A SHIFT IN CONSCIOUSNESS

This transformative practice embodies a shift away from diagnosing pathology (what we think is wrong) and trying to manipulate the body (fix it).  In BCST we are focusing on the health that is present and on mobilizing our own inner healing capacities.  This may sound simple yet it is far reaching and influences how we relate to ourselves, our bodies, and others. This practice invites us to shift our focus on looking for something outside of us to “heal” us, to connecting with the inherent wisdom within us in order to experience health and wellbeing.

WHAT DO “BIODYNAMIC” and “CRANIOSACRAL” MEAN?

“Biodynamic,” in the context of craniosacral therapy, refers to the essential life force (in BCST referred to as “The Breath of Life”) that initiated our embryological development and is the healing force that we focus attention on to support the greater expression of health. This life force can be perceived in the subtle, tide-like movements (swelling and receding) in the cerebro-spinal fluid, the whole body and the energy field around the body. The word Craniosacral is used in reference to the “craniosacral mechanism”, i.e. the synchronized, movements in the head, spine, sacrum and pelvis. The aforementioned “Breath of Life” directs the movement of these synchronized structures and holding patterns in the body-mind which can impede the fluid movement of this mechanism and impede the circulation of the cerebro-spinal fluid which is essential to the nourishment of the system as a whole.

HOW IS BIODYNAMIC DIFFERENT FROM OTHER CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY?

Where a more “biomechanical” approach to craniosacral therapy will intentionally move, align and adjust the structures in the body, the biodynamic practitioner orients their awareness to our essential life force (known as the “breath of life”) and supports this life force to unfold the alignments and shifts in the structures that are needed for greater expression of health. In a biodynamic session, the client may experience similar adjustments in the bones, muscles, tissues etc., as they would with a biomechanical approach, yet these shifts originate from the wisdom in the system unfolding what it most needs for balance.  What can ensue is a growing sense of trust in our inherent healing forces and the development of a relationship with these forces as our source of health.

The biodynamic approach also has an emphasis on the relationship between the practitioner and client (the relational field).  The practitioner aims to create a safe and supportive space through empathic resonance with the client, clear reflection and being present to whatever arises for the client.  The practitioner holds a heightened awareness of the subtleties of what is happening in the body and energetic field. As holding patterns (both physical and emotional) are witnessed, this inherently allows space for their natural release.  The client is also invited to explore the quality of contact (touch) that would be most supportive for them.  This allows an experience of being in relationship where one is able to feel and potentially ask for how one wants to be held. It may sound simple, yet how many of us have had the experience of really looking at how we want to be held and then actually been held this way. Receiving this kind of presence, witnessing and supportive contact can give the client an experience of being seen and met in a way that in itself can be deeply healing and transformative.

WHAT SESSIONS INVOLVE:

• SLOWING DOWN ~ As we slow down from the fast pace in our lives, this allows the nervous system to orient to regenerative functions and restore balance
• BODY AWARENESS- SENSATIONS ~ I invite your awareness to return to the present experience of the sensations to cultivate presence in the body.
• RESONANCE ~ As I settle my own nervous system and focus on being grounded and connected to the fluidity in my system I become a settled fulcrum for your system to resonate with
• PRESENCE ~ The awareness that I hold in relation to your system creates a quality of loving, neutral presence, holding a supportive space for you to rest within.
• COMFORT ~ Your comfort facilitates the nervous system to settle more easily so the body can enter the restful state that the work happens best within.
• CONTACT ~ There is an opportunity to experience what it is like to have the kind of contact that would feel most supportive for you to settle and relax. This can offer you an experience of being really “met” and held.
• SPACE ~ Another aspect of contact is energetic. This involves where I place my attention spatially in relation to your body and the biosphere around your body.  Finding the energetic contact that is most comfortable also allows the system to settle.
• ATTENTION ON HEALTH ~ Putting attention on the inherent health within the system, allows it’s fuller expression. What we focus on grows.
• FLUIDITY ~ We track the movements in the fluids, tissues and bones that move with the rhythmic “tides” of the our essential life force energy and invite fluidity in places where there is contraction, allowing the life force to flow freely in the body.
 

