Shiatsu is Japanese word, and now many people who are not Japanese speaker know this word. Very interesting, and I feel proud of being shiatsu therapist.
However, in my understanding, quite a few people don't understand shiatsu very accurately. Even wikipedia explanation is not accurate to me. It is because of so many variety of manual therapies, commercial reasons, and history of shiatsu.
This understanding difference exist in many aspects, between Japan and other countries, between young people and elderly people, and between therapists and clients.
Shiatsu is a manual therapy which uses mainly thumbs, fingers, and palms. During shiatsu sessions, they would be applied to your body, and pressure would be put on them, and then it would be released. This is the simple definition of shiatsu in technical point of view.
I met a lot of clients who think that shiatsu is based on oriental medical concept or Chinese medicine. This thought is true to some level, but not 100% correct.
Shiatsu actually uses western medical concept, especially if you get shiatsu in Japan. It can be different in other countries, but it is so true in Japan.
The detail will be explained in the next blog post.
