Wellness and Wealth
Wellness and Wealth
Touch Therapy in a Digital World with Kumiko Kanayama
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In a world dominated by screens and constant connection, many people are rediscovering the importance of touch therapy in a digital world. In this episode of Wellness & Wealth, Shiatsu grandmaster Kumiko Sanayama, founder of the Five Lives Center of Shiatsu, shares her expertise on managing stress and anxiety through the healing power of mindful touch. Drawing from her family's tradition and decades of experience working with clients including Gisele Bündchen and Nicole Kidman, Kumiko explains how Shiatsu can help restore balance in both body and mind.
Shiatsu follows the same pressure points and energy pathways as acupuncture, but instead of needles, practitioners use their hands, elbows, knees, and body weight to release blockages and improve energy flow. Over time, Kumiko developed her own method called Intuitive Shiatsu, adapting traditional techniques to better meet the needs of each individual client.
The philosophy behind Shiatsu is deeply rooted in nature and connection. The Japanese characters that represent Shiatsu symbolize the relationship between hands, people, the sun, the moon, and the earth. Each session is personalized, with practitioners observing posture, movement, and physical tension through stretches and careful assessment to understand what the body needs in that moment.
For entrepreneurs and professionals, stress often shows up in familiar places: the back, shoulders, neck, and wrists, especially after long hours at a computer. Kumiko explains that heavy reliance on digital communication creates what traditional Chinese medicine describes as “metal energy.” Without balance, this energy can become rigid. Through touch and mindful bodywork, Shiatsu helps melt that metal energy with “beautiful fire energy,” restoring warmth, movement, and connection.
Interest in touch based therapies has grown significantly in recent years, particularly after the pandemic, when many people experienced long periods without meaningful human contact. For those curious about exploring Shiatsu but unable to visit a practitioner, Kumiko also shares simple self care techniques on her YouTube channel, including tapping methods that can help relieve tension in the head, eyes, and jaw.
If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe to the Wellness & Wealth Podcast for more conversations about self care, wellbeing, and living abundantly. And if Kumiko’s insights resonated with you, please consider leaving a review.
Wishing you a blessed and abundant week.
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Introduction to Shiatsu with Kumiko
Speaker 1Hi everyone, it's Wendy Manganera from Wellness and Wealth. Welcome back to another episode. Today's topic is managing stress and anxiety through self-shihatsu. Today we have special guest Kumiko Sanayama. She is a shihatsu grandmaster, educator and the founder of Five Lives Center of Shiatsu, the oldest and longest running Shiatsu Foundation of America. A versatile practitioner, kumiko's many years of practice led her to develop her own style, known as intuitive Shiatsu, and has built a thriving practice with clients such as supermodel and UN Goodwill Ambassador Giselle Luchen and Nicole Kidman. Her insights have been featured in Insider. Welcome to the show, kumiko. Thanks for being here. Thank you, wendy.
Speaker 2Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to meet you and to have your audience here. But Shiatsu is such a powerful technique and easy, simple and helps so many people. I'm sure everybody will love it.
Speaker 1Yeah. So can you break down for our listeners who don't know what exactly is Shiatsu, because a lot of people may not be accustomed to what this is. So I'd love for you to explain it so that our audience understands how this helps with self-care.
Origins and Evolution of Shiatsu
Speaker 2Yes, I'm sure many people know about acupuncture. Acupuncture, they use the needles Shiatsu. We follow the same pressure points, same energy pathways, but we don't use needles. It's all hands and elbows, knees and entire body to release and increase energy flow.
Speaker 1Thank you for explaining that. From my understanding, usually people do these things because they're already in some sort of pain or trauma and they're searching for something to make them feel better. Pain or trauma and they're searching for something to make them feel better. So I'd love to know from you, because you've developed your own techniques, was based on hearing people's complaints and that you needed to go further or was it because of your own journey that you needed to go further?
Speaker 2Great question. It's like a combination. So I learned shiatsu from my grandmother when I was living in Japan. My grandmother told me how to work on the shoulders like this, and the head and the feet something like that, but I was not trained. And then my uncle came to the United States 1970s and he started to give Shiatsu treatment to the people in America and then he found some Shiatsu techniques in Japan was not too strenuous to his body because he was small and he was so skinny and he has to develop techniques to adapt the atmosphere in the United States at the time and he used thumbs, elbows, knees and entire body to release and increase energy. His client's ballet dancers had strong muscles so he needed to cooperate. He needs to modify traditional Japanese techniques which was focusing more pressure points using thumbs.
Speaker 1I want to ask you, just as you're explaining this too, so for people who don't know, shiatsu is because a lot of people think that acupuncture only happens in the back, but this is a shared body Agree.
Speaker 2We focus on the from head to toes it's closed arm and we work on the clothes and a few of the acupressure points, using the thumbs to fine-tune the flow. And my understanding of Shiatsu is I go back and look at the Japanese character of Shiatsu. Everybody thinks Shiatsu is like a finger pressure, but I'm small, I don't have any muscles so I cannot just push, push, push. I've been doing this for many years and I visualized the character of Shiatsu Shi. There's three components hands, people and son Atsu. There's two components earth cover. I always remember what Shiatsu means to me and, yes, I feel like Shiatsu is a combination of meeting sun and moon and earth, heaven and earth together, and meeting people through the hands, connecting people through touch. So that's my understanding of Shiatsu.
