Catherine Lucia Francisco - Shiatsu & Esalen Articles

Energetic Bodywork: Ancient Origins for Modern Health
by: Catherine Lucia Francisco and Laura Shahinian Kara

How Reiki Works - The Energetic Skeleton:
Foundation for Healing
by: Catherine Lucia Francisco

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Energetic Bodywork: Ancient Origins for Modern Health
By: Catherine Lucia Francisco and Laura Shahinian Kara

Thousands of years ago Eastern cultures developed systems for healing and health maintenance based on the body's natural energy. There is a great deal of mystery and confusion surrounding these ancient healing arts. One of the major misconceptions is that it is often confused with massage. Actually massaging is never used in Shiatsu and energetic healing such as Reiki. These Eastern techniques have healing properties that can penetrate the body much more deeply, effecting the life force of Chi of each individual.

What is Chi?
Each person has a vital life force coursing through his or her body called chi by the Chinese and ki by the Japanese. It is the essence of your physical body and spirit. This energy flows throughout our entire bodies in pathways called meridians, which are generated from the chakras. The smooth flow and balance of chi forms the foundation of health.

Shiatsu, literally meaning finger pressure, works with the meridian system similar to the principles of acupuncture but without needles. Due to physical and/or emotional stress and trauma one's chi can become blocked along these pathways. As a result, illness, fatigue, headaches, backaches, sciatica, joint pain, digestive and reproductive disorders, to name a few, can occur. Shiatsu applies stretching and moderate pressure to the body, facilitating the free flow of energy promoting health and relaxation. Shiatsu offers psychological as well as physical benefits because each meridian has an emotional aspect allowing for an improvement of one's mood. Shiatsu is often thought of as aggressive and painful, but actually it is neither. Shiatsu is a very relaxing experience often moving the receiver into a deep, peaceful calm while relieving muscle aches and pains accumulated from stress. Traditionally, you receive Shiatsu while lying on a mat on the floor wearing comfortable, non-restrictive clothing.

Energetic Healing has its roots in ancient India and modern physics. Your body has seven main energy centers called chakras. Chakra means wheel in Sanskrit, symbolizing the circular, spinning nature of these unseen pathways - much like the petal of a flower. The chakra centers communicate with the endocrine glands, organs, and nervous system. When the chakras are closed or blocked, due to physical trauma or emotional/environmental stress, the vibrancy and vitality are lost. There is deterioration of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health over time. Through hands-on healing, the chakra pathways are able to clear and open, reducing symptoms such as chronic pain, increasing energy and restoring good health.

Reiki, meaning universal life energy, is an ancient Japanese folk-art. It is another type of energetic healing that is a chakra-based system. The essence of this method is the focused placement of the hands on the body. The system of Reiki provides a means for channeling energy from the universe through the practitioner to the receiver, creating harmony and balance. Reiki is a gentle, meditative treatment that compliments any health care regime.

The term bodywork has become popular due to the varied styles of healing available today. As you can see, many of these modalities have a different focus than the well-known western styles of massage. This work focuses on the body's energy to create smooth flow and balance. There are no oils used because direct with the skin is not required. As with Shiatsu, comfortable clothing is worn but work is done with you lying on a massage table.

Often, deep healing will occur from these powerful restorative arts based on sound and ancient principles of health. Many people experience relief of physical discomfort or pain while others are affected emotionally and spiritually. In any case, changes are achieved with lasting effects resulting in an increase in the quality of life. Of course, the best way for you to know is to experience the benefits for yourself.

© copyright 2001 clf/lsk - all rights reserved

How Reiki Works - The Energetic Skeleton: Foundation for Healing
By: Catherine Lucia Francisco

We have an energetic skeleton that underlies our musculo-skeletal structure which, when affected by energy work, can provide the vehicle for permanent healing to occur. People always ask me how Reiki will help their muscular aches and pains. I believe that when you work on and change the underlying structure of the body it allows physical changes to take place.

Lets look at a stone terrace, which is typically built on a bed of sand or stone dust. If you have a stone that keeps falling out of place, you can reset it as many times as you like and it will still fall out of place until you go in and fix the underlying sand that supports the terrace stones. This is what I have found happens with our bodies. A few years into my practice I began to observe this phenomenon in my clients and it got me thinking about the mechanism behind it.

As an example, a client, who came in for regular Shiatsu sessions to compliment her chiropractic care. After a time she became interested in Reiki and decided she wanted to experience it. We began a treatment protocol of four sessions, which I always do with Reiki treatments (but that is another article). My client felt a deep sense of relaxation and self, she said it opened her up to another level of healing. She was also surprised at how her TMJ and SI joint pain was lessened. After her initial four treatments she wanted to continue to receive both Reiki and Shiatsu sessions. Months passed and one day she commented on how since she had been receiving Reiki it seemed that her chiropractic adjustments "held better". She was not the only one.

I knew that working in this way addressed the body; not only in the physical but also the metaphysical level. What mechanism, if you will, allowed this improvement to occur? I took a look at just what I was doing with my work. I went back in my mind to all of the explanations I had given prospective clients, friends, and students about this work. Over and over again I came up with the fact that I was restructuring the body through these vehicles, allowing stressed energy to redistribute or leave the body, making way for healthy qi and flow thereof. I also knew this was happening somewhere else than the physical body.

As a Shiatsu therapist and energy worker I can feel the qi in these unseen pathways on the body but to have physical or structural changes take place simply by giving Reiki made me look deeper into my work. I want to be clear here that we know on an intellectual level that these are the benefits of this work, but I wanted to know exactly how this occurs. A very Western request from something based in the Eastern way of being. Did I have the right to ask this? Should I not take the road of acceptance and just be grateful my clients feel better? Oh no, being a scientific minded person and very attracted to the mystery of this work, I wanted more. It is wonderful to have a job that peaks ones curiosity, as this is my life's' work at the moment; I needed to delve deeper.

Then I got it, the terrace and the sand! The musculo-skeletal system of the body is the terrace and the energetic skeleton the sand. By giving Reiki I could "repair the sand" and address the underlying cause of disharmony, facilitating a more permanent healing by letting the body take its own natural course.

In my practice, I began to address this finding, regardless of the style of bodywork I am practicing, to get this underlying structure to facilitate recovery from injuries and trauma, be they emotional or physical in nature. The results have been amazing and ever so interesting.