IVAN BELL
(FRANCE)

Touching the Mind through the Column of Emptiness (XuLi)

In classical Chinese texts, there are two references to XuLi, which is said to be without a point and to be a Column of Emptiness. After years of research and trials on more than 800 people, Ivan Bel will show you where this line is located and how it reconnects the recipient with their inner spirit. This exciting, philosophical and very simple approach allows people who have lost their sense of purpose in life to reconnect, or when a Shiatsu treatment that has gone on too long is no longer effective. It is a true journey of initiation and a very practical tool that you will discover during this workshop.

Curriculum Vitae

Ivan Bel est praticien de Shiatsu et MTC depuis plus de 26 ans. C’est aussi un enseignant international, fondateur du Ryoho Shiatsu et de l’ONG Mission Shiatsu. Il est également l’auteur du livre The Spirit of Shiatsu.

MOUNIA BOUHAMIDI

Touch the Center Touch the Whole

People who come to see us are generally going through a difficult period and need to be welcomed as a whole rather than through the prism of their difficulties, so they can remember that they are not limited to their problems, but are a whole where their weaknesses coexist with their strengths.

Nature, through Yin and Yang, reminds us that everything is in everything else, in constant motion, and that nothing is absolute. If this movement becomes unbalanced, it is in search of a new equilibrium.

Offering space and attention to reconnect at what is there. Being with, without judgment, body and mind relaxed, heart open. Grounded, aligned between earth and sky. As what is there doesn’t need to be fixed or forced to change; it simply needs awareness to be recognized as part of the whole.

Touching the center is to settle into that void space of unity beyond all separation. There, the tsubo finds its way back to the whole and the whole communicates with the tsubo - a space where we can breathe fully, empty and full at the same time, as everything is there.

Practices will be offered to guide your conscious touch and deepen your feelings; simple tools from the art of Shiatsu, which will surely enrich your practice.

Curriculum Vitae

Shiatsu practitioner for 18 years and teacher at Terra Shiatsu in France.

Two things have fascinated and excited me since I first discovered Shiatsu:
- The search for the most accurate and supportive touch possible for the movement of life.
- The beauty and creativity of the different paths of transformation and resilience.

I receive men and women of all ages, for all types of life issues.
I support women through cycles, pregnancy, birth, postpartum and menopause, and I also treat babies.

For some time now, I have been supporting women who have suffered sexual and/or sexist violence, with or without associated pathologies.

I also work on scars and all the physical and emotional imbalances they create. Currently, I am actively involved in research on the benefits of Shiatsu on C-section scars.

KATERINA CHRISSOCHOU 
(GREECE/SWITZERLAND)

Touch as an access to inner spaces

This workshop is a journey into the inner world – where connection, potential, and inner truth emerge. Through mindful touch, inner meridian pathways, and the work with the Heart–Uterus Meridian Bao Mai, we open gateways into inner spaces. A body journey combined with techniques from hypnosystemics and Hypno‑Shiatsu, deepens the immersion into the body’s inner landscape. In a second step, we explore how to support clients in strengthening the connection between their spiritual heart and their physical grounding.

Within the body, communication is possible down to the cellular level, expressed symbolically and with great subtlety. This form of inner resonance offers clients valuable diagnostic insights and helps activate the body’s own healing processes. Hypnosystemic methods provide highly effective tools for rapid anxiety resolution, behavioral change, and future‑oriented goal visualization. Through the technique of double dissociation—viewing distressing experiences on an inner black‑and‑white screen—the emotional charge can be reduced and replaced with stabilizing, positive states.

This creates an experiential space where touch, inner imagery, and symbolic body communication interact, opening new pathways toward inner clarity, depth, and connection.

Curriculum Vitae

Katerina Chrissochou is a sports teacher, movement therapist, and federally certified Shiatsu therapist and Complementary Therapist HF. She is also a trained Qi Gong instructor and has completed advanced training in hypnosystemics. From this background, she developed HypnoShiatsu, an integrative approach combining hypnosis and Shiatsu.

Since 2008, Katerina has been running her own practice in Zurich while also working in a psychiatric institution. For the past 19 years, she has been a lecturer at the Heilpraktikerschule in Lucerne, where she leads four complementary therapy training programs, including the Shiatsu training.

