Dawn Oei

Dawn has an MA in Politics from the University of Glasgow and worked in the diplomatic field for more than twenty years.

She discovered Shiatsu in 2002 during a particularly stressful period in her life and found it a safe and supportive environment in her own healing. In 2011, she began her Shiatsu studies at the British School of Shiatsu-Do in London. She gained her Practitioner Diploma and became a Member of the Register of Professional Practitioners of the Shiatsu Society UK in 2014. Since then, she has practised Shiatsu Shin Tai. She is also a Shiatsu Society UK registered teacher.

Dawn has a particular interest in and experience of working with grief, fear, anxiety, trauma, depression, insomnia, emotional distress, back pain, arthritis, sciatica, joint problems and digestive issues.

She has worked as a volunteer Shiatsu practitioner for a charity in London supporting clients living with HIV and Aids, and in a neighbourhood in Edinburgh with a high level of poverty and unemployment. In the 1990s, she was a volunteer telephone counsellor for two London charities: London Friend (supporting the LGBTI community) and London Rape Crisis Centre. 

She currently has a private practice in Edinburgh. She also provides health and wellbeing support to a local organisation and is available as a mentor to Shiatsu students.

HOW I SEE SHIATSU

As practitioners, we learn how to see, observe, diagnose, sense and treat. There is an awareness of someone's state the moment they walk through the door into the treatment room. How do they seem today? Restful, at ease, restless or stressed?

Shiatsu encourages the receiver (and practitioner) to drop in to the futon just for a moment and to soften.

Sometimes we have a conscious intention to bring balance and encourage ease in the body. However, deep transformational healing work can occur when, without any intention or thought or pre-thought, we follow what our client presents and support them in the moment. 

Beyond theory and training: Be present as a practitioner, no matter what is happening in your life or your client's life.

Self-care practices (eg meditation, proprioceptive exercises, Qi Gong) are essential. They help us learn presence of being: in our personal lives and as practitioners. They also show us how to stop, wherever we are and to turn our attention to simply noticing what is here, with compassion and curiosity.

Living and working with presence requires honesty. It also takes courage from the heart to do this work and to believe in its deep resonance. Being able to hold the space for a client supports and guides them and gives them courage too.

I have been discovering new ways to work with techniques that I learned years ago and finding new qualities of touch. The learning never ends.

"When you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything" - Lao Tzu

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few" - Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind Beginner's Mind

​"Work with intention and connect with attention" - Saul Goodman, Shintai International

ABOUT SHIATSU SHIN TAI

Shiatsu Shin Tai is a highly effective form of healing bodywork that was developed by Saul Goodman. 

Shin Tai expands on traditional Shiatsu and is based on a system of diagnosis and technique that focuses on two primary meridians: Governing Vessel and Conception Vessel. Treatments include meridian work, fascial unwinding, cranio-sacral techniques, Central Channel release, and chakra work to clear meningeal stress and deeply held stress patterns in the body, and soft tissue structural adjustments to correct specific misalignments in the hips, sacrum and spine. 

Shin Tai treatments are deeply relaxing and support and strengthen the body's natural ability to heal and balance itself by increasing available life force and bringing the body into better alignment (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually). The body's natural resonance is restored at the cellular, organ, joint and vibrational levels. When you support one area, you support the whole body. This is the beauty of Shin Tai.

Proprioceptive exercises form a key part of Shin Tai practice: these involve a specific type of movement and focus that activates the proprioceptive system (part of the nervous system) and expands one’s perception of space and time, sense of alignment physically, mentally, and emotionally and develops our Inner Guidance System. When we take the time to find our own true alignment, we become more able to support our clients in finding their alignment. We learn to wait, notice and observe how we are and give ourselves the space and time to come back to our centre.

CONTACT DETAILS

Karen Dawn Oei  MA, Dip. BSS, SrSS (T)

Shiatsu Shin Tai Practitioner

Senior Member of the Professional Register of the Shiatsu Society UK and Shiatsu Society registered teacher

Email: [email protected]

Mobile: +44 07912357198

Location: Portobello, Edinburgh EH15 1HD

Webpage: www.dawnoei-shiatsushintai.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dawnoeishiatsuedinburgh/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/DawnOei