Asi Shnabel's Blog

  Depression and anxiety are among the most common mental health conditions in the United States. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), approximately 21 million adults (8.4% of the U.S. population) experienced at least one major depressive episode in 2020. Anxiety disorders affect nearly 40 million adults annually, representing about 18.1% of the population. Impact: These conditions significantly affect individuals' quality of life, relationships, and productivity. Depression is a leading cause of disability in the U.S., and untreated anxiety can lead to severe physical and mental health issues. Causes and Risk Factors: Both depression and anxiety can stem from a combination of genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors. Common triggers include trauma, stress, chronic illness, and significant life changes. Treatment and Support: Modern traditional treatments include psychotherapy (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy), medication (e.g., antid...

Shiatsu-Anma can be very effective in treating long-term conditions, that have resided in the body for many years. many of us carry those conditions and have adopted lifestyles to cope with their debilitating restrictions, or have managed to ignore them to the point of decreased body- mind communication and inner degeneration, resulting in further disabilities, diseases etc.  Our bodies contain a complexed natural immunization and recovery mechanism that most of us are unaware of and usually exploit due to stressful lifestyles, past traumas, emotional blockage, lack of proper bodily awareness, poor body constitution and more. Shiatsu-Anma is a natural form of pressure therapy that promotes this feature in our bodies and utilizes it so to recover any damages or blockages, and optimize our body's functioning. Usually chronic conditions are built up in our body "under the radar" for a long period of time, and is accumulated to the level of obvious symptoms and further inter...

Insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or experiencing non-restorative sleep despite adequate opportunity for sleep. It can lead to daytime fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating. Insomnia can be acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term), and it may be caused by various factors such as stress, anxiety, depression, medical conditions, medications, or poor sleep habits. Traditional treatment options include improving sleep hygiene, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), and sometimes medications under medical supervision. Common reasons I have seen throughout my career as causes for insomnia are: going to sleep with unrelaxed mind (worry, stress, too many responsibilities etc.), environmental factors such as working up late, strong lights prior to sleep, eating spicy/heavy foods before sleeping and more. Insomnia involves to a great deal our Pineal gland, a hormonal gland located behind our brain-stem and responsi...

   S hiatsu and Anma are traditional bodywork therapy styles that have developed in traditional Japan, and rooted in traditional Asian natural medicine. Anma was imported to Japan centuries ago from China, as part of Chinese medicine and culture, and gave birth to Shiatsu in the early 20th century. Together they are combined into Shiatsu-Anma healing art. S hiatsu-Anma therapy has been popularized throughout the USA as a form of Massage. Since graduating the  Shiatsu-Anma school in California 1996, I came to realize that Shiatsu-Anma as Asian bodywork differs essentially in many ways than other western massage modalities, as recognized by the general public and the scientific community. The majority of the American public has misunderstood the value, goals and potential embedded in this healing art, and  that decreases its value and contribution to promoting health. I'd like to shed some light on that matter, so to allow you all a better understan...

Learn how to practice and cultivate your health with Shiatsu-Anma-Do. Practicing self Massage and Shiatsu can support a healthy life style and even assists in an ongoing treatment. This page includes a variety of recommended items that may effectively assist in self daily practice. All these items are very affordable, popular, easily purchased and highly effective and practical for self use. Hope you can enjoy them soon. Additional items will be posted in the future. * Items are directed to AMAZON website for purchase. _________________________________________ Acupressure Mat One of the most successful and recommended devices ever! Can be used in many ways and mostly works to disperses any intense concentrated pain or tension. - Purchase here -

Shiatsu-Anma , Japanese traditional Acupressure therapy and bodywork, has served as part of traditional Asian medicine for centuries, aiding patients in promoting their health, alleviating many common ailments and even helping cure serious conditions, under the guidance of professional healers. This art is still in use around the world nowadays, promoting our natural healing powers in our bodies. The benefits of pressure therapy include regulating nerve control and removing accumulated tensions from various tissues, hence help the body's physiology recorrect itself and promote its natural metabolic balance. Shiatsu-Anma therapy can benefit the body both locally and remotely (reflexed effect) so to promote free and natural functioning. To most people, massage and bodywork are accepted as merely a casual relief of symptoms and therefore, single casual treatments are more popular in modern times. There are many factors that may contribute to that, such as costly treatments in a challe...

