Our hands are the most important tool for physical therapy. Nothing can match the ease and effectiveness of hands on touch! The Samurai Programme was originally developed for school children. The exercises presented here have been adapted specifically for the treatment of older people, but can easily be used to treat any adult. They are fast and simple and can be carried out by anyone working with older people, individually or in groups. Care workers, volunteers, exercise managers and Shiatsu practitioners will all find that these exercises improve the quality of life of older people they work with. Family members who want to support elderly relatives will readily learn these exercises too by following the easy-to-understand descriptions and illustrations.

KARIN KALBANTNER-WERNICKE is the founder member of the GSD (German Shiatsu Society), aceki e.V. (specialist training academy for Japanese therapies including Shiatsu and Shonishin) and baks e.V. (Federal working party of Baby and Children Shiatsu Practitioners). Since 2010 she is on the board of directors of the International Society for Traditional Japanese Medicine (IGTJM). Karin first qualified as a physiotherapist and then spent several years studying Shiatsu in Japan. Her practice has focussed mainly on working with babies, children and child development and this has informed the energetic concepts she developed and teaches as part of aceki e.V. Karin has over 30 years of teaching experience in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, Hungary, Spain, UK and USA. In the 1990s, she developed the Spiel-Räume-Konzept® (Play-Space-Concept) with emphasis on the Five Elements in the lives of children. She is the pioneer of acekiBabyShiatsu® and author of several articles and books on Shiatsu and Baby Shiatsu: Shiatsu for babies and children (German only); Baby Shiatsu: Gentle Touch to Help Your Baby Thrive, which was also translated into Spanish, Dutch and Arabic. Specifically for school she wrote Samurai Massage, Shiatsu for Children. Have a look at her website: www.babyshiatsu.de THOMAS WERNICKE is a GP with additional training and certification as a naturopath, homeopath, chiropractor, manual medicine for children, acupuncture and paediatric acupuncture, infants' diagnostic and psychosomatic therapy. After years of research in Peru and the Philippines in the 1970s and 80s he and his wife founded the 'therapeuticum rhein/main' in Hochheim-Massenheim near Frankfurt, Germany. He is a founder member of the 'Academy for the development of children' (aceki) and member of the Acupuncture Quality Council in Mainz. Member of the Japanese Society for Paediatric Acupuncture. Alongside his busy practice Thomas teaches and is the author of numerous articles on the subject in specialist journals e.g. Society of midwives, forum for midwives, German acupuncture magazines and journals.