Nini Melvin is the founding director of Meridians - Pathways to The Heart, in Northampton, Massachusetts where she has a shiatsu apprenticeship program, healing arts movement classes (in person and online), clients, and a shiatsu clinic. She has trained shiatsu teachers and practitioners locally and internationally since 1985, and has begun her fifth decade of practicing shiatsu.

Nini teaches Asian Healing theories and perspectives through embodied movement experiences, including the meridians, the five elemental phases and the Time-of-Day Cycle. Nini created a five-element divination deck of cards that is a companion for the book, which guides people on a healing journey through the elements.

Nini has a master’s degree in dance education from Temple University in Philadelphia, and taught movement and shiatsu at Omega Institute in New York. She received her shiatsu training at the Ohashi Institute in NYC from 1981-1985, and was a senior instructor through 1994. She is an AOBTA Certified Instructor.

Nini has been influenced by many shiatsu teachers, including Waturu Ohashi, Pauline Sasaki, Kikko Matsumoto, Pamela Ferguson, Ron DiKooning, Michelle Shumann, Pamela Hannay and Patrizia Stefanini.

She has studied Chinese medicine with Dianne Connelly, Jeffrey Yuen, Thea Elijah, Nikki Bilton, and Chris Marano and Qigong with Master Li Jun Feng, Daisy Lee, Lee Holden, Terri Nash and Lorelei Chang, Lindsey Wei and Body Mind Centering with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.