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).
