Shiatsu Survey

Shiatsu, paid hobby or profession?

Shiatsu survey 2012/13

Motivation for undertaking survey;

Having graduated from the British School of Shiatsu-Do in 2012 I had what I think may be a very common question pop into my head. ‘How am I doing’, meaning how was my practice doing. I soon realised that I could not really answer this question as I had nothing to base it against. Of course I knew how I was doing against what I wished for, but I had no idea if my wishes were realistic. Like I imagine lots of other graduates do, I talked to my fellow ex-students to get a sense of how they were doing, but this was unsatisfactory.

I asked the Shiatsu Society, they were really helpful, but bid not really have the information I needed. So I decided to ask the questions myself.

Method;

Using the public facing part of the Shiatsu Society website, I contacted nearly every Shiatsu person who has their e-mail contact on their profile a total of 249 individuals. Asking them to fill in a short online survey. 95 individuals successfully completed the survey, 38.1% of those contacted.

I decided to ask a few simple questions; I wanted to limit the scope of my questions, to not make it an onerous task  and I did not want to pay for a ‘gold’ Survey Monkey account.

The questions were;

1. When did you graduate?
2. On graduation what were your plans/dreams regarding practising? (To treat family and friends only with no charge. To treat part time as an additional income. To (eventually) treat full time as my main income. Wasn't sure)
3. How would you describe your Shiatsu treatment situation at the moment? (I don't treat using Shiatsu at all. I treat family and friends for no charge. I treat part time as an additional income. I treat full time as my only income. A mixture of the above (please say more below))
4. If you describe Shiatsu treatments as an additional income, please say what % of your income it represents in an average month.
5. If you indicated that Shiatsu treatments are part of your income please indicate briefly your other sources of income.
6. If you describe Shiatsu treatments as your full time income please indicate what % of your household income the Shiatsu treatments represents (does someone's financial support make it possible for you to practice).
7. Please say how much you charge for a Shiatsu treatment (if you have a sliding scale please indicate the scale)
8. On average how many paid Shiatsu treatments do you do per month?

I hoped that when taken together the survey questions would offer a quite broad range of answers about the ‘state of play’ in Shiatsu

Results;

On graduation what were your plans/dreams regarding practising?

43.1% answered; To (eventually) treat full time as my main income

45.2% answered; To treat part time as an additional income

2.1% answered;  To treat family and friends only with no charge

2.1% answered; Not sure

How would you describe your Shiatsu treatment situation at the moment?

13% answered; I treat full time as my only income

76% answered: I treat part time as an additional income

3.1% answered; I treat family and friends for no charge

2.1% answered; A mixture of the above

1.1% answered; I don't treat using Shiatsu at all

If you describe Shiatsu treatments as an additional income, please say what % of your income it represents in an average month.

The average for this question over the 95 respondents was 28% of income

If you indicated that Shiatsu treatments are part of your income please indicate briefly your other sources of income.

63 people filled in this question of which 33.3% indicated that they earn the rest of their income from activities which could be described as related to Shiatsu. From teaching Shiatsu, Qi gong, Yoga etc to acupuncture. The rest varied greatly.

If you describe Shiatsu treatments as your full time income please indicate what % of your household income the Shiatsu treatments represents (does someone's financial support make it possible for you to practice)

Of the 11 people who filled in this question the average was 55% of household income.

Please say how much you charge for a Shiatsu treatment (if you have a sliding scale please indicate the scale)

The average lower amount was £35, the higher was £41.

On average how many paid Shiatsu treatments do you do per month?

The average number was 19 per month, however if one takes away the few outliers who have high numbers this drops to 16.

  

Outliers;

Of the 95 respondents there were 16 individuals (16.9%) who stood out and therefore could be considered outliers to the main body of the group. These individuals see a far higher number of clients per month than the main group and therefore had a much higher income. Below I have shown the gross average income from Shiatsu, both with and without the outliers included.

