Ivana Contardi , a qualified and experienced Shiatsu masseuse, helps us to understand how a shiatsu session takes place, in what sense shiatsu is both preventive and curative. Thanks to her we also understand how to recognize a qualified therapist. 

How much space do you leave for improvisation in a session, or how do you conduct your hands according to the sensations that the patient sends back to you? 

Having well assimilated the basic scheme is important because you have to know the way energy flows in the organism, you cannot completely improvise. From the scheme you can expand and range according to the individual you are dealing with, based on what he transmits to you. You can’t just navigate at the mercy of the imagination.  

Is shiatsu preventative and curative at the same time? 

Both aspects coexist. Prevention is already healing. Each time you give a  shiatsu massage to a person there is a different response based on a variable component that depends on the individual. 

Are massage oils used in shiatsu?  

No, the oil makes your finger slip . The pressure must be done on a certain point and if the elbow or the finger slip, the work is invalidated. In general, then, it is done in clothes or in any case covered, because the temperature of the body undergoes a variation it is a static massage, in which the skin is not rubbed by heating it. 

Deep pressure can sometimes cause pain. Is that pain part of the healing process?  

I call it healing pain. With pain, the body releases endocrine substances which are hormones of well-being and this process requires you to go through pain that is liberating, therapeutic. 

How do you recognize a qualified therapist?  

First dowry: humility. A serious professional never takes anything for granted and must look at people’s medical records carefully to see if they have serious problems. There should be no rush to get the person to extend on the bed right away. A good professional also knows how to recognize their limitations, that is, knowing when not to act and leaving the case to the doctor, even when he has identified the general picture of the situation.

Each one then has its limits; for example, before I did not treat people with cancer, I was simply not ready and recognized this limitation. Now I treat them, but only now that I have studied more and, having accumulated some experience, I feel ready.  

What would you say to fellow masseurs? 

Get massaged. A certain maneuver, a pressure on a given point must be tried. If you don’t try them on yourself how do you think you can pass them on? An operator must undergo the massage. A good idea may be to create a network of colleagues to agree on the exchange of massages. I need like water to feel the sensation on me ; if i don’t receive i can’t give. 

What’s your shiatsu massage technique? 

A technique based on shiatsu massage, crowned with many small nuances and further enrichments. To tell you, I also move on the craniosacral technique, I consider it good, and I rely on the principle of energy meridians. I started with the  Namikoshi method , which has a scientific basis, it does not concern the energy meridians. Slowly I started to study those too and progressing, practicing on the full and empty stitches, I began to obtain remarkable results. So knowing the energy meridians helped me become more aware.

The trend of my massage often derives from the Masunaga technique but I always tend to work according to the Namikoshi method , the method with which I grew up and which made me grow.