Trying to feel certain in craniosacral work is like chasing a mirage in the desert.  You see the shimmering osasis in the distance but it never gets any closer no matter how much you move towards it.  The osasis of cranio sacral certainty is where you put your hands on someone’s body and it lights up like a Christmas tree and you can see EVERYTHING, every restriction pattern, every cause.  And the road to health for that person looks to you, like a well lit highway. And all this without that awful squirmy feeling like you’re groping around in the dark not really sure of anything.

If you’ve been waiting for that to happen let me put you out of your misery, it’s never going to happen.

It won’t happen because there is something about this work that always keeps you at the limit of yourself.

If you think back to when you started to learn cranio sacral work and you first heard about flexion and extension, for example, it all made sense – in theory.

Then you put your hands on someone and you tried to feel it and all you could feel was NOTHING!

And it felt awful.

You trusted your trainers and you persevered. As time passed you learnt new things, like feeling lesion patterns in the sphenoid or some such and when you tried to feel them, all you could feel was NOTHING!

And it felt awful.

You looked forward to the day when you wouldn’t feel that awful feeling.

Without noticing, two important things occured.

1) Your palpatory skills were improving and changing. You were actually feeling more. When you were struggling to feel whether the sphenoid had a flexion or extension lesion, you didn’t notice that you were feeling flexion and extension with relative ease.

2) The awful feeling wasn’t changing. It was the same awful feeling you had when you began.

Here’s the secret – As good as your palpatory skills get, as good as your diagnostic skills get, as good as you perceptive skills get, you will still have that voice in the back of your head wondering, ’Am I making this up?’

Outstanding cranio sacral therapists haven’t eradicated uncertainty,
they’ve mastered it.

That mastery is not somewhere you arrive at. It’s not like you get it sorted and never have to deal with it again. It’s something that goes on every time you treat someone and it’s one of the most difficult aspects of cranio sacral work.

I know this because I went/go through it myself and I have seen ALL the people I have trained go through it in one way or another.

If you’re just starting out in your training I suggest the following; put the question of ’Am I making this up?’? on hold for the first year of your training.

Make a deal with yourself that for the next year you’re not going to ask yourself that question. For the next year you’re just going to take it that what you’re feeling is true. It’s not forever, it’s just for a year.

What you will be doing is allowing dormant parts of your brain to activate.  You haven’t been conditioned to think in the way that you’re trying to think when you do cranial work. Your neuronal pathways are formed in a different way.

Continually asking yourself if you are making it up won’t allow new neuronal pathways to form.  We’re not MRI machines, which is a good and bad thing. Good because we have the capacity to go far beyond our own expectations and pull miracles out of the bag.  Bad because we also have the capacity to have an off day and get it wrong.

When the year is over you can ask yourself the question again.

Will you make it up?
Sometimes.
More in the beginning.
With experience, 1-2 years minimum, you can begin to discern when you’re making it up. You can spot it and in time it too becomes another thing to note, along with the multitude of other things you’re registering as you work. ’The rhythm is changing, I wonder what that means? The patient is feeling sadness, I wonder what that means? Now they’re angry, I wonder what that means? I just made that bit up, I wonder what that means? Now they’re about to release this bit, I wonder what that means? The sadness is still there. .’ and so on.

When it comes to self doubt I encourage you to persevere. The rewards far outweigh the difficulties. And the weird thing is as you become familiar with and master uncertainty, it permeates your whole life and it becomes more . . well . . fluid.

What are your experiences with certainty in craniosacral work?

You’re working on Sally’s sacrum and you know you need to spend time on her neck, after all that’s why she came to see you – she can’t turn her head all the way to the right* – when is it ok for you to leave the sacrum and move on?

*and yes, working on the sacrum can indeed help the neck, but Sally may need the reassurance
of you actually touching her neck to feel like she got what she came for.

In this video (scroll down to view) I talk about transitions and graceful exits and compare our work to a cocktail party (I know, I know, sacrilege!):

• when is it ok to move your hands to another area
• what to do when you only have 5 minutes left and the body is deep in its work and you really, really have to move on (or complete the session)
• what happens when you move your hands prematurely
• and a special treat! with lots of colors!

