you rest in it. R.V.L.
Shiatsu and awareness can ally with life and integrate into the treatment by grounding in the present, with power, respect, and sacredness the energy that can support, give strength to Uke on the path toward oneself. A Uke capable of sustaining a more harmonious, more authentic vision of their existence and on the other hand capable of recovering the useless effort toward a dispersive elsewhere.

Practice:
Walking the void, practicing respect, practicing trust, listening, observation, allying with the process. Feeling, thinking, acting. Living mandalas. The Five Elements are actually the constitutive elements of the human system.
Looking beyond the stage, beyond the lights, at the heart of life itself they can be translated into energetic qualities, expressions of nature, archetypes, principles, qualities or essences, forces or mirrors in which one can deeply observe one’s own and others’ existence.
The human being has not changed in their intimate essence, in their fundamental structures.
The human being is the greatest champion of their existence when they realize the immensity within them recognizing themselves beyond themselves, find their place in the world, will find the meaning of their existence. They will feel on their path, understand the Way to follow and will have the strength to do so.
Once the field is built, Shiatsu treatment will ally with the process and support Life.

Information about the speaker

ROBERTO VITTORIO LAZZARO

Contact Information:
Roberto Vittorio Lazzaro
Born 14/03/1956 in Huddersfield (GB)
robysamurai@gmail.com
Phone: +39 331 746 7255

Shiatsu training:
ISS International Shiatsu School Padova 1991–1997
ISS Kiental 1994

Significant teachers:
Saul Goodman, Wilfried Rappeneker, Attilio Somenzi, Claudia Beretta

Currently:
Shiatsu operator and teacher, Educational Director of Decima Luna Shiatsu School. Responsible for the four-year course.
Roles at FISIeO:
Previously: Regional Manager, CE Probiviro
Currently: Exam Commission, Cultural Institute, CST Conference
Psychology and Human Sciences Psychologist, Biotransenergetic teacher, Transpersonal Counselor, Counselor Trainer.
Currently: Responsible for the four-year course in Transpersonal Counseling with Biotransenergetic methodology, Om Padova headquarters, ITI (International Transpersonal Institute).
Practices as Shiatsu operator and psychologist at his studio in Piazza Europa 32, Noventa Padovana.
Third-year student at the University of Bologna, Faculty of Anthropology.

In Shiatsu, we often believe that we have to “look for something”, blockages, tension, imbalance.
But what happens when we shift our attention from searching to finding?
In this workshop, I invite you to rediscover Shiatsu from a perspective of mindful listening.

Experience has shown me that the deepest encounters in Shiatsu do not come through targeted searching, but through open and non-judgmental perception.
Listening to life as it comes alive means creating space, in conscious presence, for the inner flow of the other person.
We focus our attention on what is already there and wants to reveal itself, without actively forcing it.

To clarify and make this attitude more tangible, I will explain its significance through systemic theory.
This theory views the human being as a living system, whose self-regulation can unfold through value-free observation and mindful accompaniment.
We discover that life is always present in the other, waiting to be seen and accepted.

The practical part of the workshop will offer concrete exercises where participants can experience how mindful listening enables new kinds of encounters and qualities of touch.
The exercises aim to refine the ability to perceive subtle impulses of life and to support them without manipulative interference.

The goal of the workshop is to provide new inspiration to Shiatsu practitioners, strengthen their trust in their perception, and allow them to dive more deeply into the therapeutic relationship with clients.
Because the true art does not lie in finding what is missing, but in listening to and acknowledging what is alive and already present.
“Come on, let’s go find a treasure.” (Janosch)

Information about the speaker

FRANK SEEMAN

Frank Seemann, Bonn, born in 1956
Shiatsu training in New York with Wataru Ohashi.
Running his own Shiatsu practice in Bonn since 1991.
Certified Shiatsu teacher (GSD) since 1995.
Assistant to Ohashi from 1994 to 2000.
In 2001, he became director of ISOM – Institute for Shiatsu in Bonn/Wiesbaden.
Board member and chairman of the German Shiatsu Society (GSD) from 2002 to 2023.
Most recently employed at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, University of Bonn.
Married, father of three adult daughters.

One’s own presence is an essential component of therapeutic work in Shiatsu – both for us as practitioners and for the entire setting with the clients. Resonance serves as an entry point to perception and action. In order to act professionally, it is necessary to regularly regulate ourselves.

In this workshop, Steven will share insights from his experiences with the topic of self-regulation. The aim is to develop strategies together to recognize and resolve limiting patterns that may arise in contact with clients or through external stress factors.

The workshop provides space for professional exchange on the conscious handling of inner stability in challenging situations.

How can we succeed in remaining focused and capable of action, even under stress?

Information about the speaker

STEVEN GRÜTTER

Steven Grütter is a teacher at the International Shiatsu School Kiental and torchbearer of the European Shiatsu Congress. He teaches Shiatsu as well as healthy and healing natural cuisine.
He discovered his inner orientation early on through intensive Tai-Chi training. His passion for cooking led him on the Solar Impulse project around the world, alongside working as a Shiatsu therapist.
In his practice, he consciously works with the perception of inner orientation. He conveys this knowledge in a clear and accessible way in his training courses.
Additionally, Steven Grütter is co-founder of Tennis Champagne and co-initiator and board member of Terrain Gurzelen, where he is also responsible for the guest sector.
He is a father of a daughter and lives in Biel.

The Extraordinary Vessels are an exceptionally powerful and valuable tool in Shiatsu work.
They are particularly precious during life transitions (such as puberty or life crises) whenever we feel lost and wish to return to ourselves, to our inner identity and what truly defines us.

The Extraordinary Vessels provide strong support in these processes.
Take the Governing Vessel, for example, a vessel of sincerity and authenticity, of nurturing and connection.
Already within it resonate questions that touch us all: how do I relate to myself? And how do I form meaningful connections with myself?

In this three-hour workshop, I will offer insights into the history, theory, and practice of the Extraordinary Vessels.
I will introduce one vessel in depth, and we will conclude with a Heavenly Circuit Meditation.

-Overview of the history, theory, and practical applications of the Extraordinary Vessels
-Focus on the Governing Vessel, with tools ready to apply in your practice
-Heavenly Circuit Meditation for personal use and regular practice

Katrin Schröder, Berlin
www.esi-shiatsu.de

Information about the speaker

KATRIN SCHRÖDER

Born in 1962
Shiatsu teacher and practitioner for over 27 years
1997–2001: Trained as a Shiatsu therapist in Berlin
Her most influential teachers were Carola Beresford-Cooke and Sonja Moriceau (UK)
Since 2001, she has worked independently in her own Shiatsu practice for energetic healing and personal development in Berlin
Since 2006: Recognised teacher by the German Shiatsu Society (GSD)
Further training in Energetic Medicine, Emotional Process Accompaniment (EPA), Hypnosis, and Meridian Therapy with Josef Victor Müller at the Ben Shen Institute in Switzerland

Teaching is a central part of her work.
At the European Shiatsu Institute (ESI) she passes on her knowledge of the Healing Power of Touch in Shiatsu training seminars.

