Treatment Testimonials
“I am a teacher and practitioner of shiatsu with 15 years of experience giving and receiving shiatsu from therapists all over the country. My session with WinterJade was one of the most thorough treatments I have ever received. Within just one hour, she was able to effectively treat all the areas of my body that were giving me pain that day, and even found and treated all the chronic areas I didn’t mention. By the end of the session, I couldn’t have possibly thought of even one additional thing that could have used attention; it was all covered! My whole body had a kind of glow and vibration to it that felt as though the whole system had been “shaken up” in the best possible way, and everything was settling into its proper place. WinterJade is a practitioner of rare skill and experience, and anyone with the good fortune to live near her should avail themselves of her services immediately!” — Steve Rogne, Director – Zen Shiatsu Chicago
“I have had the luxury of experiencing WinterJade’s Shiatsu technique several times and I cannot recommend it highly enough. She has the ability to listen to what you tell her as well as intuit what you may not even know yourself. Each session is different and valuable. As a massage therapist, I have chosen Shiatsu over massage because I like the specific attention to the areas of imbalance in my body that WinterJade provides. She is a skilled practitioner with an extensive background of study and experience. I have referred clients to Grandmother WinterJade many times and will continue doing so. ” — JoAnn M. Christy, C.M.T.
“Thank you so much for that hour. I needed that. Oh my! I will definitely have to get a gift certificate for my mother.” — Michele Coyle
“I met Grandmother WinterJade almost 3 years ago. I came to see her for a shoulder problem that had been bothering me for years. After our session, she was kind enough to recommend someone she thought could better help me with the shoulder. I was so impressed with her I came back to see her a few months later. I had no idea then how much and in so many ways she would help me. For me, the work that Grandmother does is about balancing the physical and mental energies of the body & the effects one has on the other. Mental stress can cause physical pain & discomfort. Physical pain can cause mental distress. My experience has been when these energies are in balance it allows the body & mind to release & experience more positive responses: joy, vitality, clarity and freedom. I would like to take this opportunity to thank WinterJade for being so kind and generous with her knowledge & helping me to have a better understanding of my whole self. She is a great healer and shiatsu practitioner.” — Frances Ray (Valarie Chapman)
“Going to see WinterJade is like taking a small, but exquisite, vacation during which the disparate parts of me — spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical — are brought into alignment and I feel whole again. Plus, after my time with her, I look in the mirror and see the peaceful, unstressed person I used to be. WinterJade calls it “Shiatsu face” and it is a rare gift.
When I have a Shiatsu session with her, she treats not only my body, but my mind and spirit as well. She senses what most needs attention and focuses her finely honed skills and knowledge on that aspect of my being. Then she brings everything into balance so I leave feeling fully integrated with an elevated spirit, a serene mind, and an enlivened body.” — Tinka Finn
“It is a blessing that you get help, get better, and continue to feel better. The secondary blessing is knowing that there is help. It takes away a whole level of fear.” — Diane Lusk
“I’ve found the best kept secret in town. Shiatsu therapy. WinterJade was so professional and I felt so relaxed during the treatment and absolutely energized afterwards.” — Sybil McGuire
“I first began working with Grandmother WinterJade to rehabilitate my hips and knees, and to see if Shiatsu could help address some other postural problems I was having. WinterJade’s intuition, technique, and strength together created the conditions for an exceptional, first-rate treatment that was simultaneously therapeutic and pleasurable.
Over the course of treatment, we began to discuss the possibility of shamanic guidance as a way to explore some more fundamental questions. I was not quite sure what to expect, but any skepticism I felt prior to beginning this work vanished upon completion of our first session. Grandmother expertly crafted an experience to match my personality and sensibilities and needs, and to let them otherwise lead the way. The result was a series of unexpectedly and immensely powerful experiences that have begun to reshape how I view myself, my relationships, and the afflictions that I’ve been seeking treatment for. My time with Grandmother has thus been life-changing, both physically and emotionally.” — Jed V.