NILSA EBERHART
(PUERTO RICO)

Emptiness as a resource

 Rooted in the shiatsu understanding of vibrational frequency, this experiential workshop uses sound, meditation, scanning and observation to access inner emptiness and refine perception. Through different practices, participants are guided to sense frequency and vibration as lived experience, cultivating a deeper, embodied awareness beyond the senses. My point of view is not absence. Emptiness is the original condition from which life arises.

To enter emptiness is to return to the uncarved state—before intention, before identity, before effort. It is the inner cauldron where movement dissolves into stillness, and stillness gives birth to refined perception. Here, awareness no longer grasps; it listens. The senses soften, the mind quiets, and vibration reveals itself without being named.

Emptiness is the space in which jing is conserved, qi circulates freely, and shen becomes luminous. It is not something to be created, but something to be remembered. Through patience and sustained practice, emptiness matures into a living presence—responsive, intelligent, and deeply fertile.

From this state, perception refines itself beyond the physical senses. Frequency is no longer an idea, but a felt reality. The meridians speak, not through effort, but through resonance. Action arises without forcing, and purpose unfolds without striving.

Curriculum Vitae

Nilsa Eberhart is a shiatsu practitioner with over 20 years of experience. A graduate of the European Shiatsu Institute (ESI), she continues to evolve her practice through ongoing studies with the teachers of the Shiatsu College. Based in her homeland of Puerto Rico, Nilsa has devoted her life to offering sessions and teaching Zen Shiatsu alongside other healing practices. In 2014, she founded the Zen Shiatsu Caribbean Institute. She is also the author of Rising Celestial Dragon and the Invisible Masters and Rising Celestial Dragon and the Wisdom of the Stars.

 MIHAEL MAMYCHSHVILI

What’s at the HEART of the MATTER

What’s at the Heart of the Matter invites practitioners to step beyond technique and rediscover Shiatsu as a living dialogue between presence, perception, and touch. In this 3.5-hour experiential workshop, we explore the heart not as an emotional center, but as a refined organ of listening that bridges hara, hands, and nervous system.

Drawing from Shiatsu, trauma-informed practice, and intuitive perception, participants will learn to recognize when treatments are guided by habit, pressure, or the need to help — and how these unconscious patterns can limit depth and effectiveness. Through guided perception exercises, partner work, and live demonstration, we will investigate how safety, slowness, and non-doing allow the body to reveal its own priorities beneath symptoms and meridian maps.

This workshop is suitable for practitioners of all levels who sense that something essential is often missed in practice. It offers a return to simplicity, humility, and presence — where touch becomes a conversation, and Shiatsu once again meets the human being at the heart of the matter.

Curriculum Vitae

Mihael Mamychshvili is the creator of the NeuroPath Reset Method and has worked as a therapist for over 25 years. He is an internationally recognized Shiatsu practitioner, trauma and chronic pain specialist, and teacher. His work integrates Zen Shiatsu, nervous system regulation, intuitive perception, and trauma-informed practice, bridging traditional Eastern healing arts with modern neuroscience. Mihael teaches and mentors practitioners worldwide, supporting deep, embodied transformation through presence-based touch and listening beyond technique.

MIKE MANDL
(AUTRIA)

Spreading the Wings of the Dragon

In a world of almost suffocating abundance, we have lost the space to take off. Flying requires emptiness, otherwise we cannot spread our wings and move freely. As always, there is a deep wisdom hidden in the figurative language of Asian philosophy. In TCM, the stomach meridian is associated with the dragon. And with thinking.

In order to find our real purpose and meaning, our thinking should be in sync with the messages from heaven, and the dragon stomach is the postman. Just as it breaks down our food on a physical level, it should absorb the heavenly vibrations, process them and make them available to us so that we can align our thinking and ourselves with the greater whole.

