September 14 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Follow on comment from last issue from Etienne in Belgium.
+ Link between breast-feeding and CST.
+ Working with the blueprint.
+ CST clinical trials.

Hello,

I was passing a news stand the other day and the
headline ‘Crocs can kill,’ shrieked out at me from
the front page of Britain’s ‘The Sun’ newspaper.
Having lived in Australia for ten years I thought
it had taken a rather a long time for that bit of
obviousness to reach GB and certainly didn’t
warrant a headline.

But it turns out they weren’t talking about
those ridged chompers so beloved of the late Steve
Irwin.
They were talking about the brightly coloured,
perforated clogs adored for their comfort by
doctors and nurses, charged by the fashion police
with crimes against style, and flaunted by
Presidents and pop stars alike eager to capitalise
on their quirky cachet.

The paper reported the banning of the shoes by
some Sheffield hospitals, apparently because of
claims that static electricity generated by Croc-
shod medical staff could knock out vital
equipment.

So that’s what those static electric shocks are
all about.  I just thought everyone was releasing
a lot last week.

Note to self: Don’t wear crocs when
treating again.

Anyhu, I can’t stand around here lollygagging
with you about the pitfalls of being fashionable.
We’ve got a mailbag to get on with so let’s have at it.

***FOLLOW ON COMMENT FROM LAST ISSUE FROM ETIENNE IN BELGIUM***

Hi John,
I stated about the tennis sock  … if their
system can take it … even if you are not crazy
about it, its their system that has the answer !

If you can bring the elderly past their
compensations you will find they are all too happy
to go into babyhood, how do you do that … only
if you drop the idea that they will go
automaticlly into compensation (which they will do
as a defense mechanism, because they do not know
what else to do) , but it is your job not to step
into that pile but via your own system show their
system (in complete silence) how to go beyond the
mind, thats all, of course you have to drop all
prejudice for that, do not forget, knowingly or
unknowingly they are preparing for death … and a
guide out of their cr.p is welcome

There is a very good therapist in St Martin de
Lon… something (South west France) Margo Berr

Have fun,
Etienne

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Etienne,
Thank you for your swift and passionate
response.

I am not wild about the tennis sock thing for
two reasons.

Firstly I think it negates all the years we
spend developing our palpatory skill and learning
about timing and sensitive responding to a persons
system.

I agree that the person’s system has the answer
but there needs to be someone there to hear and
respond to the answer, not an inanimate object.
The person’s system will change in the time
between treatments.  If their system can’t handle
it the tennis sock will give them a headache or an
uncomfortable feeling of pressure.

Secondly.  The people that I treat are by and
large uninterested in natural medicine or
alternative approaches.  I think most of them
would be more than happy if the Doctor was able to
help them.  They only come to see someone like me
because they are desperate.

I am very aware of this and aim to make it as
easy for them as possible because I know that the
really confronting thing will be their having to
take responsibility for their own health.

So I try and minimise the other stuff.  I am
conscious of the environment they will be
returning to and the sort of resistance they may
have to put up with from family and friends.

From a sceptics perspective the tennis sock
thing looks and sounds kooky.  For its benefits,
which I think are minimal at best, compared to the
undermining effects it could have on the person’s
whole process, I don’t think it’s worth it.

As for the elderly, you are right of course.
Having any kind of preconception about how a
treatment is going to go is never good.  Whether
it is that the elderly are like babies and they are
so happy to ride the wave or that they are like
babies that are locked behind 500 layers of
compensation.  We must always treat what we find.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,

I’m contacting you after being very encouraged by
your informative website – particularly the area
on “the top ten causes of trauma”

I have had a very positive experience myself with
Cranio-sacral – jaw work – which helped me to
breastfeed successfully after 18 months of minimal
supply (20ml max)

My problem related to a fractured cheekbone -
where the displaced bone impacted the brain – not
enough to cause brain damage or to stop the
pituitary function, but enough to take away any
room for the gland to swell slightly with greater
need (such as breastfeeding).  The treatment I had
(with the intention of bringing relief to neck and
shoulder pain – not breastfeeding – I’d given up
on that by then) – included jaw work – and worked
to balance a very unstable xyoid process – and
when that balanced – my breast milk flowed like
I’d dreamed for so long (my baby was allergic to
most formulas – hence the repeated pneumonia from
a supposed hypo-allergenic formula).

I have since quizzed Moms who struggled to
breastfeed in my practice – most of them had some
kind of serious trauma to the head or spine in
their lifetime.

Considering the vital importance of breastfeeding,
it might be so beneficial to have some kind of
research project done on this one day…. do you
have any idea who could do it /how this might be
done?  Should I contact Upledger directly?

Kind regards,
C
South Africa.

MY COMMENTS:

Hello C,
Thank you for your feedback about my website.
I’m glad you found it helpful.

In my practice I don’t think I have ever had a
mother come for treatment specifically for help
with breast milk production.

Improvements in breast milk supply have usually
come in the way you have described it, a happy
secondary bonus but not as the main focus of
treatment.

I never really thought of it as a specific
problem that could benefit from cranio sacral
treatment until I received your email.  But once
you say it, it’s obvious.  I will add it to the
list of conditions that can be helped with cranio
sacral therapy on my websites.

I agree with you that it is an important area
and I am sure the Upledger Institute would be
interested in your idea

http://www.upledger.com/

as would the Craniosacral Association of South
Africa http://www.cranial.za.org/
and possibly Le Leche League http://www.llli.org/

I will include your letter in my cranio sacral
therapist and student newsletter and pass on any
enquiries or feedback I receive.

***QUESTION***

Hi John

Thanks so much for your continuing newsletter and
the great tips and humour.
I have a double question.

It’s often a lonely place at the coalface and I
seem to have people come to me with “last resort”
problems that require much from me – I am doing a
lot of anatomy and physiology research these days.

First question. Do you think it’s possible for a
young man whose body doesn’t make testosterone to
get that working again?
He is 23 and came to me essentially for massive
headaches and his lack of testosterone problem. It
was diagnosed at age 15 when he had major back
pain.

Bone testing revealed his bone age was that of an
8 year old. He has to inject himself 3 x weekly
for the testosterone cycle to happen. This
injecting ritual is also affecting his mental
health – facing this for the rest of his life is
depressing.

So, he has major lesion patterns in his head, esp
membranes, akin to birth trauma (although his
mother reports a “perfect” birth), and his pelvic
girdle/sacrum.

Unwinding those complex restriction patterns is
top of the list, with my intention also on all
sites for the production cycle to work normally
(including cerebral cortex, hypothalamus and
pituitary and testes). I can’t see any reason it
won’t, but there seems to be an issue with the
‘kick starting’ of the process.

If he is injecting and producing LSH, then his
body may not have the opportunity to take over.
He has had all the tests and specialists do not
have any idea why this is happening in his body.
They can only offer injections for his lifetime.
Can you give me any clues here?

Second question. I have a lot of people with
conditions related to experiencing terror in-
utero. So, the main problem seems to lie in the
central nervous system, and glitches in its
development.

These all have the quality of having to return to
the blueprint as the major goal. This requires a
lot, from both practitioner and client. (This is
also the situation for the young man already
mentioned)

Can you give some insight into the process of
returning to the blueprint?

Luckily, I have had success already in this area,
but the symptoms and conditions I’m treating
lately, (as well as the overall goal of returning
to the blueprint), are extreme and debilitating
for the clients.
Patience seems to be the major virtue. Have you
any other insights?

Thanks so much for your continued support.
Cheers,
J
Australia

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for the feedback J, I’m glad you are
finding the newsletters useful.

‘Do you think it’s possible for a young man
whose body doesn’t make testosterone to get that
working again?’

Yes.  When it comes to people and their bodies
I think anything is possible.

Both of your questions revolve around the
blueprint and how to work with it so I will answer
them together.

It sounds like your palpatory skills are at the
point where you are beginning to feel the
blueprint, which is great.   The downside is that
it sounds like you are finding it a bit daunting.

But daunt not because it doesn’t need to be.
The ironic thing is that you have been working
with the blueprint from the very beginning of your
cranio sacral training.  The difference is that
now you have reached a level of refinement where
you can differentiate the blueprint from the rest
of what you are a feeling.

As you know the blueprint is the energetic
framework that underpins our bodies.  The cells of
our bodies being a bit like iron filings on a
piece of paper.  When a magnet is brought to the
underside of the paper the filings are drawn to
form the shape of the magnet.

The magnet is like the blueprint.  The
difference is that the blueprint is not a static
rigid thing but moves and grows.  The growing part
being particularly relevant for your testosterone
light patient.

