How do you get someone to look at their issues if they don’t want to?

Posted by John Dalton on August 13, 2008

+ How do you get someone to look at their issues if they don’t want to? - November - 05

Dear John,

I am enjoying your profoundly irreverent letters very much.
I think you are a naughty man.

I have a patient for lower back pain.  She also has many
emotional conflicts and issues within her.  She shows no
interest in addressing these issues.  The opposite in fact.

Here is my question.
Is it possible to invoke someone to address their issues if they
don’t want to?

Kind regards.

N. V.
Singapore.

P.S. Be nice.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Cute . .

When someone first comes to me for treatment, after the
initial, ‘Hello’, and ‘Take a seat.’ etc.  The first question I ask is,
‘What can I do for you?’
and then I shut up,
and wait.
Whatever their answer is, is what they are asking me to help
them with.

‘No kidding Sherlock.’

That may sound obvious but it’s surprising how many
therapist don’t get it.  From the sounds of it, you might be one
of  them.  [That's me being nice, in case you missed that too.]

Whatever they answer to question, ‘What can I do for you?’

‘I want to sleep better.’
‘I want the headaches to stop.’
‘I want to stop attracting the wrong man/woman.’
‘I want to stop feeling so anxious.’
‘I want to get rid of my fibromyalgia’

It goes to form what I think of as a contract between us.  It
forms the boundaries within which I work and a declaration on
their part of what they want assistance with.

Let’s say someone asks me to help them with a very physical
problem and while treating them, I palpate lots of emotional
disharmonies.  If the emotional disharmonies are NOT causing
the particular physical symptoms I have been asked to help
with, then it would be very bad juju for me to try and start
working on the emotional issues.

First and foremost it’s disrespectful.
It’s like passing someone on the street struggling to carry
a new TV into their house.  They ask me to help them carry
the TV into the house with them.  I do this but once inside the
house I get a dose of ‘Queer eye for the straight guy,’ and take it
upon myself to redecorate the hall, stairs and landing
because, ‘Let’s face it, this person has shocking taste!’

Secondly, it’s more efficient to stick to the contract because it
can always be renegotiated in the future.

How come you are able to palpate the emotional issues in the
first place?

You can only ever see what you are shown.

If you stay within the bounds of the contract, it leaves space
for the person to say to you down the track, ‘I think I would
like you to help me deal with my emotional issues.’

It may sound unlikely but it happens.  It’s another form of
trusting that the person will allow you deeper when they feel
safe.  You’re job is not to invoke them to address their issues
but to provide the safest space you can, allowing them to feel
empowered enough to address their issues, if they’re ready to.

Why does the body return to the position of injury in order to release?

Posted by John Dalton on August 13, 2008

+ Why does the body return to the position of injury in order to release? - November 05

Hi John
I have a question. In SER the body often returns
to the position of injury either emotional or
physical in order to release the disease (energy
cyst) held there.  This fits perfectly with the
founding law of Homoeopathy “like cures like’ or
similia similibus curentur.  But I can find no
written explanation for why this law is a law!
What is your experience of why the body holds to
this?. Or does it always?
Thank you.

Lorraine Archer
County Roscommon.
Ireland.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

The principal of ‘like curing like’ is the same
in cranio sacral therapy and homoeopathy but the
mechanics of how the ‘curing’ happens are
different for each.

During cranio sacral therapy the body goes to
the position it was in when the trauma occurred so
that it can reconnect with its underlying
energetic blueprint.

But hang on, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Let’s talk about the blueprint for a minute.

Why do plants, trees, animals etc. grow into
the shape they do?   How do the cells in a bone
know to become bone cells?
Currently we are told that the answers to these
questions lie in the mysteries of DNA.

DNA is very cool stuff and remarkable in its
own right. But in time, the limitations of DNA
will reveal themselves.  The genome will be mapped
better than Manhattan and these questions will
remain unanswered.

What has yet to be proven is that when a seed
is planted it starts to unfold an energetic
outline or blueprint of the shape it will grow
into and the cells migrate in accordance to the
blueprint.  DNA is the executive of this process
and responds to the blueprint.

