UKRAINE MARCH 2017 PRAGUE: ONGOING PRIVATE LESSONS
On Schedule see SanDiego = S.D. Czech Republic = C.R. Ukraine
110-hr. Zen-Touch Shiatsu Technician Certification:
(2 weeks, 3 weekends, or 9-week part-time format) Zen-Touchâ„¢ I (Beginning /Intermediate, Zen-Touchâ„¢ II/advanced with improvisation and Zen-Touchâ„¢ III/Body Reading, (can all be taken concurrently or at the students own pace.)
Students will learn to apply a full-body Zen-Touchâ„¢ Shiatsu session including basic through advancedtechniques, applications of Yin/Yang, Empty/Full, Chakras, 5 Movements Elements, Oriental Diagnosis, Body reading, and Client recommendations.To graduate from Zen-Touchâ„¢ Shiatsu Technician includes all coursework, homework (Meridian Diagrams, 25 reports, ZT Questionnaire) and a practical test on Seymour Koblin
Zen-Touchâ„¢ Shiatsu Moves I Beginning/ Intermediate
Zen-Touchâ„¢ Shiatsu Moves II Advanced Techniques and Improvisation
Zen-Touchâ„¢ III/ Body Reading- Students will focus their attention with hands- on practice of Chakras, Back, Hara, Facial, and Birthdates applications with each other and clients invited to class.
What is Zen-Touchâ„¢?
Seymour:Zen-Touchâ„¢ is a form of body therapy that combines
“Zen”– A state of being where one is flowing in harmony with theforces of nature.When we experience this place we feel a sense of Oneness… Unity… with the divine. We can all recall times, perhaps moments when our life flowed perfectly. Call it perfection, bliss, joy, love, or a connection with God, this state of ” being” is very healing and perhaps the common state that all humans strive for.
“Do nothing yet nothing left undone”
“Touch” -The practitioner’s body, including hands, fingers, thumbs, elbows, forearms, knees, feet are used to make contact with a person’s energy field. A tuning of the body-mind spirit occurs as the practitioner orchestrates movements, stretching, and holding of points on energy meridians that correspond to functions of the body-mind spirit.
What is Zen-Touchâ„¢?
Seymour:Zen-Touchâ„¢ is a form of body therapy that combines
“Zen”– A state of being where one is flowing in harmony with theforces of nature.When we experience this place we feel a sense of Oneness… Unity… with the divine. We can all recall times, perhaps moments when our life flowed perfectly. Call it perfection, bliss, joy, love, or a connection with God, this state of ” being” is very healing and perhaps the common state that all humans strive for.
“Do nothing yet nothing left undone”
“Touch” -The practitioner’s body, including hands, fingers, thumbs, elbows, forearms, knees, feet are used to make contact with a person’s energy field. A tuning of the body-mind-spirit occurs as the practitioner orchestrates movements, stretching and holding of points on energy meridians that correspond to functions of the body-mind-spirit.
Zen-Touch Shiatsu Technician
Some People Compare Zen-Touchâ„¢ To Thai Massage?
Seymour: Zen-Touchâ„¢ incorporatesmany stretches that are coincidentally also found in Thai Massage. I actually taught advanced Thai Massage practitioners in Thailand how to incorporateenergy work, health assessment and intuition into their Thai Massage. This combination of styles has been called Zen-Thai Touch. The slow holding without any pain has become very popular in spas internationally.
Are there other ways Zen-Touchâ„¢ is different than other bodywork styles?
The biggest difference is that in Zen-Touchâ„¢ we don’t change or manipulate anyone’s body or health condition. While we may understand the meridians that reflect the extremes of a person’s life (the source of their challenge), it is not our place to change anyone. Instead, we hold a space that suggests a possible direction of beneficial energy flow and transformation. It is up to the client to change themselves.
In other forms of bodywork, practitioners assess that something is wrong. e.g “your shoulders are very tight and I, with the techniques I have learned, can help loosen the tension there.” This is manipulation. In Zen-Touchâ„¢ we assume that everything is exactly as it should be. Perfect. If the body-mind-spirit is ready for change than we support it but never change someone.
Do you like it when someone says: you are too _____(tight, loose, happy, sad, upset frustrated…) Youshouldchange your self? Consideryou aremost likely exactlywhere you are supposed to be. Does someone else know what is good for you? or Who am I to know what is good for someone else? Everybody has the wisdom to change when and if necessary. Zen-Touchâ„¢ Practitioners support the person to empower and heal themselves. We empathize energetically through our touch what the person is going through and suggest a complementary opposite feeling that he/she might welcome. e.g. if an area seems cold and stagnated, the ZT Practitioner reflects warmth and flow. The client responds or not. Either way, we appreciate the perfectness of what is.
In the “Zen”- state during a session the client subconscious decides whether or when to change. ZT practitioners witness the willingness, resistance or actual changes…. such an honor to be part of this process.
The first step on the Journey to Happiness?
Accept what is True
Without resistance, judgement or criticism. Accept what is
How to know what is genuinely True?
Cultivate, and Circulate the Chi of the Body
Quiet the Mind, Breathe, Inquire and listen
The next step on the Tao, if any, will move us
Zen-Touch Shiatsu Technician
Question:It sounds like people who receive Zen-Touchâ„¢ will become
healed or enlightened?
