Learn to Feel and Support Your Qi!
What’s behind the healing potential of acupuncture, shiatsu, herbs, and QiGong? Our bodies receive and produce energy in every moment. This class provides a simple introduction for you to learn to feel and cultivate your own energy! The primary classical text of Chinese medicine says, “Where there is flow, there is ease; where there is no flow, there is pain”. Balanced energy flow through the meridian pathways of our bodies is the key to ease and wellbeing. This series of four classes will involve an introduction to key ideas, techniques for your own self-care including some meridian, breathing, and acupressure techniques, practice in feeling Qi in your body and connecting with your hands, and two brief sample shiatsu demonstrations on volunteers at each session. We will meet four times on Thursday evenings from 6:30-8:00 in September and October: September 19 and 26, October 3 and 10. The cost is $45 for all four classes. There will be no recordings of the classes and no refund for a missed class. You will have an opportunity to ask a practitioner some general questions about how specific symptoms and patterns may possibly relate to particular meridians.
What is Shiatsu?
Shiatsu is a form of bodywork that incorporates gentle finger or hand pressure, joint rotations, and stretching. The purpose is to balance Qi (energy) in the meridians of your body to create an overall feeling of wellbeing, flow, ease, and balance. Shiatsu can be done with anyone, in any stage of wellness, and the practitioner is careful to communicate with you about your comfort and goals of treatment. It is done fully clothed on a table or on a futon on the floor. Essential oils and sound therapy are included in each treatment, unless the client prefers otherwise.
AMY MILLS, SHIATSU PRACTITIONER, AOBTA-CP
Amy studied shiatsu at the Shiatsu School of Vermont, one of only two schools in the United States teaching Zen Shiatsu. Her training included coursework in Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, the treatment of trauma with Shiatsu, Five Element Shiatsu, Quantum Shiatsu, Sei-Ki, Thai Massage, and Western Anatomy and Physiology. She joined the New Harmony staff as a practitioner in September 2022.
Shiatsu is Amy’s second career: she was a professor in Cultural Geography and Middle East Studies for fifteen years, and won awards for her teaching and research. She left her tenured position in 2019 to build a sustainable and harmonious daily life centered around family and community. The healing she experienced with acupuncture, Chinese herbs, meditation, a diet based on whole foods, and other creative and movement-based therapies brought her to shiatsu. Amy is honored to be supporting others in the joyful journey of wellbeing. .