ABOUT BEN ROBIN DEAN

Ben Robin Dean is a shiatsu therapist, Jing Fang herbalist and anthropologist. From 2014-2015 he had the good fortune to learn shiatsu through apprentice-style training with Andzej Gospodarczyk, a student of Shizuto Masunaga, Lima Ohsawa and Master Oki. Ben has been working with people suffering from chronic health conditions in different countries, including Australia, Nicaragua, and Thailand, with a focus on digestive issues and pain. 

Ben is passionate about understanding how our self-love and relationships to elemental forces, dreams, emotions, flavours and communities intersect with our experiences of healing and illness. His bodywork style is gentle, focussed, and intuitive, integrating the hara (abdominal) techniques of Masunaga with a Daoist understanding of the energy body and the pattern-thinking approach of classical herbalism. Since 2017 Ben has been a dedicated student of Dr Suzanne Robidoux, a lineage holder of Dr Hu Xi Shu-style herbalism and an advocate for animal rights.

From late 2019 to 2022 Ben was based in Thailand, where he engaged in participatory anthropological fieldwork in relation to seedkeeping, flavour, Thai herbalism and natural farming practices. He returns to Sydney with a renewed interest in food and life in its many forms.