The #MSAFE method —Make Shibari Accessible For Everyone— is the teaching system developed by Shibari Dojo to teach shibari in an ethical, rational, safe way, adapted to each person.
This model comes from more than two decades of teaching experience, bringing together the technical tradition of Japanese shibari and a pedagogical approach in line with contemporary Western cultural contexts.
Its purpose is to make shibari a practice that is understandable, safe and integrated into people's real erotic experience, preserving technical rigor and avoiding mystical, aesthetic or dramatic approaches that make it harder to understand or to apply in practice.
The system prioritizes a rational understanding of technique over the mechanical repetition of patterns and encourages the active and responsible involvement of everyone taking part, from day one and in both roles.
In this way, shibari can be practiced by anyone, regardless of age, physical condition, prior experience or technical skills, as long as there is a genuine commitment on their part to the learning process.
Where It Comes From
In the early years of the dojo, the teaching we offered followed what we could call the traditional Japanese methodology: the teacher showed a technique and the student, through observation, repetition and analysis, had to absorb the knowledge on their own.
This system is not efficient in contemporary Western contexts. The pace of life, open educational structures and a greater need for rational understanding of processes mean that the observation-and-imitation model often produces more frustration than learning.
From that experience we developed #MSAFE: an adaptation that improves learning efficiency without sacrificing technical rigor. We do not abandon tradition: we study it to build our own coherent and responsible way of passing on knowledge.
Foundations
Scientific and Logical Basis
Technical learning rests on the biomechanics of the human body, the laws of physics and the knowledge provided by neuroscience, psychology and sexology.
Shibari is approached as a technical discipline in which every action has a clear, verifiable explanation.
No arguments from authority or arbitrary explanations are used. When a question cannot be answered right away, it is researched and checked before an answer is given.
Understanding Before Repetition
The method prioritizes understanding the technique before executing it. The goal is not to memorize figures, but to absorb the principles that allow them to be applied and adapted to different contexts, bodies and situations.
Creativity and technical growth can only come from a solid understanding of the fundamentals.
Sequential Progression
Study moves forward progressively: each lesson builds on the knowledge gained in the previous ones.
To progress, you need to master the earlier fundamentals. This structure makes it possible to build technical knowledge that is solid, coherent and applicable.
Accessibility with Rigor
Shibari is accessible to everyone. But accessibility does not mean simplification.
Technique adapts to each person's physical, psychological and emotional characteristics, and the process demands effort, dedication and personal work.
Principles
1. Safety as a Responsibility, Not a Recommendation
Physical and emotional safety is the central principle of the method. It is not a general recommendation but an explicit and non-negotiable responsibility, both for the teaching team and for everyone taking part in the practice.
2. The Person at the Center
Technique adapts to the people practicing, not the other way around. Every body, every couple and each individual's experience within the couple are unique.
Learning must be flexible and personalized from the start.
3. Erotic Experience as the Axis
We teach shibari as a tool to explore, understand and satisfy each person's erotic desire within the couple.
The purpose is to bring technique into real intimate experiences, not to produce aesthetic compositions or visual spectacles.
4. Both Partners Active, Always
In teaching shibari through the #MSAFE method, there is no one side that acts while the other simply lets things be done to them.
Both people take an active part in every class, physically and mentally, each from their own role.
The nature of the work varies with the moment and the role, but the involvement is always shared. The technique of the person tying is built on the response of the person being tied. It is a dialogue, not a monologue.
5. Shared Personal Responsibility
Each person must understand what happens during a session, how it is managed and what their role is in the interaction.
For this reason, both partners study all the techniques, even if they later apply them from different perspectives.
6. On the Same Level
The person tying and the person being tied stand on the same level within the interaction.
Both parties have the same value, the same relevance and the same responsibility in how the experience unfolds.
From this position, the #MSAFE method departs from models based on structural power asymmetries, since this kind of approach introduces artificial hierarchies that distort the nature of the erotic interaction and make conscious and responsible participation by both parties harder.
Instead, it sees shibari as a horizontal relationship between two people who actively collaborate in building the experience.
The asymmetry between the roles is not defined in terms of power, but in terms of access to and management of resources during the session.
Teaching Structure
The #MSAFE method organizes study through a combination of elements that complement each other.
Personalized Attention
Each couple receives direct, individual attention from the instructors.
This makes it possible to adapt the teaching to each person's physical condition, prior experience, interests and learning pace. No two classes are exactly alike.
Adaptive Learning
Class content is adjusted to the students' needs.
The goal is not to complete a fixed syllabus, but to make sure each student understands and can apply what they have learned in their own personal practice.
Progressive Work by Role
Throughout the training process, both the role of the person tying and that of the person being tied are worked on.
Each partner learns the techniques needed to understand how the interaction works as a whole.
In the early stages of learning, a significant part of the work falls on the person being tied, since they are the one who needs to develop greater body awareness and the ability to analyze the experience.
As the person tying consolidates their technique, they also gradually take on a greater technical load, such as reading the other person's body, interpreting their responses, communicating subtly and managing the session efficiently.
At all times, the involvement is shared. The load may vary within the class, but the work is always shared.
Self-Analysis and Body Awareness
One of the core objectives of the method is to provide self-analysis tools that let each person understand what happens during a shibari session, how their body responds and how emotions and sensations are managed.
This capacity for analysis is decisive for developing a safe, conscious and sustainable practice.
Technical Application
Rope technique is taught as a practical application of physical and biomechanical principles, leaving out unnecessary complexity.
The aim is not to learn to replicate a collection of elaborate knots, but to develop the ability to use techniques efficiently and functionally within the erotic interaction.
Philosophy of Learning
The #MSAFE method sees learning as a continuous process.
Classes in the dojo are only one part of the training path; practice afterward and reflection on the experience are equally important.
For this reason, students can ask questions or bring up real situations with the instructors after sessions, which supports consolidating and gradually integrating what they have learned.
Objective
The purpose of the #MSAFE method is not to train stage performers or executors of spectacular techniques. Its objective is for each person to be able to understand shibari from its real foundations, apply it safely from the very first session, integrate it into their erotic experience in a natural and conscious way, and develop their practice autonomously and progressively.
Ultimately, the method aims for each person to be able to feel at once the object and the agent of desire, sharing that experience with another person on a basis of responsibility, safety and mutual satisfaction.
The principles of active participation by both roles and the progressive distribution of technical work are directly tied to the characteristics of the Sekibaku (責縛) style, Shibari Dojo's own style.
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