She conducts research and teaching on Extraordinary Vessels, TCM, and Transformational Shiatsu in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Shiatsu inspires me because of its richness and interconnectedness, of structures within us, how these relate to emotional experience, and what acts upon and within me.

The training I received from the team of Wilfried Rappenecker, Meike Kockrick, Jürgen Westhoff and many others moved me deeply and fueled my passion for Shiatsu.
After six years as an assistant, I began sharing Shiatsu with interested learners, and since 2017 I’ve taken over leadership of the Shiatsu School in Hamburg.

The encounter through Shiatsu is one of the most authentic I know.
My curiosity is always eager to explore other forms of meeting and treatment, such as craniosacral therapy, fascia medicine, and more. Yet, my fascination remains with Shiatsu, and my creativity keeps finding new paths and connections between disciplines.
Sharing and exploring this with participants in my courses continues to enrich me deeply.

A Shiatsu clinic involves a demonstration of a shiatsu treatment being performed on someone who is not attending the congress. Each clinic involves two practitioners, who deliver their treatments one after the other.

Before starting the treatment, each practitioner will give a brief description of their approach. During the session, they may comment on their work, provided it does not interfere with the treatment itself.

At the end of the session, the practitioner may explain their approach further if they feel it is necessary. Attendees will then have the opportunity to ask questions, share comments and express any doubts.

A Shiatsu clinic involves a demonstration of a shiatsu treatment being performed on someone who is not attending the congress. Each clinic involves two practitioners, who deliver their treatments one after the other.

Before starting the treatment, each practitioner will give a brief description of their approach. During the session, they may comment on their work, provided it does not interfere with the treatment itself.

At the end of the session, the practitioner may explain their approach further if they feel it is necessary. Attendees will then have the opportunity to ask questions, share comments and express any doubts.

A Shiatsu clinic involves a demonstration of a shiatsu treatment being performed on someone who is not attending the congress. Each clinic involves two practitioners, who deliver their treatments one after the other.

Before starting the treatment, each practitioner will give a brief description of their approach. During the session, they may comment on their work, provided it does not interfere with the treatment itself.

At the end of the session, the practitioner may explain their approach further if they feel it is necessary. Attendees will then have the opportunity to ask questions, share comments and express any doubts.

We will show how to directly experience the Qi of the meridians though exploring archetypal movements. This gives the client a way to sense, understand and embody the energetic changes of the Shiatsu session. It also gives them a practice to do at home to continue deepening the process started by the Shiatsu. The work is based on Bill’s research into child development which showed that the meridians are the pathways along which babies learn to connect their body together through movement.

This approach makes the Shiatsu session more interactive, spontaneous and experimental and opens up the client’s awareness of themselves so that they can move away from being a victim of their condition.

Information about the speaker

BILL PALMER

Bill Palmer & Teresa Hadland
Bill is director of the School for Experiential Education (SEED) and was one of the pioneers of Shiatsu in Europe in the 1970’s. He co-founded the UK Shiatsu Society and the Journal of Shiatsu and Oriental Body Therapy. Teresa taught Shiatsu to degree level at Derby University and is now senior tutor at SEED. Teaching together gives the possibility of teaching both from the point of view of the therapist and simultaneously showing how the client can be actively involved.
Bill’s research with babies showed how meridians guided the development of movement and how the energetic functions originated in physical movement. From this he evolved Movement Shiatsu and Inner Qigong which help people to be more active and experimental as clients using movement and guided explorations as well as touch. He and Teresa teach these disciplines in ten countries worldwide.

Shiatsu supports life – not only in humans, but also in the animals we live, work, and share our lives with. Horses and dogs are especially sensitive to touch, and in this presentation I will explore how they benefit from shiatsu, as well as how shiatsu can help us better understand our four-legged friends.
The session will consider both the differences and the similarities in treating horses and dogs, including aspects of anatomy, movement, and behavioral responses. What matters most is that shiatsu is always done with the animal – not to the animal.
I will share practical insights on how therapists can safely and effectively work with horses and dogs, and I will also offer simple approaches that anyone can use to support their own animals at home and at the stable.
The aim is not to provide full training in animal shiatsu, but to open a space for discussion and to share inspiring, practical ideas for everyday life. Participants will discover how the principles they already know from human shiatsu translate into the animal world – and how this work can both enrich the lives of animals and deepen the human–animal bond. 

Information about the speaker

TIINA VIRTANEN

Tiina is a shiatsu practitioner for humans, horses and dogs, and equine shiatsu teacher.
She began her studies at Finnish Shiatsu School with John Lewis and graduated in 2014. She later continued her education in Qi and the Body Shiatsu Method with Galit Shaviv, qualifying as a Clinical Shiatsu Therapist in 2019.
Always eager to learn more and deepen her practice, she continually expands her skills and has, among others, attended further courses with Rex Lassalle, Gabriella Poli, and Philippe Vandenabeele.
In 2016, Tiina completed her training as an equine shiatsu practitioner with Liz Eddy, who still mentors her. She is also one of the three founders of the Finnish School of Equine Shiatsu, where Liz serves as visiting instructor.
Alongside her shiatsu work, Tiina is deeply passionate about horses and as her other profession, she teaches riders helping them to become better equestrians for their horses.

This seminar is designed as an experiential and reflective laboratory focused on Hado Shiatsu, an approach that integrates traditional Shiatsu practice with elements of quantum field physics. This leads to a vision of contact as a phenomenon of resonance rather than a symptomatic intervention
At the heart of the meeting is the Japanese principle of “uketoru,” the practitioner’s ability to receive and recognize energy and information manifesting through connection with the receiver. From this perspective, uketoru is not just an act of perception, but a threshold that provides access to a coherent relational field. In this field, the organism’s vital responses can emerge, self-organise and orient towards spontaneous rebalancing processes.

The workshop alternates between simplified yet rigorous scientific theory, touch demonstrations, partner practice and shared spaces, encouraging participants to delve deeper.
– The modulation of pressure and contact time in relation to energetic assessment.
– The use of neutral presence and activation of integrated senses as tools to resonate with the receiver’s entire system.
– The concept of supporting life as an emergent and coherent system response rather than a targeted action limited to symptom remission.
– The quantum paradigm of Hado Shiatsu explored operatively: vibration (Hado) is not here a theoretical abstraction but a vitality parameter, a perceptible quality of the field expressed through touch, breath, and relationship. This aspect of Ki inherently carries self-healing connotations and focuses on deep self-respect. Thus, resonance naturally arises between the oscillations of our heart and the beauty of the universe.

Learning Objectives:
– Introduce the fundamentals of Hado Shiatsu as a practice that supports life through resonance.
– Offer practical tools to access deep listening (uketoru).
– Develop greater perceptual sensitivity in the bodily relationship.
– Promote understanding of touch as a clinical and relational act.

Required Materials:
Projector and screen for slide presentations, flip chart, markers, futons, and cushions.