Think iron fillings, magnet, paper.  The magnet
(Blueprint) influences the iron filling (Cells) to
form into a particular shape, the shape of the
magnet.  You may not be able to see the magnet
because it is hidden behind the paper but you know
what shape it is by the shape the iron filing are
forming.

Most of the older traditions have identified
different expressions of the blueprint and
represent it in different ways.

In traditional Chinese medicine there are the
meridians. In Ayurvedic medicine there are the
charkas.  In Toltec or Mexican shamanism there
are what are called the feathers of the eagle.

The botanist, Rupert Sheldrake has been talking
about this kind of stuff for years, he describes
it in terms of morphic fields.

When a person’s system gets traumatised, the
cells may be displaced but they return to their
original position under the influence of the
underlying blueprint.

As they do this, they have a particular
movement which thankfully for us, is palpable.
The whole process goes to make up the auto repair
mechanism we call a release.

When the trauma won’t release it’s because the
blueprint itself has been bent out of shape.

We learned early on, that given the right
support a body will start to move of it’s own
volition.  If we can follow this movement and
know when to hold it, we may be able to facilitate
a release.

That initial movement is the cells of the body
looking for the blue print.  When the persons body
returns to the position where the trauma occurred,
the cells and the blueprint reconnect.  It’s at
this point that all the different manifestations
of release can occur, pulsations, trembling,
shaking, sweating, crying, laughing and that’s not
to mention what goes on for the patient.

Couldn’t resist.

Once the cells and blueprint reconnect then the
whole system, cells and blueprint, come back into
alignment and harmony.

So as I said it’s a process of re-collection.

Not all bodies need to go into the traumatic
position to release.  Sometimes restriction
patterns are very ripe for release and need very
little support to complete the process.

I’ve also found over the years that as I’ve
gotten better at working with the blueprint,
deeper subtleties have revealed themselves.
I find more releases are happening at deeper
levels and require less gross movements on the
surface.

Back to the homoeopathic question.  As you know,
I’m not a homoeopath but I do know some great ones.
So I went and checked with one of them to see if my
suspicions about how the mechanics of ‘like curing
like’ are different between cranio sacral and homoeopathy,
and she confirmed what I thought.

With homoeopathy, the remedy caries an
energetic signature that causes the whole
energetic structure in the system to change.

So going back to the magnet and iron filings
analogy, I’ll explain the difference in mechanics
that I spoke about in the beginning.

If a square shaped magnet gets bent out of
shape on one side.  What cranio sacral does is
collect all the iron filings on that side and help
them to ‘find’ the bent shape and collect it,
allowing it to return to its original state of
squareness.

With homeopathy a magnet that is normally red
has become blue.  The homeopath identifies the
remedy the magnet needs.  Blue.  They know this
because in the proving of the remedy many healthy
red magnets were given this remedy and they all
started demonstrating blue symptoms.  So the blue
magnet is given the blue remedy and the whole
composition of the magnet starts to change.
Eventually the magnet returns to its natural state
of red.

Who said two wrongs don’t make a right.

Why doesn’t C2 supply the superior cervical ganglion?

Posted by John Dalton on August 13, 2008

+ Why doesn’t C2 supply the superior cervical ganglion? - November 05

Hello John,
I am having a lot of trouble getting a visual, 3-D
sense, of the sympathetic chain.  Particularly
nerve supply.  For example, why isn’t the superior
cervical ganglion supplied by C1 or 2?

Any help would be appreciated.

M.L.
Sydney.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

The most helpful thing you can do if you are
having trouble getting, as you say, a 3-D, sense
of some part of anatomy is to make a 3-D model of
it.  Make your model out of anything you like.
You don’t have to be good at crafts and it doesn’t
have to look pretty.  You will learn a lot from
putting the pieces together.

So while you go off to collect egg boxes and
pipe cleaners, here’s something I prepared
earlier.