Seymour: Receivers of Zen-Touchâ„¢ are “response-able” for their own healing. The sessions are a thumbnail glimpse and experience of joy, calm, freedom from pain, and a state of peace that is inherent to our birthright as human beings. By facilitating a shift in how one’s body communicates with itself, practitioners merely catalyze changes that a client would have eventually embodied on her/his own (ideally in this lifetime). The change; relief, life lesson, joy, understanding simply comes sooner.
Does it seem like this might be hard work for the practitioner?
Seymour:The practitioner and client become co-creators of a state of being that expedites change and improves one’s overall health condition. One of the unique differences between ZT and other bodywork forms is that the practitioner and client are in a reciprocal relationship- they both receive benefits. I compare it to giving a gift to someone you love.
Who gets more benefits? -the giver or receiver?
Seymour:Ideally both feel better from the experience. The amount of commitment that is necessary for a practitioner to facilitate this work is extensive. Eastern/holistic theories techniques and practical applications of energy meridian, behavioral, exercise, nutritional assessment, and recommendations are all part of a practitioner’s repertoire of necessary skills. The paradox is that while a practitioner could offer so much information and technical expertise to a client, the best work is accomplished when the practitioner gets out of the way so that a client finds his/her own path to healing.
Zen-Touch Shiatsu Technician
Can you be more specific about the way ZT practitioners do their bodywork?
Seymour:The 5 principles that practitioners maintain while facilitating sessions are the
essential key to the unique approach of Zen-Touchâ„¢. The 5 principles when combined with an intuitive application of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Macrobiotic and Ayurvedic perspectives make for a deeply transformingexperience. The resulting consciousness of the practitioner initiates deeper change than massaging or stretching could accomplish on their own. Note: The last 4 of the 5 principles were originally taught to me byWataru Ohashi
Zen-Touch Shiatsu Technician
1)Reverence: Practitioners address the human body as a vehicle or instrument of Spiritual Development. The forces of nature that govern every movement and function of the body-mind spirit are accessible through the energy meridians that the practitioner stimulates. The honor of touching and connecting with someone in this way is accepted with gratitude, respect, humility, compassion and awe. Before a practitioner lays hands on someone he takes a moment to center and embrace the sacred space that is created between client and practitioner.
2)Be Received: Practitioners wait to be called in rather than asserting
themselves on a client. Instead of “Pushing” on the body we are being “Pulled” into one’s energy field, meridians, body areas, and tissues. It’s like knocking on a door and waiting to be let in rather than pushing the door open.
3)Flowing: Instead of moving in an abrupt random manner, practitioners, like water, flow into the areas that are calling for attention. Stretches, point stimulation, and various foot, hand, elbow, and knee techniques are woven into a seamless pattern of motion that mirrors the contours; valleys and mountains, high’s and lows of the client’s body.
4)2 Hands: The use of two hands that are in constant communication with each other connect areas of high energy with areas of low energy. For example, A “cool” area in the upper back that feels relief when a nurturing hand is placed there, is connected to a painful high ridge in the mid back area that is “ropey” and slips away when a thumb touches it. By gently connecting these two areas, the body feels how this state of extreme between emptiness and fullness can be moderated, and better balanced.
Zen-Touch Shiatsu Technician
When life situations are too extreme one may get burnt out, fatigued, and feel pain or resentment. The practitioner points this out by stimulating these areas of extreme and the body usually receives/accepts this message because of the practitioners nurturing and supportive approach. The body listens and the spirit responds.
5) Be Natural: each practitioner develops her own style or “nature”. Every session of Zen-Touchâ„¢ is as different as the practitioner that facilitates it. The common thread that one will recognize ZT by is the 5 Principles.
Zen-Touch Shiatsu Technician
There is another important therapeutic effect of Zen-Touch. Knowing how different parts of the body are connected, practitioners bring that awareness to their touch creating an expanded holistic effect for the receiver. E G: Knowing that working on the Hara under the right ribcage has a complementary effect on the right shoulder often helps the shoulder without having to touch it. The more wisdom a practitioner brings to a session, the greater are the effects of the work. These effects go far beyond the actual technique. In lieu of any logical method, benefits happen because of a fulfilled connected awareness taking place within the subconscious healing of mind body spirit.
Zen-Touch Shiatsu Technician
Does the practitioner say anything to the client about these energy dynamics of connected body areas or High and Low – Full and Empty?
Seymour:At the end of a session the practitioner will often explain what she finds using the” 5 Element/Season model” which integrates one’s health condition with the cycles of nature. For example, a high/ full energy area might correspond to excess “summer-like” flamboyance, excitement, and passion (that may actually be compulsion). This hyperactivity can be a distraction from the person’s need to honor the “Fall -like” calling for acknowledgment- “harvest” of one’s individuality and self/soul awareness. The gathering of one’s unique soul expression may have out of fear, been denied and relatively empty for so long”. A practitioner may offer, exercises,foods, andway of life suggestionsthat will enhance and support the client’s movement towards the resolution of this extreme pattern.
Zen-Touch Shiatsu Technician
Any last comments about Zen-Touchâ„¢?
Seymour:If a person wants toexpedite their journey on the path to health, in a waythat feels absolutely wonderful, I recommend a session either through ourMassage Clinic, or Holistic Therapies Clinic (by donation), Here clients will learn how to awaken their natural ability to achieve vital health.