Information about the speaker

PATRIZIA STEFANINI

Patrizia Stefanini began practicing yoga, shiatsu, and aikido in the early 1980s, shortly after graduating “cum laude” in Physics and specializing in Medical Physics. She continued her Shiatsu studies with Wataru Ohashi and for two decades with Pauline Sasaki. To deepen the scientific foundations of Shiatsu and Oriental medicine, since 2005 she has collaborated with the I.I.B. (International Institute of Biophysics) in Neuss, Germany, led by physicist Fritz A. Popp, and for over a decade with physicist Emilio Del Giudice. She is the author of numerous popular and academic articles and contributions to texts on energetic medicine.
Original aspects of her Shiatsu approach concern the reading of the human being as a quantum macrosystem. This gives rise to a reading of meridians as quantum processes and Shiatsu healing relationships as empathic resonance between fields. Currently, alongside teaching at her schools in Florence and Milan, she alternates conferences and seminars in Italy, Europe, and the USA.

Sei-Ki is the name that Akinobu Kishi Sensei gives to his own expression of manual therapy.
Sei-Ki is a further development of his Shiatsu, and also a return to its origins. What is Ki?
Ki is “resonance” that is the work in Sei-Ki, just being there in empty space, doing nothing.
That makes us who we are, that makes us shine, that connects us.
Human bodies have a natural capacity to move towards health and balance. When this capacity
is weakened we become a shadow to ourselves.
Sei-Ki respects & works with this innate ability. And we regain our original vitality and health.
The focus of Sei-Ki is on allowing and working with the natural inner movement towards health
and balance, enhancing the ability of the individual to engage with life and employ their
personal talents more fully.
Kishi Sensei encourages practitioners to dispense with once learned techniques of treatment
and meet their clients in the moment, with ‘no-mind’ which allows the natural intelligence in
the bodies to show. It means the Ki “resonance” which is present in the meeting is guiding the
session spontaneously.
I will try to share this experience with you.

Information about the speaker

KYOKO KISHI

Kyoko Kishi lives in Maebashi, Japan.
As a former kimono master, she is deeply rooted in Japanese culture. For several decades she accompanied her husband Akinobu Kishi, the founder of Sei-Ki, as an assistant.

For many years they taught Sei-Ki workshops together all over the world. Since 2012 Kyoko has been carrying on her husband’s legacy. She has found her own unique style of Sei-Ki, which she shares heartfully.

The meridians as life functions as we know them are Masunaga’s perspective. He developed a unique meridian theory in which he described the action and expression of Ki. He used the amoeba as a model to demonstrate the life functions and basic needs of humans. This was not just theoretical knowledge, but tangible life movements that we feel, touch and move during treatment, including within ourselves. Being able to incorporate them into the meridian work is a great enrichment and helps to understand the expression of Ki in people.
We will experience the different meridians as amoebae in order to experiment with the body, what Masunaga meant. It will be fun.

Information about the speaker

Pia Staniek is a trained physiotherapist and has been dedicated to Shiatsu since 1979. Co-founder and teacher of the IES (European Shiatsu Institute), she played a key role in developing the institute’s curriculum. Over the years, she enriched her vision and practice through Feldenkrais, breath work, Seiki and Butoh dance. She lives and works with Shiatsu in Munich.
“Deep touch and awareness are the nourishing components of Shiatsu,” she affirms. And she adds: “I am interested in the liberating process through which life unfolds in a person, and how trust in their inner, original nature can be rediscovered.”

Andreana Spinola began in 1973 assisting people to regain better and more skilled functionality in moving through life, as a rehabilitation therapist. From 1992 onward, she continued to support people during difficult moments in their lives as a shiatsu practitioner. She worked with children with disabilities, then with shiatsu in hospitals with patients of all types, gaining valuable experience in supporting and listening to premature babies, the elderly, patients in intensive care, pediatrics, surgery, and patients with severe syndromes such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Alongside this experience with people during hospitalization, when they were ill, she has worked with more than 900 clients who seek shiatsu for a wide variety of imbalances. Shiatsu continues to be her passion and interest, and over time her way of “intervening” and “working” has become simpler and clearer.

In 1999, she founded the Igea Shiatsu School in Rome.
She is the author, in 1992, of pioneering work on 30 premature babies treated with shiatsu in hospital. In 2017, she published Shiatsu, Life, and the Meridians: An Energetic Philosophical Resource (NOI Editions).

When people come to us with complaints, it is often already valuable to give them attention by acknowledging that they are exactly right as they are in that moment. This can be difficult to grasp, given the physical and psychological pain that people may experience. However, we have found that people’s strengths, potential and beauty often relate closely to areas that currently seem blocked.

In both conversation and physical shiatsu touch, we are embarking on a journey to make this accessible to our clients. We are showing them that apparent weaknesses and complaints can also arise from strengths that are sometimes overused. We are doing this for a good reason. This way of working with people leads away from mere removal.

Information about the speaker

BIRTE ERNESTUS-HOLTKAMP
Shiatsu inspires me because of its richness and interconnectedness, of structures within us, how these relate to emotional experience, and what acts upon and within me.

The training I received from the team of Wilfried Rappenecker, Meike Kockrick, Jürgen Westhoff and many others moved me deeply and fueled my passion for Shiatsu.
After six years as an assistant, I began sharing Shiatsu with interested learners, and since 2017 I’ve taken over leadership of the Shiatsu School in Hamburg.

The encounter through Shiatsu is one of the most authentic I know.
My curiosity is always eager to explore other forms of meeting and treatment, such as craniosacral therapy, fascia medicine, and more. Yet, my fascination remains with Shiatsu, and my creativity keeps finding new paths and connections between disciplines.
Sharing and exploring this with participants in my courses continues to enrich me deeply.

Steven Grütter is a teacher at the International Shiatsu School Kiental and torchbearer of the European Shiatsu Congress. He teaches Shiatsu as well as healthy and healing natural cuisine.
He discovered his inner orientation early on through intensive Tai-Chi training. His passion for cooking led him on the Solar Impulse project around the world, alongside working as a Shiatsu therapist.
In his practice, he consciously works with the perception of inner orientation. He conveys this knowledge in a clear and accessible way in his training courses.
Additionally, Steven Grütter is co-founder of Tennis Champagne and co-initiator and board member of Terrain Gurzelen, where he is also responsible for the guest sector.
He is a father of a daughter and lives in Biel.

I would like to do a talk and also a practical session.
Talk:
Explore how the Extraordinary Vessels develop in the womb and how they hold the memory of your womb life. I discovered the Extraordinary Vessels in the 1990s through working with pregnant women and learning to understand the development of their baby in the womb. I have kept the name of my business as “Wellmother” because I now understand the impact of our first nine months on the rest of our lives. It is partly through our physical development of our body and our placenta but also the symbiotic relationship between us and our mother, which will influence all future relationships. We access our potential through connecting to our conception, when we draw in not only the two ancestral lines of our parents, but the universe. The first week after conception we are whole and self-contained. This is the transformative nature of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.
Practical:
Explore the differences between the Inner and Outer Families of the Extraordinary Vessels through practical exercise to understand them in your own body, especially through connecting with womb movements and experiences, and then practical shiatsu to explore how to work with them during shiatsu sessions.

