With it’s roots firmly in Oriental Medicine, the British School of Shiatsu-Do has developed it’s therapeutic bodywork through a direct line from Namakoshi’s point-orientated Shiatsu (in the 1950s), who used Chinese traditional acupuncture points, and Masunaga Sensei and Ohashi Sensei (from the 1960 onwards) who developed their theories from ancient Chinese texts. Western psychology as well as Oriental philosophy was used by Shizuko Masunaga, who also developed meridian work in the form of Zen Shiatsu.
The British School of Shiatsu-do was co-founded in 1983 by Ray Ridolfi, who was studying in London, and Saul Goodman.
Saul was also developing Shiatsu in his International School in the States and Europe. The BSS has developed a broad and effective curriculum, using 5-Element Oriental theories, Zen Shiatsu, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and currently, Shiatsu ShinTai, via a Macrobiotic route in the 1990’s.
During the latter part of the 1980s and 1990s, Ray Ridolfi and Suzanne Franzen trained a team of highly talented and skilled Shiatsu practitioners to become Shiatsu teachers. The 11 named teachers in our BSS family tree have, at some time, opened and successfully run Shiatsu Schools throughout the UK since 1992. We have a wonderful team of BSS teachers – a list of our current teachers can be found here.
To see larger version, click on image
Presently, we are widening our British School of Shiatsu-Do boundaries, and are also working with European teachers.
Char Scrivener and Gill Hattersley are continuing the development of Saul Goodman’s work, and together with Jani Golobic in Slovenia, opened the British School of Shiatsu and Panacea School, in Ljubljana in 2013. Jani is a Shiatsu Practitioner and teacher who trained with Saul Goodman in Europe & the States.
Many British School of Shiatsu-Do graduates, continue to teach, work & run workshops as Shiatsu Practitioners, throughout the UK.