Like many aspects of cranio sacral work, we
feel something and learn to work with it but have
very little scientific evidence or terminology to
describe it.  10 years ago science was enraptured
with the mysteries of genetics, with few voices
who was saying anything different, one of which
was Rupert Sheldrake and he was labeled a kook.

Then the genome was finally mapped and when the
party was over there was a dawning that it didn’t
have all the answers.  That everything wasn’t
determined by our genes.   This is reflected in
the work of the likes of Bruce Lipton in what is
being called the New Biology.

The idea of an energetic field or blueprint
underpinning our body has been around for yonks
and shows up in different cultures in different
ways, meridians, charkas, assemblage point and so
on.

As I said, the blueprint unfolds during
embryonic development.  The timing of this
unfoldment directs the pace and progress of our
embryonic development and once started moves
forward with its own pace and rhythm.

It’s like a piece of music that begins at the
moment of conception and continues for the rest of
our lives.  Within the overall piece of music
there are movements, passages that have the
general themes of the overall music but have their
individual beginnings, middles and ends.

If something happens to interrupt the music or
a particular beat is missed, it is very hard for
the body to fill in the blanks.
No magnet – so the iron filings don’t know where
to go.

For example the maxillae meet each other and
form the hard palate at about the seventh week of
embryonic development.  If this doesn’t happen
then person will end up with a cleft palate.

It sounds like all went well with your patient
during the embryonic phase of his development.  He
decided he was going to be male and the initial
flood of testosterone ensured this.

The beat that was missed was in his puberty.
The second wave of testosterone never happened. So
he never matured into a man.  It is this point
that I would look at in his blueprint.

So how to work with it?
I have found that knowing about the blueprint
is the beginning of being able to work with it.
It’s the same as when knowing what flexion and
extension were, before tried to feel for them, was a
help in being able to feel them.

A useful initial access to feeling the
blueprint is to use the cranio sacral rhythm.
Think of it in terms of William Sutherland’s
description of it as being the ‘breath of life’.

Think of flexion as the in-breath and extension
as the out-breath of this breath of life.  He also
described the movement of this breath of life as
adding potency to the cells of the body.

I find this kind of imagery helpful in getting
in touch with the blueprint.  It always reminds me
of a beach, in particular that part of the beach
where the sand meets the water.  Where, if you
write your name in the sand the water will come in
and wipe it away and smooth the sand out.

With my hands in contact with the person’s
system and my eyes closed, tuning into the cranio
sacral rhythm and feeling it in terms of an in-
breath that vitalises and recreates an energetic
blueprint, each in-breath washes across the cells
of the body and they become luminous. Any
anomalies in the blueprint itself begin to reveal
themselves.

The daunting thing about working with the
blueprint is that is energetic.  You don’t feel it
in the same way as you feel flexion and extension,
for example, which is a physical movement.  It is
felt in the same way you can feel something
between your palms when you hold them close
together. It’s the same sort of something.

The good news is that once it is felt the
blueprint behaves and responds in the same way the
body does.  So if you get a sense that there was a
disturbance in the unfoldment of the puberty
movement of his blueprint ‘music’ then it is the
same as it would feel if there was a trauma that
had occurred to him during his puberty.

But instead of looking to get a sense of a
trauma you are looking to get a sense of what
interrupted the unfoldment of his blueprint,
which, ironically could have been a trauma.

Once you get a sense of where the gap is then
you can use your intention to fill it.  But not in
a directed forceful, ‘I know what needs to be done
here.’ sort of way.   More with a sense of
providing a bridge with your intention across the
gap.

It is a little like direct technique in as much
as you are encouraging his system to fill in the
gap but you don’t make it happen.

As kooky as the blueprint may sound it is still
a mechanical kind of thing to work with.  Just
because it is energy doesn’t automatically imbue
it with mystical dimensions.

If he doesn’t improve through working with the
blueprint you would have to look deeper.

What is deeper than the underpinning energetic
blue print that holds the cells of our bodies in
place?

Well as I said the blueprint is in essence a
mechanical structure.  It is used by the part of
us that knows the bigger picture of ourselves.
What our life is about.  Why we are a man or a
woman, why we chose the parents we did, the
country we were born in and so on.

That is a different part of the questions you
would be asking yourself about the bigger picture
of what his symptoms might mean in the context of
the deeper issues he may be working out in his
life.

Is he resisting letting go of being a boy and
becoming a man?  Or is he resisting growing up?
The movie, ‘The Tin Drum’ comes to mind.  Were the
headaches just a way to get him to come and see
you or are they part of the mechanical aspect of
how this disharmony is expressing itself.

***QUESTION***

Hi John
Thank you very much for your newsletters and all
the wonderful info.
It was really exciting to read about Harvard
Medical School’s dept of psychiatry including CST
in their continuing education programme.
Hopefully this leads the way for other schools to
do the same. Do you know of any others?

My question today is how do you answer:
patients
medical practitioners
the public
who ask you for scientific evidence to support the
effectiveness of CST?

Yours sincerely,

John Rosen.
South Africa

MY COMMENTS:

Hello John,
Thank you for the feedback it means a lot to
me.  I don’t know of any other medical schools
including cranio sacral in their curriculum as yet
but I will let you know if I hear of any.

Scientific evidence to support the
effectiveness of cranio sacral therapy is pretty
thin on the ground.  There is a lot of what is
called anecdotal evidence, which is basically
people saying it is good or helpful or wonderful,
but not a lot of hard scientific evidence.

One of the reasons for this is the difficulty
of applying the normal scientific testing
procedures to cranio sacral treatment.  They say
it is hard to do the usual double blind
experiment.
In a drug trial the test group is divided in
half.  One half is given the test drug and the
other half, called the control group, is given a
sugar pill.  The people undergoing the test don’t
know which group they are in.

The amount of improvement is measured in the
two groups and if the drug is effective there will
be a substantial improvement in the group that
received the test drug.

The difficulty with applying this model of
testing to cranio sacral treatment is with the
control group.  Their contention being that once
you know how to do cranio you can’t not do it and
so provide a viable neutral group.

This has never made sense to me because I’m
sure you could show non-cranio sacral therapists
how to place their hands at different places on a
person’s body to affect the appearance of giving a
cranio sacral session.

My knowledge of this area is quite limited so
there is probably more to it than that.

I’ve never had a lot of faith in medical trials
to begin with but particularly so after what
happened with the medical trial carried out on the
Buteko method of breathing.

Buteko is a method of breathing that was
developed in Russia.  It is very effective with
Asthma.  There was a large, well organised
clinical trial held at the Mater Hospital in
Brisbane in 1995.  The trial showed that the
Buteko method demonstrated a 90% improvement rate.
This is an excellent result for a clinical trial.
Most drugs are doing well if they get a 50%
improvement.

For some reason the results of the trial got
delayed.  When they were finally released it was
10 years after the trial had been carried out.
The results were deemed invalid because the
testing methods were obsolete.

Do Doctors and Scientists think cranio sacral
therapy is valid?  By and large, the official
answer is no and I think we are partly to blame
for that ourselves.  The combination of in-
fighting between schools and approaches, the
dilution of the therapy to the level of adjunct to
massage in parts of the world and a unilateral
lack of good assessment of students.

All of which have led to some pretty shocking
people calling themselves cranio sacral
therapists.  As you might have noticed John I am a
passionate advocate of cranio sacral therapy yet
even I am very cautious about referring people to
cranio sacral therapists I don’t know.

So not very helpful I’m afraid John but let me
ask the gang.

- O -

Do you know of any trials or Scientific evidence
to support the effectiveness of cranio sacral therapy?

That’s it for this issue. Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

October 21 -2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Arachnoid Mater, what the?
+ Case story from Jean McDonald.
+ 3D visualisation tips.

Hello,

I watched a very good movie the other day
called ‘Reign Over Me’.  It stars Adam Sandler and
Don Cheadle.  Surprisingly Adam Sandler does a
spot of acting in this movie which makes a change
from the, blowing beer out through his nostrils,
sort of roles he usually plays.

It is a good portrayal of how someone deals
with post traumatic stress and the therapeutic
process.  Have your tissues ready, the climatic
scene had me tearing up like a little puppy.
It is listed among the other DVDs I recommend here.

There is a new cranio sacral book by James Nemec.
I particularly like the dramatic byline on the
article, ‘L.A. Playwright Creates an Enormous Wave
with His New Book – Touch the Ocean.’

http://californianewswire.com/2007/09/25/CNW482_184432.php

Frédéric Cherri is doing great things in New
Zealand.  Between himself and Ged Sumner they are
cooking up all sorts of wonderful post graduate
seminars.

