Chapter 1: My Journey of Discovering Focusing- Focusing and Touch
I began studying Shiatsu in 2010, a four-year training. In the third year, we learned diagnostic techniques. What does that mean?
It means listening – listening to the voice, its intonation, the breaths between the words, the story, and the complaints.
It means observing how she enters the clinic, physically and energetically, noticing the color of her skin and the different parts of her face.
It means touching the pulse and/or the belly, feeling the meridians directly.
Only after that comes the questionnaire you’re supposed to fill in. And I never really managed to do that…
A part of me knew this was the “proper” way to work, to have everything structured and clear, to have all the information in front of me. Another part simply didn’t want to do it.
And then there was a part that understood it all: that there is something in a conversation and connection that offers more precious information than any form.
And that was the part I followed.
That’s how it is in my practice to this day:
A conversation, instead of filling out a form.
That is why my sessions are quite long. There is 20 to 30 minutes of dialogue, followed by an hour of touch/ shiatsu.
Now, ten years after graduating from my Shiatsu studies, I’m still glad I chose to pursue that path.
To feel more comfortable with that choice, to start the session with a conversation-
I needed to take care of my side, and I did. From 2013 to 2014, I studied nonviolent communication/ NVC. But something there didn’t entirely sit right with me. Thus, in 2018, I began learning Focus. That’s when and where it clicked.
The conversation at the beginning of a session?
It’s frequently based on Focusing.
That’s the Focusing I practiced with clients till 2025.
Now, I offer Focusing sessions on their own, primarily online.
And, incredibly, it works – I am so used to being without physical closeness.
During my Focusing certification classes, I offered to write about the similarities between Shiatsu and Focusing,
as it was burning in me, not because it was part of the study requirements – it wasn’t.
Before the days of COVID, I facilitated a workshop with Michal Madar Porat, my Focusing teacher here in the Netherlands.
And this is the text I wrote in the invitation to that workshop:
“When Focusing and Touch met for a conversation.
When Focusing met Touch, a new path broke open.
“Broke open”? What kind of word is that?
It broke open, as if it burst out like it had just been sitting there, waiting. And when it couldn’t wait anymore, it erupted.
Right into an open door.
That’s the feeling that arose from Michal and Oda’s meeting.
Touch longed for words. Words – and the silence between them – longed for touch.
Both hold a space of presence, of listening, of acceptance.
This path, which feels so natural, is now being given space.
A first encounter with a path being laid, or maybe unfolding, or “breaking open” gently, with listening –
like a soft, pleasant cloth or a carpet. But not too soft – just at the right kind of softness”.
Both approaches are considered Holistic.
The word “holistic” comes from whole, complete.
The connection between body, mind, emotions, and even spirit contributes to our well-being,
and this connection is hosted in both methods.
(TBC)
