Happy Shiatsu New Year at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Center
Students of the Shiatsu Academy of Tokyo will be doing field work on Sunday January 22, 2012 at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Center in Toronto. This festive event is part of the celebration of the traditional Japanese New Year. There will be many booths and great food and entertainment for all to enjoy.
The Shiatsu Academy of Tokyo is organizing a SHIATSU BOOTH this year. The booth will have massage tables and chairs for everyone to enjoy. Please bring your families and friends to enjoy this fantastic festival and to experience the goodness of traditional Japanese Shiatsu.
Date: Sunday January 22, 2012
Time: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Location: The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, 6 Garamond Court, Toronto
Admission: Adults $7.00, Seniors/Child $4.00, Toddlers-Free
Admission (with J.C.C.C. Family $12.00 membership): Adults $5.00, Seniors/Child $4.00, Toddlers – Free
Shiatsu Treatments: Chair Shiatsu 15 min. $10.00, Table Shiatsu 20 min. $15.00
Shiatsu Massage – Toronto’s Best Kept Secret
In the month of December, our students visited Scotiabank’s Head Office as part of their fieldwork program. On a chilly afternoon, five of our students offered Chair Shiatsu Massage to over 40 employees, just before their annual Christmas Party.
The employees could not believe how great Chair Shiatsu Massage could be.
Some of them had heard of Shiatsu, but had never personally experienced a Shiatsu treatment. After their treatments were completed, each employee actually felt more relaxed in their neck, shoulders and back areas. They commented that the treatments were not just “fluff” and that there was a noticeable physical difference after the Shiatsu treatments. Read the rest of this entry »
Shiatsu Massage – A New Year’s Resolution
How about being really selfish, and decide to do something great for your health!!
How about booking a Shiatsu Massage in Toronto. O.K. maybe you’ve never had a massage before. Maybe you’ve never heard about Shiatsu either. Come on!! This is Toronto. People are risk-takers here. People break new ground all the time. People grow. People choose to move forward, rather than stay the way they are. Come on!!
Our Shiatsu students and professionals are well-trained. Check out our website. The Toronto Shiatsu School which trains our students; the Shiatsu Academy of Tokyo, is registered with the Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities (Ontario) as a Private Career College. O.K. O.K. so we are a legitimate school, with proper training, but you’ve never received a Shiatsu Treatment in your life. Come On!! Go to our website www.shiatsuacademy.com and check us out. Read many of the articles posted on our blog. Be informed. Read the rest of this entry »
Shiatsu – Chair, Table and Floor Treatments – What’s The Difference?
Here at the Shiatsu Academy, prospective clients are sometimes confused when asked what type of Shiatsu Massage Therapy they are looking to receive.
At our clinics, we offer three options for those seeking a therapeutic massage.
An interested client has the option of receiving Shiatsu Massage Therapy on a massage chair, a massage table or on a floor mat, which is the more traditional method for conducting Shiatsu Massage.
When requesting a therapeutic massage session, a client should keep a few things in mind.
• How much time is available at their disposal?
• Does the client have any physical limitations that would prevent them from taking any of the positions required for the session?
• Does the client have any special areas of the body that needs to be addressed?
• What can the client’s budget afford?
A Christmas Health Care Wish List
by Steve Thompson
When Christmas approaches, people like to dream about what they would like to find under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. In this case, let’s take a broader view and dream about things that would be useful to find under the health Christmas tree. There is one wish for each of the twelve days of Christmas. Unfortunately, the wishes can’t be sung to the Christmas song of the same name. Read the rest of this entry »
Too Many Physicians Feel Threatened By New Medical Developments
by Steve Thompson
It’s a good thing that cars and other consumer products don’t protest when the latest model with more advances and features are introduced. If that occurred, people would still be driving Model T Fords, riding steam trains instead of diesels, using incandescent bulbs instead of led Christmas lights, and use ice boxes instead of refrigerators. Since the Industrial Revolution began, there has been a competition among rivals to put a more improved product on the market first to increase sales and revenue. In today’s world, the most obvious example in the last twenty years is in the computer and communication industries, with new tablets, telephones, software, hardware, and chips being created within a year of each other. Read the rest of this entry »
Shiatsu Is Effective and Scientific
by Ross Oakes
Shiatsu is considered an alternative medicine meaning that it has not been cleared by the clinical trial system and formally recognized by government bodies like Health Canada and the FDA. This means if someone has problems that shiatsu can treat and asks their own doctor or another physician if they should try shiatsu (or another unrecognized treatment like acupuncture, aromatherapy, feldenkrais, etc.) the doctor will not mention it or even will oppose it Therefore in many instances, it is up to an individual to try shiatsu on their own, sometimes flying in the face of “established medicine” to “take a chance” on shiatsu or some other alternative medicines. Read the rest of this entry »
Shiatsu – A Very Valuable Discovery
by Ross Oakes
There is a story in the Christian Holy Writings that is used to teach young people about how valuable their faith is and the costs involved in developing and nurturing it. It is about a merchant who searches for fine pearls and when he finds a pearl of great price, he sells all that he has and buys it. The idea is that the cost of sustaining one’s faith is worth it in the long run. Read the rest of this entry »
What Were Rasputin’s Medical Secrets?