But if the postman constantly has to deal with everyday trifles, major crises and doomsday scenarios that have no nutritional value for the soul and consciousness, then he becomes heavy and sluggish and eventually forgets that he ever had wings. The result: The heavenly connection is lost and we drown in earthly rubbish. Despite having more than ever, we suffer from deep inner emptiness. An emptiness with burden and load. We are overeating and yet still hungry. The stomach energy derails and creates toxic heat that penetrates the heart. We lose our ability for clarity and love. The problem: confusion and materialism as a refuge on a global level. And constantly increasing eating disorders, diabetes, circulatory diseases and deep fatigue on an individual level.

We will delve deeply into the energetics and significance of the stomach meridian as the dragon's runway in order to first find understanding and healing within ourselves before we can share this treasure with others in Shiatsu.

Curriculum Vitae

Mike Mandl has been practising Shiatsu full-time in Vienna for 30 years and specialises in more complex issues and the healing aspects of Shiatsu. This includes studying Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and clinical practice in China. In addition to his Shiatsu practice, he is the director of the International Academy for Hara Shiatsu in Vienna, which has been working with clinical institutions for 25 years to create a synthesis between Western and Eastern medicine. Mike is also the director of the 5th European Shiatsu Congress, initiator of the Shiatsu Summit in Vienna, author of several successful books on Shiatsu and TCM, operator of the e-learning platform ‘Das Zentrum’, international Shiatsu teacher with courses throughout Europe, and enthusiastic father of three children.

CHRIS MCALISTER
(UK/SWEDEN)

Touching the Mind through the Column of Emptiness (XuLi)

In classical Chinese texts, there are two references to XuLi, which is said to be without a point and to be a Column of Emptiness. After years of research and trials on more than 800 people, Ivan Bel will show you where this line is located and how it reconnects the recipient with their inner spirit. This exciting, philosophical and very simple approach allows people who have lost their sense of purpose in life to reconnect, or when a Shiatsu treatment that has gone on too long is no longer effective. It is a true journey of initiation and a very practical tool that you will discover during this workshop.

Curriculum Vitae

Ivan Bel est praticien de Shiatsu et MTC depuis plus de 26 ans. C’est aussi un enseignant international, fondateur du Ryoho Shiatsu et de l’ONG Mission Shiatsu. Il est également l’auteur du livre The Spirit of Shiatsu.

MARINA PAPAZIAN
(IRAN/SWEDEN)

The Yin, The Yang and The Neutral

Ren Mai and Du Mai are the central channels and two of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. They are mighty seas that harbor, transport and transform Qi.

But what if, just like in the Tai Ji symbol, there’s yet another energetic presence that is neither Yin nor Tang but rather contains the two energetic poles, just like the circle that holds and unifies the poles in the “Yin-Yang” symbol?

In Vedic traditions,Tibetan Buddhism and other practices, there is mention of a third energetic pathway along the spine, that is neither Yin nor Yang. It does not have any specific energetic charge, actual properties or qualities of its own but rather, it is an empty and luminous space where duality dissolves. When the energies enter this space, a sense of alignment and unity can be felt.

In this workshop we will explore this space through desired intention by the recipient, subtle touch on the Ren and Du points, imagery to guide the energy towards this space and directed breath. We will help the recipient attain spacious clarity, a new landscape and a sense of both “nothing missing” and “this is my purpose” in their spine and body, making Ren and Du Mai even more Extraordinary!

Curriculum Vitae

Reflexology training, 1993-1994, Pain Clinic, Helga Engberg, Sweden

Acupuncture training, 1997-2000, Isshin Gakkai, Chris McAlister, Sweden

Shiatsu training, 1998-2001, Isshin Gakkai, Chris McAlister, Sweden

Qi Gong and Tai Chi, Chris McAlister, Peter Yates and Tony Griswold

Seasonal Pilates, Tina Hedren, Sweden

Seasonal Yoga, Tina Hedren, Sweden

I teach Shiatsu in Uppsala, Sweden and at the Polish Shiatsu College in Warsaw.

I also teach Qi Gong, Pilates and Yoga in Sweden.

DIEGO SANCHEZ
(URUGUAY)

Emptiness: from the Atom to the Soul

In this seminar we’ll use the space inside our joints to show how we can change our own relationship with matter and how we can expand that effect into our emotional, mental and spiritual levels. 

Yogananda, in the book  Autobiography of a Yogi, wrote about the atom as an example of how the “empty” space within the atom defines the atom a lot better than the two material parts that the space binds together. 