Think of the sympathetic division of the
autonomic nervous system like two highways, one on
either side of a long suburb called ‘Spinal cord
T1 - L2′.

Nerves impulses leave the suburb and go onto
the highway via ‘On’ ramps and exit the highway
via ‘Off’ ramps.

‘On’ ramps are called White communicantes.
‘Off’ ramps are called Gray communicantes.  The
white ones are white because they have a myelin
sheath.

So just like any highway, you enter at one
point, travel along for a while and then exit at
another point.  Nerve impulses in the sympathetic
chain are no different.  They enter the
sympathetic chain at one vertebral level and exit
at another.

Now along these twin highways are service
stations.  Places where you can get out and
stretch your legs, change cars if you like or
split yourself in four and drive off in four
different cars going in different directions.

No hang on, that was a dream I had last night.

It may be stretching the analogy but it is what
nerve impulses do.  The service stations are the
paravertebral ganglia that make up the beads in
the chain.   At these service stations (ganglia)
nerve impulses may change cars (synapse) and
continue on their way in a new car (nerve).

or they might drive off in four different cars
in four different directions along axon
collaterals (branches).

Now here’s the bit I think you’re getting stuck
on.  Remember the suburb all the nerve impulses
live in?

Humour me.

It’s called ‘Spinal cord T1 - L2′

The sympathetic division may supply all parts
of the body but it only emerges from the spinal
cord and so only penetrates the dura between T1-
L2.

So it makes sense that there are more ‘Off’
ramps (gray communicantes) than ‘On’ ramps (white
communicantes).

14 ‘On’ ramps and 31 ‘Off’ ramps to be exact.

Each highway usually has 22 service stations
(paravertebral ganglion) but instead of them being
called, ‘the servo that has a McDonalds’ or ‘the
one that has KFC’, they’re called cervical,
thoracic, lumbar and sacral ganglia.

and not a big Mac in sight.

You want a coke with those fries or are you
still with me?

Good.
Now that you have a new found understanding of
the structure of the sympathetic chain . . .
just nod . . . it’s time for some audience participation.

The superior cervical ganglion is located
posterior to carotid artery and anterior to
transverse process of C2, right?  Keep nodding.

At what level of the spinal cord do the
sympathetic nerves emerge that supply the superior
cervical ganglion?

That’s correct! T1 or below.

and the middle cervical ganglion?

Correct again! T1 or below.

Now, you’ve got it.  Well look, we could chat
about this all day but you’ve got a model to make.

The significance of all this tomfoolery is that
if the sympathetic chain is compressed anywhere it
can have the effect of switching on the whole
sympathetic chain. Not good.

This can put you in constant ‘fight or flight’
mode.  Making you fearful and agitated with poor
digestion and lousy sleep.   You’ll be sensitive
to bright lights because your pupils are locked
open and you’ll have excess adrenalin in your body
which has a long term corrosive effect on your
nervous system.

Whadaya mean reading my response has had the
same effect?

Meditation and cranio sacral therapy.

Posted by John Dalton on August 12, 2008

+ Meditation and cranio sacral therapy. - October 05

Hi John
You might not remember me. I did the first
level of the cranio training with you back in
1999. I was wondering if you could help me out.
I belong to a cranio study group down here in
melbourne and we were discussing ways of
centering yourself before a session.

I told them about this amazing meditation
technique that you took us through before we
started every morning. I was wondering if you
could run me through it again so I can share it
with them. It involved putting everything in a
bag.

Cheers V.S. Melbourne.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Putting everything in the bag is a great
exercise for becoming aware of your presence.
It works best if you use it sparingly otherwise
it looses its impact. So, yeah, I’m very happy
to run through it again for you.

It goes like this.

Have the group sit comfortably with their
eyes closed. Someone will need to lead the
group through the exercise.

They say the following, pausing after each
instruction.

Take a few deep breaths.
Let any mental images you have fade away.
Let any internal dialogues or monitoring
that is going on, fade away.

Now, bring to mind a strong bag.
One with a draw-string.
This is no ordinary bag.
You can fit anything into it.

