Seymour Koblin

Seymour Koblin
Seymour Koblin (born October 31, 1953) is an international author, composer, performer, holistic health practitioner/educator, speaker and the creator of three trademarked complementary health methods: Zen-Touch Shiatsu, Zen-Tone and Nutri-Journey. Seymour Koblin began his path as a practitioner and educator of complementary holistic health methods after a near death experience in Toronto in 1977. He is the founder and director of two - the School of Healing Arts, founded in 1990, and the International Center for Healing Arts, founded in 2010. The International School of Healing Arts spreads his teachings throughout the USA, Europe and Mexico. All of his healing methods are based on teaching the body to regenerate itself through Chi Kung, Nei Kung, , Taoist meditation, Whole Foods Nutrition, using emotions for energy, “calm-passionate communication” (his variation of Marshall Rosenberg’s teachings on nonviolent communication) and intuition development. He is the father of three children and lives with partner Stanislava Papouskova in the Czech Republic.
Biography
Seymour Koblin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Jewish parents, Peggy (Greenfeld) Koblin and Elliot Koblin. His mother moved to Canada with her family three months before the occupation of Poland by the Germans in 1939.
He was named Seymour by his father, an optometrist, who thought Seymour (“see more”) was a particularly appropriate name for an optometrist’s son. If Seymour wished to follow in his father’s footsteps, his name would guarantee him success in this field.
Koblin graduated from Tuxedo Shaftsbury High School in Winnipeg in 1971. After one year in pre-med at the University of Manitoba, he decided to go another route. Music and drums, his chosen musical instrument, offered him a more fulfilling direction. After six years as a professional musician and a near-death experience (NDE) from a ruptured appendix in 1977, Koblin began his complementary/holistic health journey while still maintaining his musical roots. To improve his weakened immune system, he began studying Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, and Nei Kung with Grandmaster C.K. Chu in New York City. In 1981, he commenced his studies of Shiatsu with Wataru Ohashi who convinced him to create his own shiatsu style in order to graduate. Three months later, Koblin had embarked on his creation of Zen-Touch Shiatsu. He graduated from Ohashi’s school in 1984. During that same period, he studied at the Kushi Institute in Boston and Becket MA and assisted founder Michio Kushi's consultations in New York City.
Koblin moved to San Diego, California in 1987, where he started teaching and eventually founded the School of Healing Arts (SHA) in 1990. SHA was the first USA state approved school to offer a Nutritional Consultant Certification program. Koblin convinced the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education that “nutritional consultant” was a valid occupation according to the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Since then, other state approved schools began offering this state approved occupational tile.
Accomplishments
While Seymour Koblin is best known for the creation and development of his innovative form of Zen-Touch Shiatsu, he has also evolved as a motivational speaker in the areas of self-help, nutrition, relationships, communication and intuition. His Nutri-Journey method integrates the power of emotions with intuition. He asserts that emotions are the most powerful “nutrient.”
Koblin has been writing articles and books and presenting classes and workshops in holistic nutrition, Zen-Touch Shiatsu, and Eastern healing since 1978. Humour, intuition, imagery, class hands-on application, and a modern day perspective of traditional holistic health practices make his presentations throughout North America, Asia and Europe an inspiring experience.
Kobin’s ability to demystify Eastern philosophies, and present them in an entertaining, easy-to-understand way, makes him a highly appreciated facilitator of the healing arts. Because of the experiential nature of his work, participants are often astonished by the insights they embody as a result of both his inspirational writing style and classes.
1984 - Ohashi Certified Shiatsu Practitioner
1985 - Kushi Certified Shiatsu Teacher
1988 - CA Certified Holistic Health Practitioner, CA
1990 - Received approval for Nutritional Consultant as a State approved vocational title
1992 - Certified Instructor AOBTA (American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia)
1995 - awarded Diplomate NCCAOM (National Certifying Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine)
Message
Koblin’s work challenges participants to be willing to assume accountability for their lives while allowing others, without expectations, to do the same. Below are the five principles utilized in this work that outline an attitude for assuming “response-ability.”
Personal choices attract life circumstances that are absolutely perfect.
Circumstances occur “be-cause” of choices we have made. We Be the Cause of Our Life Path.
Every circumstance is an opportunity to improve and enrich one’s life.
It is important to cultivate awareness of when we are judging and instead, practice kindness and forgiveness of ourselves and any “others” who participate in the creation of our life circumstances. Feeling the sensations generated by our emotions will lead us to experience gratitude - the “graceful attitude” - the silver lining in every cloud.
We have the skills necessary to transform every challenge into a soul-enhancing experience.
We can choose to utilize feelings as a source of energy and wisdom. Access to this energizing power is available to us at any time.
Reverence for Life + Feelings + Thoughts + Actions = Beneficial Change.
When our will is fueled by the power of our feelings, our thoughts, words and actions create transformation that affects us at the root of our existence. In turn, every branch of our physical, mental and spiritual being is affected. Reverence for life maintains that our personal changes will nourish others as well as ourselves.
Intuition is the force that will guide us in making life-improving decisions.
We can call on faith, trust and love to motivate our knowing of how to feel the awareness of genuine truths. We are now conscious of choices that move us closer or further from the wellbeing of our body/mind/spirit.
Publications
*1988 - The Art of Zen-Touch
*2001 - Shaping Our Destiny
*2008 - Food for Life
*2010 - Chi Cultivation and Circulation
*2010 - Home Remedies
Activities
Training with Koblin, and/or his certified nutritional consultants and/or Zen-Touch practitioners/instructors, are held throughout the USA, Europe, Mexico and Asia.
Criticisms
Some have criticized Koblin for some of the same criticism that others like Andrew Weil have received for promoting unverified beliefs. Challenging
evidence-based medicine and promotion of alternative medicine practices that are not verifiably efficacious has been criticized by noted physicians such as Arnold S. Relman in his 1998 article "A Trip to Stonesville.” Barry L. Beyerstein, PhD, Simon Fraser University, criticizes aspects of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) asserting that, "As a major New Age industry, CAM shares the movement's magical world-view. On advocating emotional criteria for truth over criteria based on empirical data and logic, New Age medical gurus such as Andrew Weil and Deepak Chopra have convinced many that 'anything goes,'" later stating that, "By denigrating science, these detractors have enlarged the potential following for magical and pseudoscientific health product." Simon Singh echoes this criticism going as far as saying that, while Weil promotes some good things like exercise and less smoking, "much of his advice is nonsense.”
Koblin, like others (Deepak Chopra), asserts that there are many forms of “evidence-based” medicine. For example, when applying the physics model of quantum entanglement or time reversal to health and healing, the “old” models of evidence fall short.

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