Information about the speaker

SUZANNE YATES

Is a general practitioner who works primarily with shiatsu. He has been training in shiatsu since 1981, as well as in craniosacral osteopathy. He directed the Hamburg School of Shiatsu from its foundation in 1987 until 2017 and the International Shiatsu School ISS Kiental in Switzerland until 2016. He initiated the European Shiatsu Congresses and directed the first four ESCs. He is also a co-founder of the Society for Shiatsu in Germany (GSD), and has written, co-written or edited seven books on shiatsu, including Yu Sen: Shiatsu for Beginners, Five Elements and 12 Meridians, and Atlas Shiatsu: The Meridians in Zen Shiatsu, as well as numerous other articles and publications. He continues to enjoy working in his practice and teaching.

Masunaga described the connection we have in Shiatsu as sharing the ‘Echo of Life‘
In this practical workshop we will be discovering how to maximise that connection to support the positive life-force of our receiver.
How can we best communicate with our receiver on all levels, and work with them to optimise the effects of the Shiatsu and the value of their experience?
Recently Cliff has been collaborating with both Dr Cindy Engel and with Nick Pole. Cindy’s breakthrough work on Somatic Empathy (‘Another Self – How Your Body Helps You Understand Others’) reveals the extraordinary ways in which our body’s innate pre-verbal intelligence helps us to ‘read’ what’s happening for our receivers. Nick specialises in using Clean Language and Mindfulness to allow body and mind to communicate and support somatic change (‘Words that Touch: How to Ask Questions Your Body Can Answer’).
Inspired by these collaborations, Cliff is excited to share how we can integrate these insights from somatic empathy, psychobiology, clean language and mindfulness – into our practical Shiatsu energy work!

Together we will be exploring how to:
• Access the positive movement of Ki – using the ‘Outcome Question’
• Develop our Somatic Empathy – using Mindfulness
• Connect Kyo and Jitsu with the receiver’s whole Ki Field
• Integrate practical techniques and assess the effects of Tsubos

Information about the speaker

CLIFF ANDREWS

Cliff started his Shiatsu studies at the Brighton Natural Health Centre in 1981, and in 1986 he co-founded the Shiatsu College UK.
In the same year, after studying with Pauline Sasaki at her annual UK residential workshops, she invited him to the USA to become her full-time apprentice.
In 1987 Cliff embarked on a 20-year collaboration with Pauline, further developing Masunaga’s Zen Shiatsu system, in a series of workshops in Europe and the USA. During his 30-year international teaching career, Cliff was regularly invited to teach in Europe, the USA and Australia.
Cliff is now semi-retired and has a part-time Shiatsu practice in Norwich and Zurich. He continues to direct the www.newenergywork.com project, which has grown to be the world’s largest online Shiatsu learning community with almost 4,000 members and over 100,000 course enrolments.

There are many similarities between Shiatsu, East Asian medicine and yoga, and even more between Masunaga’s approach and Hatha yoga. Keiraku Shiatsu, also known as Meridian Shiatsu, focuses on treating the entire meridian system. The concept of meridians also features in the energetic physiology on which yoga is based.
It is important to emphasise that Masunaga’s Shiatsu extensively explores and utilises the stretching of muscle chains to affect the meridian network, both conceptually and in practice. This is also evident in yoga practices.

In our presentation, we will delve deeper into specific aspects of these two disciplines and examine the main areas of overlap between Masunaga Sensei’s Zen exercise imagery model and those of the major Hatha Yoga schools.
We will also examine the relationship between meridians, muscles and superficial and deep fascia. This relationship with connective tissue, which is arguably the body’s largest organ, can be defined as the ‘fascia-muscle-organ-meridian relationship’.
We will examine the asanas in relation to the meridians, demonstrating the correct execution method that activates the deep fascia connected to organs and viscera.

Following the introductory talk, we will demonstrate a practical shiatsu exercise related to the discussed topics, followed by a segment exploring pranayama exercises. These exercises can be practised to promote the free flow of Ki by rebalancing the nadi.
Thus, we will experience the asanas in relation to the meridians using the correct execution method to activate the deep fascia connected to the organs and viscera.

Information about the speaker

Massimo Cantara

Born in Poggibonsi (SI) on 15/04/1964
High school diploma in Social-Pedagogical studies
A level in Music at Lewisham College London
8th Grade with Honors (142/150) in drums and percussion with the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Massimo is a Yoga teacher with over 500 hours of training and holds a 300-hour Yoga Therapy diploma from the International Vasistha Yoga Research Foundation (India). He has been teaching yoga since 2010 at his own center in Italy and is a founding member of “Three Treasures Yoga,” an international training school.

He has been a professional operator in Bio-Natural Disciplines and a Shiatsu teacher since 1992. In 1999, he founded the Holismos Center for health arts, a center for promoting and practicing Bio-Natural disciplines, including Yoga, where he serves as director. Massimo has been a Shiatsu operator and teacher for over 30 years and also holds diplomas in Kinesiology and Cranio-Sacral Therapy.

In 2016, together with Sara Della Torre, he founded the new Holismos Yoga and Wellness Center in Varese. He collaborates with various training courses, bringing his particular knowledge in Anatomy and Physiology and beyond.

Massimo studied Shorinji Kempo (a Japanese Buddhist martial art) for 12 years with Sensei Tameo Mizuno in London, Italy, and Japan (2nd Dan). However, his first passion was music from adolescence. He has played with numerous groups in Italy and Great Britain and performed in hundreds of concerts across Europe and Latin America. Today his main passion and interest concern the study of sound, vibrations, and their effects on our health, life, and evolution.

He has taught in training courses for social-health operators (community animators) funded by the EEC and notably participated in the project “Hospital without Pain” for ASL 7 at hospitals in Poggibonsi and Nottola (Montepulciano), delivering over 360 hours of lectures from 2003 to 2007, training nurses in pain treatment with integrated manual techniques.

For the Italian Shiatsu Federation, he has held the positions of Regional Representative, Board Member, and Exam Commission Member.

In 2024, along with three colleagues, he opened the “Mediterranean Retreats Center,” a retreat center on the island of Lesbos, Greece, where he lives six months a year.

In 2021, he released his first solo CD titled “Elemental World” under the Holismos label and published his book “Hospital without Pain – Bio-Natural Techniques in the Hospital Context” with Epigraphia Editions, now also available in English on Amazon.

Maurizio Parini

He began studying Shiatsu in 1981 with Mario Vatrini. A Rehabilitation Therapist, he holds a diploma from the Permanent Training Center in Manual Therapy.

He served as President of the Italian Shiatsu Federation (FIS), and currently plays an active role in FISieo as President of the Evaluation Department and a member of the Executive Board.

Since 1993, he has been a speaker at numerous national and international conferences organized by leading Italian Shiatsu associations.
A passionate scholar of Far Eastern Medicine, he has deepened his study of moxibustion and how Traditional Chinese Medicine principles can be applied to Japanese manual practices.