Now bring to mind your favourite spot in
your home.

Look around at the objects that make up
this spot.

Now, one by one, taking the smallest
objects first, put them in the bag.

If there are any other objects or pieces
of furniture in this area of your home,
put them in the bag too.

Now, bring to mind the room adjacent to
the area you just cleared. Put all the
objects from this room in the bag too.

Bring to mind all the clothing you own.
Put them in the bag.

Bring to mind all the furniture in the
rest of your home. Put it in the bag.

Bring to mind your car. Put it in the
bag.

Bring to mind any other large items you
own like boats or motor bikes etc. Put
them in the bag.

Bring to mind any pets you own. Put them
in the bag.

Bring to mind your extended family,
aunts, uncles, cousins etc. Put them in
the bag.

Bring to mind all your immediate family,
your brothers and sisters, if you have
any. Put them in the bag.

Bring your parents to mind. Put them in
the bag.

Bring to mind your children, if you have
any. Put them in the bag.

Bring to mind your partner. Put them in
the bag.

Bring to mind your home. Put it in the
bag.

Bring to mind the street you live on.
Put it in the bag.

Bring to mind the district you live in.
Put it in the bag.

Bring to mind the city you live in.
Put it in the bag.

Bring to mind the country you live in.
Put it in the bag.

Bring to mind the continent you live on.
Put it in the bag.

Now bring to mind the world. Put it in
the bag.

Bring to mind the solar system.
Put it in the bag.

Bring to mind the galaxy. Put it in the
bag.

Bring to mind the universe. Put it in
the bag.

Now, bring to mind your body and put it
in the bag.

Bring to mind your past. Put it in the
bag.

Bring all your feelings to mind and put
them in the bag.

Bring to mind your personality. Put it
in the bag.

Now.

Tie the string up on the bag, good and
tight. As you look at it, the bag starts
to move away from you, getting smaller as
it does so. Slowly at first but then
quicker as it gets further away.
Eventually it gets so small, it
disappears.

Now, take a moment to reflect.

You have put everything in that bag,
everything you own and love. The universe
you live in. Your body, your feelings and
your most treasured possession, your
personality.

It has all faded away and disappeared.

Gone.

Yet, something remains.

You.

This is your presence.

Take some time luxuriating in the
freedom and simplicity of your presence.

In a moment I am going to ask you to
open your eyes. When you open them stay
in this state.
Don’t start to move around or stretch.
Just include your sense of sight in what
you are registering with your presence.

So, when you are ready, gently open your
eyes.

Allow yourself to stare blankly out into
the world.

Be as simply present as you can.

When you are ready, make eye contact
with the others in the group.

And that’s about it.
Right about now people are usually smiling
at each other.

It’s important NOT to make a definite
transition from, ‘Now I am Meditating.’ to ‘Now
I am not Meditating.’ It’s not a good message
to put in your mind.

Meditation has many effects, one of which is
increased awareness.

Without that definite, meditation ON/OFF
switch, you will find that you become more
aware - generally. It sort of overflows from
your meditation times into your whole life.

Why hold into extension during the parietal lift?

Posted by John Dalton on August 12, 2008

+ Why hold into extension during the parietal lift? - October 05

Dear Mr Dalton,
I enjoy your newsletters very much and find your
answers to the questions very insightful. They
have given me much food for thought.

My question is very basic.
I have been told to apply medial compression when
doing the parietal lift.  This feels wrong to me
as I feel like I am crushing the patient’s head.
Is medial compression necessary or can I just get
straight on with lifting the parietals?

Kind regards.

J.S.
Austria.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

I’m big, big, BIG on accurate technique so I
don’t think your question is basic at all.

It’s too easy to get all flowery with cranio
sacral and neglect to give the persons body the
sort of expert assistance that comes from having
really good technique.

You’ll read in some cranio sacral books where
they simply tell you to apply medial compression
during the parietal lift.