by Steve Thompson
In the world of “alternative medicine” to which everything that has not been “scientifically proven” been consigned, there are many unexplained stories. Since the scientific revolution from which the scientific rules of proving something true to the satisfaction of medical experts have been derived, many things which seem to defy the established rules pass into legend as part of the unexplained. They continue to lie side by side with established medicine as interesting puzzles that have fascinated humans, but are deemed too irrational because they cannot be explained by established scientific and medical laws.
Shiatsu Needs To Be Sold To North Americans
by Ross Oakes
Sometimes I feel like I’m working in a wilderness, trying to run a shiatsu school and support a shiatsu clinic in Toronto, to help our students develop their skills. It’s like a wilderness because so few people know what a positive difference shiatsu can make to someone’s health. Traditional Namikoshi shiatsu was recognized by the Ministry of Japan in 1955-56 and acknowledged by the World Health Organization in 2004 as traditional medicine. So shiatsu is known in the Orient but its benefits are virtually unknown in North America. Read the rest of this entry »
What Price Life?
by Steve Thompson
Since the first time man walked the earth, devaluing life has occurred without a second thought. Armies have marched, men have been considered expendable, murders have been committed as if a human being is without value. And from day one, man has been determining how much a life is worth. Now many people may never experience a war, or become involved in incidents directly dealing with violent crime, but from cradle to grave, everyone sooner or later has incidents where the restoration to full health becomes the main focus of life. Read the rest of this entry »
Stem Cells and Cancer Is A Murky Mystery Of Ethics
by Steve Thompson
It was reported yesterday that legendary heavyweight fighter, Smoking Joe Frasier died of cancer. In the late summer, NDP leader Jack Layton succumbed as well. But there was also an article about actress Lisa Ray getting fully recovered from cancer using a stem cell treatment at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital. In these three statements lies a puzzle about stem cells and hospital ethics. Why was stem cells used successfully on Lisa Ray and not tried on Frasier and Layton? Granted Ray had cancer in a different location, but the desperate condition of Frasier and Layton at least merited an experiment. If the stem cells failed, how much worse off would they be? If they died, it would still be the same result. But Ray was on the way to death before stem cells and she made a full recovery. Read the rest of this entry »
Stem Cells Being Milked For All Their Worth
by Steve Thompson
There is a reason someone should be applauded for inventing or discovering an alternative to the “medicine of the future” – stem cell transplants - and such discoveries and inventions can’t come soon enough. Stem cells are being thoroughly exploited by the medical elite to squeeze the most maximum profits possible – sometimes with tragic results. For the record, stem cells are still not officially approved by the two government agencies of North America, the FDA and Health Canada. Various aspects and experiments with stem cells are stuck in the long, ponderous clinical trial system that can sometimes last decades to get a final result. Nonetheless they are being practiced in some hospitals without any notification about why a hospital is allowed to use them. In Toronto, actress Lisa Ray was cured of a cancer at the Princess Margaret Hospital. There is also a hospital in Arkansas using stem cells to treat cancer. Who knows where else in North America they are being used and for what purpose?
There are also maverick clinics outside North America, for example in Mexico, Ukraine, Dominican Republic, and the Orient, where stem cells are being used to treat a variety of diseases. It is the crushing cost of stem cell treatment that makes one want to search for an alternative. The cheapest treatment that I have so far discovered starts at $30,000, and that doesn’t include the cost of air transport or accommodation and other incidental expenses. The Arkansas treatment can cost over $260,000. Clearly stem cells are being set up like so much else in established health care, as being only available to rich clientele. The only other chance for average people to get them is to hope they are being practiced in countries where there are government medical plans, like Canada. Read the rest of this entry »
Is “Occupy Health Care” Valid?
by Steve Thompson
The latest international protest is the “occupy” group that is a collective protest against their present economic situation. In my opinion, such a protest movement is long overdue. The repeated recessions/depressions/meltdowns, etc., since 1990 have left a lot of people out in the cold and unable to find their way back into the labor marketplace where they can earn a decent income again. These people have become lost, embittered, forgotten; in many cases talented people finding their skills, their experience, their education, belittled and declared valueless. In response they have tried to raise their voices against an economic, social, and political situation that has left them where they are.
