My name is Kathy. My health problems – backache, arthritic joints, constipation, frequent headaches, minor ailments such as colds and flu, often feeling under the weather – were typical of what you learn to live with, I used to think.

Shiatsu training courses classes had helped others in my family: my daughter’s period pains, my son’s athletic injuries, my son-in-law with London business stress.

I asked Lee, our Zen Shiatsu Society therapist: “Can shiatsu cure my kind of problems, or at least help me feel better and cut down the medication?”

Lee: Think of it more as relieving symptoms, Kathy. Nature is the tao healer, Shiatsu more an intermediary, finding the imbalances, harmonising your energy flow, helping you get in touch with your natural self-healing power. And nowadays, more doctors recommend shiatsu for chronic conditions, so after a few treatments have a chat with your GP.

Lee spent time talking with me, finding out about the stress factors in my life, my diet and sleep, as well as enquiring about my various conditions. As her hands gently explored my abdomen, Lee explained Oriental Diagnosis and the clues she could pick up from my features, the hue and texture of my skin, the sound of my voice and the tensions in my body.

Lee: For example, Kathy, I can feel your energy is rather low in the meridian network regulating your immune system. This could account for feeling under the weather and being prone to minor ailments. The headaches could be connected with over-activity in another meridian network which might also be related to joint pain. There are other less obvious indications for the chronic backache and constipation.

Her hands worked, applying light pressure here, deeper there, holding to strengthen where she found energy lacking, soothing and gently stretching to disperse in the over-active meridian. I found myself relaxed, yet felt alert and aware. Almost an hour had passed when Lee stopped.

I was filled with a most wonderful sense of well-being. My back felt free, my head clear and my joints at ease. I asked Lee about her training. She studied for three years at the Zen School of Shiatsu.

Lee: The courses are modular, which suits me as I have a part-time job as well as being a full-time wife and mother. Without other commitments I might have qualified in two years. There is a lot to learn: Zen Shiatsu, Oriental Diagnosis, Taoist Medicine, its underlying philosophy, Western anatomy, physiology and pathology. It’s fun, they’re nice people and you’re treated as an individual. And the student support is excellent.

I asked Lee what she thought were the qualities needed to be a Zen Shiatsu practitioner.

Lee: I think you need to be a giver. With an open mind, too, because the ideas are so different from what we are used to. And a willingness to keep learning – our main teacher still goes back to his Taoist Master in Asia, to learn like a Beginner again, every time.

Lee showed me some simple exercises to share in my own healing process. I felt very satisfied with my treatment and Lee’s sympathetic approach, and impressed with her professionalism and depth of knowledge. We worked out a treatment plan to suit my particular conditions and circumstances. Shiatsu did help me feel better, more in control of my own health and less dependent on medication.