Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Volume Five

In Volume 5 of his innovative series on biodynamic and craniosacral therapy, Michael Shea presents invaluable information about therapeutic approaches to pre- and neonatal babies--in particular, low-birth-weight babies. In addition, more than 50 meditations on stillness are provided for the benefit of the practitioner. The first part of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Volume 5 contains multiple photographs and descriptions of the best ways to make physical contact with low-birth-weight babies. Included are several protocols for babies while they are in neonatal intensive-care units, as well as protocols for once they have been discharged and are at home. Shea also offers insights on therapeutic approaches to babies in utero. Using photographs and text descriptions, he explains how to position a woman who is pregnant on a table in order to practice biodynamically, and which hand positions to use during the session. The second part of the volume provides more than fifty meditations and guided visualizations, all of which were transcribed and edited from the full foundation training in biodynamic craniosacral therapy. These meditations can be used to help the practitioner to establish proper orientation to the body and breath and to balance focused and unfocused attention. Lastly, mindfulness meditation and the research surrounding it is discussed.

In Volume 5 of his innovative series on biodynamic and craniosacral therapy, Michael Shea presents invaluable information about therapeutic approaches to pre- and neonatal babies--in particular, low-birth-weight babies. In addition, more than 50 meditations on stillness are provided for the benefit of the practitioner. The first part of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Volume 5 contains multiple photographs and descriptions of the best ways to make physical contact with low-birth-weight babies. Included are several protocols for babies while they are in neonatal intensive-care units, as well as protocols for once they have been discharged and are at home. Shea also offers insights on therapeutic approaches to babies in utero. Using photographs and text descriptions, he explains how to position a woman who is pregnant on a table in order to practice biodynamically, and which hand positions to use during the session. The second part of the volume provides more than fifty meditations and guided visualizations, all of which were transcribed and edited from the full foundation training in biodynamic craniosacral therapy. These meditations can be used to help the practitioner to establish proper orientation to the body and breath and to balance focused and unfocused attention. Lastly, mindfulness meditation and the research surrounding it is discussed.

At the deepest level of our physiology, all living tissues and fluids expand and contract with the 'breath of life'. Through gentle touch, the skilled practitioner can interact with these subtle rhythms to address physical aches and pains, acute or chronic disease, emotional or psychological disturbances, or simply to promote enduring health and vitality. This new and important textbook demystifies the biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy and shows how and why it can be so effective at bringing about a natural realignment towards optimal health. The authors describe how to 'listen' and respond appropriately to each client's system, how to create a safe space for working with different kinds of trauma, and how to address specific states of imbalance to support deep-felt and lasting change. Throughout the book, experiential exercises encourage the reader to practice their newly-acquired skills, and refine their knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. A final chapter on practice development covers issues pertinent to practitioners trying to set up and maintain a successful practice. This intensely practical textbook will transform the practice of craniosacral therapists, and contains much that bodyworkers of all kinds will find useful.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) is commonly seen as the spiritual approach to craniosacral therapy (CST); in fact, BCST as taught by Franklyn Sills, the pioneer in the field, is quite different from conventional CST. Biodynamic work is based on the development of perceptual skills where the practitioner learns to become sensitive to subtle respiratory motions called primary respiration and also to the power of spontaneous healing. Through the Breath of Life, which, Sills asserts, echoes the Holy Spirit in the Judeo-Christian tradition, bodhicitta in Buddhism, and the Tai Chi in Taoism, students of BCST learn to enter a state of presence oriented to the client’s inherent ability to heal. In Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics, Sills offers students and practitioners an in-depth, step-by-step guide to the development of perceptual and clinical skills with specific clinical exercises and explorations to help students and practitioners learn the essentials of a biodynamic approach. Individual chapters cover such topics as holism and biodynamics; mid-tide, Long Tide, Dynamic Stillness and stillpoint process; the motility of tissues and the central nervous system; transference and the shadow; shamanistic resonances; and more. From the Trade Paperback edition.