The impact of such economic misery have left many of them spewing mindless rage; they have no clear targets or goals that they believe that if reformed, could bring them back into society again. Instead there is a general sentiment that they have been toyed with by some nameless “elite group” that has profited at their expense. They want this group punished and their own economic status restored. The lack of concrete aims and clear goals has led critics of the group to denounce them as a group of poor people merely wanting a handout from the rich. There are also a lot of sympathizers but there is no action being taken because no one has a plan to remedy unclear grievances. Read the rest of this entry »
Gateway Introductory Course To Shiatsu
by Ross Oakes
Starting out to become a shiatsu practitioner at the Shiatsu Academy of Tokyo could never be easier or more enjoyable. The Introduction Course, designed by Principal Ross Oakes, provides a quick, easy passage to becoming a shiatsu practitioner with healing hands. The course is six weeks long, but only two weeks are spent in lectures. The rest of the time is spent to allow the new student a chance to explore the school and discover what shiatsu is all about.
In the first two lecture classes, the student is given a quick history of shiatsu, particularly its development by its founder, Tokujiro Namikoshi, and the creation of the Academy by its founder, Kensen Saito. Then the student is given the opportunity to sit in on any courses that are currently active at the school and where they get the chance to see the kind of things that are taught at the Academy and meet active students and members of the staff. Finally, the new students are given a few perks. The Academy gives them three complimentary shiatsu treatments so they can directly feel the type of shiatsu they will learn to give.
The cost of this great course is only $120, of which $20 is for the Academy’s history book, “Shiatsu-Doh”, written by the Academy founder, Kensen Saito. Course dates are as follows:
November 2 – December 7, 2011
January 11 – February 15, 2012
March 7 – April 11, 2012
May 2 – June 6, 2012
July 4 – August 8, 2012
September 5 – October 10, 2012
November 7 – December 12, 2012
We hope you will want learn the art of healing hands that you can practice on yourself and others. Come to the Introductory Course and see what shiatsu is all about!
Clinical Trial System Side Effect #2: Dangerous Drugs Still Flourish
by Steve Thompson
There is another bad side effect of the long, ponderous clinical trial system; drugs that are used to treat one problem, but cause problems elsewhere are still on the market. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the treatment of heart failure. Until recently, heart failure was considered an incurable disease, but in 2009, a doctor succeeded in repairing damaged heart tissue in pigs and mice with a genetic substance, NRG-1. Heart failure has also been successfully treated by “maverick” physicians in third world countries by stem cells. But while these “breakthroughs” are desperately welcomed by heart failure patients, they can expect no immediate relief because both kinds of treatment now have to enter the long clinical trial system which in some cases can take decades to complete.
When a new drug or surgical technique enters the clinical trial system, and awaits official approval, the old drugs still flourish. In the case of heart failure such drugs like ace inhibitors and beta blockers are still the types of medications a general practitioner or cardiologist might prescribe. Yet there have been books and articles written denouncing these drugs and implying that they can actually leave the heart in worse condition than before treatment. But many doctors mindlessly prescribe these drugs, some not bothering to read the articles about why these drugs don’t work or in many cases, having a direct financial interest in prescribing these drugs. Who knows how many other diseases are being treated by “medicine” that can leave someone worse than when they began treatment? Read the rest of this entry »
Sinus Sufferer Finds Relief With Shiatsu
by Joanne Latimer
At my wits’ end from serial sneezing, I decided to try Shiatsu Masters in Toronto. “It’s no quick fix,” warned Ross Oakes, who works at the affiliated Shiatsu Academy of Tokyo. “But the results speak for themselves.” Ross should know. He’s an ex-sneezer we met in an earlier post on my blog, Sinus Sister.
Arriving at the Broadview Street clinic, a sweetie named Mari ushered me into a cozy treatment room with a brick fireplace . There was a futon-cum-wrestling mat on the ground, and absolutely no clutter.
“I’m from Japan, but I didn’t know much about Shiatsu!” laughed Mari, her eyes twinkling. “I started here as receptionist. When I saw the look on everyone’s face after a treatment, I knew it worked and started my training.”
