BIODYNAMIC CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY

The roots of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy lie in Osteopathy, which its founder said is rooted in “laws of nature as old as time itself.”

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy was developed from Osteopaths Andrew Taylor Still, W. G. Sutherland and Dr. Rollin Becker. They brought the work from a biomechanical approach towards a biodynamic approach.

A BIOMECHANICAL APPROACH:
A biomechanical approach uses analysis, motion testing and application of various de-compressive and functional techniques. A biomechanical approach to craniosacral therapy introduces forces into the system with direct input from the practitioner to correct imbalances more locally. Although this may be helpful, especially within a first aid context, it can also lock the system up at a particular level and prevent a deepening into more formative forces and healing processes.

A BIODYNAMIC APPROACH:
In the biodynamic approach, the work changed from analysis, motion testing and application of techniques, to the primacy of presence and stillness, feeling the wholeness of the human system and orientating to primary respiration and the Intelligence it manifests, both in maintaining equilibrium within the human system and in its role in initiating healing processes.

In the biodynamic approach, we do not put force into the system and look at the human system as a whole and have found that by careful listening to one’s life’s story through the tissues of the body and fluid field, we can meet the patterns that arise in a way that allows healing to occur from the intelligence of the client’s system, letting the unerring potency (life force) do the work, which is the deepest form of healing intention.

We cannot separate our body from psychological, emotional and spiritual experience. The body holds all of these processes. As biodynamic practitioner’s we are able to meet what arises by holistic awareness with the ability to help healing processes through the physical body and to meet any coupling of other processes as well. We do this by listening to Primary Respiration, a series of different tides/rhythms that can be palpated in the body. It is the human system’s basic ordering and healing principle, and is constantly at work maintaining the best possible balance in each of us, even in the most challenging circumstances. These tides give us information about processes and patterns that may be held in the system.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy can aid in releasing restrictions and unresolved forces in the dural membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, as well as areas where tissues are being held on different levels. This can enhance the flow of cerebral spinal fluid and allows the central nervous system and entire body continue to move towards ease and wellness.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy includes a sound education in anatomy and physiology, trauma, disease and verbal skills as well as understanding of early attachment and development. It is an incredibly effective way of supporting clients through many of life’s challenges and supports health on every level through touch and verbal skills to address deeper processes that are occurring in the body.

LENGTH OF SESSION:

Initial Session | 2 Hours

Follow Up Sessions:

• 90 Minutes
• 75 Minutes

INITIAL SESSION STRUCTURE:

• Check – In
• Getting Comfortable
• Nervous System Regulation
  • Tracking Sensations (Felt Sense)
  • Resourcing
  • Attentional Distance
• Hands On Contact (45 – 60 Minutes)
  • Settling
  • Diagnostics
  • Treatment Unfolds
• Integration
• Heading Home

FOLLOW UP SESSIONS STRUCTURE:
After we have had an initial session together we will have a great sense of what really works for your system, how much time you need and how to design a session to meet your needs.

BEGIN WITH A CHECK-IN:
We start with a check-in. We may spend some time discussing any goals or specific issues you would like to address in the session.  I may also ask some questions regarding your medical history or the specific nature of any issues you may be experiencing.

GETTING COMFORTABLE:
After the check in, we’ll get you settled on the table and comfortable. The right amount of padding, pillows, the right temperature, blankets / no blankets, a sheet, air, sounds etc. Getting things just right!

GUIDED MEDITATION:
Once we have gone through getting comfortable, we’ll go through a little guided meditation to really land in the present moment.

SELF-REGULATING THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
When we are in the sympathetic state of the nervous system, the body puts off healing processes. When we are in parasympathetic states the body does healing processes. We will move into two ways of self-regulation for the nervous system prior to doing the hands-on part of the treatment. These processes will help the system shift towards that parasympathetic state. These processes empower us to work through the forces in our lives and our bodies from the most resourced place possible. They help us to access the inherent health of our body that is available to us so that we can process and move through these forces. They put the client at the center of their health and journey and can be very empowering because they can amplify the success of the treatment.

TRACKING PHYSICAL SENSATIONS | THE “FELT” SENSE:
First we will come from the “story” of what is happening to the “felt sense” of how what is happening in life is living and expressing in the body. The “felt sense” is the physical sensations in the body. It is a somatic landscape of you in the present moment.  The felt sense can be things like: tension, contraction, heaviness, density, crunchy-ness, inertia, warmth, electric, radiant, a sense of settling, softness, neutrality, a sense of stability, etc. 