Since 1986, he has been teaching at the Hakusha School of Shiatsu and Moxibustion, where he has served as Educational Director for the Milan, Varese, and Como branches.

Together with Dr. Corradin and Dr. Di Stanislao, he co-authored the book “Medicina Tradizionale Cinese per lo Shiatsu ed il Tuina”, and contributed to the text “Visceri e Meridiani Curiosi”.

“We human beings have been placed on the border between the visible and the invisible, between the finite and the infinite, between time and eternity.”
These words were written by the Desert Fathers in 300 AD.

“The more I follow knowledge, the more I grow; the more I follow the Tao, the more I diminish. Through diminishing, I reach non-action. Through non-action, nothing remains undone.”
We read this in the Tao Te Ching.
In a sense, this verse conveys a similar idea, although with different wording and implications.
As human beings, if we follow only knowledge, we can live and act in relation to the visible, the finite and time. However, if we also relate to the Tao (the invisible, the infinite and eternity) the consequences in our lives will be different.

According to the most widely accepted scientific theory, everything that exists came into being with the Big Bang. Before the explosion, the entire universe (or universes) was contained in that tiny speck, including us human beings.
In reality, it is not possible to say ‘before the explosion’, because time and space were born with it. Before that, there was infinity, eternity and the invisible.
As human beings, we participated in that infinity and eternity and potentially existed within the invisible.

We experience these two natures in every moment.
Shiatsu, which ‘touches’ life, can only reflect this reality, which explains many aspects of our practice.
Having a theoretical awareness of our human reality helps us practise shiatsu correctly and use its full potential, without becoming imprisoned by rationality or emotion alone.

During the workshop, we will explore these two realities within us through a combination of theoretical explanations and experiential practices, such as guided meditation. This will help us to deepen our awareness and gently incorporate them into our Shiatsu practice.

If time allows, we may also explore the following:

“The Blue Side of Shiatsu”

It is said that African Americans sing and have sung the blues about their longing for their lost homeland, the home from which they were torn. The defining characteristic of blues music is its ability to express such emotions as melancholy and nostalgia.
We all have a ‘blue side’ within us, a longing for our ancestral home.
This emotion within each of us is like the finger pointing to the moon in the Zen tradition.
Becoming consciously aware of our ‘blue side’ enables us to find the deeper meaning of our existence, and to avoid being enslaved by emotion.
The same can happen during a Shiatsu session with the receiver : it is a healing energy.

Information about the speaker

GIUSEPPE MONTANINI

He has been practising and teaching Shiatsu for about 35 years.
He has studied with: Akinobu Kishi, Ohashi, ESI, Saul Goodman, Pauline Sasaki, Kyoko Kishi, Thich Nhat Hanh, José Reyes and Katiuska Ortega.
He has served as president of both the Italian Shiatsu Federation and FISieo.
Over the years, he has worked to establish and promote Shiatsu in Italy and across Europe.
When he discovered shiatsu, he was fascinated by the way this discipline offers a practical application of Taoist and Buddhist philosophy in the care of others.
As Masunaga wrote, ‘In Shiatsu, simple pressure will not reveal the vital essence of what you are pressing. If you do not understand Eastern philosophy, you will not grasp the meaning of life and will therefore practise Shiatsu incorrectly”.
Alongside his study and practice of shiatsu, he has always studied and practised Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity.

In all ‘energetic’ techniques, it has been observed that, during the self-healing process, the organism reactivates unresolved, chronic, disharmonious conditions in order to reprocess them and thus achieve a better balance.

In shiatsu, the concept of ‘false aggravation’ was briefly mentioned by Shizuto Masunaga in the early 1970s. Unfortunately, this did not lead to further methodological studies.

Through a systematic analysis of reactions to Shiatsu treatments over a period of about 50 years, I found that it is possible to recognise the self-healing activity of Ki, signalled by ‘false aggravation’, according to interpretative methods consistent with knowledge originating from TCM and supported by a specific application of Shiatsu technique.

The behaviours of Ki, as determined by the self-healing process, allow us to define a methodological framework for interpretation. This framework identifies the emergence of different energetic movements in the self-healing phase, according to the progressive sequences of Ki activity, from the most recent disturbances to the most chronic and stratified ones.

Observation of the receiver’s energetic structure is carried out through dialogue, physiognomic observation and analysis of the state of the meridians and energetic evaluation areas. The collected data are organised into an Energetic Axis that highlights the most significant phases of the receiver’s crisis. This provides a snapshot of the receiver’s energetic state, revealing the layering of their disharmonious conditions and the chronic development of the energetic alteration of the Five Movements.

Using Shiatsu treatment in accordance with the receiver’s spontaneous sequences of self-healing Ki activity avoids overlapping with what the receiver’s Ki is doing to restore balance.

Information about the speaker

FABIO ZAGATO

Fabio Zagato: Shiatsu teacher, MA in Psychology, MD in Natural Medicine, PhD in Classical Oriental Medicines. He began his shiatsu training with Yuji Yahiro in 1974, continuing with Michio Kushi, Margareta Kushi, Shizuko Yamamoto, and others. He was a founding member and president of the FIS (Italian Shiatsu Federation) from 1991 to 1992 and of the FIS Cultural Institute from 1994 to 1997. From 2000 to 2011, he was a founding member and president of the National Federation of Shiatsu Schools (FNSS), which merged with FIS to form FISIEO in 2011. He was president of the Interassociation of Health Arts (IAS) from 2010 to 2014. He has practised Buddhist meditation since 1974 and was authorised to teach Vipassana meditation in the secular Theravada tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin by Master J. E. Coleman in 1986. He is currently President of the Research Area of FISIEO. He is the author of numerous books and publications.

Sacred Geometry is the blueprint of Creation and the genesis of all forms. It is an ancient science that explores and explains the energy patterns that create and unify all things and reveals the precise way that the energy of Creation organizes itself.

It represents the creation of life itself, the manifestation of the harmony of all forms both in the microcosm and in the

Sacred Geometry us shows that everything comes from a matrix, the one and only source. Human beings included.

On every scale, every natural pattern of growth or movement conforms inevitably to one or more geometric shapes.

By studying the nature of these forms and their relationship to each other, one can seek insight into the scientific, philosophical, psychological, aesthetic and mystical laws of the universe.
The ancients believed that the experience of Sacred Geometry was essential to the education of the soul.

The designs of exalted holy places from the prehistoric monuments at Stonehenge and the Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, to the world’s great cathedrals, mosques, and temples are based on these same principles of Sacred Geometry.

The symbols of Sacred Geometry are:

• The Flower of Life
• The Fruit of Life
• The Tree of Life
• The Cube of Metatron
• The Platonic Solids
• The Torus
• The Merkaba

Nicola will present how to use the Star Tetrahedron or the Merkaba. This easy technique helps align yin and yang or Heaven and Earth and can easily be added to any treatment! This technique can lead to more abundant energy and will certainly let the receiver feel more balanced!