Pregnancy Treatments: Pregnancy is a wonderful natural miracle of preparing to bring new life on Earth. Naturally the Embryo’s growth is much depended in the mother’s health, life style etc. With modern fast & stressful life style pregnancy is often experienced through many hardships and unpleasant symptoms than may often undermine the mother’s health, and even affect the born-to-be baby. Modern lifestyle often affects many young women while being pregnant: working hard, coping with stress, coping with mass communication and technology, etc. thus turning a natural wonder such as pregnancy into a long, painful & tiring process, often accompanied by many unpleasant symptoms, complications, decreased immunization and body power, unstable sensitivity and more. It is well known that Shiatsu and Anma may assist much in the process of pregnancy, starting from alleviating pain & other typical symptoms common in pregnancy, and up to helping the natural development of the embryo insi...

When I was still in Israel I had my uncle coming for a weekend visit with his wife. He was barely walking or standing and his wife was helping him. He said he had strained his back for the past 2 days real bad and don’t know what to do. It was a Saturday so he was resting and avoiding calling a Doctor. Than he asked me for help knowing I’m a Shiatsu therapist. I was looking at him for a moment and thought to myself…. his knees look a little stiff… So I asked him to carefully bent down on his knees and support himself with the nearby sofa, holding his hand on it. I instructed him how to do so and he actually cooperated, surprised it was not that hard to do. That he asked: “What’s next?” The next thing was chatting with him for a few minutes… maybe 5 or so… At some point I asked him to stand up again. He was a bit scared to do so, but finally did it and was very shocked to realize that the back pain was almost completely GONE! “How did you know, Asi?” he asked… I said humbly I didn’t but...

My first ever encounter with “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome” happened years ago in Israel, when I was employed in an integrative healthcare clinic. I was assigned to a woman in her 60’s who was an office worker and was scheduled for an operation on her hand due to having this condition. She was also smoking chronically and I could feel her body was very stiff. I came to realized that addressing the problem locally is just insufficient for a good effect. So it took me only two sessions to alleviate her condition to her great surprise and to lead her into canceling her scheduled operation since she got amazingly much better! During those sessions I worked mostly on her forearm (Meridians: Pericardium and Tripple-Warmer), pressing and stretching/rotating her hand and working on her upper back/scapular areas and neck to better circulate them. Her chest was very stiff (PC energy) so I had to palm pressure it to improve circulation and breathing a bit. After those two sessions she stayed more to wo...

One of my most interesting treatments happened only a short while after graduating the Shiatsu school. A family member of mine complained about painful bladder when urinating and a bloody urine for the last two days. She was in her 20’s and highly stressed at that time. I offered to help relax the body and gave her a 1-hour session. During the session I realized the body was highly stressed and required mostly a calm steady pressure (Shiatsu). Focus was put on the Bladder and Kidney meridians. Otherwise it was a general overall session in which she had to stop for 3 times and run to the towelette-room to urinate. The first break involved a big bloody discharge with no pain and the last break involved a totally clean discharge! At the end of the session she was very relaxed but completely “drained” and tired and went to bed to rest. The symptoms had totally disappeared! The next day she went to the doctor for a checkup and he diagnosed her as having had a bladder fungal infection. The ...

Shiatsu and Anma both aim to promote the natural healing process already existing in our body, whether it is for maintenance and well-being, helping to restore our body’s stamina or specifically alleviating any health condition. Due to their non-manipulative and non-aggressive nature, Shiatsu and Anma apply a very safe, accurate, deep and sensitive pressure techniques, along with stretches and exercises. Thus it helps the body to naturally return to a state of recovery in specific body areas and conditions were it has been compromised. Shiatsu and Anma can affect all of our body’s systems, tissues and cells, from muscles and connective tissues to nerves, bones density & structure and organs/systems activities. The later is usually affected through stimulation of the Autonomic nerve system, regulating and balancing it. Classic Asian resources mention the concept of “Qi” energy (Jap. “KI”) that relates to the “cosmic breath” that flows through everything in the universe and determine...