SELF-TREATMENT

One of the great advantages of Shiatsu is that you can use it for your own benefit as readily as you can to help other people. In fact, by treating yourself you will learn a great deal that will enhance your technique; you can experiment with locating pressure points more precisely, and you can discover what they feel like when treated, and how much pressure is appropriate for each one. Of course, when treating yourself you cannot reach all the points, especially those on the back, or apply the overall stretches or rotations in quite the same way. However, you can easily adapt the palming and thumbing techniques for the limbs and the front of the body. This means that you can carry out a comprehensive self-treatment that includes representative sections of all the major Ki channels, covering all the main body organs.

This part of the book does not repeat the whole sequence of techniques in Part One for self-treatment; rather it gives guidelines and examples of adaptation, together with some additional classical routines that have evolved specifically for one-person Shiatsu. The material is arranged in the order that best suits a complete self-treatment: a series of overall stretches to release tension, promote overall Ki flow and prepare for more specific work, first; a quick self-treatment sequence for the channels of the whole body, which can also serve as a framework for more detailed portions of self-treatment, next; and lastly, an example of detailed adaptation of a conventional Shiatsu routine for self-treatment, which also forms a useful finishing sequence, on the face and head. Naturally, any part of this overall plan can also be used on its own.

Face Treatment