RESOURCING:
After that scan, we will use a tool called “resourcing.” This is another way to help our system shift into that parasympathetic state where the body does healing processes. When resourcing, we will look for a sensation of ease, pleasure, comfort, or neutrality. This can be in the body, in the space around us, or we may use a memory. Once we find that resource, we will notice what physical sensations move through the body if we really let that resource in. What is the “felt sense” of that resource? Maybe the skin will soften, maybe there will be an upward rush of energy and lightness, maybe there will be a sense of being grounded or a sense of ok-ness with something that previously felt too difficult. Maybe you will feel some of the sensations that were uncomfortable begin to unwind as the body starts to make that shift into the parasympathetic state.

HANDS ON:
I will start at the feet. I will spend some time with a light touch sensing through the whole system. The body will go through a shift where it may feel fragmented or like there is quite a lot of activity, little shoots of electricity, all different parts and pieces, to a sense of wholeness and cohesiveness.

Within that wholeness, areas called “Fulcrums,” where there is quite a bit of potency gathering or coalescing, will start to become clear. I will sense for this. Where is it? Is it in the Bone? Connective Tissue? Muscle? Joints? Organs? Blood Vessels? Nerves? Fascia?

I will spend some time being with those areas with a light touch until there is another shift. Often that process begins with a real sense of inertia or density in an area. Then something feels like it is building inside there, like it’s charging up. Then there is a pause, a feeling of everything going into suspension. Then the body will start re-organizing itself, literally untwisting a knee, there might be a sense of widening or lengthening, two areas that were stuck together will un-couple, anything can happen here. This is where we get to witness the inherent health of the body. It’s knowing of how to heal itself. The return to the blueprint.

Then, it feels as though what was held in that area returns to the system, like a flood of energy or liquid light… kind of like when you drop ink into water, it goes from being in a concentrated drop to streaming and spreading out through the entire glass of water.

When one fulcrum resolves, I will then move to the next until our time is up!

DURING A SESSION, YOU MAY:

• Relax so deeply that you fall asleep
• Enter a quiet meditation-like state
• Feel as if you are dreaming while awake
• Experience memories or insights while on the table
• Enjoy a pleasant sense of warmth, softening, widening or floating

AT THE END OF A SESSION, YOU MAY:

• Feel relaxed, but also energized
• Find yourself breathing more fully and deeply
• Stand straighter and taller
• Feel more comfortable in your body
• You may be surprised to feel a new sense of peace and ease as you leave the office to return to your life
• Notice an improvement in your sleep patterns

INTEGRATION:
No matter what your experience, we will take some time after to check in about how you are doing. This is a great opportunity to find words for your experience and reflect on how differently you feel after your session.

AFTER A SESSION: 
A session will continue to unfold within the receiver as they move through life and often a recipient will continue to notice changes for multiple days and even weeks after a treatment. It is good to track the effects (physically, emotionally, energetically, relationally, insights, sleep, in our life system). I love to hear from you after 72 hours have passed just to see how you are doing and how it is integrating!

LIGHT TOUCH:
The touch in a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Session is quite light because the practitioner is sensing for the fluid body.

THE FLUID BODY:
Our bodies are made of 70% water and we are 99% water molecules. Every cell of our being has so much water in it! When a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy practitioner makes contact, they are sensing not necessarily for the bones, muscles, fascia, organs, nerves, or blood vessels, they are definitely feeling those, but sensing a little deeper for the fluid within it all and around it all. They are touching the body with a perspective of sensing the body as cells of tissue floating in a fluid field.

INHALATION & EXHALATION:
Fluids have a motion to them. There is a subtle expansion / filling and then a subtle emptying and narrowing that happens constantly. Although this is subtle, we can feel it! The fluids in the body go through this expansion and emptying motion 24/7. As they expand, everything in the body expands; everything that has fluid in it goes with that motion (the bones, organs, muscle and fascia, nerves, joints, everything!) and then as the fluids start to empty, everything in the body that has fluid in it also narrows and empties.

This motion is much like a breath motion and the expansion phase is called, “Inhalation” and the emptying phase is called, “Exhalation.” This has nothing to do with the lungs or air, but just to do with the motion of the fluids that is similar to a breath motion.

