Zen Body Therapy, technically Zen Bodytherapy®, was founded by Dub Leigh, and is a combination of Zen training of the Eastern and Western body frame, along with superior soft tissue rehabilitation. This therapy is also linked to the teaching of the circulation of the essence of life. It is based on the beliefs of Rolfing, which focuses on the realignment of the body structure; Feldenkrais, which focuses on the enhancement of the human's movement and function; and Zen, which refers to meditation. The main objective of Zen Body Therapy is to reduce physical and emotional distress, set back the aging process and to revitalize one's mind, body and soul.
Dub Leigh was trained under the Zen Master Tanouye Tenshin Rotaishi, who also used the method of chi — vital energy used to heal patients. Dub was a master of soft tissue therapies, such as Trigger Point Therapy. Dub is one of the two people to be trained by Ida Rolf, founder of Rolfing, and Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of The Feldenkrais Method.
Zen Body Therapy is conducted in ten-one hour long deep tissue sessions. Each session builds from the preceding session and has its own procedure for harmonizing the body and the soul of the patient. In the first three sessions, the therapist removes any knots in the soft tissue. Patient's should feel relaxed and relieved from many aches and pains that they were dealing with before they started the therapy.
While the first three sessions of the Zen Body Therapy concentrate mostly on soft tissue problems, the last seven sessions have a deeper emphasis on individual body parts than the first three. The normal interval between sessions is seven to ten days.
The only tools that a therapist will use on their patients are their hands, fingers, knuckles, and elbows. There have been some reports that certain massages can hurt the patient in order to relieve them from all knots, however usually once the knots are removed, the pain is relieved and the patient feels relaxed and comfortable.
Zen Body Therapy has many positive affects on a patient. This therapy can aid connective tissues and can actually align them and make them stronger. These sessions are able to treat not only physical ailments, but emotional ailments as well. It has been said to also make the patient look younger than they did before they started treatment due to certain relaxation exercises.