Live Katsugen Undō in Vienna on June 22 | Sei-Ki with Alice in Vienna in September | Stay up-to-date by signing up for the newsletter!
In January 2024 we, Alice and Alexandra, travelled to Japan. One of our missions was to explore the roots of Sei-Ki and, as part of that, we researched Seitai and Katsugen Undō. It was a fascinating time. Our appreciation of this practice was refreshed and deepened by our experiences and we would like to share this with you.
This is for students of Katsugen, old and new, a refresher and introduction.
If you have been practising Katsugen for some time, this is an opportunity to refine your understanding and approach – we think you will enjoy our new input.
If you are new to Katsugen Undō, this course will be a chance to engage in “regenerative movement” from home under good guidance. Katsugen Undō is simple, yet extraordinary. I is a useful, life-enhancing practice. It can be experienced as clearing, relieving, refreshing, liberating, setting in motion what is stagnating…
Taking place over 3 x 90 minute classes, we will explore the background and philosophy of this work, the starting exercises, and inishing each evening with a 30 minute katsugen practice together.
The three dates are linked. If you are unable to attend all the dates, we will be recording our talks and sending this to everyone who signs up.
The course is held in English. In the live zoom sessions, Alexandra provides language support in German and Italian if needed. The video recordings are provided with (verified) German and Italian subtitles.
Wed June 5, 2024
Wed June 26, 2024
Wed July 3, 2024
18:00 to 19:30 (BST) / 19:00 to 20:30 (CET)
TIP – we will continue in September:
Regular classes will begin again on September 11th with a 90 minute refresher followed by 45 minute practice classes every other week until 4th December.
We offer this Katsugen Undō course without a fixed price. Instead, we have set up payments for ‘name your price’.
These courses take time and resources to produce and we would welcome a contribution to help us continue the work, but if you are unable to pay at this time, or only pay a little, we invite you to come along at a cost you can afford.
Recommended contribution: € 30-60 (£25-50).
is Japanese. The characters 活元 mean:
活 (katsu) = alive, life
元 (gen) = origin, beginning
So “original aliveness”
Katsugen is usually translated figuratively as “spontaneous regenerative movement”.
Katsugen is not an exercise or practice per se. Katsugen referst to body’s spontaneous, often involuntary ability and competence to organize and regenerate itself. We are all familiar with this “spontaneous movement”, it is part of our daily lives. It can, for instance, manifest itself in yawning, sneezing, burping, digestive movements, movements during sleep, or also in spontaneous stretching of the body, shaking, jumping or laughing, falling asleep… and much more.
Young children are “experts” in showing katsugen, as adults we usually have to remind ourselves of our “self-regulation skills”.
In order to promote this authentic regulation, we give space to inner needs when practicing katsugen without having to name them specifically. We trace inner sensations, movements and impulses and allow them to take space and express themselves – often in spontaneous and “semi-voluntary” movements, but also in “non-movement”.
Undō roughly means “training” or “practicing”.
As a “practice” and conscious decision to surrender to the (inner) movement, katsugen is already documented in old Japanese Shinto texts, also under the terms furube (shaking) and reido (shining of the soul). It was seen as an important aspect of cleansing and purification.
In the 1950s, the Japanese healer Haruchika Noguchi (1911-1976) transferred the practice of katsugen from its spiritual context. As “Katsugen Undō”, it became a core element of Seitai, the health practice founded by e founded by Noguchi, comprising various elements – exercises, treatments, katsugen, lectures. The idea of Seitai is to promote the body’s natural ability to regulate and organize itself.
Katsugen also plays an important role in Sei-Ki, founded by Akinobu Kishi. We encounter it as an inner or outer movement during Sei-Ki sesssions, and practicing Katsugen Undō can be a good complement to Sei-Ki.
Alice is a renowned teacher of Sei-Ki and has more than 25 years of experience with Sei-Ki and Katsugen. She has been working in the field of Sei-Ki and Shiatsu for over 35 years. She started with Sei-Ki in 1997 and is co-author with Kishi Akinobu of “Sei-Ki: The Hidden in the Art of Shiatsu.” (2011). She is also the author of “Mind Clearing: The Key to Mindfulness Mastery” (2016) and has worked in higher education for over 30 years.
She teaches workshops for Sei-ki and Clearing internationally. Alice lives and works in Norfolk (UK).
Alexandra has been practicing Shiatsu since 2004. In 2011 she discovered Sei-Ki and Katsugen (workshops with Akinobu Kishi, Kyoko Kishi and Alice Whieldon). She practices Sei-Ki and Shiatsu in her practice in Vienna.
Alexandra has been teaching shiatsu workshops internationally since 2016 on topics relating to women’s health, pregnancy and birth. She has been guiding Katsugen Undō since 2018 and has been sharing her approach to Sei-Ki in practice evenings and workshops.
Alice and Alexandra have known each other since 2017. In Alice’s numerous workshops, in which Alexanddra has been translating and assisting, an inspiring collaboration has developed.
To register for this course, please fill out the form below.
Feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions about the course content or schedule!
