The Changing Tide of Healing

When I first began studying Tai Chi, Shiatsu and Macrobiotics in the 70's, there was anconcentrated group of individuals, myself included who had experienced, witnessed or atnleast felt the passionate influence of the 60's/early 70's and the Viet Nam war.

Change was imperative. Global Peace was related to the personal peace found within the individual and health of body mind spirit was the single most important tool of transformation.
The WHOLE ISTIC movement was born. From Acupuncture to Zen, students found thei
mode of interest, focused on it, stayed with it and became experts in their field. Andrew
Weil, Tony Robins and Gary Zucav are some of the more well- known healthnprofessionals who come to mind. My teachers, Ohashi, Chu, Kushi, Yamamoto, thei
students and students of many other proficient teachers are also now highly revered
Practitioners and Instructors who began their prominence as a part of this wave ofninfluence.
Our community of students attended classes for years without any promise of a statencertification or license. Our teachers had no diplomas yet people flocked to them fornguidance. We learned that while proficiency and experience are the most important toolsnin walking the path as a "healer" , diplomas and certifications are secondary useful toolsnthat can help blend Holistics into "mainstream" mentality.
Times have changed: There is now an even more expansive plethora of healingnmodalities to choose from and the general population of practitioners takes more of an"dabble in this dabble in that" attitude. It is common for practitioners to have annabundance of diplomas in many fields. I remember Ohashi saying how it took him 30nyears(at the time) to get where he was studying shiatsu. He was amazed how Califo
ianpractitioners listed between 4-8 methods advertised on their business cards. He said: "Ohnmy goodness! This person advertising sports, Swedish, Craniosacral, and Deep Tissuenmassage must be either be a genius or very old."
The general public is now taking greater response ability for their own healing throughnlea
ing more about nutrition, exercise, herbs and any number of mental When I firstnbegan studying Tai Chi, Shiatsu and Macrobiotics in the 70's, there was a concentratedngroup of individuals, myself included who had experienced, witnessed or at least felt thenpassionate influence of the 60's/early 70's Viet name war. Change was imperative. Global
Peace was related to the personal peace found within the individual and health of bodynmind spirit was the single most important tool of transformation.

The WHOLE ISTIC movement was born. From Acupuncture to Zen, students found thei
mode of interest, focused on it, stayed with it and became experts in their field. Andrew
Weil, Tony Robins and Gary Zukav are some of the more well-known healthnprofessionals who come to mind. My teachers, Ohashi, Chu, Kushi, Yamamoto, thei
students and students of many other proficient teachers are also now highly revered
Practitioners and Instructors who began their prominence as a part of this wave ofninfluence.
Our community of students attended classes for years without any promise of a statencertification or license. Our teachers had no diplomas yet people flocked to them fornguidance. We learned that while proficiency and experience are the most important toolsnin walking the path as a "healer", diplomas and certifications are secondary useful toolsnthat can help blend Holistics into "mainstream" mentality.

Times have changed: There is now an even more expansive plethora of healingnmodalities to choose from and the general population of practitioners takes more of an"dabble in this dabble in that" attitude. It is common for practitioners to have annabundance of diplomas in many fields. I remember Ohashi saying how it took him 30nyears (at the time) to get where he was studying shiatsu. He was amazed how Califo
ianpractitioners listed between 4-8 methods advertised on their business cards. He said: "Ohnmy goodness! This person advertising Sports, Swedish, Craniosacral, Reiki, Lomi Lominand DeepTissue massage must be either be a genius or very old."

The general public is now taking greater response ability for their own healing throughnlea
ing more about nutrition, exercise, herbs and any number of mental attitudenphilosophies. This expansion has influenced the overall standards of alte
ative healingnconsciousness to increase. AND, while, the general public and most practitioners of thenHealing Arts are more aware of holistic health basics the number of highly proficientnexperts is decreasing.

Some of the older masters are gone, many will only be around for another 10-30 yearsnand the number of people who are willing to focus their studies in one area of expertisenare few. In the past, myself and many other colleagues began with a 3 year shiatsu coursenand went on to other schools to continue shiatsu and related studies(well over 3000 hrsnworth) that are now integrated into shiatsu or Asian healing private practices andneducational courses.
It is somewhat rare now to see a student study one modality for such an extended timenperiod without branching out into many other fields of study.
Over the last 5 years I have witnessed how the number of people in advanced classes ofnany particular modality has sharply decreased.
The up side to this trend is that because of an overall increased wholistic consciousnessnand the many tools available, people have more options available to them in everydayngeneral heath situations. The downside is that it may take considerable effort to find anhighly qualified practitioner/teacher who can offer in depth understanding andnrecommendations that are based on decades of experience with 1000's of people.

After 29 years of continued studies and practice in Shiatsu and the Asian Healingnprinciples of Yin /Yang and the 5 elements, I find myself still learning and am grateful Inhave focused my attention so specifically. There is so much I would like to share and amnexcited about dedicating myself even more deeply to practicing and teaching.
While I will continue teaching classes to people of varying levels of interest, I will benspending the greater part of my efforts in teaching both beginners (to open them up to thenAsian perspective) and smaller groups of highly motivated people in a private or smallngroup internship basis-people who have an affinity for my perspective on healing andnwho are willing to deepen their learning through a more focused step by step study thatnintegrates Practical Skills and Intuition.
The three programs of Study will be: Ete
al Spring CHI Kung Instructor
Whole Foods Nutritional Counselor (also in distance learning format)
Zen-Touch TM Practitioner/Instructo
n