Biodynamic craniosacral therapy, or BCST, is a gentle and extremely powerful form of hands-on treatment, which aligns with the deepest inherent healing forces within the body in order to support healing and self-correction at every level of body, mind and spirit.

The human body has a powerful inherent healing potential. Our systems are always doing their best to keep us healthy and in balance from conception throughout our lifetimes. However, life experiences or imprints can begin to compromise or deplete our life force and capacity to self-regulate through injury, disease, trauma and stress. The forces of nature, both within our bodies and in the natural world, have an inherent tendency toward restoration and balanced healthy functioning. Electromagnetic potency, or what in the biodynamic craniosacral realm we might call the Breath of Life, breathes chi or life force energy throughout all living beings, all of nature, and throughout the whole energetic matrix within which we exist. Our life force is expressed in the body as rhythmic motion, what we call the fluid tide, long tide, the Breath of Life, and, at its most profound level, Dynamic Stillness. In essence, our bodies are “breathing” in harmony with these tidal rhythms. When the inertial forces of stress or injury interfere with our body’s ability to freely “breathe”, illness, fatigue, and injury are often the end result.

Through meditative states of settling and relaxation, BCST aligns with the subtle tidal rhythms of the Breath of Life in order to support the body’s natural healing ability and to restore mobility and the healthy integration of body, mind and spirit. This work is gentle enough to support health in a very wide range of populations - from newborn babies to seniors, and to treat many health disturbances, ranging from pre and perinatal trauma, any kind of injury, illness, severe trauma, and all the many stressors and difficulties of life - physical, emotional and spiritual - often supporting the healing of conditions that are not easily or deeply addressed by other forms of therapy.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is particularly effective in supporting the body’s ability to self-regulate, repair tissues and functioning, settle and restore flexibility to our autonomic nervous system, release traumatic imprints, and help us reconnect to our midline balance and somatic embodiment.

What happens in a typical session?

BCST treatment is done with very gentle and light hands-on contact by the practitioner. It is usually done with the client lying down, fully clothed, on a comfortable bodywork table in a quiet and peaceful environment. Many people experience BCST as profoundly relaxing and peaceful, and feel a sense of ease, safety and well being during and after the work.

How does it work?

BCST grew out of Osteopathy, and is in the direct lineage of Dr. William Sutherland, the founder of cranial osteopathy. William Sutherland spent much of his adult life exploring the subtle rhythms of the human body, the “breathing” of the human craniosacral system by the Breath of Life, and the vital relationship of those tidal motions to the maintenance of health and vitality, and the repair of states of disease.

BCST practitioners use very light touch palpation skills and the development of subtle perceptual capacities to tune into these subtle tidal rhythms and states of stillness - to feel and sense where the body is “breathing” and where the inertial forces are interfering with that very subtle whole body expansion and contraction. This kind of whole body breathing goes beyond the movement of the lungs and encompasses the entire energetic biofield of the body. With meditative presence and within a safe, relational field, the practitioner gently supports the person’s system to align with the tidal rhythms that support healing and mobility, and through this alignment, to release whatever inertial forces are creating states of imbalance or discomfort.

The unfolding of healing within a session is called the inherent treatment plan, or the inherent healing process. This healing is guided by the body’s inherent intelligence with the support of the practitioner’s presence and skill in aligning with the Breath of Life as it breathes throughout our system in various subtle tidal rhythms. These tidal rhythms are what create and maintain health, and their full and free expression is what facilitates the healing of disease in all its many forms.

Similar to the rings of a tree showing the imprints of the seasons throughout a tree’s existence, our bodies also carry the imprints of every life experience on a subtle, cellular and energetic level. Injury, illness, stress, tension and trauma leave imprints and inertial forces in our bodies that BCST can help release with sensitive support of the restoration of full body mobility and potency.

This restoration of mobility and potency helps lead to metabolic vitality and health, autonomic flexibility, and greater structural balance within our fascial, soft tissue and skeletal systems. On both subtle metabolic and macro structural levels of functioning, our bodies begin to express more and more health at every level as mobility and health increase.


Self-regulation

One of the 4 primary tenets of osteopathy, out of which the practice of craniosacral therapy grew, is that our bodies are naturally self-regulating…that is, we all come into our bodies with the capacity to maintain balance, repair ourselves and find the best systemic organization possible to support good health in mind, body and spirit.

Many people have asked upon hearing this the logical question of why their body seems unable to regulate itself into a state of good health if it is a self-regulating system?

The problems that arise and lead to imbalance, disease and dysregulation have to do often with a lack of mobility in the system…i.e., inertial forces of injury and stress can impede the free flow of energetic and fluid circulation, and the ability of the body to “breathe” potency throughout the system. This lack of mobility and circulation can in turn lead to inflammation, pain and discomfort, fibrosis, and ultimately, serious illness. Our bodies need the free flow of energy and fluids of all kinds (cerebrospinal, blood, lymph, etc) in order to function metabolically in a reasonably healthy way. We also need the mobility of our fascial system, muscles, tendons and bones as well in order to be able to organize our whole system in an alignment that keeps us out of pain and as healthy as possible.

