"I am free from the indefinite symptoms."

What was your physical and mental condition before starting SI Basic 10 series?

Although I have been active and had physical strength, from training of triathlons and long-distance running, I always felt fatigued. I thought that it was caused by chronic mental stress.

For the last 10 years, I have always had discomfort and bloating in my stomach, and I felt my intestines were heavy, and actually I had constipation, urinary incontinence and irregular periods.

I have been breathing shallow and finding it difficult to be relaxed. It's hard to get up from bed in the morning, after I move around it gets better, but I still feel my shoulders are always stiff. People recognised my posture was asymmetrical, and I noticed that I had some scoliosismy in spine.

I wondered how I could explain about my current situation.

What did you feel through the session?

I relearned about my body structure and my body was becoming aware of how it should be. My body parts could move into the new position with practitioner's touch. To my surprising, once my body experienced the positions and movements in the session, those functions were retained without training.

After the 10 session series, how did your mind, body and life change?

I no longer have any physical discomfort or fatigue. I was able to perform the movements that I thought were impossible due to my skeletal limitation, such as exercises on the stretch pole. Now I can feel the movement in my abdomen, discovering and enjoying new sensations, and also I found I am peaceful and relaxed deeper.

"Experience of Online Self-Hands-On"

Which session did you experience?

I experienced online self hands-on session of the 3rd session (integration session = line session) of Post 10, devided it into three parts.

The 1st and 2nd session were conducted by the practitioner in person, but after those, from contact restriction due to COVID-19, my 3rd session was arranged to a self-hands-on session that could be offered from home.

In fact, I was able to avoid the stress of going out and experience the session in a relaxing manner, both in terms of physically and mentally.

Tell us about your experience with self-hands-on.

Earlier I had experiences of online lessons of movement, so I know that my posture and movements would be observed nicely through the monitor, but the self-hands-on was another unexpectedly wonderful experience, as I was actively involved with my own body rather than just manupulated passively.

Following practitioner's instructions, I explored the sense of my breathing from one body part, then I experienced of movements on the part, I experienced the movement would be felt from other parts in my body.

Along the way, I felt the density of the left and right sides of my body were becoming more balanced evenly...and sometimes psychological realization arrived to my mind.

Between each 3 sessions, my body reminded connections of "certain events and thoughts in mylife".

The practitioner's words were encouragements, such as "wait for your hands and body to feel" and "don't look for your familiar pain from the past nor don't force yourself to be perfect for the future", those were good catalysts for natual change.

During the sessions, I felt confident in being able to "work on my body using my own hands" and I'm really looking forward to my process of "introspecting what happens naturally rather than creating some new sensations"

If I could get taller with SI!?

I have begun the experience of Structural Integration with an open and curious mind and a healthy amount of skepticism. After all, SI literature frequently stresses how participants who have been through the prescribed ten sessions have increased their bodily height by two, three, four, or even as many as seven or eight centimeters, in a space of a mere few weeks. Having been familiar with other body manipulation therapies such as osteopathy and chiropractic, I was keen to find out how SI differs from the other two. Since all these three are frequently listed under the umbrella terms “alternative medicine” or “pseudoscience”, at least from the current perspective of evidence-based western medicine neither of them seems to qualify as a reliable manipulative technique. This, however, would not deter me from wanting to experience them first-hand, and see whether they would prove to be beneficial. With osteopathy and chiropractic I did have partial successes, as they both seemed to ease the pain in my ailing lower back—a congenital disease that has been my loyal companion during my thirty-seven years. Nonetheless, these improvements never appeared to have lasted for a long time, so my most trustworthy allies in fighting the unwanted symptoms of chronic pain have been going to the spa and undergoing deep-tissue massage. Until I have experienced SI. ​