“Grandmother WinterJade is a rare treasure for her 40 years of experience and skill, intuition, talent, and will to heal. She is one of the most devoted practitioners I have ever met. Grandmother’s Shiatsu sessions have remarkable confidence, fluidity, and momentum – she has a special way of connecting the body’s signals to spiritual and life-context, speaking and listening attentively throughout. Her depth and quality of pressure was satisfying at every moment. WinterJade did more than address my aches and pains that day – she treated areas of tension and stagnation I was unaware of, and even treated some things that happened to me when I was a child. After the session, I felt a flexibility and freedom in my body that was nearly unfamiliar to me. I highly recommend seeing Grandmother WinterJade for treatment. ” — Nathan Torrence, CP (AOBTA)
Teaching Testimonials
WinterJade,
I just wanted to thank you again for speaking Saturday. I received many thanks for having you speak. It is always lovely hearing what you have to share. Every single evaluation has something about your presentation as the #1 thing they enjoyed. We lose sight of these things working in a fast paced setting.
Many Thanks,
Brandy
Brandy Valentine Davis, M.Ac.O.M.
Naturopathic Medicine/Acupuncturist
Cancer Treatment Centers of America®
10109 E. 79th St., Tulsa, OK 74133
I had nine clients just between yesterday and today. I incorporated your weekend workshop’s teachings into each session. But the last session today was most interesting. My client remarked during today’s treatment, “wow – something really shifted.” Afterwards, he said, “I think this was the best treatment I have had yet.” (He has polymyalgia, and left the office pain-free today.)
Thank you for your expertise and patience. You are a great teacher. I will keep practicing!
Michelle Racich, Shiatsu Therapist
Sutton Bay, MI
I have been mentoring with Grandmother WinterJade for six months. I did not know what to expect, but knew it was something I should do because I was unsure of my skills.
Boy, what a revelation. WinterJade has a sense about her that seems to know before you do what is needed to improve your skills. That was the sense I got from her.
It became clear that I was not “feeling” the meridians. Since working with WinterJade two to three times a month I feel very confident when I know I am on a meridian. It’s nice to feel confident.
I highly recommend the tutorial that Grandmother offers. It is worth every penny.
Peggy Spiros
Zen Shiatsu Practitioner
Chicago, IL
My tutorials with WinterJade have been amazing and mind-blowing. She has helped me to break old habits ingrained for 15+yrs to improve my body mechanics and technique making my sessions more effortless and effective. I’m able to connect with the receiver’s qi more efficiently and expansively with greater precision of meridian locations and angles of penetration. I have gained greater confidence, speed and clarity in my hara diagnosis. WinterJade’s deep intuitive sense provides spot-on feedback that I’ve been able to apply in my practice with incredible results.
Jeanne Phenany
Certified Practitioner and Instructor (AOBTA)
Wilmette, IL
I have experienced first hand, WinterJade’s wonderful ability to teach. She shares her vast knowledge on many topics by condensing the material and making the information understandable to the layperson. Her seminars are concise and offer both skilled practitioners of other modalities and those just curious, a window into the seemingly endless mastery of her studies.
JoAnn M. Christy, C.M.T.
Charlottesville, VA
Dear WinterJade,
I thought you might be interested in my response to the Chakra Workshop. I came home afterward feeling contentedly sleepy and very much in my body. I went to bed early and slept like a baby, unusual for me in both cases. The next morning I awoke expecting my standard stiffness. But there was none. No aches or pains either. Very strange indeed! “Stranger” things were yet to come. I sat down and journaled for the first time within memory, although there was a time I did that every morning of my life.
If I were to chose one thing that resonated most deeply from all the wonderful things in that oh-so-rich workshop, it would be this idea: Spirit does not have a body, but we do and it is time for all of us to step up and take part in the work of Spirit. We are the hands, the feet, the body of Spirit and one of the reasons to stay alive long into old age is to further that work. Following is one of the notes from my journal: “I want to take those things that have worked for me in the past and bring them to my life now so the flow that is me continues and I don’t feel chopped up into ‘chapters.’ The growing older will not seem an aberration, a ‘wrench’ from who I was, but a way of opening, of accepting my ‘leaky margins’ and my eventual dissolving into the whole of being. The aspect of the day that spoke to me most was the idea of the partnership of Spirit and this body. How they – we – need each other, how we must rely on each other to accomplish what we came here for.”
There were many other things I said in those pages, many important realizations, but that was the essence, that is the reason (for me, at least) to set my chakras spinning.
