Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Volume Three

Dr. Michael J. Shea’s series on Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is based on healthcare providers physically sensing love and accessing a deep sense of warmth and stillness in the heart. He begins this third volume by emphasizing the therapeutic application of touch therapy skills. As in the previous two books, he teaches these skills by explaining the importance of practitioners being able to perceive Primary Respiration, a slow rhythmic tidal movement in the fluids of the body. He goes on to discuss the distinctive influence of human embryology on any therapeutic modality. A number of other experts in the field contribute chapters that illuminate the spiritual and psychological dimensions of human embryonic development, especially the heart. Dr. Shea offers valuable new skills for anyone, from midwives to pediatricians, working therapeutically with infants. In addition, he summarizes current thinking on infant brain development, discusses the long-term consequences of attachment issues between the mother and infant, and explores the importance of understanding the similarities of the mother-infant and the therapistpatient relationships.

"A thorough description of the evolution of cranial osteopathic medicine into a new form available to many health care providers, this book presents a technique of touch therapy that is extremely gentle and subtle and gives practical exercises to be proficient in healing physical, spiritual, and emotional conditions"--Provided by publisher.

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.

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.

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.

Accumulations of life stresses—physical injuries, emotional and psychological stresses, birth traumas, and toxicity—can become imprinted in the tissues, acting like a videotape that is replayed whenever stimulated. Biodynamic craniosacral therapy aims to resolve the trapped forces that underlie and drive these trauma-based patterns of disease and suffering in body and mind. Wisdom in the Body teaches practitioners to develop the finely tuned skills of hands-on palpation and perception to sense the body’s subtle rhythms and patterns of inertia or congestion, with the goal of ending trauma and facilitating the expression of the breath of life. A comprehensive introduction to this practice, the book draws on the insights of pioneers like Drs. W. G. Sutherland and Franklyn Sills to explain the key principles about the body’s natural intention to heal and how this capability can be encouraged. A valuable resource for students, practitioners, and the lay reader, the book also includes a foreword by Dr. Franklyn Sills.