Shiatsu and headaches

The energetic patterns of physical and spiritual pains are basically really simple, even if you regard all the possible complexities created through the very subjective experiencing of pain. This is good for our work, as it allows the Shiatsu practitioner to let the difficult problems which our client might describe remain on the level of the subjective experiencing of the client. Like this, it becomes easier for us to look for the clear and simple pattern, which is the source of this experiencing.

The simple, basic principle of headache is that the free connection between the head and the rest of the body is restricted. As a consequence, Ki is locked in the head. Mostly, it is an energetic fullness which creates the pain – Ki can go in but not out anymore. More rarely, a relative Ki-emptiness can also be the local pattern of a headache.

In the case of a headache the Shiatsu practitioner will thus always check where she or he can perceive an interruption in the energetic field that connects the head with the rest of the body. On this way, he will determine one of four important questions in the treating of headaches.

In most cases, the underlying force of headaches is one which lets Ki rise upwards. The rising force by itself does, however, not yet create a headache. As the prerequisite for every experiencing of pain is a stagnation of Ki, the rising of the Ki needs to go along with a ‘not letting it flow anymore’ so that a headache can evolve.

Liver and Gall Bladder are the energetic organs which produce the rising of the energy in a person and are also responsible for its control (its canalisation), thus being able to create a blockage in the case of an over-control. It is thus no wonder that most headaches have to do with the uprising and the controlling activity of Liver and Gall Bladder and that one can treat them through these organs and their meridians in Shiatsu.

Katsushika Hokusai - Ejiri in der Provinz Suruga

Such an imbalance shows most clearly in the picture of a migraine headache: The fact that a migraine headache is a half-sided headache makes a reference to the Gall-Bladder energy, which is present on the sides of the body and the head. The nausea and vomiting is created through a rising of the Wood-energy, which practically clinches the normally downward moving energy of the Stomach with an iron fist and pulls it upwards. A person who is suffering from a migraine headache is usually under great tension which makes her or him withdraw from others, and only allows the person to do the necessary things under great strains. The source of this tension lays in too big a tension and control in the Wood element. The often present aversion for light shows that this too great tension is also present in the branches of the liver meridian that runs to the eye.

Other types of headaches, however, may present different characteristics which shows that other energetic organs are involved. Such other organs which could also be involved in the rising of the Ki and its stagnation are for example the Triple Heater-, Large Intestine-, Stomach-, or Bladder energy (see also the hints below which can be found in the “Localisation of the Pain”).

These organs will only make the Ki rise in a “Jitsu-style” and lock it in the head if they get the order to do so. They get this order from other organs which feel in distress. This may be the heart energy if the person feels wounded or in fear, or the energy of the lung if it feels like certain life-circumstances are becoming to narrow and threatening. These are just two examples out of many possibilities.

Pain (with a few exceptions) is always created to avoid a certain experience. Pain is itself avoidance. This is why the work with the meridians that carry this feeling which is being avoided (often a Kyo situation) can also be really helpful when working with headaches. The places where the specific state of such an energetic organ shows the clearest are often the key-points for an effective treatment of a tendency to get headaches.

This, as all life-circumstances, personality characteristics, ways of behaving, emotions, diet and external events which stimulate the uprising of the Yang-force within the Wood element, and at the same time encourage a stagnation of the Wood energy, can theoretically also trigger headaches. And any factor that may create the feeling of being helpless in the Kyo organ can give the order for headaches if there is a tendency for this.

Everything that “drives a person up the wall” (which means that guides his Ki upwards), everything that “heats him up” and simultaneously lets her or him cramp and makes her hold on may help to create and maintain a headache. For example stress, a lack of time, internal or external pressure, food that heats up (for example too much stir-fried or too salty food, vinegar, hot spices (these can, in certain cases, also help to dissolve the stagnation), a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables, stimulating beverages like coffee if the person cannot bear it at that moment because of a tense situation in life...

The more, to create a headache must be – for whatever reasons – of advantage for the “system” of this person or present some kind of solution. Otherwise, the rising Ki would go somewhere else (for example to the shoulders, the eyes or the ears) and cause problems there.

We find all the necessary information about all of this when we talk to our client. While we are talking, also her body will reveal important information and the Hara- or back-diagnosis will tell even more. Growing experience in the therapeutic work with Shiatsu lets the understanding become clearer and clearer.

Katsushika Hokusai - Wasserrad bei Onden

With this long list of factors that may trigger headaches it becomes clear that as Shiatsu practitioners it cannot be our goal to simply help the client to get rid of his tendency for headaches. It is rather that the client needs to go into a process of learning, understanding and finding new ways with himself. With Shiatsu, we can accompany and support a person on a part of this way.

In the end, from our point of view, triggering the process of personal development may be even more important than a relief of the headaches.

The principles described so far are especially important when working with the tendency for headaches, e.g. in the days or weeks in-between the headache attacks. The differentiated work with the energetic organs and their meridians according to the information received from the person and her body diagnosis can become the key for a change of the life situation of a person, which can make the tendency for headaches change.

In the case of an acute attack of headache the situation is different, though. The procedure described above can be of help here, too, but the global approach of meridian shiatsu will often not be specific enough, as it may not communicate directly enough with the actual place of pain and its vibrating relationship with the body. Often a more direct work with the local pattern of pain is needed for the effective treatment of an acute headache.

Prerequisite for a direct Shiatsu in this sense is the perception of the energetic patterns of stagnation or interruption at the place of the pain and its near surrounding. In the following I would like to discuss this.

Ki never blocks homogeneously but always creates patterns of fullness and emptiness in its stagnation. The stuck separation in fullness and emptiness is a synonym for stagnation.

