integration with chinese medicine
Shoshanna Katzman has been cognizant of subtle energies since a young child – a time when she had extraordinary experiences, ones she never spoke about even as they happened into her early twenties for fear of being judged. This dramatically changed when she moved to San Francisco in 1974 and began informal weekly study with an energetic adept. Using books written by Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti and Meher Baba he taught Shoshanna and two of her friends about metaphysics.
This opened up a whole new world, one that Shoshanna knew about only from personal experience. She learned how to perform Gurdjieffian movements at the Gurdjieff Center in San Francisco. These movements increased energetic awareness and centered the body’s energy. She soon learned that these exercises were quite similar to Tai Chi and Qigong when she began formal study along with Kung Fu in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle.
In these beginning years, energetic awareness was developed through daily practice of these ancient Chinese exercises. It was a two-fold approach whereby she was instructed how to physically perform the movements and then taught how to incorporate energetic movement – both equally important for health restoration. The purpose of this training was self-healing through Qi cultivation, not providing energetic healing to another person. Shoshanna began teaching after two years of study which entailed guiding her students how to cultivate their Qi through Tai Chi and Qigong for self-healing in much the same way.
Next in 1981, Shoshanna began formal study of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine which provided energy medicine tools to balance the subtle energies of another person in order to generate physiological change. This was accomplished through the application of needles and recommendation of herbal remedies - new methods for guiding and supporting others, empowering them to access their innate healing ability. Shoshanna offered these treatments along with Tai Chi and Qigong instruction during the ensuing years according to what she had learned from her Chinese medicine teachers.
Then in 1998, Shoshanna began formal studies with Christine Schenk, a pioneer in energy medicine and founder of the CHRIS®-Technique. She received extensive training and supervision in application of what Ms. Schenk has termed energy body medicine® at the Christine Schenk Institute for Energy-Body Medicine® in New York City. This training dramatically changed her approach to offering energetic healing treatments as she was systematically taught how to enhance her abilities working with energies and all implications thereof.
Shoshanna dedicated the next 14 years to the intensive study of CHRIS® work – one that has not only transformed her professionally, but personally as well. These years of study and application of this approach to her delivery of Chinese medicine has enhanced her abilities on multiple levels. Shoshanna had always helped people in their healing process as she possessed a natural intuitive ability, however as a result of her studies with Christine Schenk she now understands the deeper energetic intricacies, repercussions and ramifications of what she is doing during her work from a combined energetic and physical perspective.
The first major impact that the CHRIS®-Technique had on the way Shoshanna practiced her Chinese exercise arts and provided acupuncture treatments was that she stopped “sending” or “receiving” energy from others. Instead, she was guided step-by-step through experiential exercises and didactic teaching how to become more aware of the energetic positioning and behavior of oneself and others when working with energies. This exemplifies the main premise of Christine Schenk’s work which is of primary importance for what she has termed energetic job safety® – essential for the health, safety and security of both practitioner and recipient of energy work.
Shoshanna applies this key CHRIS®-Technique guideline during every interaction with patients and students including consultations, insertion and removal of acupuncture needles, and teaching of Chinese energetic movements. Accordingly, the goal of her acupuncture treatment is to help her patients both increase and consolidate their Qi to maximize physiological healing results. And a major focus of her Tai Chi and Qigong instruction is to help students stay centered while performing the movements. This enhances cultivation of internal energy, promotes whole body breathing, and increases energetic immunity - maximizing healing results while at the same time maintaining a safe environment for oneself and others in the class.
The second major impact of the CHRIS®-Technique as applied to Shoshanna’s work involves diagnosis and choice of treatment and assessment of the whole energetic system, not simply one aspect. Prior to CHRIS® study, Shoshanna applied mainly Chinese medicine diagnosis which has to do primarily with flow of Qi through the meridian pathways of the body. However, since learning diagnosis according to the CHRIS®-Technique she makes an analysis of the entire anatomy and physiology of the energetic system, not just the meridians. Through integration of both of these diagnostic approaches, Shoshanna arrives at a more complete energetic diagnosis and then based on this evaluation chooses the appropriate Chinese medicine approach and treatment that best suits each person.
This specialized, holistic approach to diagnosis and treatment is essential and beneficial to everyone, however especially crucial when working with persons who have survived or are currently enduring various forms of abuse. This is due to the potential negative effect that abusive experiences can have energetically – along with the ramifications of such damage on the way that a person processes and responds to energy work. As a result of CHRIS®-Technique application, Shoshanna has learned how to make an assessment in such cases which includes verification and amount of such damage combined with ways to appropriately restore integrity and balance of the energetic system through Chinese medicine treatment. This has become the third major impact on Shoshanna’s delivery of Chinese medicine – exactly why working with survivors of abuse has become an additional specialty of her work.
The teaching and supervision received from Christine Schenk has given Shoshanna the necessary insight, knowledge and understanding of how to avoid side-effects that develop while working within this delicate energetic realm. She has also learned to identify if her patients and students have been negatively impacted from improper energy work techniques, along with specific CHRIS®-Technique protocols for dealing with such an energetic effect. This standard of care while providing energy medicine is essential to prevent possibility for additional energetic disruptions.
As a result of learning the CHRIS®-Technique, Shoshanna herself now applies it to every aspect of her life, both personal and professional. She feels strongly this is something that practitioners of energy medicine as well as those receiving energy medicine techniques need to know.
The following preface that Shoshanna has written for Christine Schenk’s most recent book entitled “Handbook of Energetic Job Safety” explains this viewpoint in greater depth.
"... I implore you as readers to open your mind to Christine Schenk's message in this ground-breaking book. I highly recommend that you take it seriously and to heart. I sincerely acknowledge and appreciate the time, dedication and energy that she has expended and dedicated to protect the rights of the Energy Body®, creating due respect and honor that it so deserves. The information of this seminal work is being offered to ensure energetic safety and security for the health of practitioner and client alike. Maybe someday my dream will be manifested for Christine Schenk's incredible work to be taught not only in Oriental medicine schools, but in energy medicine educational programs throughout the world. "Handbook of Energetic Job Safety" is a major contribution in the field of energy medicine, one that will guide the future in how it is viewed, evaluated and held in our society." Read the entire preface here.