For those of you who aren’t video watchers, here are the highlights:

• Imagine that you’re at a cocktail party catching up with your friend Beth – she shares, you respond, you share, she responds. There’s a lull in the conversation, that’s when you know you can make a graceful exit and go catch up with your friend Frank or you could stay and continue your conversation with Beth at a deeper level.

• You would never turn your back on Beth and leave in the middle of her telling you about potty training her 3-year-old – that would be rude.

• How does this apply to working on the body? Imagine that you’re working on Sally’s sacrum – you noticed during your assessment that there’s a restriction at L5/S1 as well as the left sacroiliac joint. You settle into your hand position and the body starts to shift. You notice softening, heat, lengthening – all those signs that let you know the body is working to make changes. If you left in the middle of that, it would be akin to you leaving your conversation with Beth right as she’s in the middle of her potty training story. You wait until things have settled down and a change has come to some sort of completion/resolution. Then you can make your graceful exit and move on to another area.

• You could also stay and work with the next layer that the body is ready to shift. If L5/S1 got some nice changes and feels less compressed but the left SI is still a bit cranky, you might decide to hang out a bit longer to give the left SI time to do some work. It’s up to you and your evaluation of what needs to happen before the session comes to an end.

• Here are a couple tips for making a graceful exit when you really must move on i.e. your client’s neck is begging for some help or it’s time to wrap up the session.

1. Tell the body non-verbally “Look, I’ve only got 5 more minutes here before I have to move on to another area (or finish the session). So that means you have 5 minutes to get the work done that you need to get done with my hands here.”

2. Tell your client verbally “Just wanted to give you a heads up and let you know that I’ve got 5 more minutes in this area before I need to move on/complete our session. Feel free to tune into the area where I’m working and support your body in doing what it needs to do while my hands are here.”

Lastly, I shared about the Hoberman Sphere. I’ve really enjoyed using it to help explain the movement that occurs in response to the inflow and outflow of the cerebrospinal fluid in the cranium. It’s a really nice tangible way for people to grasp this concept.

In the comments below, share with the group how *you* recognize when it’s ok to leave an area and move on. What signs to you feel for? How do you make a graceful exit when you’re running short on time? Your input will be oh-so-helpful to your fellow therapists – thank you!

Article by Lisa Gillispie, BSW, LMT, CST

http://www.AnatomyConversations.com

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus

The first video below is an example of using one elastic to help develop a sense for following another persons body in an abstract way.
The key points to remember are: -

• One person closes their eyes and tries to follow the movements of the other person.
• Move slowly in the beginning.
• Help the other person by coming to a stop every now and then.
• Make sure the person with their eyes closed maintains the tension on the elastic.

The next video below is similar to the first except that now you will be working with two elastics.  It you are the person with your eyes open make sure to move the two elastics in different directions to each other, stopping with one while continuing with the other and so on.  This will help the other person get a good reference for following two sets of motion simultaneously.

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus

Following the Body is a skill that takes a lot of practice to get proficient at. It is like singing along to a song. It requires you to keep in time and in tune so that your singing harmonises with the music. The combination of the music and your singing produces something more than the individual components.

If you put your body in a flotation tank it will generally start to move. The movement is your body responding to the gravity free environment and beginning to unravel its restrictions.

It is like a big piece of cellophane that has been you crinkled. When it is let it go it begins to unravel.

Following the body means providing this gravity free environment in which the body begins to move. The movement leads to the release of restrictions. To get to that point you need to develop the skill of following the body without interfering with its movement. To provide the support without making an impression.
The skill comes in following the dance.

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus

Reframing is a technique that has developed out of Neuro Linguistic
Programming or NLP for short. It is based on the principle that a different
perspective can unleash a lot of power.  Have a look at this video to get
an idea of how a different perspective can make a huge difference.
You’ll get the different perspective at the end of the clip.

It is easy for us to get stuck in a particular perspective or frame through which
we see things. This frame becomes the only way we see a particular thing, the
world, ourselves etc. If the particular frame is limiting this can be a problem
because there may be no solution to the problem in the frame I hold.

A locked and limiting frame has the effect of drying up our fluidity and
causing us to get stuck. To break out of this we need to ‘try out’ different
frames. This has the effect of looking at the problem for lots of different
angles but more importantly it releases our creative energies and allows
us to be more fluid and responsive.

Here are some common examples in cranial work of frames of perspective
that are locked.

Cause = Effect Statements: “This X leads to this Y”
“If a patient’s symptoms get worse after treatment, they will blame me..”