On the other hand, fullness and emptiness by itself do not mean stagnation. By playing with each other, the opposite energetic poles of Kyo and Jitsu constantly create and dissolve themselves. This dynamic is an expression of the pulse of life.

Separation, blockage and pain only evolve when the continuous creating, dissolving and referring to each other becomes stagnant. In separation, what was one before now goes separate paths. Continuous Kyo and Jitsu patterns occur because different parts in a person which actually belong together, lose a living contact. One could say that in a way, they do not want to talk to each other anymore. This is a process that the person brings forth himself actively – usually for reasons of her inner balance. The creation and maintenance of such stagnation patterns uses a lot of energy and can make you really tired.

A stagnation can dissolve any time just the way it was created. This can happen for example when the experiences of a person let a separation become unnecessary and thus allow it to dissolve.

It is also possible that the stagnation will dissolve through touch, e.g. in a Shiatsu treatment. In the direct work with the energetic patterns of stagnation the touch with the attention is at least just as important – if not even more important – as physical touch.

Touch works because it offers a different solution for a certain life constellation than the painful and separating “not-letting-go”. Through the immediate and relaxed presence of the person giving the treatment in the Kyo or in the Jitsu, the blockage patterns experience more space and through this the freedom to get into contact with each other again and to start to dissolve. This is not a hypothetical possibility but an effective method of treatment.

As in every pain situation that can be located in the body, also in the case of headaches it is necessary to let the person precisely describe the place of pain. If possible, the client should point it out with her finger and exactly localise the place (up to a few mm). The person should also describe the quality of pain, when and under which typical circumstances they occur, as well as all the other things in the life of the person that could be in connection with the headaches (see beginning of this article).

It is important to get these detailed descriptions even if they do not seem to be important at first. Early conclusions of what to do with the information is unnecessary and should be avoided. In the beginning we are nothing but collectors of information, which later may give us valuable hints on how to proceed in a treatment or a series of treatments. These pieces of information also create the picture we need of a person to work with him effectively.

Also, the localisation of the headache can give certain hints about which energetic organ might be specially involved in this pattern. I described the one-sided headache e.g. as being associated with the Gall Bladder before. The headache which shows in the middle under the skull and which sometimes feels like there would be great pressure or heat under the “lid” is an expression of tension in the liver. Tension headache that pulls upwards from the neck across the occiput is associated with Bladder energy.

In headaches that manifest in the forehead, especially the energies of Large Intestine and Stomach are involved, frontal cavity pain however may be associated with Gall Bladder. A feeling of pressure and heaviness in the whole head, which can feel as if a belt had been too tightly strapped around one’s head indicates a weakness of Ki in Spleen-Pancreas. The Wood element is involved in every kind of headache, however.

It is in the nature of the energetic that these associations are no complete truths. They can give valuable directions for the treatment but they can never replace the exact observation or the impressions we get through our senses while we are giving Shiatsu. Theory is always only a crutch, it can only give hints. To my experience it is the immediate perception that tells us what to do in a treatment.

Katsushika Hokusai - Die Küste von Noboto (in der Provinz Shimosa)

It can be good to hold the head of the client in the beginning of the treatment and to look into it. What might seem like voodoo for some who experience this for the first time, is nothing more than using the abilities of the inner eye. Just like every person can look into his own body, one can also look into the body of other people and discover energetic patterns there. From a physical point of view, the body is a solid thing, but from an energetic viewpoint it is space, in which the attention can travel freely.

In the case of headaches we want to “see” the patterns at the place of pain and its surrounding. “Pattern” means that the place does not appear homogeneous to the inner eye, but that there are differences. There may be places that feel lighter or darker, there may be differences in density, heaviness, or in countless other possible qualities of subjective perception. If I wait for a little while, there will always be patterns that show up. All I have to do is to realise that they are there and accept that what I find is real. Then I can work precisely with the perceived differences (which one may classify as Kyo and Jitsu), it as if I could touch them with my hands.

In my article “Working with Kyo and Jitsu” I have given a description of how to work with pure attention and physical touch. It is always about directly touching places that draw your attention and to perceive the changes that occur while you are working. You allow places of opposite qualities to get into contact with each other, you facilitate their communication. You just offer a possibility and the places are free to accept your offer or not. If they accept it, the situation may change within seconds, and you can “see” it happen.

If I look into the head in this way and touch directly, it is important that, at least for the next few moments, I forget everything I have ever heard about headaches and their energetic patterns. These moments completely belong to the observation and to the allowing myself to be caught by surprise. Every pattern one discovers is unique and has never existed before. To my experience, every pre-formed assumption about what one will probably find reduces the depth of perception and the possibility of Shiatsu drastically.

As an example, the central pattern of headache that started with an accident or injury many years ago may be found in a different place than where the actual injury was. You have to look carefully.

And, as always when dealing with energetic aspects, you will never be completely sure. Your work will always be an experiment. Occasionally asking the client for feedback brings more clarity.

In such a Shiatsu the patterns found can rapidly change. It takes a large amount of attention to follow the changes. One will be rewarded with always new discoveries and possibilities of understanding.

After the centre of the headache has changed to whatever degree before of my inner “eye”, I now take a look at the near surrounding, to what draws my attention and may be used as a communicating partner for the pattern in the centre.

The areas that I find I connect with my hands as well as with my attention. I offer spaces, I touch, I play, try out, allow movement to happen – small and hardly perceptible movements under my fingers or movements which set the whole of the head into movement. I never know what will happen next, it is always new, and I am always actively involved. This is the game, which offers the place of pain more freedom, openness. To the strength and power of this person it offers the possibility to find a new orientation.

Shiatsu and headaches Wilfried Rappenecker

Shiatsu and headaches
Wilfried Rappenecker