Visceral Intelligence with Jed. Equine
Craniosacral with Judah Lyons. Craniosacral
Anatomy with Paul Doney.  They have had such a
strong response for their main 2 year course they
have had to start another class.  It begins on the
27th of November.  It’s all on their site at

http://www.csti.co.nz

Anyhu, let’s get on with the mailbag.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,

My question is about the meninges and in
particular the arachnoid mater.  From the
descriptions I have read I am not clear where
exactly the arachnoid layer is in relation to the
other layers of membrane and where CSF is in
relation to it.  Is there CSF between the
arachnoid mater and the dura mater?

Any clarification would be gratefully received.

Kind regards
JP
Scotland.

MY COMMENTS:

The confusing thing about the arachnoid mater
is its web like tendrils or arachnoid trabeculae
as they call them in my local, that extend across
the sub-arachnoid space.

?

Well I found them confusing anyway . . .

Let me explain it to you in the way it was
explained to me by a diesel mechanic many years
ago. . .

You’ve got your 3 layers of membrane that go to
make up the meninges or membrane system.  Your
outer most layer is the Dura Mater.  Dura meaning
tough and Mater meaning mother.

Tough Mother. Get it?

Cracks me up every time.

??

Suit yourself.

Your inner most layer is the pia mater.
Pia meaning soft or tender and Mater meaning
Mother.
Tender Mother.
Sweet, but not funny at all really.

Your pia is soft, thin and follows the contours
of everything it covers.  So it goes down into all
the sulci and over all the gyri of your brain.

Your dura on the other hand is tough and forms
this outer layer of the membrane system.  Think of
it like a balloon.  Granted it would be an odd
shaped balloon and certainly not one to bring to a
kiddies party but balloon-like none the less. A
balloon with vertical and horizontal-ish dividing
walls.

So you’ve got your outer layer and your inner
layer and the bit in the middle is the arachnoid
mater.

Arachnoid meaning spider like and Mater meaning
Mother.  It’s really the web aspect of spiders
that it gets its name from.
Spider-web-like- mother.
That’s just creepy.

The different descriptions of the arachnoid
mater are confusing.  In one book it will be
called a layer and the diagram will show it
looking pretty much like the other two layers.

Then in another book it will be described as
being weblike and in the picture it won’t look
like a layer at all.

The thing is both are true, it is a layer and
it is web-like too.  The closest thing I can think
of to help you get a visual of it is Velcro.  Take
an open strip of Velcro.  It doesn’t really matter
which side, the stiff side or the fuzzy side.

You will see that there is a layer and from
that layer the furry stuff extends.

It’s kind of the same with your Arachnoid
layer.  It’s a layer from which the web-like
tendrils extend.  The layer part adheres to the
dura so the tendrils extend across the sub-
arachnoid space to the . . . anyone?

That’s right, the pia.

And now it should be clearer where your CSF or
cerebro spinal fluid, as I like to call it, is.

No?

Okay it is between the Arachnoid and Pia.
Because of the way the Arachnoid layer is made,
cerebro spinal fluid flows around and through the
spider web of tendrils that extend from the layer
part of the arachnoid layer.

These tendrils actually help the whole shock
absorber aspect of the cerebro spinal fluid.

***From JEAN MCDONALD***

CASE STUDY OF JODIE July 2006

Jodie is a lively six year old girl who likes to
play with her little sister and friends and
occasionally to spar with her big brother. She has
a quiet confidence and definite sense of herself
She is attending the local school and has just
completed her last term and year at special school.

Mum caught the Millennium bug while expecting
Jodie, this occurred during the second trimester,
so the much awaited lively baby was welcomed into
the world to join brother – and the family was now
four.

The first year of life was busy but uneventful
except for a throat infection at one year.  Being
an experienced Mum some tendency towards being
emotional was noted, these seemed to be around
changes in Jodie’s life. When now shoes were
bought Jodie would want to wear the old ones.
Jodie didn’t like being touched on her head,
having her hair or teeth brushed. Her hearing was
also very sensitive.

Mum and Dad investigated these symptoms and in the
second year of life Jodie was diagnosed as having
mild to moderate Autism.  During this year while
at the playground Jodie had a fall which impacted
on her head.

Toileting problems had caused some upsets at
school and that was one of the reasons I was asked
to call and treat Jodie. On the first consultation
in May 2005 Jodie’s posture was tending towards a
forward bend at times with some busy movements of
the legs, which suggested the possibility of some
dural tube restriction. The CranioSacral rhythm
was higher on the right side of the body, the
respiratory diaphragm restricted and the left knee
held more restriction then the right.  She liked
being upside down, this was beneficial for her
respiratory diaphragm and it helped me in gaining
a supporting handle to her sacrum so that
lengthening the dural tube in the spine was
facilitated. Palpation of the respiratory
diaphragm was followed by an exothermic release.

Two Robot Toys were played with both of which
continually “lost their heads”. Jody was
inquisitive and I spoke about her manubrium at the
top of her sternum which I treated. Her picture as
a baby was on the wall and I talked briefly about
when she was little.

On the Consultation of 19th May the Temporal bones
and Parietals were palpated and also down through
the cranium to Maxillae. Jodie is keenly aware of
teeth, and she had some questions about mine as
one is slightly different in colour to the others,
we talked about this referring to the
discolouration being a result of medication. The
conversation included when she was a baby and had
a throat infection when medicine was needed to
make her better. During this Jodie allowed some
palpation work to be done on the temporal and
parietal bones. Following that visit there was a
period of screaming, with a retreat to her bedroom
and under the duvet.

The next visit mainly related to Jodie’s left ear,
Lumber 5-Sacrum 1, Jodie’s squamous suture and her
left foot.

In the early visits Jodie was not inclined to
chat, at the end when I was leaving Jodie would
pick a flower for me. Gradually Jodie became more
talkative and her speech more clear.  The strong
sense of herself which Jodie has is clearly
expressed in what she likes, her favourite
colours, toys – characters and animals about which
she has many stories. Increasingly Jodie was
indicating the parts of the body on her toy
characters which were “sore”. Playing with
Question: Where?..Oh ..here?
Answer:NO silly not there ,Here!
Question: Like this? … Answer  Yes.

Jodie would laugh and let off steam. Gradually
verbal communication increased. At times teeth
grinding was prevalent, some indirect approaches
at mouth work were tolerated. Going inside the
mouth resulted in a closing of the teeth on my
fingers.

Some treatments took place while Jodie was in
Mum’s arms some involved the slide in the garden
and some others while Jodie looked through her
books. Following sessions where the dural tube was
lengthened very often Jodie would have a tendency
to want cuddles from Mum.

More CranioSacral work has made Jodie receptive in
the main part to having her head palpated.
Her diagnosis has been lifted.

Growth implies that stretching the membranes to
allow more normal accommodation of the nervous
system is required. This is monitored by Jodie’s
Mum and myself.

Jean Mc Donald
www.jeanmcdonald.ie

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that great case story Jean.  I’m
sure it will be an inspiration to all who read
this newsletter.
It will also be a beacon of hope for all the
parents around the world who find their way to my
websites looking for possibilities for their
child.

***QUESTION***

Dear Mr Dalton,
I am writing to you in the hope that you may be
able to help me.  I am having trouble visualising
the anatomical structures associated with my
craniosacral studies.  When I close my eyes all I
can see are the pictures from the anatomy books I
have studied.

You have said in previous newsletters that we need
to develop the facility to look at these
structures from any angle with our minds eye.  I
have never been very good at this kind of thing.
I have difficulty reading maps, for example.

Do you have any technique to help marry these flat
images to what I am feeling with my hands and make
my mental images more real.

Kind regards,
P.B.
United Kingdom.

MY COMMENTS:

The first thing to do is let go of the notion
that you are not very good at this.  If you are
intent at getting better at cranio sacral work
that thought is not going to help.

Do your best to replace it with, ‘I may not
have been good at this kind of thing in the past
but that doesn’t mean I am not going to be good at
it now.’

Here are some exercises that may help.  Before
you start it is a good idea to get both sides of
your brain involved.  Any kind of cross body
activity will help this.

For example, while standing begin to ‘march’ in
time.  Raise your knees and alternately touch each
knee with your opposite hand. Progressively, move
your elbows to each knee in sequence.

Alternatives are to touch each heel behind your
back with opposite hands.

or tug each earlobe with opposite hands.

You can also do what are called ‘lazy eights’.
Draw a large figure eight [about 18cms long] on a
piece of paper.  Turn the picture sideways. Hold
your head steady, then place your finger at the
centre of the eight.

Keeping your eyes fixed on the tip of your
finger start to trace the figure eight with your
finger tip.

