Our rundown of some of our highlights from 2023.
January - We kicked off the year with our winter edition of the journal, full of rich, diverse and fascinating content to brighten up these long dark nights.
February - Beyond the Futon, our guide to working in the community with a variety of service providers was launched at the February zoom meeting.
March - In March we passed our External Quality Assurance checks. As the official AIQA provider, we put in place systems to support schools with the implementation of the Level 4 Shiatsu Diploma - key in getting official recognition. We also invested in an Education Administrator to support schools with the ratification process.
April - April brought our second Sustainable Healthcare Day. We worked closely with the IHC (Integrated Healthcare Collaborative) to lobby for the recognition of complementary therapies. The annual campaign focused on being Kind to your body and the environment. A simple self-help guide was produced along with continued awareness raising.
May - June is the time of Shiatsu Awareness Month and Shiatsu without Borders. We put together a bursary for members to spend on their own initiatives for this month and it went down a storm. We loved hearing about Shiatsu College’s '1 thing I love about Shiatsu' project.
July - Schools were supported in the two-yearly process of Ratification, which is our quality assurance method of scrutinising the training provided in Ratified Schools. This enables graduates to go straight onto our Register of Professional Shiatsu Practitioners (MrSS).
August - The RRCM conference in August both helped us in our research strategy and featured a Shiatsu poster. The increased attendance at our AGM was also a highlight, showing that together, are the Society.
In September Annie Cryar headed to the Annual ESF meeting in Greece. The European team met to discuss updates on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and closer cooperation between the National Associations. Dan Smith also gave us a wonderful fresh take on Shiatsu from his bus in our 'practitioner in focus' series.
In November we gathered your advice together for our 'Growing your Practice' guide to inspire new practitioners, with tips we wished we’d know when we started out. If you missed it, it’s here to download and digest….
December - Now we settle in for a short pause to rest and review during the Water Element. Work will continue behind the scenes on the website and your membership administration.