It’s right, sort of, the point being to
disengage the squamous sutures, which has to
happen before you can begin any kind of superior
lifting.  But you will get a better lift if you
enlist the help of the rhythm.

The parietal lift is, after all, a direct
technique so if you can include any indirect
technique in it, all the better.

You can do this by following the parietals into
extension and then holding them there.  As you
continue to hold them, the rest of the cranium
will go into flexion and the building pressure
will disengage the squamous sutures for you.

Nifty no?
You’re disengaging the sutures, your probably
still pointing the patient, your including
indirect within direct, it’s got it all.

Once the squamous sutures are disengaged you
can start the superior tractioning intention.

Then it’s a hop skip and jump to the remaining
sutures disengaging and a continuation of the
superior traction until you get a sense of the
falx stretching.

Beauty.

And it all couldn’t happen without the squamous
sutures disengaging.  So yes it’s important and
necessary.

Do the issues of the parent affect the treatment of the children?

Posted by John Dalton on August 11, 2008

+ Do the issues of the parent affect the treatment of the children? - October 05

Hello John,
I am treating a 3 year old boy - Toby, for
behavioural problems.  He is responding well.  I
see noticeable changes in him and I can feel him
releasing energy cysts in each treatment.

The problem is his mother says he has not changed
at all.  She just won’t admit he has made any
progress.
I am starting to think that she has something
wrong with her.  I Think SHE needs treatment.
I don’t think Toby is going to advance until she
sheds some of her baggage.

Is that right or am I just making excuses for my
own inadequacies?

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Kind regards.
P.M.  Perth.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

I have found that if parents are reluctant to notice
changes in their child it’s because they are afraid
of getting their hopes up.

They want their child to improve so much that they
don’t trust themselves anymore.  They’re afraid
they are making it up and only seeing what they
want to see.

USE A PATIENT DIARY
To help parents focus on what IS changing, I
use a patient diary.  Which, by the way, works
just as well on adult patients who have difficulty
recognising their improvements.

Here’s how it works. At the first session you
get the parents to list the child’s symptoms and
get them to give each symptom a rating between 0
and 10.
0 is perfect and 10 is the worst it’s ever been.

Then ask the parents to record a new figure for
each symptom at the end of each day.  When they
come back the following week they will have a
record of the child’s symptoms and how they
changed for that week.

That helps to keep them focused on what is
changing rather than on what is not changing.

CULTIVATE AND ENVIRONMENT OF CHANGE
With children who have been labeled
“difficult”, a lot of your work is in helping the
parents to see that the child is now in a position
where they can CHANGE.

You need to help the parents and the child
understand that the child’s symptoms are caused by
physical restrictions. For example a bone in the
child’s head is compressing on their brain and
that when it has released, there is a good chance
that they may not have the symptoms anymore.

You’ve got to convey to the parents and the
family that they need to drop old ways of relating
to the child.

‘Oh Toby doesn’t like to eat with the rest of
the family. That sets him RIGHT OFF.  It’s just
the way he is.’

All those kind of opinions will need to be re-
evaluated.  You need to get the family as a
collaborator in the treatment.

KEEP OFF TARGET.
It’s also is important to point out to parents
that the initial improvements in the child’s
condition may not be in the areas that they expect
them to be.

I explain it to them in terms of a target. The
bulls eye is the main symptom the parents want to
change.

For example, when a child comes with autism and
are displaying classic autistic tendencies, like
unemotional, obsessive behaviour, it’s really
important to point out to the parents that the
first indication of change may not be that the
child will suddenly throw their arms around their
parents.

More likely it will come in a peripheral way.
The child may start singing or start building
things or take an interest in something that isn’t
inanimate, like a pet.

INFORMING THE PARENTS
It also goes a long way towards greasing the
wheels of change if you explain the process of
cranio sacral therapy to parents as much as you
can.

Get across to them the length of time cranio
sacral therapy takes to have effect.  Sometimes
with the children you can treat them two or even
three times before the parents will start to
notice an effect.

That may not seem like a long time on paper but
it is two or three weeks that they have got to
keep coming back for treatment, in the face of no
apparent improvements.

