Shen Tao
Approach
The Shen Tao Approach provides both a theoretical framework and a practical map for how a practitioner relates to their own body—or to a student—during physical training and movement exploration.
In practical terms, the approach studies how the conscious mind organizes attention and communicates with the body’s neuromuscular systems during training, allowing coordination, strength, and movement efficiency to develop through interaction with gravity, resistance, and momentum.
Drawing from disciplines such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming, sports psychology, meditation, and self-hypnosis, the Shen Tao Approach explores how the mind can guide movement while cooperating with the body’s existing patterns of coordination and adaptation.
The Shen Tao Approach is best described as a disciplined and compassionate method of self-to-self communication.
EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
Shen Tao equipment is designed, and crafted to be impeccably stable, utterly silent, and to offer no distractions from the experience of oneself while in use.
The visual appearance of the equipment is subtle, non-intrusive, and blends in to the existing aesthetics of whichever environment it is used in.
The tactile experience of interacting with the equipment is sensual to the touch, with all of the equipment’s edges, and surfaces being curved, rounded, sanded, and impeccably finished with hand rubbed oils.
In order to cooperate with crowded environments, and multi-use spaces the equipment has been designed to be lightweight, portable, collapsible, easy to set up, and break down, reposition, and store.
EDUCATION
EDUCATION
The methods, principles, and practical applications of the Shen Tao Approach are shared through a structured program of workshops, certification tracks, ongoing classes, and professional mentoring.
Pure Technique workshops study the biomechanical organization of movement on Shen Tao equipment, including skeletal alignment, rhythmic coordination, and the efficient transfer of force through the body.
Hands-On workshops develop the universal skills of touch—how to guide another body safely, clearly, and effectively across a wide range of movement disciplines.
Self-Application workshops allow practitioners to explore how the Shen Tao principles operate within their own bodies through direct experience.
Assisted Tractioning workshops teach the methods required to safely apply traction-based bodywork to others.
ASSISTED TRACTIONING
ASSISTED TRACTIONING
Assisted Tractioning is a hands-on therapeutic approach for opening, lengthening, tractioning, stretching, gentling, and relaxing the body.
The vocabulary of this technique emerges from how Shen Tao weight and cable apparatus support practitioners in both assisting and gently challenging a client’s restrictions at the end of their available range of motion.
The counterbalancing properties of the Shen Tao cable systems allow practitioners to work effectively with clients of different heights, weights, and ages.
Assisted Tractioning can also be integrated with many complementary therapeutic disciplines and bodywork practices, including Thai Massage, Rolfing, Deep Tissue Bodywork, Swedish Massage and the Feldenkrais Method.