Craniosacral Biodynamics (aka Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, BCST, or Biodynamics) sessions restore harmony and increase vitality within your system. They strengthen your own resources for healing.
Craniosacral bodywork originated in osteopathy and became (and still exists as) cranial osteopathy.
Craniosacral Therapy and Craniosacral Biodynamics are bodywork modalities that do not require a medical degree but do require specialized advanced study. Both pertain to the body’s craniosacral system (the bones, membranes, and fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord), which impacts the central and autonomic nervous systems as well as the whole body-mind-energy system.
Both Craniosacral Therapy and Craniosacral Biodynamics stem from the work of one osteopath, Dr. William Sutherland (1873-1954). An explorer and a teacher, Craniosacral Therapy is based on discoveries and applications from earlier in his career and tends to focus more on biomechanics.
Craniosacral Biodynamics stems from Dr. Sutherland’s experiences during the later years of his career when he became aware of the more energetic and spiritual nature of the healing that can occur in this work.
I continue to study both types of craniosacral bodywork, with a current emphasis on training in and applying Biodynamics principles and methods.
How Craniosacral Biodynamics helps you heal
Craniosacral Biodynamics is a gentle bodywork modality that encourages your autonomic nervous system to move into a rest-and-repair state. In this parasympathetic state, your entire system has more resources for healing than it does when you are experiencing stress (the sympathetic state, which prepares you to take action).
Biodynamics increases coherence within and between the sub-systems of your whole body system: your endocrine, nervous, immune, lymphatic, digestive, and other systems. They work together with more harmony and efficiency.
When a person is in a more coherent state there is a shift in the relative autonomic balance toward increased parasympathetic activity (vagal tone), increased heart-brain synchronization, and entrainment between diverse physiological systems. In this mode, the body’s systems function with a high degree of efficiency and harmony and natural regenerative processes are facilitated.
Source: HeartMath Institute.
Our systems are geared toward homeostasis (stable equilibrium between interdependent physiological processes).
Biodynamics sessions often include stillpoints, which allow your physiological patterns to pause and reset into more optimal patterns.
Training in Biodynamics includes ways to work with organs, nerves, bones, tissues, fluids, energy, strain patterns, and more. Because practitioners “listen” to your system with our hands, we develop discernment in sensing health and how to augment it.
Another way Biodynamics facilitates healing is through the inherent healing process, when the instinctive healing energy inside us actively seeks, finds, and releases areas of inertia in our systems.
Everyone has areas of inertia, because life happens. Inertia develops from shocks or challenges that our systems contained energetically to keep chaos from spreading, at times when the resources to heal and recover were unavailable.
Trauma, stress, illness, and injury — any form of “too much, too soon” — contribute to inertia.
The instinctive intelligence in the inherent healing process knows when inertial areas are no longer serving our well-being, and given support, it releases that inertia, returning that energy to our life force and increasing our sense of well-being.
In this way, Biodynamics helps our systems reorganize and optimize into a stronger, more resilient homeostasis.
This inherent healing process is one reason clients find that receiving regular sessions is so beneficial to their well-being. Releasing inertia from the past increases health and well-being in the present, and the benefits experienced in each session become cumulative.
What happens during a Biodynamics session?
During a session, after we talk about your issues, I’ll help you get comfortable on my table, You’ll stay clothed, minus shoes, belt, and anything else restrictive.
You choose whether you want the table warmer on and which weight of covering you prefer, from none to a weighted blanket.
I offer the choice of silence or the sound of ocean waves. I run an air filter during all sessions.
I invite you to let yourself sink into my padded table and tune into your body. I prepare my energy before gently placing my hands on you — usually at your feet or head.
I am often quiet during sessions…and if you need to communicate anything at all, I welcome that.
If you prefer that I tell you what I’m sensing, I can do that. There will still be a lot of silence as I sense your system.
You’ll enter a state of relaxation as your system calms and settles. Your breathing may slow. You may sense internal shifts and energy releases as your system reorganizes itself into a more optimal state. You may fall into a dream-like state or sleep.
Please note: If you schedule your first craniosacral session expecting a magical resolution in one session for an ongoing issue, please understand that the body has its own healing agenda, and we craniosacral practitioners honor and trust it.
If chronic neck pain is the issue you came in, know that it may take multiple sessions to build your resources before your system is ready to address the issue causing the pain. Your system may need to release tension or restrictions elsewhere first.
The healing work done in one session builds on the resources and resilience from previous sessions.
Sometimes the body does heal an issue in one session, but we don’t know that ahead of time and can’t make any guarantees. In general, if an issue has been chronic, acute, or intermittent for some time, you will probably need a few sessions to build healing resources. I recommend getting three sessions to start.
What happens after a session?
Because your system’s reorganization continues after you leave my office, you may notice changes right away, a few days later, or even weeks later.
My impression is that much of the healing work actually occurs at a fairly subtle level, and it may take time for these changes to enter conscious awareness.
My clients report feeling more relaxed after a session.
Some have mentioned they feel both calm and alert. That’s your autonomic nervous system in perfect balance!
Some report feeling more whole, more themselves, more integrated, having more presence and vitality than before.
One client notices her handwriting is much more legible right after her twice-monthly sessions,
Another client noticed that she was less reactive and had more equanimity after several weekly sessions.
A client noticed that she rarely had a once-regular migraine after several sessions.
Another received multiple sessions to release spine and joint pain from years of athletic injuries.
Clients typically report sleeping well afterwards. Some have reported feeling on top of everything — confident and resilient — a few days after a session.
Others have reported that a few weeks after a session, they noticed that an issue that had been bothering them had disappeared. Usually it takes multiple sessions.
What can Biodynamics sessions help with?
Since sessions help your system reorganize and optimize itself, they can play a significant role with numerous issues.
After each season ends, I look through my notes for the reasons people sought Craniosacral Biodynamics sessions from me. Here is the most recent season’s summary, which contains a link to the previous season’s summary.
These summaries give you a good idea of the wide range of issues Craniosacral Biodynamics can help with.
Find out for yourself!
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