The space within our body joints is what makes movement possible. It is what binds and puts in relationship two or more parts that otherwise would be fixed or rigid. Diseases of the joints are often related to alterations in the amount and the quality of that space. 

I have had experiences where just directing my intention through Shiatsu touch to expand that space, completely recovered jammed joints. Not working on the material aspects of the joint (tendons, ligaments, etc) but on the more subtle aspect of that “empty” space, consistently improves the symptoms. 

I have applied the same reasoning to the whole body-mind system. Focusing on the part, brings a partial solution. Focusing on that invisible space that binds everything and puts it in relationship, brings more wholesome and lasting results in less time and with less effort. 

In this class we will experience the sensation of the space within as a tool for expansion from the physical to the spiritual. 

Curriculum Vitae

Diego Sanchez is a pioneer in the use of Shiatsu in hospitals and emergency situations. He worked as a volunteer at Ground Zero supporting rescue workers after the collapse of the Twin Towers during 9-11. He worked at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in NYC, supporting patients after open-heart surgeries and supporting end-of-life, HiV/ Aids, transplant and cancer patients.  As a long time student of Pauline Sasaki, he has always been inspired by testing knowledge directly applied to the reality of life; beyond theory, directly in practice. He teaches in the US and Europe and lives in Uruguay, where he organizes retreats by the ocean. 

ALICE WHIELDON
(UK)

Sei-Ki: Emptiness in action, the power of non-doing in bodywork

 In this workshop you will experience a taste of this profound art and how, when touch is an empty container, rather than medicalised technique, health is experienced as a reawakening of our original aliveness.

Sei-Ki was founded by Kishi Akinobu, graduate of Namikoshi's Shiatsu College and top student of Masunaga. In 1980, following a satori awakening, Sei-Ki was born from his fresh understanding. It is not a style of Shiatsu but a new lineage.

In Sei-Ki, we do not apply theory and technique to a submissive patient. We empty ourselves to hear and see more clearly. We touch in order to reflect the situation and distortion of the client, not to fix and change. This is tariki, the discipline of surrender, here applied to bodywork. We work the subconscious, with emotions and body, yet we point to the aspect of being human that is eternal. Only by emptying ourselves of preconceptions can the universal find its way in.

In this short workshop you will be invited to put aside technique and theory in order to observe, feel more deeply and experience the depth of connection that is possible when we stop adding techniques and diagnoses. We discover what happens when we grow our attention and open to what is beyond form.

Curriculum Vitae

Dr Alice Whieldon has presented Sei-Ki for over 25 years. She worked closely with Kishi Akinobu until his death in 2012 and co-authored, Sei-Ki: Life in Resonance (2011, Kishi and Whieldon).

Alice is the Director of Sei-Ki Hub, founded with two colleagues and dedicated to furthering Sei-Ki as a profession and community. She also wrote, Clearing: the key to mindfulness mastery (2016). Additionally, Alice has degrees in Philosophy, Religious Studies and Theology and taught in Higher Education for many years. She brings a forensic understanding to her presentation of this work. Alice is joined in Poland by Alexandra Gelny, co-founder of Sei-Ki Hub and with a growing reputation in Sei-Ki.

GRANDMOTHER WINTER JADE
(USA)

Title and description to Come

RAMI LEON YULZARI
(ISRAEL)

Creating Space for Encounter and Transformation

In this workshop, we will explore and practice how to create a containing and empathetic space, within ourselves and our partners, in a Shiatsu treatment. We will practice this in Qi Gong movement, using Lung Yin Qi, and in Shiatsu, creating a warm and welcoming space where our partner's Qi can express itself. This encounter space becomes a Qi circle, containing, transforming and allowing our partner's Qi to flow back more vividly and healthily. In the final part of the workshop, we will share our sensations, feelings and images.

Curriculum Vitae

Rami Leon Yulzari, Zen-Shiatsu and Qi-Gong practitioner.

Former manager of "Maga" School of Shiatsu. His articles on Shiatsu have been published in various magazines and in the book Shiatsu – Space for Encounter, Edited by Barbara Murakami.