Motion. Elasticity. Life force.
An empowering new way to work
the shoulder/thoracic complex.
Learn to free the shoulder and thoracic complex and open a pathway to alleviate neck pain, headaches, heart, lung, and digestive conditions — in ways other approaches simply can't reach.
Enroll Now — $79Lifetime access, 14-day money-back guarantee
Stands alone as a complete course · Also pairs beautifully with Module I: The Spine
Over 100 articulations. A lifetime of compression.
And techniques that help you release it.
Most bodyworkers know the shoulder and thoracic area needs attention, but few have the tools to really get in and free it. The thoracic/rib complex alone has over 100 articulations. Add in the shoulder girdle and scapula and you have a region that accumulates a lifetime of compression, restriction, and guarding that is genuinely difficult to access. Conventional approaches barely scratch the surface.
What makes this module original is not just the techniques — it’s the diagnostic lens. This course teaches you to evaluate the shoulder/thoracic area through the parameter of motion and elasticity. The more elastic a joint or region is, the better the flow of energy through it. This gives you a clear, immediate, and objective way to read what’s happening — and to know when your treatment is working.
Superficial and deep shoulder musculature
Some of the techniques themselves will be familiar to experienced bodyworkers. What changes is how they are applied — with Governing Vessel flow and elasticity as your guide rather than symptom or structure alone. The result is a protocol that goes significantly deeper than conventional shoulder work.
Traditional shiatsu is a profound and time-tested healing art. Shiatsu Shin Tai is its evolution — taking that foundation into a contemporary, clinically potent direction that addresses the bodies and conditions of our time. No one else is teaching this approach online, and you can learn it at your own pace to integrate into the work you already do.
You know the 12 meridians.
But are you working with the one that directs them all?
The Governing Vessel is the primary director for the entire meridian system — and the first energy current to form after conception, before the organs, before the 12 classic meridians, before nearly everything else.
Address the source, not the symptom — and the body knows exactly what to do with the freedom you give it.
When GV flow is blocked through the shoulder and thoracic complex, everything connected to it works under restriction. Freeing it here doesn’t just help the shoulder — it opens pathways to the neck, head, heart, lungs, and digestive system. This is what makes the shoulder/thoracic protocol so clinically powerful.
The Governing Vessel is not only a meridian.
It is motion itself.
The Governing Vessel is understood in Chinese medicine as a meridian, a specialized channel directing the flow of energy through the body. Shiatsu Shin Tai goes further. Saul Goodman has identified that GV also exists in a more primitive expression: as motion itself, the most primal evidence of life force flowing through the body.
No other bodywork modality or healing tradition has identified this distinction, let alone built a treatment system around it. Working with the shoulder and thoracic complex as a GV gateway makes this especially powerful for the upper body. When we work with GV as motion, releasing, balancing, and activating that primal flow, something profound becomes possible. The receiver begins to recover more of their original life force, the energy that was theirs from the beginning. And as that flow is restored, they gain greater access to their original blueprint, the full potential encoded in their very DNA, and a greater capacity to live from it.
This is what makes the results of this work different in quality, not just degree. Clients don't just feel better. They feel more like themselves. They ARE more their true self, empowered to manifest their deepest desires and purpose.
This work is for practitioners who want to facilitate more than symptom relief, who want to be agents of genuine transformation. The clients who are drawn to this work, and the practitioners who deliver it, share something in common: a willingness to change, to grow past self-limiting and self-sabotaging patterns, to evolve. This isn't just bodywork. It's a contribution to the health and evolution of the individuals we touch, and through them, to something larger.
Even though Chinese medicine, acupuncture and shiatsu say GV is the directing meridian, they barely address how to evaluate and treat it.
Shiatsu Shin Tai, developed by Saul Goodman over decades of professional practice, is built around the premise that the GV is the master key to the body's healing intelligence. Nowhere is this more evident than in the shoulder and thoracic complex — a region where most practitioners have few effective tools.
The diagnostic approach and techniques in this module can be incorporated into any bodywork modality — shiatsu, acupuncture, massage, craniosacral, or structural work — immediately upgrading the depth and effectiveness of what you already do. Or they can be applied as a complete treatment protocol in their own right.
"Motion = Life. The more motion we can restore to the GV, the more life force becomes available for healing, development, and change."
— Saul Goodman, founder of Shiatsu Shin Tai
Restore motion and elasticity to the shoulders, scapulae, and upper thoracic vertebrae — and you restore the primal flow of GV through that region. The body knows the difference.Governing Vessel Part II · Shiatsu Shin Tai
Three things that change
how you work forever
Motion is your primary diagnostic tool
Governing Vessel is the most primary, primitive flow of life force in the body. Motion itself, the most primal evidence of life, becomes a guide to diagnosing the flow of GV. Learning to see this gives you a new way to know where & how to work during every treatment.
