Workshops, seminars and courses

People engage with Jin Shin Jyutsu for many reasons:  some people wish immediate practical help for aches, tensions and physical discomforts, some wish to support their body to optimum health, and many people discover through Jin Shin Jyutsu a way of being that offers some kind of emotional freedom and deep authenticity.
While it is possible to become a certified Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner and offer Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions to others, most people who learn Jin Shin Jyutsu are interested in supporting their own being, their own health and personal growth, and occasionaly utilising what they know to support their family and their pets. Learning to use Jin Shin Jyutsu for yourself is empowering, it also serves as a great foundation if you chose to follow practitioner studies.  

 Click on the headings below to jump to the appropriate section:  

1. Why learn Jin Shin Jyutsu for MYSELF?
2. Book 1, Book 2 and Book 3
3. Study to become a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner
4. Comments and feedback from past participants  

1. Why learn Jin Shin Jyutsu for MYSELF?

Jin Shin Jyutsu is a wisdom tradition mapped out through the body. It's greatest challenge initially is the utter simplicity of it. As we study further we discover that actually it is enormously complicated, "complicatedly simple" one student called it. The study journey is from simplicity to complexity and then back to simplicity again. The focus is never on what is wrong with us, but on the vast innate wisdom our bodies hearts and minds have available at anytime. We have this because we are created "in the image of god" or "created perfectly" or a microcosm of the macrocosm. With Jin Shin Jyutsu we discover how to make this wisdom available to to ALL aspects of our being including body, mind and heart. Most Jin Shin Jyutsu holds can be effectively applied at any time in any place. No initiation or special ability is required, even children apply Jin Shin Jyutsu effortlessly.  We just need only awareness, understanding and our own 2 hands which we have with us at anytime, in any place.

When I first discovered Jin Shin Jyutsu I used it to ease my various physical discomforts (there were many!); however I soon started noticing that I felt so much happier, so much more relaxed and at ease and my overall outlook on life became more positive and creative through practice of Jin Shin Jyutsu. This, and that it is so easy to utilise, is why I continue to practise Jin Shin Jyutsu with myself every day of my life, regardless of what is going on around or within me. I am also fascinated by the extensive body of wisdom and correlations to many other wisdom traditions which open up as I continue to study and practice this art.

  With ongoing practice of this ancient art, deeper and deeper levels of harmony can experienced and in this way it can be not only a daily helper but a lifelong journey of increasing enjoyment of life, and increasing self-knowing. As the we live in alignment with the wisdom of the bigger whole we are part of, things start to fall into place - we start noticing our lives falling into place, synchronicities occur, and our bodies fall into place, tensions and struggles and pains ease.

I aim for you to leave a workshop with confidence to practise Jin Shin Jyutsu with yourself whether responding to symptoms of discomforts , cultivating a life that is without fear, that is more expansive and more authentically "you". While plenty of information will be given about the principles, story and history of Jin Shin Jyutsu, at least half of the available time will be spent applying Jin Shin Jyutsu to ourselves to understand it through our own experience.

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2. Book 1, Book 2 and Book 3

These 3 books were carefully written by Mary Burmeister over nearly 2 decades. Deceptively simple, they together essentialise the art of Jin Shin Jyutsu, in the techniques they offer and in their presentation. Completing weekend workshops in these books does not give certification to practice with other people, it does give a broad base of understanding and a comprehensive "toolkit" to those who wish to utilise Jin Shin Jyutsu for themselves. For those who are interested in studying to practioner level, these books, and the content of the weekend workshops, or evening courses, provides a important grounding in the Art, and even people who have been studying and practising Jin Shin Jyutsu for decades continue to delight in a deeper understanding of the "apparently simple" material presented in these books. Some people choose to repeat these weekend or evening courses.  