It is the movement of your eyes that activates
the hemispheres of your brain so make sure you
move only them and not your head.

Once you get the hang of this exercise you can
do away with the paper.

Feeling all integrated?

Lovely.  Lets get on with the exercises.

Start off with something simple and familiar
like a teacup or milk jug.  Take a seat at your
kitchen table and place the teacup in front of you
with the handle facing away.

Close your eyes and try and visualise what the
teacup looks like from the other side.  The side
you can’t see.  The side with the handle.

If you draw a blank pick it up and look at what
it looks like from the other side.  Then start
again.

Once this starts to get easier then include the
environment the teacup is in.  When you visualise
what the teacup looks like from the other side
include the whole picture.

As well as seeing the other side of the teacup
you will see the other side of the room.  The side
of the room that is behind you.

You will know you are making progress when you
can see the other side of the cup, including the
other side of the room and including yourself
sitting there visualising it.

Wha?

From the other side of the teacup you are in
the picture, right?

Next, think of your minds eye like a camera.
This time, instead of seeing the other side of the
teacup, circle around the teacup with your minds
eye to the other side.

Make sure you see the different facets as you
go.  If you have trouble with this do it for real.
Open your eyes and slowly circle the teacup to the
other side taking careful note of how it changes
as you move.  Then go back to the other side close
your eyes and start again.

Next, try and visualise what the teacup looks
like from above.  If you find this hard, stand up
and look down on the cup.  Take it all in, fix it
in your minds eye, then sit down, close your eyes
and try again.

Next, try and visualise what the teacup looks
like from below.  If you find this hard, pick up
the cup and look at it from below.  Put the cup
back down, close your eyes and try again.

To include what the environment the teacup is
in, and looks like from below, imagine that the
kitchen table is made of glass.

If you can’t imagine what that would look like
take the cup out of the way and put your head on
the table looking up.

If any friends or family are around it might be
worth explaining to them what your are doing.
Other wise it might look to them like you have
been staring intently at the china for no apparent
reason and now you are having a little kip on the
kitchen table.

That done, sit down again and try and visualise
what the teacup looks like from below including
the view of the room from that perspective.

Once you get the hang of this, introduce
movement.   Imagine what it would look like if you
were looking at the cup from above and then circle
downwards until you were looking up at the cup
from below.

As before, if you have trouble visualising this
then do it for real.  Stand up and look down on
the cup then circle downwards all the time looking
at the cup, taking in the changing perspective and
being careful not to bump your head on the table.

Next, get under the table and see what it looks
like from below.  Fix it in your mind.  Take your
seat again and imagine what the underside of the
table looks like.

Next imagine your minds eye being able to see
through the table.  So you should be able to see
the underside of the teacup again. Practice going
back and froth with this. See the underside of the
cup then pull back to seeing only the underside of
the table then go through the table again to the
underside of the cup and so on.

Do the exercise with objects of progressively
more complex shape.  Work up to an organic object
like a house plant.

When you feel like you are doing well with
this, introduce a second object. It will be easier
if you use objects of contrasting shape in the
beginning.  So instead of using two teacups use a
teacup and a box.  That way the curves of the
teacup will contrast nicely with the angles of the
box.

Go through the above exercise again.

When you start to introduce movement, make sure
that you can visualise both objects
simultaneously.  In the beginning you may find
that you can only visualise one object or the
other.

Also, make sure that you can visualise how they
move in relation to each other.

Repeat the exercise until you can see the two
objects from all perspectives in your minds eye.
Then add a third object and start again.
Repeat the process until you can hold five objects
in your minds eye.

Next put a tablecloth on the table and put the
five objets on it.  Allow space between each
object.  Take a corner of the tablecloth and pull
it gently.  Take note of how the objects move as
you pull the tablecloth.

Close your eyes and try and replay what you
have seen in your mind. Then try and see it from
different angles.  If you get stuck open your eyes
go to the angle you can’t visualise and watch it
for real.  You may need to get someone else to do
the tablecloth tugging.

This tablecloth exercise will give you a good
idea of what effect restrictions have on
structures in our bodies.

Once you get into the swing of this kind of
visualisation you can do it anywhere.

Take whatever you are looking at and see if you
can visualise what it looks like from all angles.
Cars, buses, trains, trees, buildings.

When you feel like you are mastering this you
can progress to remodelling in your head.

Start with your living room.  Move the
furniture around in your head. Try and imagine
what the furniture will look like in different
places.  What will fit where?

If it’s not too difficult physically move the
furniture to the places you imagined and see if
you were right.  Did that table fit in that corner
and so on.

Another very useful exercise you can do is to
make models of the structures you are trying to
visualise.  You don’t have to get all fancy with
it and it doesn’t have to be pretty.  You can use
pipe cleaners and card bord boxes or anything you
find it easy to work with.

I once had a student that was convinced she was
‘no good at art’ and so couldn’t make models.  We
talked about it and focused on what she thought
she WAS good at.  Eventually she admitted she was
good at cooking.  So after a little persuasion she
went on to make some fantastic models made out of
food.

And finally get yourself a copy of Edward
Muntinga’s DVD.  He has packed it with some
excellent animated 3D models of the structures we
work with.

http://www.3dcranio.com/

it will help a lot.

So that’s it for this issue.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

November 22 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Cranio sacral therapy on FaceBook.
+ Working with energy.
+ Reframing.
+ Cerebral palsy and the blueprint
+ More on the arachnoid mater from Al Pelowski in South Africa.

Hello John,
If you were one of the many therapists that
sent me your profiles to have them listed, then
have a look here to see I got everything right.
Right picture, right spelling, right on man! (or
Woman!)

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/therapists/listing.html

Speaking of right on women, Rene from New
Zealand let me know about a cranio sacral therapy
group on Face book.  I’ve had a look and think it
is a spiffing idea.  It’s great to be able to put
faces to names and connect with fellow therapists
across the world.

Yes, it is a bit of a pain signing up and
creating a profile but worth it, no?

http://www.facebook.com/

Now. . .
. . . this newsletter is slightly different to
others in that half the content is on my website.
The reason for this is the inclusion of video and
images.

The first article is about how I use energy
when I am working and includes a detailed diagram
of energy flow.  There is also an amazing video
illustrating how you can work with high levels of
energy and not have it affect you.  Be a good egg
and let me know what you think.
You can read it here.

The second article is about how to use
reframing to help you when you hit a wall in
practice or study.  In fact you can use reframing
in all aspects of your life.  The article starts
off with a great little video which illustrates
the power of a reframe.
You can read it here.

I’ll wait while you go and have a look at them.

Finished?

Okay then, let’s get on with the mailbag.

***QUESTION***

Hi John

I would like to know a bit more about working with
Cerebral Palsy. What is the best approach?  Is
there any chance for the person to recover some of
their functions or is it too much to ask to the
body? I suppose it requires to go back to the blue
print. Your comments about the blue print in the
last newsletter were very interesting. My only
problem is that I am a kinaesthetic kind of person
and images don’t talk to me very much. Could you
tell me how the blue print feels so I know that
what I feel under my hands is the blueprint or
something else. This would be very useful for me.
Thank you.
Odile, Brisbane.

Odile Grisel

http://www.odilegrisel.com.au

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Odile,
Thank you for your email.

I have had some good success with cerebral
palsy and I’ve had some no-change-at-all’s.  When
I think about what was common among the successes
the main thing was that the people were young.
Under 3yrs old.

When treating cerebral palsy I generally find
myself working with the nervous system.  From the
hemisphere of the brain involved out to the
periphery.  Following the nerves, working to
enhance the integrity where it is diminished.

I have heard some therapists say they find lots
of limb unwinding very useful to unlock the
central restrictions.  I haven’t found that myself
but pass it on in case you find it useful.

I never think of treatment in terms of, ‘Is
this too much to ask of the body?’  At this stage
I have seen so many apparent ‘miracles’ that I
know the body is capable of anything.  So it is
never a case of CAN this happen but more a case of
IS it going to happen?

It can often be a blueprint problem, which
leads me to your second question about describing
what the blueprint feels like without using
images.

I had to put my thinking cap on for that one.
Here’s what I got.  To me, the blueprint feels
very whispy and mist-like, but not moist. It feels
like touching a smoke ring that pulses with
flexion and extension and releases like solid
tissue.

Phew!  Okay I’m going to take my thinking cap
off now because my head is hurting.

***FOLLOW ON COMMENT FROM AL PELOWSKI***

Hallo John and thanks for the latest issue!
Gets me going on my deck in early morning Joburg
visualising teacups…

I especially wanted to comment, to give a
different slant on what you said about the spider
web mother.

