Oftentimes touching or pressing in bodywork is understood as something we do from one to another, as something that is given. A sort of one way street travelling from giver to receiver. Or as in my field of Shiatsu from therapist to client.
In reality it is much more of an interplay of perception. The touch is multidimensional and travels at least in two directions. One towards the client and at the same time back towards myself.
In a peculiar way "the giver" is being touched back with whatever moves underneath our hands, and whatever moves us in our system. Here I am as much receiver as my client and simply "give space". I'm not creating that space, it comes about when we pull back from being in the drivers seat, yet stay fully present. In this way we can say touch is listening with all our senses.
In order to touch we must feel, in order to hear listen, in order to sense, receive. As the therapist in Shiatsu I take on the role of giver; the one giving direction and leading, particularly in the very first stages of treatment. But I surrender this shortly into a session, I give it to the listening.
Without my capacity to receive as the giver I will not be able to receive the fullness of my client. And what makes Shiatsu so special to me is that it acknowledges deep within it's core, that each client is wholeness. We are not treating a problem, or a symptom and we are certainly not fixing anyone. There's an understanding that what we show up with, is the grandtotal of everything we've been through. In that sense, nothing is out of order. Even when we come with the most horrific of stories and experiences, bringing about tremendous imbalances, and pains.
Shiatsu introduces the possibility, of us coming to terms with the totality of who we are. Not the dreams, and hopes and the not yet's, but who we are right in this moment, prior to change being inevitable, prior to arriving, prior to healing.
What this seems to facilitate within our system is, it gives us room to breathe, and room to be. This in turn becomes catalyst for healing and for change.
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