Carola Beresford-Cooke - Shiatsu Theory and Practice

Reprinted in 2016

by Singing Dragon

an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.singingdragon.com

First published by Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier, London, UK, 2011

Copyright Carola Beresford-Cooke 2016

Foreword copyright Thomas Myers 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Beresford-Cooke, Carola, author.

Title: Shiatsu theory and practice / Carola Beresford-Cooke ; foreword by

Thomas Myers.

Description: Third edition. | London ; Philadelphia : Singing Dragon, 2016. |

First published by Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier, London, UK, 2011. |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015039345 | ISBN 9781848193086 (alk. paper)

Subjects: | MESH: Acupressure.

Classification: LCC RM723.A7 | NLM WB 369.5.A17 | DDC 615.8/222--dc23 LC record available at

http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039345

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84819 308 6

eISBN 978 0 85701 260 9

For Allan and Alex, with love

The online resources accompanying this text include video sequences of all the techniques indicated in the text by the icon. To look at the video for a given technique, click on the relevant entry in the Contents list on the Singing Dragon website: www.singingdragon.com/catalogue/book/9781848193086. The online resources are designed to be used in conjunction with the text and not as stand-alone resources.

Nothing comforts, enlivens or commands attention like the informed touch of another human being. Touch is food, vital nourishment and for all our speed-of-light riches, we as a culture remain starved in the domain of contact.

The book you hold in your hand, Carola Beresford-Cookes tour de force on Shiatsu, is itself a form of touch. Wander where you will in its pages to feel the warm support of a sure and deft hand guiding your orientation into this ancient but ever-new art.

Carolas style is unhurried but wastes nothing. With easy patience and sunny practicality, she takes us first through the frame around the art: its history, some recent science, self-care, and tools of the trade. The canvas of Shiatsus trip around the body is then filled in with color and line literally, in this case, the meridian lines clearly and concisely presented.

The color comes in the many poetic and physiological connections that Carola draws from the classical canon of Asian medicine, blended with her own considerable experience. She has clearly looked the classics in the eye and weighed their staying power, so is unafraid to adapt the tradition to current conditions.

No book is just a book any more, and this books DVD gives the visual learner more access to confidence in the accuracy of techniques learned. This, coupled with the thorough appendices and index, make this definitive presentation a lasting resource for your bookshelf.

Every ancient art yoga and Qi Gong, meditation and dietary rules deserves respect for centuries of on-the-job training. But every ancient art is currently being reconceived to answer the pressing question singular to our time: How do we maintain balance between our Neolithic body unchanged in essence since we domesticated fire and our new environment: the electronic suburbs we are rapidly machining for ourselves? What, in simpler terms, alleviates distress?