So here goes.  Let me know what you think of this
version.

Starting with the nervous system’s generative
membrane, the ependyma, all else follows.

Leaving out the details..just remember that most
membranes grow in a doubling process.  They grow
with a potential space between.  The space is
where canals and tissues form.

The primitive ependyma lining the neural tube is
doubled.  The inner layer keeps its name but the
other layer becomes the pia between the two layers.
Ependymal cells differentiate to form the brain &
spinal cord.  The pia also doubles to form a
potential space for blood–pia intima and  pia
externa, it provides a capillary network for the
brain.

Some bits of pia are left in the ventricles bound
up with the ependyma  and together form the
choroid plexi the outer layer of pia, the ‘pia
externa’ is doubled as well its outer layer
becomes the arachnoid between are pulled out fine
reticulin fibres–the spider web the arachnoid
sprouts little cauliflower-like buds as it grows-
granulations.

The ependyma, pia and arachnoid grow out of each
other and are referred  to as the ‘leptomeninges’
in many texts.  They are epethelia–derived from
the zygote wall they are closely related to the
inner linings of organs and to the epidermis all
epithelia share a wide variety of peptides and
receptors.

“As the inside, so the outside.”  Gut / brain /
skin growing more slowly along with the rest of
the body, the dura is not  epithelial, but
connective tissue related to bone and blood.  it
comes to form the fascial sac around the arachnoid
mater.

A whole different animal.   It doesn’t need to bath
itself in CSF.  But it too is a doubled membrane
and its potential space becomes canalised for
venous blood.  The arachnoid graulations become
surrounded by and incorporated into the inner
layer of dura as it grows.

The granulations (like the choroid) contain highly
specialised cells which are involved in transport.
some cells can move waste out of the CSF into the
venous return.  Others will to abstracting
material from the blood into the CSF.

All this gets more interesting when you see how
the 4th ventricle foramina form as the ependymal-
pial separation occurs.  the whole thing is
designed to link qualities of blood and CSF
without haphazard mixing.

The leptomeninges can only survive and function in
the amniotic-CSF environment, inside and out.  The
dura doesn’t mind blood at all and never comes
into touch with CSF.

Keep it up

Al

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Al, you describe things real sweet.

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

December 24 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Terry Collinson on Stillness Trainings
+ Is fibromyalgia similar to chronic fatigue?
+ How do I get a mentor?
+ Question about shingles.

Hello John,

Apparently it’s the season to be jolly – I
didn’t realise I was out of step the rest of the
year.  If you know what I’m supposed to be doing
in the other seasons, can you let me know.

So in the spirit of the season, here’s a little
gift for you. john@wellnessda.com

No, don’t thank me, it’s all part of the
service and as I said ’tis the season.  Why is
everything to do with Christmas in Olde English?
‘Hark, tis the postman.  I see him on yonder
hill.’

Anyway pop that little beauty, john@wellnessda.com
in your email address books and when I send you
updates from my Wellness Detective Agency they
won’t bounce off your spam filter and you will
actually get them.

Updates from my what I hear you ask.  Well the
notion of being your own Wellness Detective is
gathering momentum and to keep up with it my
website has become a resource for people who are
taking responsibility for their health and
happiness.

It starts with adopting the perspective that
nothing in your life happens by accident. If
nothing is random then everything is a clue.  As
well as the Wellness Detective Agency email
updates, in the New Year I will be releasing audio
and video segments too.

http://www.WellnessDA.com/

Speaking of gift giving, if you are looking for
a present for the person who has everything, then
you could always about get them a personal genome
map.  All you need is a swab from the inside of
the mouth and $1000 USD. https://www.23andme.com/

Aw, you shouldn’t have.  No really, you
shouldn’t have.

Anyhu, let’s get on with the
mailbag.  The first letter is from Terry Collinson
of stillness trainings.  I really like the way she
talks about the training she teaches with Brendan
Pitwood from New Zealand.

***TERRY’S LETTER***

Hi John,

Lovely to hear from you. Hope all is well with you
and your new life in Ireland.

Our training (Stillness Trainings) began early
this year with 12 wonderful students.  They are
loving the teaching and the work and Brendan and I
are heartened with our efforts and with the way it
is all going.

We put in place so many aspects to nurture and
support the students learning and process, as well
as that of the teaching team.  As you know the
teaching is of the ‘biodynamic’ approach, but we
also keep it very pure and true to Paul’s teaching
of Resonance, plus our development or deepening of
being in relationship from Brendan’s training with
Ray Castellino (pre and perinatal psychology).

We are lucky to have four assistants who graduated
in Australia with Resonance Trainings – Sarah,
Tanya, Michelle and Glenn.  We spend two days
before each seminar to grow ourselves as a team
and our own process so that we are ‘healthy’ and
bonded and are able to deeply support each other
and so then the group.

Because of our course/school accreditation with
PACT we have added nutrition to the teaching, and
we decided to add applied pathology throughout the
course, which as added a great dimension to the
work we had not foreseen.

Thank you for your encouragement and support to go
ahead and teach what I/we have to offer.

with love
Terry

***QUESTION***

Hello John

Your website is simply brilliant! I don’t know why
I hadn’t seen it before.

I am a newly qualified craniosacral therapist
(biodynamic model) and the info on the student
newsletter is very helpful. I have a new client
with Fiobromyalgia and wondered what tips you had
for working with this?

I feel this condition is similar in some respects
to chronic fatigue ME with the reduced thresholds.
I have a sense that facilitated segments also have
a role here.

Working with stillness is so wonderful but this
isn’t always possible initially as the person and
their system needs to be met where they are.

I qualified in July and want to develop my skills
and experience by doing an apprenticeship of sorts
by working alongside a very skilled and
experienced CST practitioner. I have been trying
to find a host practitioner to do this in the UK
but my enquiries have drawn a blank as people
appear not to want anyone else within their client
space. I am a CSTA UK member.

Any suggestions please?

Do you do any student mentoring yourself?

I look forward to your reply.

Many thanks for a very useful website.

DP
U.K.

MY COMMENTS:

Thank you for your kind words about my
websites.  I’m glad you found them helpful.

I have found often the root of Fibromyalgia can
be located in the cerebro spinal fluid itself.  It
has a particular quality to it.  A bit like static
electricity or fizz in the cerebro spinal fluid.
When the person has an ‘attack’ this static-fizz
quality can be felt radiating out along the nerve
pathways, particularly the intercostal nerves.

I have found the underlying root cause can be
similar to chronic fatigue in so much as they both
put the persons life on hold.

The similarity stops there as the mechanics feel
different to me.  Fibromyalgia has a much more
aggressive quality.  There is usually a lot of
pain involved and this sets up a very different
dynamic within the person than chronic fatigue.

As I think about the people I have treated with
Fibromyalgia, what they all have in common is that
the root cause has nearly always been very core.
So while it important to work with the physical
and emotional expressions of the disharmony,
without addressing the core issue, the results
will be temporary at best.

I know – core stuff – heavy jelly – who needs
it?  Such is our work.  Best not to resist it and
know that if you couldn’t help they wouldn’t have
come to you.
How’s that for a double negative.

In relation to your mentoring question, I think
most practitioners will be reluctant to allow you
to be in their room when they are working.  This
is because they have heard about all you and let’s
face it, you’re trouble!

Just kidding, couldn’t resist.  They will be
reluctant because of the intimate nature of the
work and the trust that builds up between the
therapist and patient.

One way around this is for you to bring the
experienced practitioner into YOUR session.  Bring
a patient to their rooms and work with them as
they tune into what you are doing.

You can do this in two ways.  You can bring
someone you have been practicing on.  Someone who
is NOT ill.  You can get feedback about specific
techniques from your mentor as you are doing the
technique.  You can use this way to get feedback
about any aspect of your practice that you are
unsure about.   Obviously the person you bring
will need to be very comfortable with hearing
where you need improvement.

Don’t bring a fellow student or therapist.  I
have found that their intention makes it very hard
to assess what is going on.  For example, if you
are getting feedback about your frontal lift, then
person’s intention will be involved immediately in
lifting their frontal bone.  For that reason it is
better to bring someone who knows nothing about
cranio.

The second way is to use your mentor as a
‘second opinion.’  For this you would be bringing
one of your own patients.  You can get your
mentors help in a couple of different ways.  They
can tune into the person and help you deepen and
enhance your sense of what the root cause of the
problem is.

You can have your mentor tune in as you treat
the person.

You can treat the person and have your mentor
work with you as your assistant.

You can have your mentor be the lead therapist
and you act as their assistant.

In all the different permutations of this
second way the common thing is that you don’t
discuss the person in front of them.