Where a lifetime of compression finally meets its match
The shoulder and thoracic region is where GV flow transitions between the spine and the upper body. Restrictions here affect everything above and below — often far from where the client reports symptoms.
Precise techniques, profound results
Arm traction, circumduction, scapular traction, and shoulder rotation — each technique targets a specific aspect of GV flow through this region, building into a complete protocol.
Reach conditions you couldn't before
Headaches, neck pain, upper back tension, heart and lung issues, digestive problems — freeing GV flow through the shoulder complex opens pathways to conditions that seemed unrelated.
What happens when you
start working this way
The online course is fantastic. I am really enjoying it and it has helped me refresh certain techniques.
Jurij Kazantizis · Shiatsu Practitioner · Costa RicaThese videos give a real sense of the energy and the truly transformational nature of this work. They help me re-visit what I am learning and go deeper each time.
Karen Dawn Oei · Shiatsu Practitioner · LondonI went through the whole course and used it on my client the next day — she was blown away. Being more intentional from the start made a huge difference.
Gina Marks · Shiatsu Practitioner / Myoskeletal Therapist · Exton, PA
What you'll learn in
GV Part II: The Shoulder/Thoracic Complex
Over an hour of close-up video instruction covering five specific techniques, a full integration demonstration, a 51-minute physiology lecture, and a live Q&A session.
Your complete learning package
- Over an hour of close-up technique video covering five shoulder/thoracic techniques
- A full integration demonstration showing all techniques woven into one treatment
- 51-minute lecture on the physiology of stress and its relationship to GV flow
- Written materials and anatomy illustrations accompanying each video
- 52-minute bonus Q&A recording from a live online session
- Private practitioner community for questions, discussion, and continued learning
- Lifetime access, downloadable to all your devices
Saul Goodman
Saul Goodman is the founder of the International School of Shiatsu, with branches in 15 countries. He developed a curriculum that put shiatsu into a framework western practitioners could grasp and build on, and practitioners came from across the world to study it. His residencies in Switzerland, England, Austria, Croatia and beyond drew serious bodyworkers from throughout Europe for decades.
He is the developer of Shiatsu Shin Tai, also called Life Force Recovery, and of Light Body Activation. Originally developed to help practitioners expand their perception and clear their own energy system, so they could work with greater clarity and diagnose and treat at a higher level, Light Body Activation is now also being embraced by people everywhere for their own health, evolution, and development. Both bodies of work remain ahead of their time.
His books include The Book of Shiatsu, the advanced instructional manual Shiatsu Shin Tai, and Light Body Activation. Saul brings Eastern healing traditions and Western physiology together with unusual clarity, making complex and nuanced material immediately practical.
Governing Vessel Part II:
The Shoulder/Thoracic Complex
One-time payment, lifetime access, all devices
Enroll NowNot the right fit? Full refund within 14 days, no questions asked.
Ready for the complete treatment protocol?
The Governing Vessel series spans 5 modules: the spine, shoulder/thoracic complex, lumbars and hips, deep meningeal work, and the cervical region. Enroll in all five for $249, a $150 savings, and gain a complete head-to-toe GV treatment system.
View the full 5-module bundle →Common questions
Do I need to have taken Module I first?
Module I covers the spine and provides a strong foundation in GV theory and motion diagnosis. If you're new to Shiatsu Shin Tai, starting with Module I is recommended. However, experienced Shin Tai practitioners who've taken live classes can jump into any module and get immediate value.
I already practice bodywork. Will this add something genuinely new?
Yes — and practitioners with existing skills benefit most. The shoulder/thoracic protocol introduces techniques most modalities simply don't have, combined with a GV diagnostic framework that changes how you read and prioritize treatment. Even practitioners who've worked with shoulders for years report finding new depth here.
I've taken live Shin Tai classes. Is there still value here?
Absolutely. Having techniques on video you can watch repeatedly creates a different kind of understanding than a live seminar. The integration demonstration and 51-minute physiology lecture in particular offer material that goes beyond what most live classes cover.
What conditions does this module address?
By freeing GV flow through the shoulder and thoracic complex, practitioners report significant improvements in clients with neck pain, shoulder restriction, headaches, upper back tension, and even heart, lung, and digestive issues — because the pathways connecting these regions all run through this area.
How long do I have access?
Your course will be there for you whenever you want it.