Day 2 – European Shiatsu Congress

Shiatsu clinic

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:40:05 +0000

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.

Shiatsu clinic

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:39:04 +0000

Shiatsu clinic

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:37:21 +0000

Shiatsu clinic

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:35:42 +0000

What constitutes a ‘good touch’ in shiatsu?

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:33:05 +0000

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.

Kiyindo Shiatsu® for Deep Pain Relief and Postural Balance Restoration

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:30:37 +0000

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 CLAVREAUX

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.

The Rainbow within – Shiatsu in Trauma Therapy

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:26:24 +0000

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.

Sacred Geometry

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:23:21 +0000

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.

The Law of the ‘Self-Healing Crisis’ in Shiatsu Technique

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:17:55 +0000

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.

Shiatsu between the visible and the invisible

pcab_adm_tb — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 01:13:19 +0000

“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.