Book 1 contains a complete program introducing single holds, and sequences of holds, to fingers and body which harmonise all aspects of being (our feelings and emotional outlook, our body, and our thinking and understanding). We are introduced to the relationship between mind and body and we learn inconspicuous holds that can be done anywhere anytime to stop thoughts becoming attitudes, or to loosen attitudes that we have accumulated over time. Whenever we view the world through attitudes (such as a long on-going attitude of fear, resentment, doubt, inadequacy) we are not open to the full richness of life.

Book 2  "Mankind's Safety Energy Locks and Keys" takes us through the Safety Energy Locks, their appropriate location on the body and the treasures housed within each one of these wisdom centres.
This is a journey in numbers (0-26), introducing numbers as qualities not quantities. We look at the translation of number from object to symbol and the associations that became commonly given these symbols; we see that abstract meanings of these symbols are remarkably similiar through different traditions and times. A Safety Energy Lock is not a "point" but a zone on the body which houses whole kingdoms of wealth, particular wisdoms that are made available to body, mind and heart simply by holding these zones.

Book 3 "Fun with Fingers and Toes" bring us back to the fingers, and offers new combinations of finger and toe holds.
It also includes the 8 finger poses (commonly referred to as "mudras" although "inja" is more correct as these postures are of Taoist origin) that led Jiro Murai to the rediscovery of the art of Jin Shin Jyutsu. This book, one of the shortest, is perhaps the most philosophical, though its applications can be applicable very inobtrusively in any situation, and a lot of the holds from Book 3 are essential "First Aid" applications.
In exploring Book 3, we shall recap some of the contents of Book 1 and Book 2 and add in extra information. For Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioners it is a great summary of a lot of the contents of Text 1 & 2 as well as Books 1 & 2.

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  3. Study to become a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner

There are no teachers in South Africa who are qualified to teach practitioner level studies. There are currently 23 such authorised teachers in the world, who come from many different countries and different professional backgrounds (e.g. nurse, engineer, dancer, poet and engineer). Each teacher has a different style of teaching. One teacher visits South Africa each year and teaches in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. They present 5-day seminars and special topic classes. The 5-day seminar is essential for practitioner study. Special topic classes serve to deepen the understanding of practitioners by focussing on particular areas or correlations and can usually only be attended by those who have attended a 5-day seminar.

After attendance of one 5-day seminar a certificate of attendance is issued, this is not practitioner certification. Rather, after completion of the student's third full 5-day a student has usually gained enough awareness and understanding to realise that Jin Shin Jyutsu can encompass a lifetime of study. It is at this point (after three 5-day seminars) that a student is generally in appropriate relation to begin practicing the art with other people should he/she so wish and a second certificate is issued.

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5. Some comments from those who attended one of these workshops and learned to use Jin Shin Jyutsu for themselves include:

• “I never used to be able to sleep at night but now as soon as I put my head down I am gone.”
• “For the first time in many years I am sleeping very well and feeling rested. I can’t tell you what a difference that makes to my life.”
• After the first day of the workshop I slept well and woke up with the energy and excitement of a five-year old, that feeling of being truly excited to be alive.
•  “I had such a painful back that I have been hardly able to move. Jin Shin Jyutsu has made a huge difference. I am amazed that something so simple can be so effective!”
• “My digestion seems to be much better.”
• “I feel more creative and expansive.”
• "I haven't been so angry in the car. I'm always so angry when I drive but I don't seem to have been since I have been doing Jin Shin Jyutsu."
• “When I was with somebody whom I usually find very overpowering I applied the self-help and it made the experience very different. I felt centred and contained."
• “I feel more positive about life.”
• “Although I have been under a lot of stress at work I have not been worried or anxious as I normally would be."
• “I find it easier to get out of bed in the morning.”
• “My shoulders feel GREAT!”
• “I have a lot more energy and focus during the day .”
• “Some old family issues cropped up and I don’t feel stressed and emotional about it which is unusual.”
• "The exercises cause me to relax deeply, and give me a sense of being given comfort."
• “My hormones have come back to some kind of balance – I am not experiencing those terrible hot flushes and other uncomfortable menopause symptoms anymore.”

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