A Monthly Series of Advanced Classes for Shiatsu Therapists

The Going Deeper Class Series consists of one 6 or 12-hour class approximately once per month, designed to specifically meet the needs of advanced students, open only to graduates or advanced students of Zen Shiatsu Chicago or other Asian Bodywork Therapy schools  It is recommended that current students complete at least Zen Shiatsu IV before taking Going Deeper classes, but exceptions may be possible by request.

Zen Shiatsu Chicago graduates may inquire at 847-864-1130 about our Student For Life subscription program, covering these and almost all other CE classes for $95/month.

Prerequisite: Currently enrolled in or having completed Student Clinic 1
Expansive touch is both a physical and energetic phenomena.

On one hand, it requires a physical connection (which may be light and near the surface of the body or deeper into the body) – the conscious touch of a physical structure.

On the other hand, touching a meridian involves connecting to space. This requires the practitioner connect physically and then move their own awareness to an expansive place.

In this workshop, we’ll explore what it means to maintain a receptive, meditative awareness. We’ll notice where we are holding unnecessary physical and mental contraction, we’ll experiment with how to release the unnecessary and to use focused awareness to achieve an expansive touch.

After the experimentation, we’ll practice shiatsu which keeping our awareness expansive and our body free from unnecessary contraction. In expanding our body and mind, we model for clients at the level of the nervous system what is possible for them. By maintaining a receptive, meditative awareness we will notice more quickly when and how our clients are responding to our work. Put them together and achieve quick, deeply integrative, and lasting results with ease.

March 21, 10am-5:30pm – 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE QI – Nathan Torrence

Prerequisite: Currently enrolled in or having completed Zen Shiatsu II  

Dive deeper into the essence of Zen Shiatsu that makes it elegant, powerful and beautiful. In this course we will review and refine Zen Shiatsu’s most basic techniques, which can be honed year after year to become more potent and versatile. We will delve into the “Five Principles” and how they make your movement effortless, spontaneous, and unique to you.

Masunaga’s fourth principle “two-handed connectedness” was originally “concentration,” meaning every ounce of your being is concentrated into each moment of giving shiatsu. Your intuition and sensitivity pique and you begin to respond spontaneously to what is really happening in your client moment-to-moment. In my experience students are naturally pulled into “concentration” through the refinement done in this course. 

To bring forward your spontaneity and authenticity we will practice Katsugen. Katsugen is a cleansing practice that comes from Shinto, the indigenous spirituality of Japan. Sometimes referred to as “soul polishing,” Katsugen shakes off anything that is not-you, leaving behind a clearer version of yourself that is more sensitive and more responsive — in this case, more responsive to your client and your spirit’s desire to help them. 

Because the Five Principles can and should be perpetually refined and explored, it is encouraged to repeat this course as many times as you wish.

Friday, Apr 25, 9am-5pm – SHIATSU FOR FERTILITY with Steve Rogne and Anne de Courtenay

Prerequisite: Currently enrolled in or having completed Student Clinic 2.  NOTE THE EARLY START, THIS CLASS INCLUDES AN ADDITIONAL 1/2 HOUR OF CONTENT.

This class will help you use your Hara palpation and pattern recognition to differentiate between internal health patterns that affect uterine fertility. The class will include hands-on times with clients (please arrange a client in advance who would like fertility support, they will receive at 1:30pm).

We will:

• Review the four common Zang/Fu patterns that underlie fertility issues
• Discover how to sense those patterns through pattern recognition and Hara palpation
• Review hands-on approaches that are useful for each presentation
• Review herbs and lifestyle support principles
• Practice the assessment and treatment process with live clients
• Discuss our findings and deepen our understanding

Prerequisite: Completion of Zen Shiatsu IV

This class is designed to bring you through my Shiatsu path of discovery to find my most authentic approach to the work. I am going to share how I have developed certain ways in which to focus my hands and use my awareness to affect change in another person’s body. I plan to facilitate different experiences focusing on very specific movements and feelings in themselves and others to isolate particular ideas so we can see how individually each one has an effect on another person. I have found each of these approaches offer something different in some way for the person under our hands. With each approach I will pose an idea or question that has at one point influenced my reason for the change in the approach. We will explore:

• Spontaneous movement
• Touching the Heart
• Feeling the flow of the meridians
• Observing the breath

Even though I have explored different ways in which to activate this healing power inside of each of us there are some foundational ideas that are the driving factor for every shift I have made and are active in every approach I have explored.

1. There is a mysterious organization to life that is inherent in all of us. This is what keeps us alive and heals what can be healed in each of us.

2. How do we get out of the way to allow this healing to be excited and activated in each of us? The logical mind serves us well for survival, but not so much for activating that innate healing response.

3. For healing to happen the body has to feel safe. Holding tension patterns in the body inhibits the free movement of ki and when we feel safe these patterns can begin to unwind.

4. True healing might be recognition of your authentic self. This allows us to change our life patterns that are currently creating discomfort.

I have found that no one approach seems to offer something superior to the others but instead offers just something different and with that comes different results. I suspect that this will be your experience as well. This class is not so much focused on developing manual techniques but more on paying attention to how we focus changes the way we touch and feel things in another person. This will give you more ways in which to work. As my experience has shown me, humans are complex and diverse so why not explore different ways to focus for different people or maybe even for yourself. 

Having more fluidity in your approach means you can discover something more authentic about your personal style too.

Friday June 27 9:30am-5pm – RETAINING CLIENTS THROUGH SKILLFUL TREATMENT PLANNING – Steve Rogne

Prerequisite: Currently enrolled in or having completed Student Clinic 2

After 22 years of experience, I can say with confidence that the most important skill to retaining clients is your ability to do clear verbal treatment planning that motivates clients to commit.

For new practitioners, these skills are integral to building regular clientele quickly, to make sure you can keep practicing and refining your technical skillset.  

For experienced, skilled therapists, if you are still struggling to build a regular book of clientele, these communication skills are very likely a piece that is missing.

In this class, I hope to improve this skillset for all participants.  If you put the principles of this workshop into practice exactly as taught, I am confident that you will quickly build a thriving clientele, even while you may still have room to grow in your technical skillset. 

We will learn to:

• Clearly articulate goals for treatment
• Explain exactly how shiatsu can help meet those goals
• Find ways to measure and celebrate progress
• Get a commitment to a long-term treatment plan before the first session

This is a reinforcement of the skills taught in my Business for Bodyworkers class, with an emphasis on direct practice of certain scripts and Q&A time.  I have seen universal success among practitioners who have internalized and applied these skills.  This benefits the practitioner in having longevity of practice, and benefits the clients because they end up having much more successful treatment outcomes due to their increased level of commitment to the process!