The only thing your mentor should say to the
person is to confirm whichever aspect of your
treatment are going in the right direction and add
the different expanded bits they may want to add.

Anything else won’t be appropriate.  Talking
about technique and how you can improve will
undermine you in the eyes of your patient.

The thing to remember is that they are your
patient.  They have come to you because they
recognise that you can help them.  I don’t mean
this in a territorial way but more on a larger
scale about how patients find who they need.

And yes, I do mentoring.

Speaking of which, I intend to include a list
of mentors in addition to the therapist lists  I
have on my websites.  Being a mentor basically
means making yourself available for a student on a
one to one basis.

You should get paid for it at the very least
what you charge for treating people.  Time wise
that is.  Let me know if you are interested in
being included in the mentor list.

***QUESTION***

I am Training in craniosacral therapy, a friend
has shingles around the sacrum, in the past she
had shingles on the brain and almost died. Do you
suggest any holds or ideas on treatment.
Thank you M – Australia.

MY COMMENTS:

Shingles is one of those conditions that evoke
the hands thrown up in horror kind of response.
Like the poor person has got something strange,
foreign or alien that the rest of us don’t have.

So just in case you didn’t know – if you’ve had
chickenpox as a child you will have latent
varicella zoster virus lying dormant in your
dorsal root and cranial nerve ganglion.

Should it become activated it will travel down
your axon causing a lot of pain along the way and
finally erupt on the surface of your skin in very
painful blisters – and at that point it will be
called shingles.

SHINGLES!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

Once you understand this then you can see that
the question you need to be asking yourself is why
has this person’s immune system become so low as
to allow the reactivation of this virus.

One thing that can do it is stress.  Physical
stress like working too much and not playing and
working some more and still not playing and
generally being a dull boy.

What I have seen more often is emotional
stress.  The kind of impossible emotional dilemma
sort of stress like being sick of taking care of
the kids but having no way out.  Hating the job
but needing the money.  Not wanting to take care
of the aging parent but not wanting to put them in
a home either.

Another useful question to ask yourself is, ‘Of
all the symptoms this person could have got, why
did they get such a painful one?’  I’ve never had
shingles myself but from what I am told and have
felt, it is very painful.

The good news is you are in with a winning
chance from the get go.  As you know cranial work
has this wonderfully soothing effect on the
nervous system.  All that focus on the cerebro
spinal fluid and still points and what not.

Because shingles is closely involved with the
nervous system it can respond very quickly.  The
person should get enough of a relief to think that
this cranio thing is top notch and will keep
coming to see you as you both work through the
deeper, less fun, if I can use that expression,
reasons why they had these particular symptoms in
the first place.

Lastly, a high proportion of people who get
shingles are over 50.  I bring this to your
attention because their immune system may simply
be clapped out from years of abuse.

That’s it for this issue.  I wish you a very merry
Christmas and a fantastic new year.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

January 27 – 2008

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Follow on from Jean in Ireland.
+ Blueprint follow on from Gayle in Cape Town.
+ Shingles follow on from Donovan in Durban.
+ Can you treat people with active Cancer?
+ CST and people recovering from Stroke?
+ Shingles follow on from Eva in Australia.
+ Treatment for Focal Dystonia.

Hello,

Another brand spanking New Year fresh from its
wrapping is off and running.  You know in olden
days Kings were very careful about what they did
on the first 12 days of each New Year.  They
believed each day represented its equivalent month
in the year.

So if they wanted January to be peaceful they
would spend the first day of the New Year in
contemplation.  If they wanted August to be joyous
they would have a party on the eight day of the
New Year and so on.   They were careful to not
have anything happen in those first 12 days that
would affect them negatively in the coming year.

Considering it is now the 27th I suppose I am a
little late in telling you all this.  Depending on
how wild and crazy your New Years Eve celebrations
were, January may be finding you with a continually
sore head and a feeling of remorse.

I’ll type softly.

For myself, the coming year will bring the
expansion of my Open Source Cranio project.   This
is about making cranio sacral training information
available to people in developing countries
through my websites.  For me this is a no brainer
as cranio sacral therapy doesn’t require any
technology to practice. Just a pair of hands.  But
then you knew that already.

The idea is that if someone in a remote village
has internet access, which is not as unlikely as
it sounds, they can begin to learn the basics and
start practicing.

Would you like to help? Register
yourself as a mentor or contribute an article or
suggestions or perspective that you think might
help that person.  If you can’t think of anything
else just let me know you want to help.

Anyhu John, on with this, bursting at
the seams, mailbag.

***FOLLOW ON FROM JEAN MCDONALD***

Hi John,
good on you for your description of
cerebral palsy – can’t really add to that!

Thanks for the listing. The practice is general
and of course working with the children is
particularly interesting.

In the Novara Centre some multidisciplinary work
is happening and this is working well. A boy of
four at present is being cared for from an acute
episode when starting big school- my colleague is
a Kinesiology’s suggested we work together.
Progress is apparent – from a craniofacial
viewpoint second trimester showed as problematic
and the child had suffered some bullying at
playschool.

Stillpoints are amazing for this child, he becomes
so insightful of his own place in the
difficulties. He has returned to his birth and re-
entered many times over, a much calmer child!

Little Jodie (the case study I sent you a while
ago) is doing well. The treatment involves
palpating the parietals and now that she is older
some more on her cranial base which has
dysfunction with the left side.  Drawing the
sacrum to lengthen the dural tube is always
necessary and the respiratory diaphragm with a
tonic liver for the last number of months has been
less so on the last visit.

Jodie is receiving remedies for her vaccines and
at present the polio one is being addressed. She
is much more affectionate to Mum and to her little
sister and initiates hugs and kisses with both,
this is separate form the craniosacral treatments
which would frequently end with a move to Mum’s
knee.
She has overcome her great difficulty with Music
class – she tolerates it now if it is not in the
big hall and can articulate that they don’t give
her the guitar or whistle.
Best wishes,
Jean

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Jean.  From the feedback I get
from other therapists and students who subscribe
to this newsletter, getting a glimpse into someone
else’s practice is very helpful.

***BLUEPRINT FOLLOW ON FROM GAYLE IN CAPE TOWN***

Hi John

I don’t know if they were in your part of the
world, but a few years back there were these 3D
pictures around. They basically look like a whole
lot of messy dots, and then when you relax your
eyes, you suddenly see the picture.

And you can always see that picture every time you
look at it. The more of these 3D images you look
at, the better you get at seeing the image.

Ok so I know that was using an image- like
description, but it might make sense to some
people. The blueprint – to me at least- is as
solid and as apparent as the image that you would
see.

If I had to compare “seeing the blueprint” with
any other of the more common 5 senses, I would say
that it is like your sense of smell. Perhaps the
‘whispy and mist-like’ can be described as an
aroma. It is tangible, it is stronger from the
direction of the source. It has an associated
memory or emotion. It also has a “rabbit-hole”
effect. The more you try to analyse the smell, the
more you can describe the components that make up
that scent.

Hope I made some sort of sense?

Gayle (Cape Town, SA)

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Gayle.  It is always good to
get another perspective on how different people
relate to different structures.  I’m not a
‘smeller’ myself but I really like it when someone
can involve their sense of smell in their
palpation, it must add a whole other dimension.

Try as I might, I could never do those ‘magic
eye’ things.  In the end I decided that there was
no image there really and it was all an elaborate
conspiracy to make me look stupid.

What?

It might be . .

***SHINGLES FOLLOW ON FROM DONOVAN IN DURBAN VIA
HIS WIFE – HE HAS HIS HANDS FULL AT THE BARBEQUE -
GIVE HIM A BREAK***

Dear John

Thanks so much for your lovely newsletters (this
is Dee, Donovan’s wife and mother of his adored
2.5 year old daughter Naomi!!!!).

I have to confess that I read your newsletters
with great enjoyment, especially as I am handling
the advertising and promotion of cranio here in SA
and I eagerly absorb all information about the
various conditions and problems it can treat, and
as you are a guru in this therapy, I hope you
don’t mind me sneaking a peak at the info you send
to Donovan.

Yes, Donovan has treated a woman who had shingles.
She was brought to him by a student practitioner
who was feeling overwhelmed and asked for his
support.  The whole top half of her body was
covered in the sores and she also had HIV AIDS.
She believed she was cursed by the local
witchdoctor and she was going to die if the
shingles spread and joined at the midline of her
body (she was told this by an “Inyanga”/aka
Traditional Healer).

