Hi there
I'm Shoji Sugimori,
the specialist of Posture Corrective Therapy, Remedial Massage therapist,
and Japanese osteopathy therapist. It may look to you that I have been a healthy person long time and have had no problem becoming a professional therapist. But the truth is: it wasn't. It wasn't a "smooth ride" at all. I was just like one of you, who have been having a lot of physical & psychological problems and didn't know what to do.
Story of my career as a massage therapist
This is how and why I became a therapist
After immigrating to Australia in 1999 I opened my own restaurant while continuing to train as a professional Karate fighter. I also established my own Karate dojo (gym) in Sydney. Those were happy days. Everything seemed very well and the future looked bright. However, something happened to me which would drastically change my life forever…
Injured my back...
Despite having a fulfilled life it was extremely stressful (both physically and mentally) and a sinister ailment began to gradually develop in my body causing severe back pain. It was worse than anything most people could imagine.
Couldn’t even move my arms or legs…
I knew that something was wrong for quite a while because I occasionally had back pain which caused numbness and tingling running around my legs.
I should have stopped what I was doing but because of my busy lifestyle I ignored the warning signs and didn’t take care of myself. Of course if you leave your problem untreated, it only gets worse. There is no doubt about it.
One day in the morning, I dragged my whole body to the bathroom as usual (at this time I already couldn’t move my legs in the morning), tried to wash my face, then I realized that my both arms were uncontrollable! No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t move them. I couldn’t even lift them up as you would usually do without any trouble. Deep down I knew that this day would come eventually but it was a lot sooner and a far more severe than I had ever imagined.
It finally got me!
That was when I decided it was time to change my career.
Abandoning a successful restaurant and my most favorite sport, karate, is probably the toughest thing I have ever had to do in my life.
Recovering time, but...
I remember this time of my life as my long “winter” time.
Every day I woke up feeling depressed and in pain. I felt like I had no hope, no future, no motivation, no smile, nothing fun in my life, all because of the constant back pain.
In order to find a cure I tried a number of different treatments such as GP, chiropractic, acupuncture, physiotherapy, Bowen therapy, shiatsu, remedial massage and osteopathy.
Even though some of them helped me feel a little bit better the condition always returned after a short while.
If I master the remedial massage….
Having the depressive days and months going on I decided that it was time to do something for my future. I decided to go to TAFE to study massage therapy which I’ve had a great interest in for a long time. I was hoping if I master the remedial massage, I could find an effective way to fix my back. During this time at TAFE I studied harder than any other time in my life. Even more than my entrance exam for University in Japan. This is because I so desperately wanted to find a cure for my sore back. It wasn’t easy but an enjoyable two years.
Became a remedial massage therapist
There are two types of people in this world, I think. After graduating, some people believe that they have completed their goal and they stop studying and learning They choose not to develop their skills any more. On the other hand, some people see graduation as just one step and they keep going. Studying hard, Training hard, Always thinking ‘I am still not good enough’. I can confidently say that I am definitely this type of person.
The searching continues….
After graduating from TAFE and becoming a qualified remedial massage therapist, I still have not found a clear way to heal my back problem completely. I kept studying and learning from lots of different modalities (not only Western medicine but also Oriental medicine) I also keep up to date on current research about lower back problems. I was constantly searching for the best possible treatment, not only for myself but for my clients now as well.
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Finding a mentor
One day I met someone by chance who had a lot of experience with treating martial artists who suffer from various back ailments.
It sounded too good to be true. I never imagine that the meeting with him would drastically change my life drastically – in a good way this time :D - as a professional therapist.
His name is Ken Yamamoto, a master of Japanese osteopathy, specializing in lower back pain. He travels all around the world, having a lot of elite clients, owning a number of the clinics, mentoring a lot of enthusiastic therapists like me.
His detail -------->>>>>>>> go to his webpage Ken Yamamoto
And then, finally....!!
In order to make an opportunity to learn from him I organised for him to come to Australia. That is how desperate I was to learn from him. By learning his unique, cutting-edge theory of how lower back develops and its cure I was finally able to fix my chronic back problem completely! Yey!
Now it’s my turn….
I know there are lots of people who are suffering from musculoskeletal problems right now and they have no idea what to do apart from taking pain killers. Even though this may give you a temporally fix it is not permanent solution.
I want to give my clients a permanent solution.
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It is my turn to give a helping hand to those with similar problems.
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It is my turn to help them escape from the misery of chronic pain.
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It is my turn to contribute to society.
That is now my mission as a professional healing therapist.
What can I do in my Clinic in Central Coast?
Since I started my clinic in Gosford in 2010, it is thankfully going very well. I am very grateful to people for their support. I was lucky to have a chance to treat some professional basketball teams. I also had the chance to work at the WBC Boxing title match in Japan, as well as treating a number of clients almost every day.
The number of clients is steadily increasing month by month by word of mouth:) Things look great. But I always think it is not good enough. I always ask myself
“Is this enough?”
“Am I doing well enough?”
“Did I make other people smile enough?”
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My journey goes on….
I study hard every day so that I can continue to improve. All I want is to make people smile.
I love to make people smile.
I love to make people happy.
That is my driving force.
I just want to be helpful for those who are suffering from a chronic musculoskeletal problem that might impact their life. I as a professional physical therapist want to redirect their life to a better way. Because I believe that seeing the right therapist and right treatment can change the life.
So I study every day.
So I improve every day.
My journey goes on….