Gabriella will present how to open the Fruit of Life in a Shiatsu session, and how to integrate its high frequency energy in the touch to support receivers in experiencing their connection to the “Oneness

Information about the speaker

Nicola Ley (Pooley) – Bsc, BA, MA, PGCE, MRSS(T)

Nicola turned up for her first Shiatsu class with a friend, thinking it was a martial art. The friend went to Aikido, but Nicola loved Shiatsu from then. This was in Tokyo in 1978. 
Nicola is a founder of the Shiatsu College along with Carola Beresford Cooke and Clifford Andrews. The College regularly hosted Pauline Sasaki in the 80s and 90s when Pauline’s interpretation of Masunaga’s meridian system underpinned Shiatsu teaching throughout Europe.
Later Nicola studied Quantum Shiatsu – Pauline’s new work – alongside Gabrella Poli. We were devastated when Pauline died far too young and before she had fully developed her new work.
Nicola wrote “Shiatsu a step by step guide” previously called “Shiatsu in a Nutshell’. She is working on a book about her experiences of Quantum Shiatsu. 
Nicola has practiced Qigong since the early 80s. She loves this practice and finds that her Shiatsu blends often with Qigong when she is working.
Nicola also loves herbs and plants. Her study and drawing of plants and herbs are her pastime.

Gabriella Poli

Gabriella discovered shiatsu in 1987, and it was love at first sight. She chose to devote herself entirely to this discipline, leaving her secure job at a United Nations agency behind her.

After graduating, she continued her professional training by studying with several internationally renowned teachers in Italy and abroad. Of all these teachers, Pauline Sasaki had the most profound influence on Gabriella’s approach to shiatsu. Gabriella studied with Pauline in Italy, Europe and the United States and participated in a small study group on Pauline’s Advanced Quantum Shiatsu for seven years.

Following Pauline’s death, Gabriella decided to share her teachings and Quantum Shiatsu by offering workshops in Italy and across Europe.

Meeting Pauline Sasaki and studying with her was a privilege and a great gift for Gabriella. This opened up new horizons for her, offering not only new techniques, but also a new philosophy and a renewed vision of human beings and their potential.

Bringing Hope and Change to human life with Shiatsu
We experience a deeply traumatized society, people in pain, in lack of grounding, aggressive, disembodied in an overactive sympathetic nervous system.
The human body is a ​multidimensional generator producing various dynamics of ‘fear’ or ‘safety’ blended in a very fine net accessing and linked to all human senses inside and outside. As therapists we have many talents and we can apply a gentle and meaningful practice. ​Our intention and thesis to give care is essential and becoming a resilient therapist is a crucial point.
This course aims to give effective skills to accompany the client in a safe travel within the body.
​ You will enrich your trauma toolbox,​empower yourself with trust and self-agency, and support your Shiatsu self along the trauma healing process!
Learning plans below give a sight of what we will develop and explore together :
– Listening to the whispers of Body Mind with Focusing skills
– Building a deeper, stronger and safer relationship within
– Body-based techniques to support client at his homework
– Reset and regulate the ANS​ 
– Chakras and Meridians in neurophysiology
– Building resilience with Shiatsu and Focusing process

Shiatsu touch is like waking up the receiver from a dream of a huge split. We lovingly train the human being to create a better state of Being. 
We allow the Rainbow to reveal within, to process and transport the multi-level human system to the next plane of ascension. And this exploration has 2 directions. 
I cannot say Become Light, if I do not become Light! 

Information about the speaker

ANTIGONI TSEGELI

Antigoni Tsegeli is a specialist in beauty treatments, a Zen Shiatsu practitioner, Qigong instructor, beauty expert, and wellness teacher. She practiced martial arts in Kung Fu until 1996 and then dedicated herself entirely to healing arts with Shiatsu. After her first contact with Shiatsu in 1996 with Maria Charlet and her trips to Brazil for 10 yrs, she continues to deepen her personal development and knowledge through studies, specializations, and further training uptil now. She teaches holistic wellness practices, combining Shiatsu with Focusing for anxiety and trauma, courses for personal development of therapists and leads workshops and retreats on Aegina. Antigoni was president of the Hellenic Shiatsu Society 9 years and continues her Greece’s representative role in the European Shiatsu Federation. 

Her motto is: “The Body Knows, the Soul Listens, and the Spirit Lives.” She advocates for harmony and wholeness in people. 

Kiyindo Shiatsu®, literally meaning “The Way (Do) of Energy (Ki) in Depth (Yin),” is an original well-being technique, both curative and preventive, featuring an analgesic touch that deeply releases muscular and joint tensions, boosts the body’s self-healing capacities, and redefines our body image.
This practice is the result of years of research following my studies with Takeuchi Sensei and my investigations into pain identification at the University of Strasbourg. I aimed to find a way to channel pain and bypass it.
Based on Takeuchi Sensei’s theory of anatomical crossed relations, I developed an original form of alternative touch on two acupuncture points either in parallel or diagonal, which allows pain analgesia since the brain cannot register two painful stimuli simultaneously.
This principle of communicating vessels (Kyo/Jitsu) in crossed relation between two tsubo points enables painless access to deep spasms, frees joints, and relieves musculoskeletal pain.
This therapeutic practice has both preventive and curative aims, does not just suppress pain or symptoms… It allows a return to essentials: our posture and how we place ourselves on this earth to be more conscious with ourselves.
In Kiyindo Shiatsu®, postural analysis teaches us to listen to and decode the messages of our body and determines the treatment strategy. The goal is to lead each person to actively participate in the healing process and become the actor of their own well-being.
Kiyindo Shiatsu® is one of the most effective natural analgesic methods, enabling rapid pain relief. A true bubble of oxygen, literally and figuratively, the treatment offers a moment of escape, release, and serenity.
After tonifying deficient organs and relieving joint restrictions, Kiyindo Shiatsu®, combined with postural advice, helps the jusha (receiver) integrate a new awareness of their body, reclaim it, and thus become active in their healing process.

Information about the speaker

PIERRE CLAVRIEUX

After working as a music therapist with disabled children for about ten years in Strasbourg, I trained as a percussionist with the Japanese group Kodo, which preserves the ancient art of taiko on Sadogashima Island in Japan, where I was invited to the “One Earth Tour 84” world tour and the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympic Games.
After sharing the spirit and life of the Kodo group for two years, I continued my musical journey in Tokyo, where six months later a friend introduced me to a great master of oriental medicine, Takeuchi Sensei, director of the Akahigedo Clinic and School of Oriental Medicine in Tokyo and founder of Yin Shiatsu.
This encounter was the second great revelation of my life. The Akahigedo Clinic, very renowned in Japan, welcomes patients and students from all over the world. It is a place of study where various eastern therapeutic approaches such as acupuncture, Yin Shiatsu, Chinese herbal medicine, five-element dietetics, and therapeutic Kiko (Qi Gong) are taught and practiced.
Holding my Yin Shiatsu diploma obtained in 1989, I returned to France to open my practitioner’s office. Since then, I have continuously expanded my knowledge in other eastern touch practices between 1994 and 1996 (training in Yoga, Kalari Massage and Ayurvedic medicine in India, Thai massage in Thailand, and plantar, palmar, and craniofacial reflexology in Indonesia).
In 1996, I obtained a DEA (Master 2) at the University of Human Sciences of Strasbourg with a thesis titled “The Meaning of Pain.” In 1997, I created Kiyindo Shiatsu®, a personal technique based on analgesia by touch and postural correction.
In 2007, I founded the European Center of Kiyindo Shiatsu® and offer professional training aimed at advanced practitioners, ensuring the dissemination of Kiyindo Shiatsu® throughout Europe for over forty years.