Complex Equivalence Statements: “This X means this Y”
“The fact that the patient’s symptoms got worse means I did something wrong.”

Identification; “This X means this Y about ME”‘
“The fact that the patient’s symptoms got worse means I am a bad therapist.”

External Behavior = Internal State
“If a patient’s symptoms get worse, it means I am a bad therapist, which makes me feel bad.”
Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, saw the musical.

Before you begin reframing it’s important to find both the External Behavior
and the Internal State.

For example, a statement like, “Patients think I am a bad therapist”, is an
expression of an internal state.

To find the coresponding external you could ask yourself, “What causes to
patients to think I am a bad therapist?”

The answer might be “Because their symptoms get worse after I treat them.”

Now you have an external behavior (Their symptoms get worse after I treat them.)
and an Internal State (Patients think I’m a bad therapist).

“Patients think I am a bad therapist because their symptoms get worse after I treat them.”

Now you can begin reframing: Here are some ways to see the situation differently.

Reframing the external behaviour:
“A change in a patient’s symptoms after my treatment is a great indication of my
treatment having an impact on their system.”

Reframe The Internal State:
“It’s not that patients thinks I am incompetent, it is that they don’t understand the
process of healing.”

Counter Example:
“Can I think of a time when a patients symptoms have got worse and they didn’t
think it was my fault? Or can I think of a time that a patient understood the
significance of their symptoms getting worse and were encouraged by it?”

Outcome Framing:
“What’s going to happen to my success level if I keep thinking this way?
What will my life be like in ten years, or twenty?”

Allness Framing:
“Do I think that every single patient whose symptoms get worse after seeing
me will think I am incompetent as a therapist?”

Reflexively Apply to Self or Listener:
“In other words, I should probably conclude I am an incompetent therapist
because a patient of mine symptom’s get worse after I treated them.”
“Are you trying to tell me that if one of my patient’s symptoms get worse
after I treat them that I am an incompetent therapist?”

Specific focus:
“How does this happen specifically?”
“What happens first?”
“What happens right after that?”
“How does the exact sequence go for a patient to go from trusting me to not
thinking I am competent because their symptoms get worse without me
having any say in the matter or influence whatsoever?”

You can use reframing with any difficulty you might be having with your
cranio sacral practice.

What follows is a description of my experience of working with energy in Cranio Sacral Therapy. It is intended as an adjunct to any energy work you may already have experience in. My intention is to explore different ways of working with energy that are very effective with Cranio Sacral Treatment.

There are many different ways to look at what is happening during energy work and it is best to find a way that makes sense to you.

If you find the idea of working with energy a little ‘out there’ think of it like this; if you went back in time and tried to describe how television worked to someone back in the middle ages, they would probably say it sounded like magic.

“These images are floating around in the air all the time, yet they can’t be seen. But, with the right receiver you can see pictures of something happening on the other side of the planet.”

Nowadays it is all very normal and explainable. I suggest you approach energy work in the same way. Be as practical about it as possible all the while having gratitude for the gift of whatever energy comes through you.

A key aspect of energy is that Energy Follows Thought.

You can encourage something to release in a very specific way by putting your Intention on it. Your intention is energised by the energy that comes to the assistance of your intent to help.

The cells of our bodies adhere to a continually renewing energetic blueprint we first establish in the womb. What gives this blueprint its potency is the movement of cerebro spinal fluid, in what we call flexion and extension. This energetic blueprint sets the outlines for the structures we are familiar with, heart, lungs, etc. The blueprint also includes the unseen connections between these structures, what in Chinese medicine are called Meridians. Another aspect to the blueprint are the structures that conduct energy flow through our system in the same way water flows through a hose.

ENERGY MODEL FOR HEALING
One of the things we are doing when we treat people is we are working to help this blueprint to repair itself. I have found there is a specific circuit we work with. It starts with perceiving energy leaving our right hand and entering our left hand. Our right hand is the one we use to put energy in with and the left is for taking excess energy out.

PRACTICE
You can feel this if you hold your hands about three inches apart and tune into them. You will first feel energy between your hands.

Follow the flow of energy coming out of your right hand. Up to your elbow and generally coming from the right side of your torso. Feel where the source of the energy is coming from.

Now hold that thought while you feel the next bit.