Average gross pay lower level of sliding scale with the 16 high earning outliers included 

£603 per month

Average gross pay higher level of sliding scale with the 16 high earning outliers included 

£759 per month

Average gross pay higher level of sliding scale with the 16 high earning outliers excluded

£347 per month

Average gross pay higher level of sliding scale of the 16 outliers

£1,806 per month

Conclusions

This survey was of practitioners who have remained registered with the Shiatsu Society, and as such may be seen to be picking up the most active shiatsu graduates. It is not a survey of all graduates of Shiatsu schools, of which there are many, many more.

I wanted to ask questions to allow myself and others to measure how we are doing, to have a guide to what’s happening within the Shiatsu world. I wanted to know the average number of treatments, average charge per treatment for the average Shiatsu person.

It’s a sometimes difficult emotional process, coming close to graduation and after to manage expectations. My hope is that this will help.

It seems clear that Shiatsu can offer an OK part time income (£347) to most practitioners and to a few a reasonable full time income (£1,806). It’s interesting to note that of the 16 higher earners 50% identified themselves as being Shiatsu teachers. This may have implications for teachers within schools managing students’ expectations. It’s clear that their Shiatsu experience is not the norm.

So paid hobby or profession? I don’t think it’s for me to say, but I think it’s an interesting question. 

Your perfect therapist

Some years ago I looked into the handbag of my therapist; I saw a packet of cigarettes and some support stockings.

I'm not proud of what I thought; ‘who is this person who claims to be able to heal me, who needs support stocking and can’t quit smoking’. It was a shocking realisation but, she was human!

I sometimes feel that within some of the alternative world there is a desire/need for the therapist to be supper human. If they get a cold, are fat, grumpy sometimes or express other human traits that they can’t be a good healer/therapist.

This need for others to be better than us, leads to the ultra-shiny, grinning, white teeth flashing portrait pictures we see on websites and promotional materials.

So it’s time for me to come clean, I’m human, there I said it! I have all the human frailties that everyone else has, and some I made up just for me. And that’s how it should be.

I have an adductor strain at the moment which is limiting my movement. I could be embarrassed about this when with clients. But my conviction is that I would rather see a therapist who has lived a bit, who understands what it is to live with pain. Who gets tied and does not always eat the perfect diet, who has been in the trenches and knows what it is to be human.

Seeing a blessed person who has not had to struggle is no use to me at all. So I apologise to my ex therapist for thinking those thoughts and I celebrate all the imperfections that make us the fascinating humans we are. 

Any fool can make something complicated!

I'm wondering what it is in humans that seems to compel us to make everything we can complicated.

When studying Zen I was struck by the row upon row of books about 'the direct way beyond words'

When in shiatsu school I felt and saw the desire to get to the next level. The more complicated it became the more real it felt. Maybe not real, maybe authentic.

In Zen they talk about beginners mind being a goal. But soon seem to leave it behind with ever more complicated explanations. The work of D.T. Suzuki comes to mind in this respect.

When working with clients are we afraid that what we offer seeming too simple, with a fear that they may think they are not getting their money's worth.

Techniques are good, we need to know what we are doing, but I feel that touch without an open heart and clear (simple) compassion has little if any value.  

Keeping it simple.........not simple but I (we) need to re-learn the lesson as often as possible



The story goes that when the Buddha gained enlightenment, he saw the suffering of all the beings in the world. He saw us merrily doing the things that course the suffering and shed many tears. 
When the tears hit the ground, they became Tara, the manifestation of compassion.

May all being be free from suffering and the causes of suffering 

May all being know happiness and the courses of happiness 

The mind secrets thoughts

The mind secrets thoughts
In the same way that the
Salivary Glands secretes saliva

So why do we take them quite so seriously? 
They can be really useful but maybe we don't have to believe all of them.
And of those we do believe in, it may be useful not to hold on to them quite so tightly.

When we do grasp them tightly, we often experience mental rope burn, a painful condition which often seems to have the affect of making us hold on even tighter. 

Thoughts are so often in the past or the future, very seldom in the present. The body however is always in the present. And if attended to closely can give clear indications of where we are and what we are feeling in a really clear and open way.

"My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened".

                                                               Michel de Montaigne

“The Church says: the body is a sin.
Science says: the body is a machine.
Advertising says: The body is a business.
The Body says: I am a fiesta"

Eduardo Hughes Galeano