Phases of Listening

Shiatsu Shin Tai TheoryShiatsu Shin Tai TreatmentsShiatsu Shin Tai Technique
Written By Shin Tai International

Listening is a Superpower

Learning how to do bodywork isn’t only about technique and theory. In fact, one of the most important things you can do to become an exceptional practitioner is develop the capacity to listen. And this expands beyond listening with your ears to utilize all your senses. Being able to sustain this kind of multi-dimensional attention is a superpower that will increase the effectiveness of your work and make it more fulfilling.

Here’s a short video clip where Saul discusses listening & treatment while we were driving along the quite flooded Delaware River near our home.

Often we are in a constant state of ‘doing’ during a treatment. Applying various stretches and positions, treating meridians, doing an adjustment, working with fascia or a chakra. Trying to fix what’s ‘wrong’, trying to shift the energy, figuring out what the receiver needs. And while we’re involved in one area we may already be thinking of the next place we’re going. Although it’s sometimes great to be engaged like this, there are periods where ongoing activity can inhibit the change we’re working to initiate, especially if the receiver is either still processing the previous input or simply can’t integrate anything more.

This can become like a conversation in which you’re just waiting for your chance to talk again rather than listening to what the other person has to say. We may end up applying technique after technique, giving new input, new ideas, our ideas, rather than paying attention to what the receiver is ‘telling’ us through their body. Bringing awareness to this dynamic, and identifying when it’s best to listen and do less, will upgrade the quality of your treatments.

Time that you take to listen, allow, wait, perceive…. not only does this leave space for the receiver’s inner power to amplify and express, it’s more relaxing for you. What a relief to realize that it’s not your responsibility to figure everything out and how to fix it! Taking time to pay attention to the response of the receiver and trusting their body’s healing wisdom is one of the most valuable things you can ‘do’ during a session.

Providing more space/time, especially when a receiver is in an expanded state of space/time, allows the inner power of their body to amplify and express

Your role is to facilitate release, harmonization and distribution of energy. Providing more space and time, especially when a receiver is in an expanded state of space and time, allows their life force to enliven and express in ways they may not have felt before.

All of us can improve the quality of our listening when doing treatments. Whether you’ve practiced for years or are just starting out, listening is a skill you can continue to cultivate your whole life. It goes hand in hand with one of the core tenets in shiatsu called ‘beginner’s mind.’ This is a practice where we put preconceived notions and judgements aside in order to open ourselves to what is actually occurring. All our knowledge, all our experience, all our ideas…. they of course have value, but they can also prevent us from truly hearing, validating and witnessing the person in front of you. And if we think we’re already perfect at listening and beginner’s mind, guess what? 😉

Action Steps to Improve Your Listening Skills

Here are some ideas to practice listening, including the unique option of proprioceptive exercise, an integral part of shin tai training that helps practitioners expand perception:

The Introductory Phase

How we listen while doing bodywork changes depending on what is happening in the receiver’s body. When a client firsts walks into your treatment room you will most likely talk with them awhile, finding out a little of their history and why they came and then get them set up for the session. You may evaluate their structural alignment or the range of motion of various joints that may be having issues, or taking pulses and looking at their tongue.

Evaluating the hip structure.

As treatment begins there may be some discussion about what you’re doing or questions you need to ask. Then, as you enter into the session more deeply it’s often best to stop most verbal communication so that you can both shift into other dimensions of interaction. If you continue to talk, it’s usually not possible to perceive and work with the deeper stress forces that underlie the receiver’s symptoms and suffering.

First of all, the words themselves are part of the receiver’s story. Of course their story is important and it gives information about what may be needed during treatment. It also supports understanding and compassion. But a client is coming to you in order to change their story in some way. If you both keep discussing things, this not only continues to amplify the story, it prevents penetrating below the words to access deeper veins of reality that are present in their body. The conversation we want to be having expands beyond the linear construct of words; moving into this dimension of interaction is a wonderful opportunity to practice presence.

If you’re talking with your receiver, it’s not possible to perceive the deeper stress forces that underlie their symptoms.

This shift from verbal conversation to a ‘conversation’ of touch and perception can sometimes be uncomfortable for the practitioner or the receiver. People may feel shy or unsure with silence. If you notice this in yourself, take the opportunity to breathe, acknowledge your feelings, and relax with them as you practice holding silence for short periods. If you sense that the receiver is talking in order to prevent things from going deeper, it may be helpful to say something like ‘I need to be quiet in order to really hear your body and find out what will be most helpful for you.’