Get the family involved at the beginning of the
treatment program.  Then if there is no apparent
improvement for the first couple of weeks they
will be more inclined to persevere.

Seem like a lot of work?

The difference between a child and an adult
coming for treatment is an adult comes of their
own accord and they have control over whether they
come back or not.

With a child, the parents have that control and
if the parents get the feeling that the treatment
is not really helping they won’t come back.

Having said all that.  The ideal is treating
the whole family.  This is particularly so with
learning difficulties or behavioural disorders.

As a child begins to change it will help the
process enormously if everybody in the family can
be NEW about that and allow them to change.  A lot
of families won’t be new and they will still
relate to the child as they where in the past.

In a way they will keep the child stuck in the
pattern long after the cause of the pattern is
gone.

For example, if a child is having big tantrums
as a result of a compressed parietal and you help
the parietal to release. The cause of the tantrums
will be gone.  But the child may still have
tantrums because that’s what is expected of them.
There is a space within the family that expects
them to have tantrums.

Treating the whole family helps create a shared
state of change in the family dynamic and in that
is a window of opportunity for the changes that
you have helped to facilitate in the child to
become permanent

If you are not treating the whole family you
will be treating the child in isolation. The other
members of the family may not want things to
change.  Particularly older brothers and sisters.

If you can’t treat the whole family you will be
indirectly treating the family through the child.
And that ain’t easy. It’s like trying to wallpaper
the house through the letter box.

Don’t be afraid to ask Toby’s mother to come
for treatment.  Chose your moment well. Put it
tactfully.  Avoid implying that she is holding
Toby’s progress up.

She may really want to come for treatment but
doesn’t know how to make it happen.

How does opposed motion relate to flexion/extension?

Posted by John Dalton on August 11, 2008

+ How does opposed motion relate to flexion/extension? - October 05

Hey JD,
Enjoying your Q and A’s.
Here’s my Q.
How does opposed motion relate to
flexion/extension?

Thanks
B.F. London.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Glad you’re enjoying the NL, B.F.
I’m guessing you do a lot of text messaging on
your ph.
Here’s my C’s.

When you first learned cranio sacral, you were
probably told how the cranio sacral system moves
in flexion and extension.   ‘In flexion, the
parietals flex and extend around a medial axis
running along the sagittal suture.’ and so on . .

That’s called the similar motion model.  The
main characteristic of which is that everything
moves symmetrically around the midline of the
body.

What you will have found in practice is that
some people just don’t flex and extend in
symmetrical way.

The fact is that no person fits into the
theoretical models of flexion and extension all
the time.  Some never.  No person’s head moves in
the same way from one day to the next.

It is important to learn flexion and extension
in the beginning so that you can refine your
palpatory skills to really be able to perceive
flexion and extension in all its nuances.

With the opposite motion model flexion and
extension are felt asymmetrically.  When one
parietal is moving into flexion the other one will
be going into extension.  This creates an
asymmetrical peddling motion within the whole
cranium.

The frontal bone will move anterior and
inferior on one side (flexion) while the other
side moves superior and posterior (extension).

The squamous portion of the occiput will flare
and move inferior and slightly posterior as it
tucks under (flexion) on one side while the other
side is narrowing and moving superiorly
(extension).

The sphenoid torsions around its body.  One
greater wing will nose dive  (flexion) while the
other side will be arching superiorly.

It’s probably easier to get a mental visual of
it all if you think of the membranous balloon
lining the cranium, filling on one side while it
empties on the other.  This will help you make
sense of what the bones are doing.

Trying to figure out every bone movement in the
opposed motion model will do your head in.

Not recommended.

Get the idea of the way the membranes move and
the bones will follow.

You’ve probably felt this motion already and
may have put it down to your inability to feel
flexion extension correctly.

Well you were right, there is a motion like
that and it’s called opposed motion.

Some days our system will move in similar
motion flexion and extension and on other days it
will have this opposed motion feeling.

Hope that was of H.