PREMISES OF BCST:

• RE-SOURCING ~ Resources are any thing, action, sensation, thought, sound, image that when you are connected to supports your sense of wellbeing, calm or enjoyment and helps you be present and centered. An aim of this work is to support clients in accessing their inner resources to settle themselves and connect with their vital life force.
• MIDLINE ~ At the beginning of our creation as an embryo the creative forces initiated a midline around which our whole body oriented it’s development. Holding the midline, as it is present in us now, in awareness supports the system to reorient to the original blueprint of our creation.
• LISTENING ~ Instead of trying to diagnose or fix something, the practitioner enters a state of deep listening through heightened perceptual awareness.
• FLUID BODY~ We are largely composed of fluid. The potency of the breath of life initiates the rhythmic movement within our fluids. BCST brings attention to this movement and supports a balanced fluidity in the system.
• THE FIELD~ the energetic matrix in which we are all connected and through which we can access information about our experience.
• WHOLENESS~ Every aspect of us is part of an integrated whole and we relate to the person as such. Coming from this view, we can also relate with one structure in the body from a different part of the body than where we are making contact, or without even touching the body, or from a distance (in a distance session). When we hold the body, we hold the whole of the person- including the physical bones, tissues, fluids etc. as well as the energetic field around the body and the mental, emotional, soul aspects that may also present themselves in the field.
• HEALTH~ We operate on the main premise that there is health in our system and it is even this health that has done its best to manage the impacts of any trauma or unresolved experience. We can free the energy used by the system to manage these impacts so this energy can be available for a more fluid, aligned and vitalized experience in our body-mind.
• RELEASING IMPRINTS~ The body and the energy field surrounding it carries imprints from our experiences and aspects of these experiences may appear within the practitioners awareness. The system will naturally present what needs to be integrated into awareness or simply released through a discharge in the nervous system and tissues.
• HEART~ Our body systems, brain and energetic field reflect the disordered or coherent rhythm of our heart. BCST inherently supports a balanced coherence of the heart, hence a synchronized balance in the body-mind-field system as a whole.
 

THE ROOTS OF BCST

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy was born out of the work of Osteopath William Garner Sutherland, DO (1870-1954) in the early 1900’s. Through experiments with his colleagues Sutherland discovered subtle movements in the bones, membranes and fluids of the body.  He came to describe these movements as having a tide like quality (widening and receding). As Sutherland and his colleagues began palpating and interacting with this movement, their clients experienced wonderful health benefits.
Rollin Becker, DO (1918-1994) expanded further on Sutherland’s work.  In the early 1970's, John Upledger, DO, brought the biomechanical approach to craniosacral therapy out beyond Osteopathy. Franklyn Sills has been elemental in continuing to develop the biodynamic craniosacral model as have others in Europe and the United States.

WHAT MOVES ME TO PRACTICE BCST

I remember the first BCST session I had with a dear friend of mine, Madir. I was in awe as I experienced an expanded consciousness of my soul. I felt such a deep sense of peace while at the same time filled with a vibrant energy all through my body. I felt bones moving and adjusting and after the session when I stood up, it was as though I was in a new body. My pelvis and sacrum had relaxed and dropped and the grounded balance I felt, blew me away.  I asked myself, if this is what it can feel like to inhabit this body- what have I been missing and how tight and constricted had I been prior? I was told by a few participants in a Nonviolent Communication (NVC) class I was teaching, that I would be a natural at doing this work and that it would fit so well with what I was teaching in NVC about empathic presence, deep listening and compassionate relationship.  When the training came to where I was living in Nelson, BC, there was no question- this was on my path.
Now as I practice BCST, I am moved by what I experience giving sessions. I enter into a deep awareness in relationship with this precious being I hold in my hands. I hold them in the wholeness of who they are- body, mind, emotion, energy, soul, with all their history and the beauty of their essential nature. Their system presents to me where the life force has been bound up and through trusting the health within them and listening to the movements of the breath of life in the body and surrounding field, I witness release, letting go, and deep settling. I then feel the life force potency more fully fill their body. This is truly inspiring!

I see people come in with stress or pain and related constriction in their body and then at the end of session, I see their whole being softened and enlivened.  I hear them talk about feeling a deep peace, relaxation and relief from what has pained them.  This fills me with joy, to know that I have contributed to this experience. In our hectic speedy lives it seems rare for people to really know a contented peace within, as we carry around so much emotional/physical pain, mental stress and unresolved experiences (traumas). I have been in continual awe of how this practice has transformed limiting emotional patterns in me and the pain from traumas held in my body from my past. BCST has also exponentially grown my capacity to calm, center and ground myself in challenging, testing times.  I am able to more easily return myself to peacefulness in my body, realign and release constrictions when they arise, and connect with the breath of the essential life force that unites me with all life.