Mobility, or the capacity of our body to “breathe” in alignment with the Breath of Life at the subtle energetic and fluid level as well as at the grosser tissue and bone level, allows us to self-regulate and keep ourselves in the best possible state of health given our particular history and experiences. Mobility can be lost or impaired in many different ways…

• Blunt force trauma (falls, car/bike accidents, fractures, concussions, etc.) can cause immobility both through a sustained inflammatory response to an injury that goes on too long and leads to fibrosis of the inflamed tissue, and through compression of bones and tissues due to the force of the trauma that impedes the free flow of energy and fluids, and the mobility of tissues and bones. This kind of trauma can also introduce disorganization energetically into our electromagnetic biofield and impact the coherent functioning of metabolic systems.

• Viral and bacterial infection can impact the immune system, cause congestion, inflammation and fibrosis, and lead to reduced circulation of fluids and energy in the body, lower potency and vitality, and introduce disease states.

• Toxicity can interfere with the body’s capacity to maintain free flow of energy and fluids as well…often leading to a density and “stickiness” in the body’s tissues systemically and reduced capacity to self-regulate and maintain good health. This can be due to medication imprints, environmental toxins, etc.

• Early developmental trauma, as well as trauma experienced later in life, can be held unconsciously in the soma (the body) and can introduce inertia or immobility in the body that impacts mobility and coherent healthy self-regulation. A large part of emotional/somatic trauma originates in the prenatal and perinatal (after birth) period at a cellular level - including experiences during conception, implantation in the womb, discovery of pregnancy by the mother, gestation in the womb, birth, and the first 2 years of life after birth. These are foundational experiences in a human life that create templates of perception around safety and trust in ourselves, others and the world, and that profoundly impact us throughout our whole lives. These early somatic experiences held at a cellular level can be brought into awareness within the context of slowness and safe relationship, and the embedded trauma released. BCST supports the release of somatic trauma, and through a safe relational field, the healing of attachment wounding from these early times, as well as the release of trauma from difficult later life experiences. Healing at this level can profoundly affect not only our physical bodies but also our emotional and spiritual sense of well being, our awareness and trust in our own bodies, and our capacity for healthy, loving, and safe intimate relationships with others.

Pregnancy and Infants

Craniosacral therapy is a wonderful support throughout pregnancy to support the developing embryo/fetus as well as the comfort, physiological regulation and emotional and autonomic relaxation of the mom. Because CST is so gentle, it is also appropriate for newborns, infants and new mothers in relieving any residue of discomfort, shock or trauma that may have occurred in gestation or delivery for both mother and child. This early support and intervention to relieve the strains and stresses of gestation and delivery may prevent the continuation of these strain patterns, shock, etc., from affecting the infant throughout the course of her life. Babies tend to heal very quickly and the early support of CST can be hugely helpful in promoting healthy development and regulation.

Healing at the deepest levels:

Because BCST is such a safe and gentle therapeutic treatment, it is able to calm the body’s defensive mechanisms that often are activated by more forceful interventions and approaches. With a very light touch, and a safe, skilled and caring practitioner, the work is actually able to access the deepest root causes of disease at the level of core electromagnetic life force organization, and to release the subtle, cellular and energetic levels of inertia and holding in a very gentle way. By calmly supporting the person’s system to align with the tidal rhythms of health and vitality, the client is able to “drop” into deep states of parasympathetic healing where the inherent intelligence of the body guides the gentle release of compression, inflammation, strain and inertia. Thus profound and deep healing may occur.

IN ESSENCE…..

• In craniosacral therapy we are working at the quantum level…not simply addressing the mechanics of bone and muscle and nerve, but also with the energetic matrix of the entire biofield and subtle biological rhythms within and around our body, and in nature. In essence, we are supporting our bodies to align with the healing rhythms of the natural world.

• Alignment with these subtle life forces requires calm, meditative presence and the capacity to drop into very slow biorhythms and stillness.

• The biodynamic forces of life are expressed within the body as rhythmic tidal motion, and as deep states of dynamic stillness.

• When we align ourselves with these subtle biodynamic rhythms of life our bodies naturally release inertia and express more and more vitality, coherency and health.

• This kind of subtle alignment with the Breath of Life within and around the body is often experienced as deep relaxation, calmness, sensations of pulsing, floating, energetic flow, safety and healing connection. There is a sense of being seen and listened to in a profound way.

• As disturbances are released in a session, there can be sensations of achiness, pressure, numbness….sometimes memories of past injury, images, emotions, and an awareness of strain patterns in the body are all normal parts of the healing process.

  Healing is the natural unfolding of the inherent treatment plan that occurs when we are supported to “drop into” states of alignment with the rhythms of the Breath of Life.

• At times in a session there will spontaneously emerge states of stillness, often referred to as stillpoints, or on a more profound level, Dynamic Stillness. This stillness is an expression of deeply healing states of consciousness.