Anthony teaching Sei Ki in Switzerland

EasternPeace Sei Ki HeartTouch

Sei Ki HeartTouch is the name I give to the resonance and compassionate touch based bodywork I share both as a group therapy and as a 1-1 bodywork / trauma therapy.

When I share it within a group as a form of mindfulness based connection therapy, I call the work HeartTouch.

When I offer it as a private therapy I use my teacher's Japanese name for it: Sei Ki, sometimes Sei Ki Compassionate Touch.

The main inspiration behind this is the work of Akinobu Kishi. There is a tribute to Kishi Sensei here.

I had the privilige to study with Kishi Sensei directly on many occasions between 2005 and his death in 2012 and formed a personal relationship with him and his wife Kyoko. They have had a profound influence on my life.

HeartTouch

Anthony teaching Sei Ki HeartTouch in Thailand

HeartTouch is about developing the capacity to let go of one's emotional armour and connect with another person with an open heart in resonance.

We then follow a natural touch journey to support the other to become more alive in themselves.

Anyone can learn to do this.

In achieving a natural resonance together, both bodies will start to release hormones associated with our emotional soothing state and enter an empty mind, natural zen state.

There is a simple, good feel of authentically being together. It is the ultimate stress healing and is what all human crave most, to not be alone.

Our society generally teaches us to touch in superficial ways with people, or in a sexual way with a partner. Perhaps we share hugs with friends sometimes or hold hands, but we are usually unfamiliar with simple compassionate touch, leaving this to 'professionals'.

I believe there is much we can learn from this simple but profound practice about our emotional selves and the way we relate to others.

As well as needing to learn how to give care, we often need to learn how to be open to receiving it.

Along the way our capacity for empathy with others develops and our emotional intelligence.

We can then take this wisdom with us into every human interaction so it is ultimately for the benefit of everyone we share our lives with.

Many of the people I teach this practice to have no intention to work with it as a professional bodywork therapist. They simply want to learn to connect with others with more heart and sensitivity whether they are therapists, clinicians or members of the public.

Very often I teach people like myself whose natural inclination is to be afraid, confused, drained or simply overwhelmed by close contact with others. With this work we can grow beyond this.

HeartTouch Project / Network

Anthony sharing HeartTouch in Switzerland

I have a vision to roll HeartTouch out as a community based service, which might contribute to general well-being and happiness in society, ease pressure on the mental health services and reduce the national suicide rate.

Teaching partnerships combining people with good Ki based bodywork skills and individuals with lived experience, possibly at times also a psychotherapist or clinician should be able to hold space for people in difficulty.

My HeartTouch training events aim to inspire / empower people in this work.

There is a dedicated website on the way: Community HeartTouch

Sei Ki as a Therapy

Anthony giving a Sei Ki treatment in Thailand

Sei Ki as a therapy, in which one person with need receives from another with adequate experience and self-development is often a profound experience, touching the core of who we are.

I sometimes call this work Sei Ki Compassionate Touch, though Sei Ki is easier once we know the work.

Sessions can vary enormously, sometimes involving dramatic emotional or physical trauma releases from the receiver.

I see it as a kind of body psychotherapy, though its roots are in Japanese Ki (life force) Therapy and not Western psychotherapy.

Touch is usually very gentle, not pressure based like most Shiatsu and is given through the clothes usually with the client lying on a futon, though other formats are possible when necessary.

Anthony giving a Sei Ki treatment in Thailand

Sessions last about an hour but timing is less important than a feeling of completion. We sometimes need to continue longer as it is unhelpful to stop emotional or physical release midway.

Sei Ki is not specific in being useful for people with a particular problem or illness, rather it can help people to achieve a higher state of aliveness and balance within themselves, and that state may not involve whatever symptoms they experience before coming to the session. The body can take time to catch up i.e detox processes.

The best thing is to approach it with a sense of open-ness, not weighed down with too much burden of specific expectation.

Anthony giving a Sei Ki treatment in Thailand

This isn't easy, but some degree of acceptance of how things are now, along with allowing the space for this to change at the right time is a good way of approaching a session.

In my own work, I've been happy supporting people with anything from war trauma to sexual abuse and rape histories, 'bipolar' diagnosis, 'acute psychosis' diagnosis, 'paranoid schizophrenia' diagnosis (we got on well!) to terminal cancer. In each case the sessions came to a good feeling. This is beautiful work.

It is possible for people to experience change and move on from a single session of Sei Ki with me, but there can be deeper benefits from taking a series of treatments. This depends on the individual.

One has to experience Sei Ki to know what it is, cognitive descriptions never satisfy. Only then are there no more questions.

If you wish to read more, go to What is Sei Ki?

And for inspiration, there is some poetry: A Sei Ki Session

Sei Ki HeartTouch Courses & Workshops

Anthony teaching in Thailand

HeartTouch Workshops

I offer HeartTouch workshops for personal well-being.

Groups may be of healthy individuals keen to develop more sensitivity in the way they are with others or they may be just curious to experience this level of connection with another human being.

I often share this work with people experiencing extreme distress including people with every mental health diagnosis.

I have facilitated a huge number of workshops since 2013, often with small groups of people, but occasionally with larger groups of 20-40 people.

Anthony teaching psychotherapists in Milan

HeartTouch Training

I offer HeartTouch training for Shiatsu / Bodywork therapists, psychotherapists / clinicians, family members of those with lived experience and experiencers of extreme states.

My goal now is to support suitable candidates to become facilitators of HeartTouch groups. I envisage teams with different backgrounds including lived experience, cooperating to hold space for people with difficulty.

The training also serves as a path to greater empathy and compassion for therapists and clinicians. You will enhance your capacity to work 1-1 with people experiencing extreme states whether through touch or simple co-regulation through presence alongside talking therapy.

Most events will welcome family members and experiencers and function naturally as a recovery training. I hope at least some of the experiencers going through the training go on to become facilitators themselves.

In 2017 I offered a 5 day training in Ticino, Switzerland with 20 psychotherapists, a 2 day training in Sao Paolo, Brazil and a 1 day event in Milan for psychotherapists and psychiatrists.

Since 2018, I've offered 5 workshops in London under the name Weathering Storms for experiencers, clinicians and bodyworkers.

I am passionate about this work, as I know it can make a difference in psychiatric outcomes.

Anthony teaching in Switzerland

Sei Ki HeartTouch Workshops

I offer Sei Ki workshops for bodywork therapists looking to deepen their work and personal capacity, especially in the mental health direction.

In these events, I will stay closer to the teaching of Akinobu Kishi though I will still share my personal practices for safely establishing resonance (or not if this is appropriate) with people experiencing trauma and psychosis.

At this level, Sei Ki is about shining yourself, so lots of Ki practices as well as touch training.

The work is about you finding your own natural inner movement and way of working with others.

Contact Me if you would like to find out more.

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