Zen Shiatsu Chicago Faculty: Nick Pole

I have been practising, teaching and writing about shiatsu for over 25 years, and I am fully insured and registered as a practitioner and teacher with the Shiatsu Society UK . I studied history and political science at Cambridge University, then worked for ten years as a filmmaker until eventually burnout led me to seek help from a highly-recommended acupuncturist. Soon after that I started training at the Shiatsu College in London, and was one of its first graduates. I joined the Shiatsu College teaching staff in 1992.

I then studied the health applications of NLP, at the same time studying Seiki shiatsu with the Japanese master Akinobu Kishi. Looking for ways to integrate these two, I found Clean Language. which I now specialize in as a beautifully simple and effective way to help clients discover how to listen to themselves at this deep, embodied and authentic level. In 2012 I trained to teach Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre and have integrated the clinically-proven benefits of mindfulness into my work with Shiatsu and Clean Language. For 10 years I was the coordinator of London Mindful Practitioners, a non-profit support group for professionals who use mindfulness in their work.

My book, ‘Words that Touch – How to ask questions your body can answer’ was published in 2017 by Singing Dragon. The German translation,  by Maria Illgen, ‘Worte, die Berühren’, was published by Wellke.de in 2022.