Paul B. Lister, M.A., C.C.C. offers an article in The Main Central Jin Shin Jyutsu Newsletter issue from Summer 2005, Number 49 about his experience with Jin Shin Jyustu. This, and all issues of The Main Central, are available at http://www.jsjinc.net.

~ Paul B. Lister, M.A., C.C.C. Speech-Language Pathologist, Private Practice in New Hampshire.

Excerpted from an article appearing in The Ammonoosuc Times, New Hampshire, February 11, 2005, this is about the author’s observations and experience with Jin Shin Jyutsu on stroke and brain-injured adults. He has worked with Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner, Irene Lambert, in Littleton, New Hampshire.

There is one more area that confounds me with her recovery and that is her sense of humor and affect, or visible emotional response to happiness, sorrow, etc. Most patients have a flat affect to the point that family members cannot look at the patient and tell if they are excited, depressed or mad. Sense of humor is often relegated to slapstick or laughing when someone falls, that type of juvenile response. My patient does not miss a trick and laughs long and loud but (of most importance), she laughs appropriately. She will often grin after demonstrating she understood the subtlety of a joke and say, “Thought I missed that, didn’t you?”

Along with her traditional therapies and medicines, there was another intervention being used in her recovery. Her aide regularly brought her to see Irene Lambert at the Ancient Healing Arts Center on Jackson Street in Littleton (New Hampshire). Irene is licensed in therapeutic massage, is a yoga instructor and is a Jin Shin jyutsu practitioner. When her aide spoke of the dramatic advances our patient was demonstrating, I assumed it was to ease the pain of the physical injuries she received in the accident, but she felt it was more, much more.

I met Irene at her third floor studio, a soothing and open environment. Irene is soft-spoken, gentle and petite. Her smile and warmth put me immediately at ease. She offered to give me a Jin Shin Jyutsu session at the end of the interview so that I could write from personal experience, and I was aware that she was watching my mannerisms and movements and seemed to be studying my voice. We sat barefoot across from each other, separated by the futon that I would later occupy.

When I asked about our head-injured client, Irene presented a very lucid understanding of neuroanatomy emphasizing cellular rejuvenation. She elaborately described how fear and tension play a major role in the disharmony. She noted that, in a head injury, the energy stagnates in the head and needs to descend. it became much clearer to me that this is “the knowing’ that allows a deeper understanding that can bring balance to mind, body and spirit. It reconfirmed my own belief that therapy is an art form, not a science.

To be continued…