Going to this level of listening requires a shift of frequency. Identifying stress patterns that inhibit the flow of information and then releasing those forces liberates energy. The frequency of the receiver, the environment and the giver change. This also creates a shift of how time is experienced.

Going Deeper: A Conversation with the Body

In Shiatsu Shin Tai bodywork there is a focus on activating the flow of energy through the core of the body, especially along the central channel. This includes the spinal cord and nervous system, the vertebral column and its musculature, the craniosacral fluid, the governing vessel meridian and the chakras. The hara, structure, other meridians and cranial system are then used to help distribute and integrate the freed up energy through the whole body.

How do we know whether energy is flowing freely or inhibited? Motion is our main indicator, and to be able to perceive sometimes subtle motions at various levels of the body requires that you listen. Listening at this level expands past just using your ears. Your other senses, including proprioceptive awareness*, become a key skill to develop in order to facilitate positive transformation in those you touch.

*Proprioceptive awareness refers to an expanded range of perception that opens up when your proprioceptive system becomes more active. The golgi tendon organs and muscle spindle fibers are proprioceptive receptors that detect changes in force and movement. When proprioception is activated it expands perception and makes you more sensitive to subtle sensory information.

A general rule of thumb is that when there is less motion in the receiver’s body, the practitioner gives more manual input, more physical treatment. As the flow of life force increases, motion increases; the practitioner begins to give less input, less physical treatment. The receiver’s own energy is now circulating more and we can allow it to become the main driver of the session. It’s like getting a car engine running: first we put in the key and turn it and get the engine revving. Once we drive a minute or two, now all you need to do is direct the car where you want it to go. Some steering, some braking, some acceleration, some turning…. you don’t need to make every part of the engine do what it does, the car does that on it’s own.

Once you help get your receiver’s core energy revved up and flowing, now they have access to clear channels of information that had previously been distorted. ‘Fake news’ has been clouding their network. They’ve been bogged down with years of compression and stress, unable to access accurate information about things like food, exercise, relationships, life direction, etc. With some of these stress forces released, the natural wisdom of the body is activated to self-balance, self-heal and self-develop. And the energy to do this is now available.

Once restrictions are loosening up and energy is flowing better, you become more of a facilitator rather than a ‘healer.’

At this point in a treatment, when restrictions are loosening up and energy is flowing better, you become more of a facilitator rather than a ‘healer.’ You are doing less while their body is doing more. Words at this point are not necessary; the conversation is between your perception, your touch and the receiver’s body. The treatment moves beyond eliminating disturbing symptoms (although of course this is important) into other dimensions. You are working together to liberate their true nature and the energy to fuel that expression.*

*If you’ve studied shin tai, this is when there are Phase II & III motions in the body.

Moving into the Present Time Continuum: Listening Becomes an Active Technique

We approach a treatment differently than many modalities when it comes to rhythm of technique application. We aren’t necessarily touching the body continuously, especially as restrictions release and motion increases. The more motion present, the less we do physically. But we’re not just sitting there doing nothing. We are actively listening. Perceiving. Discerning. Witnessing. Paying attention to what is happening, paying attention to when and where to apply input again. Listening becomes an active ‘technique’ which has direct affects on what is happening during the treatment.

Central channel treatment initiates releases along the meninges of the spinal cord, stimulating the flow of life force deep in the body.

A main thing we focus on in shin tai bodywork is that as compression reduces, space increases, and as space increases, motion is restored. This could be at any level of the body - like a joint, a chakra or the fascia. For example, if you do a fascia release on the lower back, some of the compression in the soft tissues unwinds. The muscles relax, blood flow increases, meridian flow improves and the vertebrae joints gain more mobility. This creates more motion through the whole area. This increased space and motion can then help a subluxated vertebra to move naturally back into a more aligned position.

Also, when space changes, time changes. They are related. If you notice sometimes during treatment that all the sudden you have no awareness of time or are so involved the ‘time’ seems to fly by, the receiver’s life force is being liberated and redistributed throughout their body. At this point you are also receiving ‘treatment’; you’re also being affected deeply by what is occurring in the treatment room. Not only do you both enter more fully into present time, present time expands to include the so-called past and future, becoming what we refer to as the present time continuum. Each moment expands to include all moments and the illusion of linear time dissolves.

When this is occurring, holding a listening presence and simply witnessing what is unfolding becomes an active technique that in itself is promoting further liberation.

Share your favorite tip for listening in the comments section below. We’re all ears :)

Shin Tai International
Previous

A Shiatsu Story: Svetlana in Croatia
Next

How to Keep Enthusiasm & Creativity in Your Practice