Shiatsu
United States, 2000
Japan, 2004-2007
Meaning "finger pressure"
This manual therapy straight from Japan consists of pressure applied with the thumb or hands, called tsubo. Shiatsu is used to prevent stress, restore balance on the physical, emotional and psychic levels and promote recovery from trauma.
Before Shiatsu massage became a regulated discipline in Japan, Shiatsu, a natural means of relief and relaxation, was practiced in public baths or within families.
Learning Shiatsu
by Chantal Lehmann
The discovery of Shiatsu in the United States
In 2000, I moved to New York to work with an urban spa company. The owner of the place had approached the greatest architects and decorators to make the place breathtakingly beautiful.
The therapists who worked there were all highly trained, and you could receive techniques from around the world. The United States offers two diplomas: the “massage therapist” diploma and the “facialist” diploma. In most cases, one can receive the treatments corresponding to the technique depending on the day the practitioner works on the premises. This saves the owner or provider enormous training time due to the high turnover.
That’s when I discovered Shiatsu. One of the masters had been trained at Ohashi Institute. What I found very interesting was how the massage provider used his own body. Using one’s own body (with its weight and pressure) to practice this art shows that in this ancestral knowledge, the order that comes from the body requires the body itself.
We understand that the first necessary tool in this practice is to maintain, to know, to learn and to master the art of maintaining one’s own body. So I enrolled in the school, pursued a four-year course (face-to-face and distance learning), and Shiatsu gave me the desire to go deeper into Chinese medicine.
The perfection of Shiatsu in Japan
Several years after my return to France and arriving at Sisley as an international training manager and manager of the Spas and Institutes, I had the pleasure of going to Japan for several years in a row, where I followed the teaching of Master Tatsumuro San since 2004. At the time, he was over 70 years old and a traditional master. He comes from a family where this ancestral know-how is transmitted from generation to generation, as in many families. The power of his touch taught me a lot, inspired me and allowed me to experience the sensation for myself. In learning, receiving is just as important as giving to understand what is to be passed on. This led me to create the Collège by Chantal Lehmann.
Each new course revolved around the body systems and the exploration of my hands. Each session was a challenge, and the master pushed me further and further within me.
In October 2007, after five years of going back and forth to Japan for several weeks, I graduated as a Shiatsu Master from the Kimura Shiatsu Institute in Shibuya, Tokyo.