Good touch in shiatsu is not just physical. The touch within the shared resonance field between therapist and client is at least as important as physical touch, and many of the effects of shiatsu are generated here. Professional shiatsu therapists offer their clients this resonance field through open, relaxed body language.

This presence is enhanced when the therapist feels connected to the ground beneath them, rises gently, aligns themselves internally, and expands slightly in the shoulders, arms, and hands during physical contact. They avoid constricting their space, especially in the shoulders and arms. With this open space, they can resonate with and understand the recipient. For the recipient, such touch is dramatically different from purely physical touch.

Information about the speaker

WILFRIED RAPPENECKER

Is a general practitioner who works primarily with shiatsu. He has been training in shiatsu since 1981, as well as in craniosacral osteopathy. He directed the Hamburg School of Shiatsu from its foundation in 1987 until 2017 and the International Shiatsu School ISS Kiental in Switzerland until 2016. He initiated the European Shiatsu Congresses and directed the first four ESCs. He is also a co-founder of the Society for Shiatsu in Germany (GSD), and has written, co-written or edited seven books on shiatsu, including Yu Sen: Shiatsu for Beginners, Five Elements and 12 Meridians, and Atlas Shiatsu: The Meridians in Zen Shiatsu, as well as numerous other articles and publications. He continues to enjoy working in his practice and teaching.

A Shiatsu clinic involves a demonstration of a shiatsu treatment being performed on someone who is not attending the congress. Each clinic involves two practitioners, who deliver their treatments one after the other.

Before starting the treatment, each practitioner will give a brief description of their approach. During the session, they may comment on their work, provided it does not interfere with the treatment itself.

At the end of the session, the practitioner may explain their approach further if they feel it is necessary. Attendees will then have the opportunity to ask questions, share comments and express any doubts.

A Shiatsu clinic involves a demonstration of a shiatsu treatment being performed on someone who is not attending the congress. Each clinic involves two practitioners, who deliver their treatments one after the other.

Before starting the treatment, each practitioner will give a brief description of their approach. During the session, they may comment on their work, provided it does not interfere with the treatment itself.

At the end of the session, the practitioner may explain their approach further if they feel it is necessary. Attendees will then have the opportunity to ask questions, share comments and express any doubts.

A Shiatsu clinic involves a demonstration of a shiatsu treatment being performed on someone who is not attending the congress. Each clinic involves two practitioners, who deliver their treatments one after the other.

Before starting the treatment, each practitioner will give a brief description of their approach. During the session, they may comment on their work, provided it does not interfere with the treatment itself.

At the end of the session, the practitioner may explain their approach further if they feel it is necessary. Attendees will then have the opportunity to ask questions, share comments and express any doubts.

A Shiatsu clinic involves a demonstration of a shiatsu treatment being performed on someone who is not attending the congress. Each clinic involves two practitioners, who deliver their treatments one after the other.

Before starting the treatment, each practitioner will give a brief description of their approach. During the session, they may comment on their work, provided it does not interfere with the treatment itself.

At the end of the session, the practitioner may explain their approach further if they feel it is necessary. Attendees will then have the opportunity to ask questions, share comments and express any doubts.

This workshop will show how the Qi is influenced by the WAY in which you communicate, the quality of touch you use and how to involve the client more actively in the therapy through guided movement. The quality of touch is as important, or even more important, than the meridians with which you choose to work.

Each Form of Touch is related to one of the combined meridians, often called the Six Divisions, which traditionally connect the physical and mental aspects of energy. Bill has shown how these combinations of meridians are related to developmental movement and thus how to work with meridians through movement exploration as well as through touch. This transforms the therapy into an interactive voyage of discovery, where the client is the leader and the therapist is assisting their self-exploration.

This approach is particularly relevant and effective for people with early trauma and chronic conditions that resist treatment. This is because the client is in charge of their process, so feels safe to enter more challenging areas of themselves. The techniques and processes of Movement Shiatsu can be easily used within other forms of Shiatsu when working with this type of issue.

Bill and Teresa always teach together because this allows them to demonstrate the techniques from both the point of view of the practitioner and of the client.

Information about the speaker

Bill Palmer e Teresa Hadland
Bill è direttore della School for Experiential Education (SEED) ed è stato uno dei pionieri dello Shiatsu in Europa negli anni ’70.
È co-fondatore della UK Shiatsu Society e del Journal of Shiatsu and Oriental Body Therapy.
Teresa ha insegnato Shiatsu a livello universitario presso la Derby University ed è attualmente tutor senior alla SEED.
Insegnare insieme offre la possibilità di trasmettere sia il punto di vista dell’operatore, sia quello del cliente attivamente coinvolto.

Le ricerche di Bill con i neonati hanno mostrato come i meridiani guidino lo sviluppo del movimento e come le funzioni energetiche abbiano origine nel movimento fisico.
Da ciò ha sviluppato il Movement Shiatsu e l’Inner Qigong, che aiutano le persone a essere più attive e sperimentali nel loro ruolo di clienti, utilizzando sia il movimento che l’esplorazione guidata, oltre al tocco.
Lui e Teresa insegnano queste discipline in dieci paesi nel mondo.

Shiatsu supported my own life for forty-five years. This workshop will follow the learning, mistakes, experiences and realisations of a Shiatsu practitioner and teacher throughout that time. 
This will be a practical workshop, with as much hands-on time as possible. I’ll offer practices based on my various teachers’ work as well as ones that I hope will illustrate the experiences which led me further and deeper into Shiatsu. 
There will be some theory involved in this story of a life in Shiatsu but it will absolutely not be didactic. Instead I hope, by my own questioning of the nature of theory in Shiatsu, to encourage people to explore more confidently. Inevitably my biases will show and I welcome comments and free exchange of views.
In order further to discourage an intellectual approach, I will deliver the workshop in Italian. My Italian is a little rusty, but I hope that will make it an informal and humorous occasion.