Speaker 1And the intuitive is more, so that you really, as you're talking about this, it's so that it's the energy, is it more like the energy, so you know where to apply those pressure points so that it works better for each person?
Speaker 2Exactly my clients. Every time they come, the session is different because we eat differently, we think differently. Every day is a new beginning, every day is different. So every time they come I need to find what they need. At the time I use stretches as assessment techniques and we have a para in the front and back assessment and so I make some analysis to see what they need. And then we see and we hear, we listen and we ask questions. They use the five senses to understand what they need.
Body Stress Patterns in Entrepreneurs
Speaker 1So that's fascinating, and I love that you've worked with some of the stars to do this, because you're based in New York City, correct? So when you're working with somebody, when you're working with somebody and learning them, what's a little bit of the process that you go through? I'm curious about that too, as you say that everybody is so different, even what they eat, and so what is that process that you go? Ok, this is going to be the best session for them. What's your beginning process?
Speaker 2Yeah, usually we ask questions how are you feeling today, any pains? And they say, oh yeah, my shoulder is a little bit bothering me, but I'm good. And then I slowly start to work with Shiatsu and then started to understand well, shoulder pain is not only from shoulders, maybe from the back of the neck. So I asked the questions what's happening in your back? Are you walking so hard, pushing yourself up? And my class said, yes, yes, I've been just working so hard, taking care of my family, taking care of myself, I've been so busy. And then slowly do the big stretches to connect from the center to the extremities and they feel so good.
Speaker 1I was going to ask you one question, but I'm going to slightly change it, because I always ask what's the warning signs when a female entrepreneur should come to self-care in this way? But I would like to know, as you're talking about, you're like, oh, it's shoulder pain, but it's really something else. When you're working on people, especially people who are busy entrepreneurs, or corporate, especially for women, is there a place in the body where you find that the stress lays more.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, definitely Pain in the back and the shoulders and neck and the wrist, because many people are sitting in front of the computer and we used to be isolated, so physically, mentally, this fuck around us is putting us in the corner. So doing the stretches really helps them to feel their own bodies, feel more connection between their body and the mind see that because so many people sit in front of screens.
Speaker 2And the sun is for us is the metal energy. Metal energy is communication through the computer, but it's not people to people in person contact. There's some rock in the between, so that needs to be released and melts. We need to melt metal with beautiful fire energy.
Finding Shiatsu Resources and Practitioners
Speaker 1Leads me to one other question which I'm just curious, because now that you brought it up to the whole touch thing, did you find that after the pandemic that people had to get used to touch again?
Speaker 2Yes, the younger people come in searching because in the pandemic they couldn't go out, they couldn't go to see the doctors easily. So they are trying to figure out what they need, what's the best for them and for the families and the friends, and they are exploring different, alternative way of lifestyle. And then Shiatsu is kind of part of that movement and I see more and more people are coming and more and more people appreciate what we offer.
Speaker 1Yeah, and people didn't get touched for three years. But it's different when you're out in a crowd, especially in New York, where it's usually bustling, and then this physical touch creates the relaxation of the mind and emotional clarifications, and helps so many people. So if somebody is listening to this and go, this could be something that's good for me. How do they start to learn about shiatsu or get involved in finding out so that they can go and see if this is really something that's good for them?
Speaker 2Yeah, it's so hard to understand shiatsu without experiencing. When you feel it, it's there, it's become reality. But it's hard to identify the beauty of shiatsu without experiencing. So I want people to come, go out, come get shiatsu with us, and then there's many practitioners all over the world.
Speaker 1I hope they can reach out. I have all of your information to contact you. But if they can't come to you because they're not physically near you, there's other places that you could help them get to. And so you're in New York, so for my New York or there's even New Jersey people that's not far to go. If you're in New York, so for my New York or even New Jersey people, that's not far to go. If you're somewhere else, then it's something to look into, especially if you're feeling that body stress. The other thing about entrepreneurs most of us work by ourselves and once we're at a networking event we don't really get out. So we really can be sitting in a chair for way longer than we should be and we're isolating. So shiatsu seems like something that would be a good marriage to physically have some physical touch and undo what we do sitting in a chair for hours.
Speaker 2Yes, relax your mind, feel good and open your heart. You can do so many good things to help so many people. I'm hoping all the people can experience.
Final Thoughts and YouTube Resources
Speaker 1So I want to thank you so much for sharing this self-care method, because a lot of people do not know about it. It's important to share all ways that we can self-care. As you commented, more people are looking for healthier and naturopathic ways to feel good, that would be great.
Speaker 2And then we have a YouTube channel. There's some self-care techniques on our YouTube channel. They can use the tapping techniques to tap the head, clear your eyes and TMJ All kinds of good stuff there.
Speaker 1I will make sure I have all of your links and I want to thank you so much for coming on the show today and sharing with our audience.
Speaker 2Thank you, Wendy. Thank you so much for having me. It's my pleasure. If you love what you heard today.
Speaker 1Please subscribe for more self-care tips as the weeks go forward. And if you love what Kimiko said today, please leave a review and have a blessed and abundant week.