Mari arranged my limbs into the beginning position: lying on your side, bottom arm extended, top leg draped over and bent at the knee—the way pregnant women sleep. With the faint sound of rain outside, I was ready to doze off when she began pressing her thumbs into my neck and throat. It’s an odd sensation, but not unpleasant. Then she worked methodically down the entire body, leading with her two thumbs. Sometimes the pressure was a bit painful, but it was for the greater good. No pain, no gain. Mari asked me to tell her when to ease up (She isn’t into the pain-gain theory). An hour later, I was reborn, loosey goosey. Did I feel it in my sinuses? YES! When Mari did my head massage and stretch, I felt a pop and an easing of pressure. Was it miraculous? No, but I suspect the bigger impact will be long term, from a stimulated immune system. Ross is right, there’s no quick fix. If you’re also a sneezer or get frequent colds, please check out my blog, Sinus Sister and join my quest to breathe easy.
Self Shiatsu
By Anton Komar
There’s nothing more relaxing and beneficial to your health than a well performed Shiatsu treatment delivered by a skilled Shiatsupractor, but did you know that it is possible to do a shiatsu treatment on yourself! The students at the Shiatsu Academy of Tokyo learn how as part of their Shiatsu Practitioner program. You can also learn!
Clinical Trial System Side Effect: Waste Of Money
by Steve Thompson
I have written many times about the long, ponderous clinical trial system which is good for preventing bad medicine from reaching the public, but no help for people needing immediate relief from suffering. The long process which can take decades before a much needed new product is available to the public also has a negative side effect: waste of money. Once again the best example of this is the chelation remedy which has been in the clinical trial system for eight years and won’t have a report made on the results until next year. It had better get complete and unequivocal approval or more waste of large sums of money can be expected. Read the rest of this entry »
Shiatsu as a Second Career
by Victor Sydney
As an enrolled student in the 2200 hr. program of the Shiatsu Academy of Tokyo, I have had the opportunity to compose a profile of my fellow students. Regardless of their various career paths and educational backgrounds, all of us fit a common profile.
Shiatsu Is Still A Mystery To The Public
Individuals involved in “Health Care” know what Shiatsu is, just as they know about other modalities such as: Yoga, Registered Massage Therapy, Reiki, Reflexology, Feldenkrais, Osteopathy, Tai Chi Chuan, Aromatheraphy and Touch for Health. However, the majority of the general public who are not involved in the health care movement do not know about, nor do they understand anything about Shiatsu.
Shiatsu and Hay Fever
For over 25 years I struggled with Hay Fever Allergies every Autumn. None of the medications or shots ever really worked effectively for me. As a dynamic high school teacher and later as a Chaplain I was always sick for 4-6 weeks just when I returned to work after a 2 month summer vacation. My energy levels were very low, my body was a mess, I couldn’t sleep well at night…my ribs were sore from sneezing and on bad days I felt that my whole body was under attack. However, when I discovered Shiatsu and especially Namikoshi Shiatsu my situation changed dramatically. With regular Shiatsu treatments over a period of 5 years and an amazing nasal rinse with lukewarm water and dissolved sea salt- I finally defeated hay fever for good. Every year when this allergy season begins I get hit with all the symptoms for 48 hours. Then my immune system kicks in strongly and I am free of serious symptoms completely. The odd sneeze and once in a while a runny nose at times is nothing to me when I remember how sick I was every single day, morning, afternoon and evening with no possible escape and nowhere to hide. Shiatsu treatments saved me from a terrible seasonal nightmare!
Medicine On The Edge Of Restoration
by Steve Thompson
Many people are wondering what the medicine of tomorrow will be like. Having experienced some futuristic medicine with the chelation remedy, and trying to get some brand new therapy for my heart failure, I think the key word for the medicine of the immediate future is “restoration”, which can be interpreted as returning someone to a younger state. In other words, medicine will be taking up the quest of explorer, Ponce de Leon, only it won’t be looking for a Fountain of Youth, but making flanking attacks on the aging process. If it succeeds, people will live longer and enjoy a higher quality of health for most of their lives.
