The Relationship between ISTA and the SHEN Therapy Institute
Richard Pavek, SHEN’s Founder & Developer, describes the relationship between ISTA and the SHEN Therapy Institute.
“SHEN is composed of two branches, the SHEN Therapy Institute and ISTA, the International SHEN Therapy Association. Though both share a single office, they are separate entities and have separate purposes.
The SHEN Therapy Institute
The SHEN Therapy Institute is the center of training and maintains all student records, here in Sausalito; the Institute supplies all training materials. This is why students desiring to become Interns are able take their requisite Workshops anywhere in the world – or take part in one region and the rest in another – and have them count towards their entrance requirements. There is little confusion because all the Instructors are teaching from the same book(s).
The Institute has a Director and an Instructors’ Advisory Council; Instructors automatically become members of the Council when they are appointed Instructors. In the past, bi-annual meetings were held the day before the bi-annual ISTA Board meeting. Now, with the advent of Skype the Council is able to hold meetings on the internet. Any Instructor can call for a meeting of the Council, which is held if the issue involved cannot be handled through a short round of emails.
The Director appoints all Workshop Instructors, Seminar Instructors and Mentors.
SHEN training materials.
The SHEN Therapy Institute is responsible for developing all training, formal SHEN courses (Workshops and Clinical Skills Seminars) and Mentoring, worldwide. The SHEN Workshop Manual, the Clinical Skills Training Manual, and the Table Charts are the accumulated wisdom of myself, the early Instructors and the current Instructors’ Advisory Council.
While there is considerable allowance for emphasis and individual teaching styles, all Instructors are required to teach the techniques and principles outlined in those manuals. Instructors who develop useful new techniques bring them to me to circulate among the other instructors, so that the others can test them. When a majority find the new techniques to be useful, they are added to our procedures. In this way, SHEN remains alive and current. Minor updates are made and incorporated into the training manuals as needed.
When I become aware of errors in practice, I investigate the source and will send out a Good Practices note to all ISTA members who are current in their dues.
It is worth noting that the fundamental principles on which SHEN rests, have not changed since SHEN’s beginning, thirty-four years ago."