De Internationale Shiatsuschool

Jan Vervecken (°1949) started studying Macrobiotics, Oriental Medicine and Shiatsu in 1975 in the East West Centre of Antwerp. He deepened his study of Oriental Medicine and Shiatsu at the Kushi Institute in Boston and the Oki Do Dojo in Japan with Master Masahiro Oki.

He completed his formal Shiatsu training in 1987 at the International School of Shiatsu in Switserland under the direction of Saul Goodman.

He established a shiatsu practice and school in Belgium and together with a team of practitioners, teachers and assistants this school has now seven centres in Belgium and Holland.

His life-long experience is not only used in the International Shiatsu School of Belgium. He also teaches at dance school P.A.R.T.S (A T de Keersmaecker) where shiatsu is part of the curriculum; he is permanent teachers of the International Shiatsu School in Switserland and guest teachers at various other educational institutions such as high schools and yoga schools both local and international.

Mieke Vervecken-Pieters (°1952) studied languages and philosophy in Belgium and Ireland. While teaching English for many years in a local high school, she also began to study macrobiotics and yoga in Belgium in 1974. She began to travel extensively and deepened her studies in Japan, United States and Switserland.
She has studied with Aveline Kushi, Cornelia Aihara, Geraldine Walker, and many more international teachers
She is a member of the M.E.A.: Kushi Institute Becket, U.S.A.

Mieke and Jan they established the International Shiatsu School in 1986. Not very long after, Mieke gave up her English teaching career and established the Natural Cooking School.

Her skill and experience (aside from running a cooking school, she runs a busy household with six children) helped the school grow into the longest running macrobiotic cooking school in Belgium. This did not go unnoticed outside the macrobiotic community. Since 1998, she is the kitchen chief of the dance school P.A.R.T.S in Brussels and nutrition advisor to Sogyal Rinpoche’s Buddhist retreat centre Lerab Ling where she helped transform the kitchen to introduce temple and balanced cooking. Lerab Ling provides daily meals for 300 to 700 residents.