Available: Tuesday, Friday, Saturday 
Phone: 0432 104 116
Email: rainmountainshiatsu@gmail.com

Ben Robin Dean is a shiatsu therapist, anthropologist and Jing Fang herbalist. His bodywork style is gentle, intuitive and focused, integrating the hara (abdominal) techniques of Zen Shiatsu with a Daoist understanding of the energy body and the pattern-thinking approach of Jing Fang.

Ben has ten years of experience working with people suffering from chronic illness, with a focus on digestive issues and women’s pain. His healing practice is grounded on nurturing and supporting the unique life force and internal resources of each person. This extends to his interest in do-at-home exercises, thermal (moxa) therapy and food as medicine.

Ben began his shiatsu training apprenticed to yogi / shiatsu practitioner Andzej Gospodarczyk (2014-2015). Andzej trained with Shizuto Masunaga, Lima Ohsawa and Masahiro Oki in Japan during the late 1970s and later established his own style of shiatsu and yoga, ‘Ryoho'.

Ben is passionate about understanding and communicating how our self-love and relationships to social and elemental forces, dreams, emotions and flavours intersect with our experience of health and illness. Since 2017 Ben has been a dedicated student of Dr Suzanne Robidoux, a teacher of classical moxibustion techniques and internal martial arts, a lineage holder of Dr Hu Xi Shu-style Jing Fang and an advocate for animal rights.

From 2019-2022 Ben was based in Thailand, where he engaged in participatory anthropological fieldwork in relation to seed-keeping, Thai herbalism, and natural farming practices. He is currently a PhD candidate at Macquarie University in the department of Anthropology.

Shiatsu Therapy is a unique form of Asian medicine that has its roots in Japanese meridian therapy and abdominal diagnosis. The practitioner begins by palpating the hara (abdominal region) to find areas of deficiency (kyo) and excess (jitsu) while forming a treatment approach.

Both giving and receiving shiatsu brings us to a meditative state that is part of the healing process. Shiatsu is especially beneficial for people experiencing stress or burnout, digestive and emotional issues, sleeping problems or invisible pain, and to support people in their recovery from chronic illness. Hands-on treatment is often combined with dietary changes, yoga exercises and moxa (heat therapy) for long term benefits and ongoing care.