Healing Experiences in Japanese Rope Bondage Practice: A Phenomenological Study

Eva Harris, affiliated with Alef Trust and Liverpool John Moores University, published this article in volume 4 (2023) of Consciousness, Spirituality & Transpersonal Psychology, pages 139–149, on 22 December 2023 (DOI 10.53074/cstp.2023.46). Alef Trust lists an earlier, unpublished master’s thesis by Harris on the same subject from 2022.

The article proposes that regular practice of shibari, which it also calls kinbaku, can have a positive effect on practitioners’ lives and personal development. It describes the practice as a space in which people can bring patterns they are not aware of into awareness, which the author sees as the point where healing becomes possible. The stated aim was to identify healing experiences that practitioners have in common.

The method is phenomenological: ten semi-structured interviews with individual practitioners. The abstract does not describe how participants were recruited or who they were.

Three themes stood out in what participants said about healing: transformation and catharsis, embodiment and empowerment, and communication and community. From these, the author argues that shibari has healing and transformative potential, places the study within a growing field explored by transpersonal psychologists and by BDSM enthusiasts, and encourages readers to see these experiences as a path toward wholeness and awareness inside and outside the practice.