This useful book discusses craniosacral therapy’s history and present situation as well as its spiritual implications and practical contributions in the world of healthcare. Gilchrist demonstrates how the subtle patterns of this practice become a dynamic force in the body, and how this influences overall functioning. What most sets the book apart is Gilchrist’s discussion of the relationship of the craniosacral system and biodynamic functions to the human energy system. Though dealing with a complicated topic, the book provides a grounded, progressive approach that is both specific and insightful.

The first volume of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy presented the basics of craniosacral therapy as a gentle, compassionate healing art that can be used by psychologists, midwives, chiropractors, and massage and physical therapists. In this second volume, author Michael Shea goes deeper into the entire biodynamic paradigm, analyzing the relationship of trauma resolution, psychodynamics, and shamanism, and providing practical meditations, visualizations, and clinical skills to restore physical, spiritual, and emotional health. The book opens by exploring the meaning of biodynamic, followed by a discussion of human embryology as a path to healing in any form of therapy. This section offers a set of pioneering techniques based on perceiving stillness—slow movement–as a fundamental healing influence. The next section describes the bridge between trauma resolution therapy and biodynamic work, establishes a new containment model, and offers skills for resolving shock and trauma. A special section contains fresh strategies for anyone working with infants and children, along with a provocative analysis linking the infant-mother relationship to the patient-therapist relationship. Finally, Shea provides a unique perspective on depth psychology, mythology, and healing. This includes the defining difference between biodynamic craniosacral therapy and all other forms of craniosacral therapy: the focus on the nature of spiritual disease and shamanism.

Craniosacral therapy is based on the belief that functions of the human system are maintained and integrated by a biodynamic force known as 'primary respiration,' or the breath of life. Found in the brain, spinal cord, and bodily fluids, this rhythmic pulse promotes healing and health. Written for students and practitioners but accessible to lay readers, this text presents the fundamental concepts and techniques of a method that redirects the cerebrospinal fluid to areas of imbalance, thus enhancing overall health. Volume One covers both the history and conceptual ideas fundamental to Craniosacral Biodynamics, as well as the more complex structural and tissue relationships.

Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics presents a comprehensive grounding in the clinical skills needed in a biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy. Author Franklyn Sills places particular emphasis on developing what he terms "perceptual skills," diagnostic skills that enable the practitioner to perceive the subtle sensations and intuitive insights that are the groundwork of most forms of holistic somatic therapy. The biodynamic approach has its origins in the clinical exploration of W. G. Sutherland, DO, (1873-1954), the founder of osteopathy in the cranial field and "forefather of craniosacral therapy." In the last ten years of his life, his work changed from a biomechanical approach to a fully holistic orientation toward the ordering and enlivening forces present in the human system. Sutherland described his experiences of a mysterious presence, the "Breath of Life," from which ordering forces and healing intentions arose. His work then shifted from biomechanics to biodynamics; from analysis and motion-testing to an appreciation of the unfolding of the "inherent treatment plan." Sutherland encouraged practitioners to use no outside force whatsoever, but to allow the inherent ordering forces, which he called "potency," to make the decisions and do the work. Franklyn Sills pioneered the biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy outside the osteopathic profession. This approach has now spread around the world in various forms. Sills wrote the early books in this field, and this new book now brings the text up to date. Foundations in Craniosacral Therapy, Volume Two expands on the work described in the previous volume, starting with an overview of a biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy, which emphasizes the suspensory nature of the human system. Here we review and deepen our understanding of the "three bodies"—the physical, fluid, and tidal bodies. We also review and expand upon the suspensory nature of the holistic shift—the physical body suspended in the fluid body, in turn suspended in the tidal body—within the context of the inherent treatment plan. The following chapters of the book orient to our earliest life experiences—the embryonic period and the pre- and perinatal experience—with chapters devoted to birth, birth dynamics, and craniosacral approaches oriented both to birth trauma and to the tissue patterns it generates. Here we orient to the prenate and birthing infant as a sentient being having and responding to life experience. Further chapters orient to the primal/notochord midline and the tissue structures that form around it. We explore the dynamics of the pelvis, vertebral axis, cranial base, face and hard palate. Volume Two finishes with four important chapters on the neurophysiology of stress and trauma and related craniosacral and verbal skills. All chapters include appropriate biodynamic approaches to traumatization and CNS activation.