Shiatsu Therapy 

What is Shiatsu? 

Shiatsu is a unique form of bodywork that originated in Japan from classical Chinese medicine, with influences from more recent Western therapies. Although shiatsu means ‘finger pressure’ in Japanese, in practice a practitioner uses touch, comfortable pressure and manipulative techniques to adjust the body’s physical structure and balance its energy flow. It works on the whole person - not just with the physical body, but also with the psychological, emotional and spiritual aspects of being. It is a deeply relaxing clinical experience that has been used as a proven massage technique to treat stress-related symptoms, chronic conditions and musculoskeletal imbalances.  Sessions are performed on a table with loose clothing worn. 

Shiatsu Helps With: 

• Recovery from the effects of stress: sleep, digestion, elimination & energy level

• Addressing internal circulatory and organ motility disorders related to tension which benefits the internal organs

• Reduce the habitual charge in the nervous system in the presence of an expected threat or challenge (Adrenal-Cortisol Response) 

• Pain/Chronic pain

• Chronic Conditions

• Autoimmune

Unique to Zen Shiatsu, The Anti-Pathogenic Goal Setting Process helps someone physically embody and recognize the sort of way they would like to be in the world.  In situations where someone intellectually understands their goals and challenges, but reports that their body habitually, reflexively takes them in old directions, Shiatsu is profoundly effective in helping their body fully get the message that their brain wants it to get.  Clients can move forward with embodying a desired change; getting a kinesthetic sense of the new way of being that they are trying to move towards. 

What is a meridian?: Meridians map out myofascial linkages that help with pain relief and structural balancing.  Meridians are spaces of internal fluid flows from the organs to the periphery. 

What is Qi/Ki?: It is organizational and functional capacity of the internal organs.  If someone is sleeping healthily and deeply, if they are digesting and eliminating healthily and without complaint, and if the have the energy and freedom to move and express themselves and create the life they want, then all the qi is in good order.  If one of those functions is off, Qi terminology is used to describe the sort of dysfunctional rhythm pattern that is occurring.  To support this organizational ability shiatsu touch is used to make sure that fluid can flow freely from the internal organs to the periphery and back again. This is how shiatsu benefits the internal organs. 

Pricing & Frequency : $150/90 min Intake with Treatment, $100/1 hour session, Treatment plans are encouraged and begin with about  6 weeks in length. Acute pain is best treated twice a week and once into chronic stage once a week.  Clients should notice benefits anywhere between the 1st and 6th session with an evaluation of the treatment plan around session 2/3.  Shorter treatments with more frequency are better than larger gaps between sessions especially during acute conditions.  

Yoli Maya Yeh Bio: 

Yoli is a licensed Shiatsu therapist who brings almost two decades of experience working side-by-side with clients to cultivate their best health and vitality. She spent twelve years of her young adulthood studying language, yoga, tantra, ayurveda, healing arts and meditation in India.  A native of Evanston, IL, she blends her understanding of East Asian Medicine, mind-body science, Yogic wisdom and personal transformation into effective treatment plans.  Her specializations include:  women’s health, youth, chronic conditions/autoimmune, unexplanable, undiagnosable and untreatable conditions, birth loss and traumatic birth experiences, grief and spiritual domains. 

Very recent news on the discovery of a ‘new’ organ, the interstitial fluid space: 

March 27, 2018, Body-wide network of fluid-filled compartments could be our next new “organ”:  https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/interstitium

March 29, 2018, New Organ': Fluid-Filled Interstitial Spaces Could Allow Metastasis: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/894580

Other interesting references: 

Journal of Contemporary Psychology, March 1991: When words lose their power: Shiatsu as a strategic tool in psychotherapy  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00952722

Traditional Healing, Body and Mind in Psychotherapy, Counseling Psychology Quarterly, June 2008: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/be7c/6429bd2be546eb2e428b20cb4c9d9ab20e83.pdf