HOW TO FEEL FLUID MOTION: 
Imagine standing in the ocean and me asking you to see if you could feel into the movement of the entire ocean? How might you do that?

You might take your hands to the surface and sort of float them there and even make your hands fluid-like themselves, a bit transparent. If we have a rigidity in the hands, we will just feel the waters reaction to that rigidity, a sort of bouncing off of it, if we use our hands to move the water all around, we will only feel what we are doing to the water, not its inherent motion. So, if we float our hands on the surface, make them a little transparent and fluid-like themselves, then we might start to sense that whole fluid field of the ocean and then we might start to sense movements in the fluid from far and wide.

Touching to feel the fluid motion has to be light, very present, very connected, but to feel that fluid motion without impinging on its expression, the touch is quite light.

• Wish to reduce stress & tension
• Restore one’s life force & sense of an internal battery when working in physically demanding jobs or enduring a long-term illness / disease
• Suffering with chronic pain
• Desire an improved posture
• Seek to increase physical and psychological well-being
• Ease of Movement
• Flexibility
• Increased energy
• Release of outgrown physical and emotional patterns
• Confidence and improved capacity to meet social and physical challenges
• Insomnia
• Anxiety and Depression
• Muscular Tension
• Ligament & Tendon Issues
• Bone & Joint Pain
• Fascia / Connective Tissue Patterns
• Headaches / Head Injuries
• Sinus Congestion
• Breathing Challenges
• Digestive Disturbances
• Menstrual Challenges
• Low Immunity
• Fluid Retention
• Poor Circulation
• Organ Imbalances
• Nervous System Regulation
• Injury Recovery
• Trauma
• Nervous System Pain, Injury, Disease
• Lasting results

When I had my first Craniosacral Therapy session it was with an osteopath. I went to see her because my neck was in tremendous pain. I couldn’t even pick my head off the pillow without sharp screaming pain, much less hold my head up or look right or left.

I laid on her table and found myself drifting into a deeply settled and relaxed space. She lightly placed her hands in different areas and we sat in stillness together. It actually felt like she wasn’t doing anything.

When I got off the table, I could move my neck without any pain and in the coming days it only got better and better. I then went to see her whenever I got into extreme pain or crisis and over the years of seeing her, every time we would do “nothing” and I would get off the table and feel totally better!

I became convinced she was some type of total body wizard. I really wanted to learn whatever it was that she was doing because it was so helpful! The most helpful!

Then, I was at a crossroads in my bodywork practice. I was a Shiatsu practitioner and I wasn’t feeling as effective as I could be. I could feel a lot of things happening in clients but didn’t have the tools to address all of them, it was like some bodies really responded to the force and input I was giving them and other people’s bodies felt un-reachable, like there was nothing I could do to get any kind of change to happen or even a response! I was considering learning Rolfing or learning Craniosacral therapy to help with what I was contacting.

I had a conversation with two somatic therapists who are teachers of both Craniosacral therapy and Rolfing / Structural Integration to help me decide which direction to go in. I expressed my sense of being ineffective with using force to get any real change to happen for some clients. I also shared my own feeling that my body seemed to, although I loved the contact and different pressures of shiatsu and fascial work, and did feel a response in myself, I was actually feeling a much bigger response from the Craniosacral work! I felt like like it went underneath all the patterns and unwound the thing that was creating them!

They suggested that I go in the direction of the thing that I personally most needed. They helped me to understand that the Craniosacral Therapy gets underneath the patterns to the thing that is organizing them and the entire being and it’s patterns so it would definitely be the thing I was needing the most for myself and for my clients!

PAYMENT:

• Initial Session | 2 hours | $230
• Follow Up Sessions | 90 Minutes | $170
• Follow Up Sessions | 75 Minutes | $140

PAYMENT OPTIONS:
It is important to me to be able to get to work with those of us that have limited resources. If my rates are not possible for you, because you have to choose between services such as food, housing, and other living expenses as a result of systemic and other oppressions please contact me about a reduced rate.

I have a limited number of reduced fee spots in my practice. Please email me directly to inquire about the availability of reduced fee spots.  To determine if you are eligible for a sliding scale option, you can refer to Alexis J. Cunningham’s “Green Bottle” sliding scale model.

Payment is done at the time of the service and can be made with PayPal, Venmo, cash, check, or through credit card on my Square Store.