Yes, we live in a very interesting culturally
diverse country with many of our inhabitants being
governed by very strong cultural beliefs.  He has
asked me to tell you this on his behalf (he is
braaining [barbequing] our meal and his hands are
filthy) that during the 4 sessions he had with
her, he worked on boosting her immune system and
holding into, and working with these deep seated
fears.  When this began shifting, her healing
accelerated dramatically.  Unfortunately, she was
very unreliable in keeping her appointments and
only came for the 4 sessions – even though she was
being sponsored to come.

I trust that you were suitably rewarded by Santa
for being a good boy this year, and I look forward
to more of your newsletters in 2008.

Warmest regards from Sunny South Africa and
wishing you a fabulous 2008.

Dee, Donovan, Naomi, Hamish and Angus (our 2
scottish terriers)

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Dee and Donovan.  It conjured
up a very cute mental image of Donovan up to his
armpits in barbeque sauce, roaring cranio sacral
descriptions to Dee.

‘I said holding into her deep seated fears,
not folding into her cheap pleated smears.  What
does that mean anyway??’

It sounds like you helped the woman in question
a lot Donovan.  It was also another glimpse into
the different sorts of issues that practitioners
in different parts of the world are dealing with.

***QUESTION***

Hi John,

I look forward to putting my details on your site
when I finish my course and get some more
practical hours up!

I am interested in your theories on treating
cancer patients?  My Cranio teacher says it is a
contraindication if any cancer active is in the
body?

I have tried looking it up in Cranio books but
have not found any information, if you do treat
cancer patients what are you treating them for,
the cancer, the pain, the side effects?  I read
somewhere (it may even have been on your site) of
people having chemo being treated but it did not
say why or how?

Luv your work!

Karen
Australia

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Karen,
The main thing to get about contraindications
is they are for YOUR protection as much as the
patient.

The chances of you doing any harm to the
patient are slim to nonexistent.  On the other
hand, the chances of you giving yourself a major
fright and setting you palpatory skills back years
is very high.

For example, let’s say you go against your
teachers/mentors recommendation and start treating
someone who is in the middle of dealing with
cancer.
And let’s say they have a major episode the day
after you treat them and end up in hospital.

Take a minute and think about how you would
feel.  Can you imagine how difficult it would be
to stay objective about your contribution to their
being in hospital.  Can you imagine how hard it
would be to avoid putting yourself through the
wringer wondering if your intention was too heavy
or too light, how you could have missed what was
coming and so on.

I am not saying don’t treat people with cancer
or who are having chemotherapy.  I am saying that
you need to nurture and protect your growing
palpatory skill.  It is hard enough to develop
without unnecessarily putting it in the way of
potential body blows.

To answer your question, I have treated people
with most stages of cancer, benign, malignant,
aggressive, in remission and I have treated people
who are having chemotherapy and radiation
treatment too.

Here are some things to consider . .

When someone has a life threatening condition
you need to take a very long perspective on their
situation.  We need to stand back from our
conditioned response that the happy ending is
where the patient ‘beats the big C’ and lives
happily ever after.

When working with people with life threatening
illnesses, more than anything else you need
humility and respect for their process.

Bearing in mind that you don’t know what their
process is about.

I have found it helpful to adopt the
perspective that the circumstances of a patient’s
life are not random but are very significant to
them.  This includes the way they will die.  I
take it that the way they choose to die is as
significant as the way they choose to be born.

This makes it is easier for me to stand back
and not try to ‘fix’ them.

I have talked about this in other newsletters
so won’t go on about it too much now.

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/cancer/

Treating someone who is having chemotherapy or
radiation treatment can be very helpful for them.
I have found it is similar to treating someone who
has had a pin or plate put in their body to help
with a compound fracture.

Their body will be freaking out and trying to
dispel the foreign object.  Treatment usually
involves helping their body to integrate or make
peace with the foreign object.

With chemo or radiation treatment the person’s
body will be freaking out in a similar way because
it is in essence being poisoned or attacked.  Your
job will be to help their body deal with the shock
of attack.  To find some kind of equilibrium in
the situation.

Treating people with life threatening illness
is not for the faint hearted.  It forces you to
look at very fundamental questions about what you
are really doing.  Once you embrace the inherent
challenges it can be very rewarding.

***QUESTION***

Hi, John

Your Q&A’s thus far have tremendously contributed
to my knowledge as a cranio sacral practitioner.
It is now my turn to ask a question.

My mother is 76yrs old and has had a stroke due to
her tissue (mechanical) valve being in for too
long without replacing it. She had a clot in her
frontal area, which was dissolved with medication.
She is back to normal and does not have any after
effects. How can I help her in a cranio way?

All the best for the New Year.

Regards,
Shahnaaz
Cape Town, South Africa

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Shahnaaz,
I am glad you find my newsletters helpful.

As you know, most strokes are caused by a blood
clot forming in some part of the body and then
travelling to the brain and causing a blockage to
the blood supply and then permanent neurological
damage to the effected area.

Recovery from stroke is the transferring of
function from the damaged area to another part of
the brain.

If someone comes to me for treatment and they
are recovering from a stroke, the first thing I
would do is check if they still had a tendency for
clotting.  If I got a sense that they did, I would
withdraw gently and not continue treatment.

Not because I could cause another stroke but
because of the effect it would have on me if they
had a stroke while I was treating them or even the
day after treatment.

Also the family of the person involved may not
understand that I couldn’t have caused a stroke
and that could cause a lot of complications and
ultimately interfere with me treating the other
people I treat now and in the future.

For me it’s not worth the risk.

So if you feel that the clotting is over. .

‘How will I know?’

If you are asking this question then you
haven’t had enough experience yet and you need to
get a second opinion from a more experienced
practitioner.

Assuming you are not asking that question I
would focus on assisting the transfer of function
process that will be going on in the brain from
the area that was damaged to the new areas.

Based on what you have written it sounds like
your Mother has recovered well.   Has she asked
you to treat her?

If not, you have a very weak contract with her.
By contract I mean the framework within which you
work with a person.   It is set by what they ask
you to help them with.

So if someone asks you to help them with their
painful knee then that is the contract.

Regardless of whatever other issues you may
feel in the persons system, if these issues don’t
affect the knee problem directly then you will be
going outside the bounds of the contract if you
start trying to treat these issues.

Just because you can feel it doesn’t mean you
have been asked to ‘fix’ it.

I have found the loosest contracts are nearly
always with family members.  This happens because
of the history between you and the fact that they
knew you before you were a cranio sacral
therapist.

There is no tricky way around this. It’s not
like you can go to your Mother and ask her, ‘Would
you like me to help you recover from your stroke?’

The strongest contracts come from a request
that has originated from the person unassisted,
un-enticed.

What to do?

If your Mother hasn’t asked you to help her
then I suggest you wait until the next time she is
talking about her health.  When she states a
concern that you feel you may be able to help with
then say it.

‘What?’

“I could help with that Mum.”

Then, and this is important, keep quiet.  If
she doesn’t respond, leave it.  You don’t have a
contract.   If you respect the fact that she
hasn’t asked you it will make it easier for her to
ask when she is ready.

***SHINGLES FOLLOW ON FROM EVA IN AUSTRALIA***

Merry Christmas John!

I have two responses to your newsletter below:

I would be happy to be a mentor. I’m at Lisarow on
the Central Coast, just north of Sydney,
Australia. Contact phone no 0410234490.

I have had shingles myself, or at least that is
what it was diagnosed as when I was 25. Situated
in a particular place between two ribs on the left
side.  Had pain off and on during childhood, then
a lot of pain and much longer periods during the 4
years I worked in Nigeria, which was a very high
stress time, emotionally.

What sent it on high alert was that I got mould
allergy and sneezed a couple hundred times a day
for a few months, and that’s when it was
diagnosed. It calmed down with nose spray to stop
the sneezing, but was still very much there in the
rib cage, just not rampant. I never have had any
blisters from it, though. Since I started having
and doing CranioSacral Therapy I haven’t had any
relapses.

I have also treated someone with an acute shingles
outbreak on her arm. The lady had already been for
treatment a few times for a lot of other problems
a few months earlier. This time she came for
treatment the shingles had come out in blisters on
her arm just 2 days before the session. I treated
her as usual but also did Photonic Therapy
(acupuncture with a red light instead of needles)
on the specific points for shingles as well as
around the blisters.
2 days later when she saw the doctor the sores
were nearly gone. The doctor had never heard of
such a rapid retreat of shingles without
medication.

Best regards,

Eva Kuhl Bornefelt
Central Coast, Australia.

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Eva,
I will add you to the Mentor list.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience
of shingles.

It sounds like you did a great job with the
woman you were treating too.

***QUESTION***

Hi John, Hope all goes well in the wider world
beyond our shores. . .

A quicky that may be a useful topic for the next
newsletter. . .