Information about the speaker

CAROLA BERESFORD-COOKE

I grew up in the Far East, which was a formative period and when my interest in East Asian culture and healing began. When my family returned to England I went through an intensive formal education but abandoned it all to study beauty therapy, where I discovered massage. Shiatsu followed almost at once and I did my first workshop in 1978 with Ohashi.
I then studied acupuncture but Shiatsu remained my first love and principal practice. Pauline Sasaki became my “root guru”. I joined with Cliff Andrews, Paul Lundberg and Nicola Ley to found the Shiatsu College in 1986, and our collaboration brought friendship and so much learning. I wrote “Shiatsu Theory and Practice” in 1996, now in its 3rd edition. Later I taught internationally for many years but have now retired to live quietly with my husband in beautiful West Wales

Coming back to self is intrinsic to finding your way in the labyrinth of health, beit physical or mental. It is only when we can inhabit our true nature that things come together and make sense enough to make the life that is meant for us. Xing and Ming, as it were.
How and where we touch in Shiatsu transmits an immense range of subtleties. There is technique and Hara of course. A central issue is when your Ki resonates with others´, how it is so heavily influenced by your belief system. When we truly have faith in the other person´s innate capacity to self regulate and to come back to their embodied self, the dialogue in our Shiatsu touch will transmit support to do just that. 
Coming to our practice with a sound level of acceptance and a detachment from specific outcomes can offer an opportunity for the people we accompany to feel seen and connect to life from the safe place that is a fully embodied self, a self that is part of a complex matrix of life experiences and in turn with all other embodied selves. 
In this workshop I will invite you all to explore how you approach a session with a proposal to replace any intentions you might have with awareness and attention. Through the use of some basic embodied mindfulness exercises and simple Clean Language, we will practice a very specific consciousness in the quality of touch. And this should give us a springboard to do some Sei-Ki together, undoubtably with a fair bit of Katsugen, which might be considered to be the very manifestation of our innate ability to self regulate.

Information about the speaker

GILL HALL

Gill is passionate about most things she gets involved with, yet somehow Shiatsu and Sei-Ki took the top spot. She has been practicing for over 25 years now, teaching as well as accompanying individuals in her practice. She began her Shiatsu studies in Madrid, going onto study with the Shiatsu College and from there to working with Akinobu Kishi Sensei. Currently she is director of Ameba Shiatsu School in Madrid as well as leading workshops around Spain and in more recent years, in Germany. 
She has used her formal translation skills to support her local Shiatsu community by translating a whole host of trainers in Spain. So many Shiatsu ideas have passed through her head and resonance through her whole self, creating a rich prism through which she has gained a determination to be herself and find her own way, and this is what most informs her work.

The mother of all our questions surely concerns the mystery that still surrounds life and death and involves the Universe and, within it, the living beings of our planet.
My presentation will focus on certain aspects related to the nature of the human organism, some of its modes of functioning through the amazing journey that will attempt to describe the wondrous combination by which the infinitely large is contained within infinitely small structures.
We will try to understand the mechanisms by which our organism operates, which is not only a “complex system” but an incredible set of “complex systems.”
Through the analysis of the main components of the human organism and their mechanisms of action, I will try to explain why, beyond the coordinated and balanced functioning that corresponds to a state of health and well-being stimulated by Shiatsu of every style, and beyond imbalance, which gives rise to discomfort or illness counteracted by Shiatsu of every style, there is a third state that we can call chaotic. This is by no means an illness, but rather one of the normal physiological mechanisms of functioning.
Through this perspective, we can consider the need to revise certain aspects of mechanistic medicine, also taking advantage of what quantum physics has provided us.
In this certainly exceptional and extraordinary reality, we must find the role and space that Shiatsu can have with great dignity and effectiveness.

Information about the speaker

ROBERTO TAVERNA

Graduated in 1986 with Master Rudy Palombini, he perfected his training in Baarn, Netherlands, with Master Denis Binks and later in Tokyo at the JSC. He began teaching in 1987 at EFOA and subsequently at APIS, now the Italo-Japanese Shiatsu Namikoshi School. In 1995, together with Annemarie Frey, he founded the Swiss Shiatsu Namikoshi Institute, which he directed until 2005. In 1998, he took over the direction of the Dutch School and the European Shiatsu Academy, which he also led until 2005. In 2000, he participated in the public funeral ceremony in honor of Master Tokujiro Namikoshi, invited by the JSC President Matsuko Namikoshi Sensei. He has participated in numerous international Shiatsu seminars and congresses, often as a speaker.

What immediately comes to mind when I think of the topic ‘Shiatsu supports life’ are a person’s strengths and beauty, their true essence and our sources of strength, the resources, that nourish us.
We are usually confronted with a concern in the form of a complaint or a problem: often the reason for a treatment enquiry. Looking behind this is very rewarding. Focussing too much on the ‘problem’ often makes a person shrink, keeps them trapped in this identification with what is ‚not working’. How do we find a way together to get in touch with power and beauty?
What interests me first and foremost: what is this person’s path? Where does he or she want to go? Does this person experience this as a life task? Or rather as a longing, a wish, or to be able to leave something behind? And what is the purpose of these apparent obstacles, such as discomfort or pain? Exploring this path together leads directly to a person’s true nature. And this is different for everyone. How do we get in touch with the actual core of a person’s being? 
First of all, I am interested in this as a facilitator on the process path. This is not interesting or worth pursuing for every client. However, as a therapist, it guides me inwardly and gives me inspiration for the process support. And this requires trust in intuitive guidance and a keen ear for the client’s descriptions and words, as well as training one’s own perception-tools. 
The individual strengths of each person support them on their path through life. Also the inner and outer sources of strength – our resources. How can they be sensed, recognised, touched and supported with Shiatsu? The Five Elements and the Functions of the energetic organs are a constant companion. They explain a lot about a person’s strengths.
I would like to explore these questions in a workshop and/or in an interactive exchange with the other speakers and participants. Especially in a practical way.

Information about the speaker

JÜRGEN WESTHOFF

Born in 1964 in Sigmaringen on the Danube. Artstudies and work as a costume, and stage-designer in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Athens etc. until 1997.
Training as a healing practitioner, and as Shiatsu therapist (GSD) at the Schule für Shiatsu Hamburg from 1998. Teaching at the Schule für Shiatsu Hamburg from 2006.
Training in Visionary Craniosacral Therapy at the Milne Institute Inc. (MII). Training in osteopathy at College Sutherland in Hamburg.
Head of ISS Kiental /Switzerland since 2016.
As head of school and teacher at ISS Kiental and teacher at the Schule für Shiatsu Hamburg: training-teacher and further education seminars, weekend courses and supervisions in Germany, Switzerland and abroad.
Moved to Constance on Lake Constance in 2014 with own body-therapy studio.
Many years of meditation practice and intensive Buddhist studies form the background of experience.

westhoff@zen-shiatsu.info
juergen.westhoff@kientalerhof.ch
www.zen-shiatsu.info

A Shiatsu clinic involves a demonstration of a shiatsu treatment being performed on someone who is not attending the congress. Each clinic involves two practitioners, who deliver their treatments one after the other.

Before starting the treatment, each practitioner will give a brief description of their approach. During the session, they may comment on their work, provided it does not interfere with the treatment itself.

At the end of the session, the practitioner may explain their approach further if they feel it is necessary. Attendees will then have the opportunity to ask questions, share comments and express any doubts.