Your complaint is not the whole story

When we have complaints, we often look first at the symptoms. Pain in the shoulder, headaches, fatigue, poor sleep, restlessness or depression. Symptoms tell us that something is wrong. But within Shiatsu, they are not the whole story.

You could say that symptoms reveal the external aspects of a process that takes place on a deeper level.

What lies behind a complaint?

Within Shiatsu, we are therefore not only interested in the question: What complaint does someone have? We want to understand, first and foremost, which process causes this complaint to arise.

A symptom is something that is visible or tangible on the outside. But that doesn’t mean you know what’s really going on. Often we don’t have a clear picture of that ourselves either. Sometimes we do feel that something is wrong, or have a suspicion about it somewhere, but we can’t pinpoint exactly what it is.

For example, two people can both suffer from headaches, while Shiatsu can have very different underlying processes. And conversely, the same disturbance can manifest as a physical complaint in one person and as restlessness, fatigue, or an emotional change in another.

Therefore, simply addressing the symptom does not automatically mean that you are also changing the underlying process. Within Shiatsu, we use the symptoms as guidelines. They help us better understand what has gone out of balance in the first place.

Ki: the life energy behind our physical and mental processes

To understand that, we look at Ki in Shiatsu. Ki is often translated as life energy. It is the energy that expresses itself in everything we do: moving, thinking, feeling, breathing, digesting, recovering, and adapting to what is happening around us.

When Ki can move freely and the various life functions are well coordinated, the body and mind can continuously adapt.

But that balance can be disturbed. For example, there can be stagnation, a shortage, or an accumulation of Ki. Such a disruption can be present for a long time before any obvious symptoms appear.

From that perspective, a symptom is not just something that needs to disappear; it also tells us something.

Not just looking at where it hurts

Therefore, within Shiatsu we do not automatically only treat the area where someone feels a complaint.

In the case of shoulder pain, for example, the problem does not necessarily lie solely in that shoulder. We look at the entire body, the meridians, and the way Ki manifests itself there. We try to understand the connection that underlies the complaint.

The treatment then focuses on supporting that balance and circulation. When something changes in these areas, the symptoms can also change. Sometimes you notice it quickly, but sometimes it takes more time.

The body and the mind are not two separate systems

An important difference in the Shiatsu approach is that we do not strictly separate physical and mental complaints.

The same disturbance can manifest itself both physically and emotionally. For example, someone may experience tension in the body and at the same time be more irritable or have difficulty relaxing. For Shiatsu, these are not necessarily two separate problems.

There are various ways in which the same underlying process can be seen.

Therefore, we do not just try to treat a physical or mental symptom. We look at the person as a whole and try to understand what the different signals are telling us.

Symptoms are therefore important. But they are primarily the beginning of the story. Shiatsu tries to listen to what is happening underneath.