Anma

Domain X · Body, movement, breath & physical · Japan

What it is

Japanese dictionaries define anma as treatment by rubbing, stroking, kneading and tapping the body by hand. The word also names the practitioner. The Kaitei Shinpan Sekai Daihyakka Jiten calls it a kind of physical therapy. In this account, pressing or moving parts of the body improves circulation…

Format

• Session count and frequency: not fixed in the sources consulted. They are set by the practitioner and, under insurance, by the physician's consent.
• East Asian medical account: the classical Chinese text Suwen (素問) presents anma as a treatment for numbness or paralysis arising when the meridians (経絡) do not flow. The national curriculum for schools for the visually impaired teaches 東洋医学 and 経絡・経穴 (meridians and points) as part of the course.…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Anma is a hands-on discipline delivered by licensed practitioners. It is not a psychotherapy. The framework below therefore has two strands: (A) the course of anma as Japanese training sources describe it, so the psychotherapist knows what the client will meet, and (B) the psychotherapist's own pathway alongside it.
• A. The anma practitioner's course (as training sources describe it).
• Records and review. Training includes keeping case records (カルテ), case review and interview skills with simulated patients.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Evidence status (brief). The MHLW-funded eJIM portal lists the Evidence Reports of Anma-Massage-Shiatsu (EAMS). These are mostly small randomised and crossover trials with varied techniques and populations, and the portal draws no overall conclusion of effectiveness. In one abstracted trial in…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the same startle issues as A4.
• clients delaying care out of loyalty to the practitioner.
• Continuing out of obligation to the practitioner. Endings that echo earlier losses.
• tenderness the following day, and how the client reads it. Is the client alarmed, or reassured?
• feelings of being held or restrained. Clients with restraint-related trauma should know they can decline it.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.