You can sense energy coming down from the sky or universe and also up from the Earth. The energy from the universe has a light, airy and vast quality. While the energy from the earth is grounded, solid and deep.

You can feel it entering your body on the left hand side and leaving it on the right. The energy from the universe and the earth meet as they enter your body. Energy
enters through the left side of your head from the universe and up through your left foot from the earth.

It converges in your torso, crosses your body to the right side and travels down your right forearm and out of your right hand.

The energy that is picked up by your left hand travels up your left forearm is pulled into the left side of your torso. It crosses your body and diffuses up and down to leave
through the right side of your head out through your right leg & foot.

Confused? Here is a diagram that will help.

The flow between our hands is the focal point for the sort of work we do. Having a sense of this circuit will allow you to tap into as much energy as is required. Knowing that you are availing of energy flowing through you will help you conserve your own energy and not feel so drained from the work.

To get a visual reference for how you can have a lot of energy flow through you without being drained by it, have a look at this video. It is of a man who works on high voltage cables. They are not turned off. He is flown in by helicopter and wears a faraday suit which the high voltage flows through. Apart from it being a fascinating video clip, it’s a great example of how you can work with a lot of energy and it not affect you.

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus

The purpose of including meditation in your cranio sacral training is to help you become familiar with your inner state or landscape.

In that way you can begin to differentiate between what you are receiving from the person you are treating and what is just you.

Think of it like this.
You are sitting in front of a big wide screen TV.
The channel keeps changing but that doesn’t matter because you find everything interesting. Behind you there is a small colour TV but you can’t turn around to look at it. You can hear what’s on the small TV but you can’t make it out because the noise from the TV in front of you is obscuring it.

Are you with that image so far? You are facing the big TV with the little TV behind you.

Every now and then, when the screen on the big TV goes dark, you can make out something of the little TV as it reflected in the darkened screen of the big TV.

Let me explain: The big TV is your body – mind etc, your system. The little TV is the patient’s system.

You want to be able to see their system – the show on the little TV – as accurately as you can.

So the obvious thing to do is turn off the big TV, then in the empty screen and without the sound, it is much easier to see what is happening on the little TV as it is reflected on the darkened screen of the big TV.

Learning to meditate is like learning how to turn off your TV. You need to be able to reduce your internal static. What you are left with is a sort of inner silence into which it is easier to hear any ‘noise’ from the person you are working with.

There will be more about meditation later in the course.
For now it is important to develop the habit.

Here is what to do:

• Set aside 10 minutes morning and evening for meditation practice.
• Find a secluded spot in a quiet room.
• Get yourself a timer of some sort and set it to 10 minutes. ( Having a timer gives you one less thing to think about when you are meditating.)
• Sit in a not too comfortable chair. (if it is too comfortable you may fall asleep. Don’t meditate lying down for the same reason.)
• Make sure your back is straight and you are not slouching.
• Close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths.
• Starting at your toes check through your body for any tension you may be holding. If you find any let it go.
• Remember to breath.
• Turn off any internal conversations, monitoring or narration you might be engaged in.
• Allow your mental screen to go blank.
• Remember to breath.
• Whenever you find yourself thinking turn off any internal conversations, monitoring or narration you might be engaged in.
• Allow your mental screen to go blank.
• Remember to breath.
• Continue like this until you timer goes off.

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus

The course is divided into 6 blocks of learning.  Basics 1-3 and Advanced 1-3.  Each block takes 4 months to complete.  Each block builds on the last.  I don’t recommend you ‘cram’ any of the blocks or jump ahead prematurely.  The time allotted for each block is to allow the practice to sink in.  You head may grasp the concepts but it takes longer for your palpatory skills
to grow.

On the other hand don’t spend longer than 4 months on any block. Self doubt is something most cranio sacral students grapple with.  There can be a temptation to not move on because you feel like you haven’t mastered a particular block.  If this happens talk it out with your mentor.  If they say you are ready then you are.

The majority of your learning is self directed, meaning you direct how much study and practice you engage in.  To become competent I recommends you set aside 15 to 20 hours a week for your Cranio

Sacral learning.

I suggest you divide up the four months of each block as follows:

Month 1
Go over all the training materials in the given block in the first week.
Practice all the techniques for a day or so then go and have some directional assessment with your mentor to ensure you are doing everything correctly. Contine to practice and study for the rest of the month.

