Melanie Konno, young practitioner of the Asian healing arts, has taken up residence at the Woodsong Country Inn, northwest of Fenwick.
Coastal Point • SAM HARVEY:
Melanie Konno offers Zen shiatsu acupressure and whole food--based dietary approaches for healthier living at Woodsong Country Inn, northwest of Fenwick Island.
Konno offers Zen shiatsu acupressure (pressure point massage), and a variety of whole foods-based dietary approaches to healthier living.
Like acupuncture, shiatsu acupressure is one of those ancient therapies that just seem to work — although no one knows exactly why.
Possible proof of the technique’s efficacy resides in its very longevity. If shiatsu wasn’t beneficial, why would the Chinese keep using it for thousands of years?
Shiatsu focuses on balancing energy flow along the “meridians of Chi.” According to Chinese tradition, constricted or excessive flow along these meridians causes poor health.
Konno completed her shiatsu training in northern California (Heartwood Institute) last year.
A Bethany Beach native (since age six), she did a fair bit of traveling after her graduation from Indian River High School (2000).
She visited Costa Rica and spent nearly a year in Thailand. As it turned out, that was where her training commenced.
“I thought I was going to go there and hang out in monasteries, see what that was about, but it’s really not that simple,” Konno said.
“Unless you seriously want to commit yourself — it’s not a game,” she explained. “You can’t just tromp into a monastery and say, ‘Okay, here I am, I want to meditate with you.’ I mean, they’re monks.”
However, she did take some instruction in Thai massage from one of the local practitioners.
Reading about shiatsu upon her return to the U.S., Konno came to realize a close relationship between the techniques.
“I found it was very similar to Thai massage, which I loved,” she pointed out. “I’d heard about Heartwood before, and I think the idea of studying shiatsu was really resonating with me at that point.”
She earned her certification last fall, gaining the theory behind the bodywork she had learned in Thailand, plus a brand new form.
According to Konno, Heartwood emphasized intensive bodywork, and also permaculture (land stewardship and natural farming).
“It was a lot of work, a lot of information, but I had really good teachers,” she said, noting author/instructor Paul Pitchford in particular.
Pitchford, with a lifetime in martial arts, Zen shiatsu and Tai Chi, also wrote “Healing with Whole Food,” a compendium explaining the nutritive basics of “green foods.”
He covers weight loss, pregnancy, physical and emotional disorders and “regeneration diets” designed for various ailments.
“His whole life has been learning what it is he teaches now — different diets and how they work with the body,” Konno stated. “He also taught us Tai Chi, and we kind of talked about dharma (literally, that which holds) — just being conscious.
“It’s important when you’re doing bodywork to be conscious, and to be present,” she said. “You have to listen to your client — not just what they’re saying, but what their body’s saying.”
Konno explained the technique as subtle. “It’s not like I work the muscles with force,” she said. “I’m doing it on a completely different level.
“I’m feeling for energy — if it’s warm or cool, alive or empty,” she said. “If you touch a certain point and it feels empty, you just hold it until you feel the energy come up and touch your fingertips, then you move on to the next point and work along the meridian.”
She said it was only while performing bodywork that she felt her mind was completely clear of extraneous thoughts. “It’s like a meditation, and when you’re working on someone — depending on whether the person can relax or not — they often go into a meditative state, too,” Konno pointed out.
“So, among my clients here, people have said they felt really touched, on a deep level,” she said. “I’m touching the skin, and maybe that affects the muscles and organs, even the bones, but it goes much deeper than that.
“Shiatsu affects things on a spiritual level, leaving a sense of well-being,” she said. “I guess you could explain that as the nervous system. If I can touch that, and let your nervous system feel calmed and soothed, you’ll feel well.”
To complement the massage therapy, Konno prescribes foods the way western doctors prescribe medicine.
• Excess liver energy — bitter greens
• Lung or large intestine problems — licorice tea
• Kidney trouble — dark beans or berries, or parsley juice
She said she made her own tofu and soymilk, nut milks and fermented foods.
Sprouting foods is another part of Konno’s “integrative nutritionalist” repertoire — apparently, plants are at their nutritional peak during infancy.
She also recommended flaxseed oil instead of the more traditional western varieties. Konno characterized it as very delicate and sensitive to heat, but excellent for digestion, and loaded with Omega-3 compounds.
She said it was possible to work the whole foods into gourmet form, and even make them taste “American.”
In addition, substituting something like date sugar for refined sugar makes a world of difference in terms of energy peaks and valleys, according to Konno.
“It feels good to eat good food, and it’s fun to play around with alternatives,” she concluded.
Konno recently taught a whole foods cooking class at Selbyville Middle School, and said she could offered the same advice to any client.
“People can contact me, whether they have a group of friends, or whether they’re just interested in learning something,” she said. “I’ll do private lessons — I’m flexible. I have this knowledge, and I feel it’s my responsibility to share what I’ve learned with the community — especially in this area.
“I feel people would like to know more about it, but the information just isn’t that readily available around here,” Konno said.
To learn more about shiatsu and whole foods therapy, contact Konno at the Woodsong Country Inn.
It’s a few miles off the beaten path, near Dirickson Creek, but there’s a Web site with directions — www.woodsongcountryinn.com, or call (302) 539-8845.
Melanie Konno’s Lotus Healing practice can also be reached directly, at (302) 539-3461.