Sotai is the movement-bodywork system developed by Keizo Hashimoto, MD. In his own words Sotai is designed as a “gentle medicine.” In Sotai comfortable movements are done while exhaling. At a certain point in the movement the therapist will resist the patient’s efforts for about 3 seconds and then give the command to relax. At that point, once the patient has actually relaxed, the movement is completed passively. This combination of comfort, ease, breath, active and passive movement is magically effective is in the treatment of pain and other conditions. Sotai combines well with acupuncture and other styles of bodywork.

Yin Sotai is a natural evolution of Sotai and adheres to all of the foundational principles but takes the whole therapy into much gentler territory. Yin Sotai draws on influences from the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, F.M. Alexander, Buckminster Fuller, and Milton Trager. The patient effort in the movements is reduced to a very gentle level; additionally, the movements involve widely separated areas of the body, e.g., hips and shoulders moving at the same time or ankles and hips. Just ten minutes of Yin Sotai can therefore have a profound whole-body effect.

This workshop is designed to equip participants to immediately be able to use Yin Sotai in their treatments. Theory and lecture will be minimized, and hands-on work will be emphasized.