When my husband Paul was first diagnosed with PD, I gave him daily Jin Shin Jyutsu treatments. The neurologist was delighted with the marked decrease in his symptoms three months later, and waited several more months to start him on medication.
Something my husband who is a yoga instructor loves about using yoga to improve the function of people with Parkinson’s is that yoga addresses the needs of the whole body, even the whole person. For the same reason, I love using Jin Shin Jyutsu (JSJ) . This ancient Japanese healing art releases blocks to the natural flow of energy in the body, which, in turn, I have noticed supports the effectiveness of both modern medical treatments and therapeutic yoga.
Paul and I now work with others, even those with advanced PD who have received Deep Brain Stimulation surgery. We start a session with a student who has PD by giving a JSJ treatment to bring ease and energy into the body, freeing up the joints and muscles. This enables the student to move more strongly into the yoga poses and benefit more fully from them. After yoga, we finish the session with more JSJ for deep relaxation and integration of the benefits received.
During a JSJ treatment, the practitioner’s hands create patterns of light touch on the body of the fully clothed person who is lying in a comfortable position on a massage table. We approach a treatment with a positive attitude, because in JSJ we view life challenges as projects to engage with, rather than problems that burden us—which is beneficial in itself. Overall, this gentle art restores balance and harmony to the body, mind, and spirit.
Our work is definitely an exploration of the possibilities offered by yoga and JSJ, and we learn with everyone who comes to us. Happily, we are encouraged by the improvement we see in posture, movement, balance, and overall well-being. Better yet, our students, their families, and doctors tell us they see it too!
Just as PD is more than a movement disorder, a person is more than a PD patient. Everyone has other physical and emotional challenges, and working in this way, we treat the whole person, as they are in that moment, to enable them to live as fully as possible with this challenging condition. This is what I find most gratifying.
Carolyn Allen Zeiger, Ph.D. resides in Denver, with her husband, Paul. The Zeigers are intimately familiar with Parkinson's disease because Paul lives with it. As a clinical psychologist, Carolyn leads support groups. As a spouse of a person with Parkinson's disease she naturally has many friends who also live with the condition. Her specialization in Jin Shin Jyutsu has furthered her interest in helping people with Parkinson's disease. She is a certified Jin Shin Jyutsu® practitioner.
