How Does Craniosacral Therapy With A Biodynamic Perspective Work?
Craniosacral Therapy with a Biodynamic Perspective involves communication between client and practitioner and creating a level of safety and trust for the client. Once contact is established, the practitioner listens deeply to the fluctuations of the cerebrospinal fluid within the craniosacral system. The fluctuation of the cerebrospinal fluid creates a variety of tides within the system. As the practitioner — from a place of stillness — listens to these internal tides, the client’s system begins to access its own inner resources, a little like finding keys to previously locked doors. The cerebrospinal fluid — as it bathes and protects the brain and spinal cord — carries an intelligence and potency (life force), which becomes mixed with other bodily fluids via the dural membranes. A Biodynamic Craniosacral therapist learns to listen deeply to the system, tapping into its inherent intelligence, while focusing on the system remembering its original blueprint of health. The therapist encourages the client’s system to access its own resources, offering new choices and possibilities at every level. Training, then, includes deep perceptual and centering skills as well as familiarity with the inherent motion of the craniosacral system.
ARE MANIPULATIONS INVOLVED?
Craniosacral Therapy with a Biodynamic Perspectiv is distinguished by its minimal reliance on manipulations of any kind. If the various CranioSacral methods could be characterized and compared based on this criterion, the Biodynamic style would be placed at the non-manipulative or yin end of the spectrum. In the Biodynamic approach, the healing process comes from within the client, not from the outside by the practitioner, and the hand contacts are based on listening and following/reflecting the client’s process rather than pushing or manipulating the client towards a theoretical ideal state.
WHY DO I SEEM TO “FALL ASLEEP” DURING MY SESSIONS?
It is common for people to doze off or appear to sleep during portions of a biodynamic craniosacral session. There are times when the client slips into a deep, meditative type state of consciousness. In this deep place, the mind relaxes and allows the possibility of illness or injury to reorganize and remember its innate health. If the system is tired or exhausted, biodynamic craniosacral allows the system to relax and rest, usually in a deep healing still-point or stillness.
WHAT SYMPTOMS RESPOND BEST?
Anecdotal evidence shows BCST may be helpful in addressing such situations as impingement of cranial nerves or spinal nerves, left-right imbalances, head injuries, confusion, feelings of compression or pressure, anxiety, depression, circulatory disorders, organ dysfunctions, learning difficulties, neuro-endocrine problems, TMJ dysfunction and dental problems, and trauma of all kinds — birth, falls, accidents and other injuries, physical, sexual or emotional abuse, loss/grief, surgery, anesthesia, P.T.S.D., among others. BCST is also excellent as a preventive therapy because it can facilitate the resolution of imbalances within a client’s system that can later lead to illness or injury.
HOW CAN I BENEFIT?
The therapy may surprise you with benefits you hadn’t known were possible, including resolution of symptoms that you had no idea were related to the cranial system or to each other. You may feel lighter, with a sense of more spaciousness within yourself. You may notice more ease in relationships or ability to focus. You may stand straighter or breathe more easily and deeply. Emotional boundaries easier to maintain and pains may decrease. It is likely you will feel deeply relaxed and centered. Because each person is unique, it is impossible to say exactly what you will feel, or how long it will take to feel it, however these benefits are common.
By: Laura Schappert
About Laura Schappert
Laura Schappert, CranioSacral therapist
Laura Schappert is a Reiki Master Energy Healer with a specialty in CranioSacral Therapy with a Biodynamic Perspective. She brings an infinitely gentle and soothing presence to her work. Laura honors and appreciates how the body moves and flows in its continual striving for health, offering a space for healing on many levels. Laura says, "As a healer, my hands are extensions of my heart, of a stillness and consciousness of love. I am honored to witness the expression of life as it manifests in the person I am holding space for, respecting the natural process of becoming all of who they are and where they have been.” She loves listening to her clients share the therapeutic transformations they experience as a result of her healing energy.
To Schedule Craniosacral Therapy at Gateway Cottage Wellness Center, Call 928-862-4400.
