General care for massage therapist

Respect the receiver, make sure that your hands are clean and pleasant looking, therefore regular care is important. Keep your hands and feet clean and well-manicured.
Keep your fingernails short, never allowing the nail to grow longer than your fingertip.
This is important because long nails can cause injury to the receiver when you apply fingertip pressure.
Do not expose your hands to harsh detergents that can inflame and damage the skin. And use a hand cream daily if your skin has a tendency to roughness.

Feet

Your feet, too, play an important part in the effectiveness of your shiatsu, through providing a sound grounding.
Do not let the flow of ki be impaired by muscle tension, so keeping your feet supple and relaxed during the massage is important.

Hands

Fingers and Hand need to be supple, strong, and sensitive to the variety of signals conveyed by the customer’s body.
Try to eliminate tension, which will block your ki flow and reduces your ability to sense the subtle differences in the customer’s energy state during massage.

Take care of your hands and feet

Your fingers, thumbs, palms, wrists and feet are used to apply pressure to the customer’s body.
Thus the quality of massage depends on their condition.
Therefore do take care of your hands and feet as they are your main tools for giving shiatsu massage.

Meridians and their elements

In our body there are meridians channels through which energy, or ki, flows in the body. The meridians are like maps of rivers. Ki can be visualized much like water flowing in the river: sometimes it floods, sometimes it is dry. There are six pairs of meridians, which relate to different organs in the body.

The Meridians and their elements:
Stomach and Spleen – Earth
Bladder and Kidney – Water
Gal Bladder and Liver - Wood
Lung and large Intestine – Metal
Heart and Small Intestine – Fire
Heart Protector and Triple Heater – Fire

How does Shiatsu works?

Shiatsu works by enabling ki or energy to flow smoothly throughout the body meridians.
Sometimes our body’s ki is blocked, and this can cause health problems. Shiatsu aims to relieve these blockages.

Benefits of Shiatsu

The benefits of Shiatsu
· Eases tension and stiffness
· Relaxes mind and body
· Improves blood and lymph circulation
· Restores and balances energy
· Improves breathing
· Heals
· Enhances well-being