Shiatsu Can Deal With The Flu
by Ross Oakes
One of the really great benefits that I have experienced since I tried shiatsu treatments is that the severity of colds and the flu has been reduced. I remember when a cold would virtually immobilize me for nearly three weeks, and also how vulnerable I was to any “bug” like a cold or the flu that turned up in my area. Once a fellow employee caught a virus, I knew my days were numbered before I would catch it as well. I hoped that by eating the right foods, doing the right exercise, and living a healthy lifestyle would be enough to ward off the rampaging viruses, but it seemed I would always succumb, and I always hated the amount of pills and medications I would have to take to recover. Read the rest of this entry »
Shiatsu Good for Weight loss
by Joe Figliola
He was in his early 50’s, the Lead Custodian for a large Mississauga High school when he began to receive regular shiatsu treatments in his life. At the time he packed 280 lbs. on a 5-10 frame. He believed that he would go through the rest of his life at the same weight, but after 2 ½ years at once a week treatments, he dropped over 40 pounds and continues to go down pound by pound. All the therapist asked of him was that he would work with him to control how much he ate per sitting. His hope was to get back to 200 pounds, the weight of his early 20s. The only variables in his life which accounted for his weight loss were regular shiatsu treatments and a concerted effort to watch how much he ate. He came to believe that in some way Shiatsu had accelerated his metabolic rate which over time has slowly meant a steady weight loss. His therapist remembers the special moment in the treatments when he was able to actually touch his spine which before had been covered with tissue. He remembers swollen areas in his body disappearing over time. He remembers when his pudgy fingers began to lose the extra tissue. He remembers when his calves began to lose tissue. His therapist was the first to notice many things which only lately were apparent to family and friends. Read the rest of this entry »
Shiatsu Can Treat A Variety Of Ailments
by Ross Oakes
Many people resort to the Shiatsu Academy of Tokyo to find relief from a long list of ailments. When people come to the clinics for whatever reasons, our practitioners use a hands-on approach to the problems. Shiatsu is a therapy that uses its thumbs, fingers, and palms to assess a client’s problems and then relieve them. A practitioner’s hands are a shiatsu therapist’s “eyes” that find a problem and resolve it. After the end of a treatment, or after a few days, a client is asked if they noticed any difference. A positive response means that a shiatsu practitioner has done their work well, and that a client has been relieved of pain and suffering or at least is on the way to being restored to full health. More treatments may be required. Read the rest of this entry »
Shiatsu Is Just Right For The Hay Fever Season
by Ross Oakes
Several years ago, I got very sick near the end of the summer. I sneezed often, had a constant runny nose, sore, itchy eyes, headaches, and a sore throat. When I was diagnosed, I found out that I had hay fever and I had to go through six weeks of misery before cold weather finally arrived to relieve my symptoms. I was hoping that this would be just a one-year occurrence, but each new summer found me going through the same miserable problem.
Coping With Heart Failure
by Steve Thompson
Since I was diagnosed with heart failure, I discovered that there was very little information about how to cope with the disease. It seems that very little has been done to study or understand what the disease is about and how to cope with it to make life easier and more energetic. Heart failure has always been overshadowed by the more common coronary heart disease which causes heart attacks and strokes. Just to clarify things, coronary heart disease is a disease of the passageways of the circulatory system, specifically arteries and capillaries, which get clogged over time with heart plaque and prevent enough oxygen from reaching the heart and the brain. Heart failure is a disease of the heart itself, specifically damage to the heart tissue muscles. In my case, heart plaque (since completely removed) strained the muscles of my heart forcing it to pump harder and causing tissue and muscle damage in my left ventricle. Read the rest of this entry »
Shiatsu Brings Instant Relief
by Donna MacDonald
I am someone who enjoys walking. Daily walks are my therapy and I recently found myself unable to even walk even a short distance. My sister referred me to Shiatsu Masters in Toronto. I had the privilege of meeting Kensen who is a master therapist.
After a 45 minute treatment I was able to walk home and within 3 days my leg was back to normal. I was so impressed that I started receiving treatments on a monthly basis. I feel as if I have discovered the Fountain of Youth. I am 62 years old and feel as if I am 40.
I can honestly say that my health has seen a dramatic improvement since I began Shiatsu treatments.
It is as if my entire system has learned how to breathe deeply and is undergoing a healing process.
My energy level has increased significantly. I am sleeping more soundly and thus wake up energized instead of sleep deprived.
My leg injury was a blessing in disguise because it led me to Shiatsu Masters and their healing touch. I only wish I had discovered Shiatsu years ago.
Shiatsu Takes The Stage
by Ross Oakes
Did you know that most of the top actors in North America employ health professionals to help them maintain high physical and mental conditioning so that they can push themselves to excellence on the stage? In almost every area where high performance is expected, people turn to health professionals like Shiatsu Therapists. A stage actor who may have to give up to seven shows a week is no exception. An exhausting performance can make an actor’s body feel tired and run down and therefore some kind of rejuvenation is needed so that a similar performance can be given the following day. The actor has to be firing on all cylinders, both mentally and physically. show after show, especially if the performer has a leading role and has to take center stage most of the time. Read the rest of this entry »
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