And speaking of spinning, after I wrote, I went downstairs, turned on music, and spontaneously began to dance. I danced and danced until I began to cry for joy and shout “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Yes. Thank you so much, dear WinterJade, for all I learned in those precious days.
Catherine Finn, writer
Howardsville, VA
I attended a class on Power Animals taught by Grandmother WinterJade Forest. The class was not only informative on the informational level but on the experiential level as well. It offered me a direct experience of my personal relationship to my power animals. WinterJade is a skilled guide who led me on a deep journey with patience and skill so that I could have the direct experience of being with my totem animals. She created and sustained a very safe relaxed atmosphere, allowing me to receive the information that I needed to continue on my healing journey. Grandmother’s deep visceral experience of the shamanic world and her connection to it allows for a rich and deep experience in any class she may teach. I highly recommend her as a teacher.
Anna KD Blum, PMH, CS, BC
Charlottesville, VA
Because of WinterJade’s precision and 40 years of devotion, practice, and intensive study in the field of Shiatsu, I consider her both rare and indispensable to the Shiatsu community and community at large.
Her teaching style strongly emphasizes taking us through experiences that make concepts real and palpable, and she checks in with us on an individual level to make sure the transmission is setting in. She is very organized in her presentation and every class is packed with experiential meditations, activities, and guided practice time. She doesn’t just teach; she ensures that we learn.
Besides being masterful with the energetic aspects of the work, the mechanics of Grandmother’s technique are impeccable. My treatment of the joints, quality of touch, and access to the meridians have totally transformed for the better.
Thanks to studying with WinterJade, I have an improved sense of connection that makes the work more fulfilling. Results have gotten more consistent, and clients have been more appreciative, and they’ve had reason to come back for more!
On top of all that, Grandmother is a joy to study with, full of energy and zest – at her core is a remarkable regard for life itself. This core of reverence and respect, I believe, is a key factor in Grandmother’s healing touch, and her pure will to pass on this wonderfully nuanced healing technique we call Shiatsu. I’m very grateful Grandmother WinterJade Forest is here with us!
Nathan Torrence
Certified Practitioner (AOBTA)
Highland Park, IL
I have taken tutorials, classes and workshops taught by Grandmother WinterJade Forest. At times, given my limited knowledge, it is hard to grasp her vast understanding in the fields of shiatsu and spirituality. Every encounter with WinterJade tells me she is a special human being who has dedicated her life to deeply learn about the subject matters she is passionate about. She has traveled around the world following her teachers to learn all she could. She has made, and still makes, difficult choices to follow her calling and share her knowledge. Being in contact with WinterJade is a reminder of all the learning, practice, discipline, perseverance, dedication and love required to develop ones “art.” Grandmother WinterJade has taught me the important concept that knowledge informs intuition. Her teachings have helped me make choices that positively affect my own self and everyone I encounter on my path.
Daniela Giralt
Shiatsu Practitioner
Chicago, IL
I decided to take the Torso workshop, even though I was still a student in my first Clinic at Zen Shiatsu School, after completing Zen Shiatsu 3. I sensed that it would help me deepen the sensation of Hara diagnosis, refine healing touch, and it certainly brought something totally new that I was not even aware of missing.
Studying with Winter Jade feels like a direct transmission. You just have to experience it. She, as a teacher, is infinitely passionate about her work and very serious about it. When she is teaching, she brings everything to life. And I, as a student, can feel it. She doesn’t talk a lot about theory; she makes everything very practical and experiential.
She is a master of language and she explains everything very precisely and clearly. She demos on students and makes you feel it through her work and your own. She is efficient and inspires efficiency. She makes you think fast but also be spontaneous in discovering answers. WinterJade speaks to everyone’s highest potential and inspires the most of the student to come out. Sometimes that can be intimidating because many of us are afraid to be the best we can be. She sincerely wants to give all she has to help you become a healer.
The workshop helped me relax more when I give treatments. I have a deeper sense of listening to the client’s body. I learned how to do Hara assessment with less effort. My feeling of my clients’ needs is clearer. I can sense different qualities of the meridians. I have more accuracy because of having the feeling, not because of following a general map on a meridian chart.
Theory and practice just make more sense and connect into the bigger picture after the Torso workshop. Everything is more integrated in me.
Gordana Markovic
Shiatsu student, Yoga Instructor
Chicago, IL