Hi, I am Chris Davis, the founder and owner of Zen-Tao Healing Arts.  On this page you are able to read a little about my philosophy behind the company.

Firstly let's look at the name Zen-Tao (pronounced zen-dow). Over the course of the years that I have been practicing the arts of T'ai Chi and Qigong along with other martial arts, I have developed an interest in buddhist and taoist philosophy and it is from these traditions that I have taken the name. 

'Zen' is the way the Chinese word Ch'an is pronounced in Japan. 'Ch'an' is the Chinese pronunciation of the Sanskrit word Dhyana, which means (more or less) meditation.  Zen emphasizes experiential wisdom, particularly as realized in the form of meditation known as zazen. As such, it places less emphasis on both theoretical knowledge and the study of religious texts in favor of realisation through direct experience.

'A special transmission outside the scriptures without reliance on words or letters, directly pointing to the heart of humanity.  Seeing into one's own nature.'

The word Tao (dow), is taken from Taoism. Tao is usually translated as the Way. But it's hard to say exactly what this means. The Tao is the ultimate creative principle of the universe. All things are unified and connected in the Tao. 

Taoism promotes: achieving harmony or union with nature, the pursuit of spiritual immortality, being 'virtuous' (but not ostentatiously so) and self-development.

Coming back to the meaning of Zen-Tao as my company name...it can be taken as 'the way to meditation' or more simply, it is just a name, and I like it.

At Zen-Tao Healing Arts, my aim is to heal the body and mind by integrating and balancing your physical, mental, and emotional aspects. When your body, mind and spirit are balanced and integrated, your body is better able to heal itself.

I achieve this through my unique blend of therapies and energy practices.

There are two aspects to the healing services offered at Zen-Tao Healing Arts.

On the one hand you have the various exercises from the systems of T'ai Chi, Qigong and Yoga.  These require active participation from the person attending, and can be viewed as the Yang aspect of Zen-Tao Healing Arts.

On the other there are the combined skills of Sports Therapy, Advanced Acupressure, Reflexology, Remedial Massage and Hypnotherapy/NLP which from the your point of view, require a much more passive involvement.  These then can be viewed as the Yin aspect of Zen-Tao Healing Arts.

In the same way that Yin and Yang are inextricably linked, I recommend, in order to obtain the fullest range of benefits that Zen-Tao Healing Arts has to offer, that treatments are supplemented with regular practice of the exercises and vice versa.

Hope to see you at a class or at the clinic soon, in the meantime, good health...