Month 2
Begin the month with a directional assessment with your mentor to ensure you are doing everything correctly.

Month 3
In the second week of the month have a directional assessment with your mentor to ensure you are doing everything correctly.
At the end of the month complete the directional written assessments for the block.

Month 4
End the month with a competence assessment with your mentor and complete the competence written assessments.

Each learning block has a set of learning outcomes.   When you are competent in all the learning outcomes for a block you are competent in that block.  When you are competent in all the blocks you are a competent cranio sacral therapist.

Assessment “Oh no, an exam!!”

Assessment doesn’t mean examination. A written assessment isn’t an ‘exam’.
There are 2 types of assessment.

Directional Assessment:     This is assessment designed to keep you on the right track.  It is assessment built into the learning. It is intended to help you avoid getting into bad habits by practicing a technique incorrectly or labouring under an incorrect understanding of a concept.

Competence assessment:     This is assessment used towards the end of a block to assess your competence in the material covered.

There are only two results that can come from a competence assessment. Competent or Not Yet Competent.  There is no passing or failing.  One person is not deemed more competent
than another.  If you are not yet competent in a technique it does not mean you cannot continue in your training, it just means you need to be assessed in this technique again when you have followed the action plan that the assessor lays out for you.

Practical Assessment

For this assessment you will need to bring a patient.  The assessor will ask you to preform different techniques.  As you preform the techniques the assessor will tune in to your patient.  The assessor may talk to you as you are working.  At the end of the assessment the assessor will review what has been done and develop an action plan to assist you in the areas you are not yet competent in.

Written Assessment

There are 2 written assessments on the material covered in each block.

Closed Book:    This is an assessment of knowledge and covers the fundamentals of what has been covered.  The things you should know without having to refer to a text book.  The things you use during treatment.

Open Book:    During this assessment you can refer to any text book or reference material you wish.  It is an assessment of your understanding.

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus

Lesson B2.1.0 —- Primary Lesions.

Lesson B2.2.0 —- Vertebral Classification.

Lesson B2.3.0 —- Building up a Picture of the Total System Demo.

Lesson B2.4.0 —- Nervous System – Basic Structure of a Neuron.

Lesson B2.5.0 —- Basic Divisions of Nervous System.

Lesson B2.6.0 —- Plexus Demo

Lesson B2.7.0 —- Nervous System – Cervicle Plexus – Dermatomes

Lesson B2.8.0 —- Somatic nerve plexi

Lesson B2.9.0 —- Nervous system mind map

Lesson B2.10.0 — Sphenobasilar Synchondrosis in More Detail.

Lesson B2.11.0 — Sphenobasilar Synchondrosis Flexion/ Extension Lesion.

Lesson B2.12.0 — Sphenobasilar Synchondrosis Torsion Lesion.

Lesson B2.13.0 — Sphenobasilar Synchondrosis Sidebending Lesion.

Lesson B2.14.0 — Sphenobasilar Synchondrosis Lateral Sheer Lesion.

Lesson B2.15.0 — Sphenobasilar Synchondrosis Verticle Sheer Lesion.

Lesson B2.16.0 — Sphenobasilar Synchondrosis Compression Lesion.

Lesson B2.17.0 — Sphenobasilar Synchondrosis Lesion Stacking.

Lesson B2.18.0 — Case Histories Expanded.

Lesson B2.20.0 –  Patient information sheet

Lesson B2.21.0 –  Ball Carrying Game for Leg Movement in Unwinding.

Lesson B2.22.0 — Wrist Release Demo.

Lesson B2.23.0 — Ankle Release Demo.

Lesson B2.24.0 — Rocking the Sacrum.

Lesson B2.25.0 –  Pelvic girdle evaluation demo.

Lesson B2.26.0 —   Pelvic girdle evaluation.

Lesson B2.27.0 –  Working with energy.

Lesson B2.28.0 –  Sensing energy between hands.

Lesson B2.29.0 –   Energy Driving.

Lesson B2.30.0 –  Mastoid tip Compression Demo.

Lesson B2.31.0 –  Sacral contact and Ilia crest evaluation.

Lesson B2.32.0 –  Occiput and Sacral contact Demo

Lesson B2.33.0 –  Dural Tube Release Demo

Lesson B2.34.0 –  Micro Treatment – Demo.