For the past five and a half years, Shiatsu sessions have been offered at the Sainte-Anne/La-Ramee clinic in Brussels for patients in the psychiatric ward by students in their third year of training at Master Kawada’s Yoseido Shiatsu school. The sessions are carried out under the supervision of Yoseido school officials. Participation is voluntary and is only offered to patients who are deemed sufficiently stable from a psychiatric point of view. Members of the health care team accompany the patients before and after the sessions.
In the Spotlight
Yuichi Kawada is a pioneer of the art of Shiatsu in Europe. He shared his knowledge in several countries before opening his practice in Belgium. In 1990, he founded the Yoseido Shiatsu School in Brussels, where he has since trained many therapists.
His teaching is based on The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine and the laws of transformation as expressed in the I- Ching. These are inexhaustible sources, which encourage the observation and interpretation of the imbalances of humans and the environment in which they exist.
Specialising in the study of the twelve main meridians and the eight extraordinary meridians of traditional Chinese medicine, he teaches philosophical concepts of Oriental thought, which allows for a deeper understanding of the challenges of mankind
Foreword
Patients particularly appreciate these sessions and often report discovering a new state of well-being.
We have started to pose questions about the nature of the body in psychiatry:
- The body needing care – in psychiatry, patients’ physical health is frequently neglected, so being able to receive Shiatsu in a general hospital is highly significant
- The painful body – pain can have psychosomatic origins, and conversely, chronic painful illness can cause depression and other mental or emotional challenges
- The body as a site of enigmatic symptoms – what is going on, since when and with what frequency?
- The body of action – anorexia, self-mutilation, suicide attempts etc.
- The suppressed body – for example, in drug addiction etc.
My students work at a very well-known psychiatric hospital, La Ramée. Their specialty is dealing with addiction problems, such as drug addiction and alcoholism, as well as sweet cravings and many other varieties of addiction. Shiatsu has proven to be very effective with those who suffer from these addiction problems.
They told us that many of their patients have sleeping difficulties. In fact, all of them have some variety of insomnia, have nightmares or dream excessively. The students received excellent feedback from two psychiatrists working there, who said the effects of Shiatsu were very positive, since the patients tend to sleep better after the treatments. This is regarded as a great help in the treatment of these patients, so we have a very good collaboration with La Ramée hospital.
Shiatsu has proven to be very effective with those who suffer from insomnia
YUICHI KAWADA