During the ten sessions, my therapist, Sato san targeted different areas and layers of my body. Every time she did that, she would readily explain in clear terms what she was doing and how these techniques would alter the fascia and the bone-structure in my body. Her manipulation was never aggressive or painful. On the contrary: it felt rather delicate and careful. After a session got finished, most of the times I felt improvement in my gait and in my posture, too; particularly during the first five sessions. Personally, I did not see that much change in the before-and-after photos that she regularly took of me in order for us to see how her work has affected my body. On the other hand, I could feel between sessions how my walking pattern had been altered, how my sitting had become more comfortable and stable, how my lower back pain would gradually lessen. What made the experience all the more worth my while was Sato san’s well-informed and enthusiastic personal style with which she answered the abundance of my anatomical and structural questions in a manner that left doubt as to her comprehensive medical knowledge. I have learnt a good deal from her about correct movement and posture which helped me to absorb mentally the changes that she had effected in me physically. She lent me books and DVD-s and taught me exercises that could further enhance the structural integration of my body. ​

It has been almost a month now since the sessions have ended. What I feel is that my body moves in a more natural and effortless way than before; also, I can sit longer hours in front of my computer which results in a decreased amount of overall discomfort. I still experience pain but I seem to have more control over it. Although the fee of the ten sessions is not a trifle sum, to me it was worth it: I feel much better in and about my body. I do not feel, as it is often maintained, that after SI I have gained a new body: it is still my good old body with its familiar aches and sores. Still I feel much more at home in this body than ever before and I am grateful for all the beneficial changes—even though I have not grown but a millimeter.

"I came to sessions with my daughter who is in 9th grade"

I had gotten tired easily and walking was not my favorite activity, but after the 1st session I felt like to start walking.

During 10-session series, the intra-articular fixation in my right knee was removed, and my recovery progressed so well that the physical therapist was surprised about. My friends told me that I was seemed to loose a lot of weight.

My daughter has orthostatic disorder and had difficulty going to school in the morning, but now she is able to get up and walk to school on her own more often. When she runs after a session, she feels her body gets lighter, and she can walk more than 10,000 steps during school events.

I would recommend SI to children with orthostatic disorder.

"Welcome 2 years old twins"

I got an inquiry about her 2 years old daughter.

"We had two episodes in the past six months that suggest my daughter's right hip joint might get dislocated. She didn't seem to be in pain, and when I held her hand and supported her balance while walking, it seemed naturally to go back into place. When we consulted with a pediatrician about it, we were told, "You can't tell unless we see it when it's dislocated. Children's hip joints are immature and get dislocated easily, so you just have to observe her developement progress, and if it keeps happening, you are better to see an orthopedic surgeon."

For the past three months, she has been running and jumping without any problems, but I noticed that her walking seems to have her legs turned inwards, and I'm concerned about her unique running posture."

Since she does not have birth trauma, we made an appointment to have a look if she has a left-right imbalance or a habitual posture developed.

I met her twin girls.
We observed their movements stacking and straddling yoga blocks, and then I touched the fascia structure from the soles of feet to below the knees.
Comparing the each foot (among four legs), each one already has its own personality! I found out that her right foot that seemed to had came off was more functional, but on the left foot, which was stiffer and smaller, more weight on the left hip and the knee.

"Bow legs at this age are not concerning but normal, so let's make sure that both legs can support the pelvis from both sides evenly like a Meganebashi bridge（arched bridge）"

While she sat down and played with both hands, I aligned the superficial fascia from the spine of the back to the hip joint toward the center.

(After that, parents will observe how her movement changes over the next few hours to a few days.
The flexible structure of a small child will be strengthened and grow by experiencing the direction and speed of movement through plays.)

The mother contacted me two days later. ❤️
"Thank you for the other day!  it seems that the soles of the feet are now more firmly ground when her running, whereas before she run bouncing. She seemed to enjoy the session, saying, 'I went to meet Sato-san. I felt good then.'"

My first experience of Structural Integration(SI) was through Shiho-san. She is well experienced, knowledgeable, cared deeply about my health, and had a very reassuring style and demeanor.

She helped me understand how important our fascia is to basic bodily function and movement.

And I am amazed at how undervalued and overlooked fascia and SI principles are in the general public's knowledge, especially considering so much of our lives involve sitting at a desk for long periods of time using electronic devices.

Thanks to SI, I have become more aware of the ongoing care and maintenance of my body and fascia.