I’m currently treating a fellow who has presented
with Focal Dystonia. Being a writer, and avid
keyboardist, he is experiencing a gradual increase
in tonic spasm mostly within carpal/wrist flexors.

He is a man who lives life on his own terms, his
own agenda, despite the fact he has a couple of
very young children and a loving wife.  Driven,
ambitious, capable.

Any resource/ideas/anecdotes . . . politically
incorrect focal dysplasia jokes???

PS Happy X-mas to you and yours.

Greg Robson
Brisbane.

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Greg,

I don’t make jokes about conditions.

I am far too wonderful and holy for that.

From what you have written it sounds like your
patient has focal dystonia only and not focal
dysplasia, which is more on the epilepsy side of
things.   Let me know if I got that wrong.

The thing that stands out to me about focal
dystonia is that it mainly occurs when the person
is focused on a particular task.  Classic cases
being the concert pianist or surgeon who only get
the spasms when they are about to perform or
operate.

It always feels to me like the bodily version
of stuttering.

And in terms of root cause, this is where I
would be looking.   What is going on for the
person in relation to their expression or their
work?

Are they happy/frustrated in their work?
Do they feel the work is a good vehicle of
expression for them?
Do they feel like they are bursting with
expression and their work holds them back?
Are they frustrated?

Are the spasms symmetrical? If they are
predominantly in his left hand/wrist it could be
to do with receiving.  If on the other hand . . .

‘Hang on, that’s a joke!’

No it’s not. I actually meant his other hand.
His other hand is his right hand . .

‘Oh. . . ‘

If his spasms are predominantly in his right
hand it could be to do with expression or power or
expressing his power.

The medical model for what is going on
mechanically describes the brain as being a bit
like a cartoon character that has been given too
many instructions to carry out at once.
Eventually they shake their head vigorously, with
an accompanying sound effect, which I can’t spell
and shake the confusion away.

I know you have probably looked this up Greg
but bear with me while I explain it for the other
readers who may not have.

You know the way the left side of your brain
controls the right side of your body and visa
versa.

Just nod.

Well it gets more specific.  There is a sort of
map called your somatosensory cortex that deals
with each part individually.  So each finger, for
example, has a specific region.

This is different from you tomato-sensory
cortex which is the part of your brain that helps
you find tomatoes in the dark.

‘Really?’

No, not really.  That was a joke.

‘But you said . . .’

It wasn’t about a condition.

‘Oh . . ‘

Can we get on?
If you have ever watched a musician in full
flight you will notice that their fingers move so
fast they are almost a blur.

The medical explanation for focal dystonia is
that with repeated practice of the same movements,
the brain gets confused and the regions of the
somatosensory cortex for the fingers involved get
kind of mashed up.  But unlike the cartoon
character the brain is unable to shake the
confusion away.

While it is a good explanation I don’t think it is
the full story.  To fill out the picture a little
more let me include a little quote from an
interview with John Upledger that adds another
perspective to the smearing of the somatosensory
cortex theory.

Here’s Johnny . . .

‘I just wanna share a little study that I came
across.
In February 1988, ‘Brain Mind Bulletin’
published in the abstract some work that was done
at UC San Diego. They were trying to understand
how somebody like a professional pianist or a
professional violin player could move so fast,
with the messages going up to the brain, decision
made, and back down again. So they used
electrodes, and they used an EEG.

What they found was that the electrical
impulses that control finger movement were not
going up the arm! The decisions were being made
right there in the hand! You could use electrical
measurement of neuron impulse conduction as a
reasonable indicator. So what that says is, you
have decision making ability in your hands!’

You can read the full article here

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/resources/articles/Intelligence.pdf

Now that’s jolly interesting isn’t it.

So another way of looking at it might be that
the people who don’t get focal dystonia could be
more surrendered to the intelligence of the hands
that John Upledger is talking about.  While people
who do get focal dystonia could keep engaging
their brain and so confuse it.

This would lead me to ask the questions I
always ask about anyone with any condition.

Why did they get it?  Lots of people don’t.
Why them and not someone else?
What does it mean?

While you are thinking about that here are some
of the mechanical places you can look because
regardless of the deeper issues everything prints
out mechanically.

As you know, nerve impulses are conducted by a
mixture of chemical and electrical means.  The
chemicals are conveyed in fluid and the electrical
impulses are . . . well . . energy  . . . and
guess what we work with fluids and energy!!

Alright!!

I would check the nerve supply from the brain
to the area involved, in this case his hand.  I
would also be taking a close look at the brain and
in particular the cortex around the posterior
aspect of the parietal lobes, around where they
meet the occipital lobes.

This is generally where the somatosensory
cortex is considered to be located.  I would be
checking the cerebro spinal fluid in this area and
the meninges.  The lambdoid sutures might give you
an indication for what is going on beneath.

That’s it for this issue.  I know,
hard to believe but don’t fret there will be more
next month.

Cheerio for now.

Your Mate,

John D.

March 3 – 2008

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ From Tammy in Washington.
+ From Peni in Cape Town.
+ From Nica in Berlin.
+ From Georgette in South Africa.
+ Frederic Cherri looking for Therapists to go and work in New Zealand.
+ From Barb in New Zealand
+ CST and anorexia?
+ Poem sent in by Sarah Willoghby
+ Drowning trauma and flailing arms?

Hello,

It’s a packed newsletter this month, with a
possibly life changing email in it for you.
That is if you want to go and live and work in New
Zealand.  Having been there I can tell you it is
beautiful!

If you are one of the people who have been
gently emailing me wondering when your therapist
profile is going to be up, I’m happy to tell you
that it is.  Have a look for yourself here

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/therapists/listing.html

If you can’t find yourself,
. . . meditation is often a good place to start.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

If you can’t find yourself, on the listing, and
you have sent me your details then send me another
email gently wondering what the hell is going on.

If you would like to be added to the listing
send me an email and I will send you back the
general information I include.

For myself, I was quite the cranio social
butterfly last month.  I met up with Nica Berndt-
Caccivio when I was in Berlin. She has sent in a
letter which you can read below.

No, it doesn’t start with, ‘Dear Mr Dalton, As
a result of your behaviour I have been banned from
the bar we met in. . .’

Later in the month I met up with Orla Foley in
Dublin.

It’s very good to meet up with other therapists
and I encourage you to do it whenever possible.
Regardless of training and experience it is always
refreshing to discover how much you have in common
in your approach and that was certainly the case
with Nica and Orla.

You can see some happy snaps of both here.

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/social-page/

If you want to see what therapists are near
you, have a look at the ‘Find a therapist’ part of
my web sites.

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/therapists/listing.html

And finally, I’ve been blown away by the
response to the launch of my Wellness Detective
Manual Updates.

Not counting the emails I have received and the
upsurge in subscriptions to the Updates, I have
also received quite a number of comments from
people who are using the different perspectives in
their own lives.

Comments, not private emails, public comments
posted on the site.  I am so impressed that people
would take the risk of sharing this kind of
personal information with the intention that it
might be of help to others.
You can read them at the bottom of the article here.

http://www.wellness-da.com/detective/why-is-change-difficult/

Now, if you were one of the people who emailed
me wondering what to do with the ‘Wellness
Detective Updates’ email, all you have to is click
on the link in that email, to start receiving
updates.  If you have deleted that email you can
still get the updates but you will need to
subscribe on the website.

So far you will have missed out on the article,
about why we find change so difficult.   It
includes some pictures of me in Berlin too. You
can see it here. . .

http://www.wellness-da.com/detective/why-is-change-difficult/

and you can also register on that page too.

Rightio, let’s get on with this gargantuan mailbag.

***FROM TAMMY IN WASHINTON***

John;

I am a newbie to craniosacral therapy, I received
my certification one year ago from Beth “The
Goddess” Cachat. I love this work.

Thank You so much for voicing this stuff about
responsibility and really listening to our bodies
and being your OWN wellness detective. I am
creating a website and expressed some of this on
my text and my website designer cast me a glance
and said one word, “gutsy”. I put the project
aside.

There is value in being supportive and nurturing;
however, I feel that my patients are missing the
attitude somehow, they prefer to remain passive or
locked in their current pattern even though they
are coming to me saying they want change in their
bodies. I am figuring out what my part is in all
of this. It is quite a project. Thanks for your
voice, you seem to be speaking what is bubbling up
for me.

Looking forward to receiving the book to loan to
my clients!

Regards

Tammy McLendon CST, LMP
Washington.

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Tammy and thank you for your supportive
words.

Yes, the ‘Fix Me!’ mentality is deeply
ingrained.  I see it as part of our work to help
ease people, in some cases kicking and screaming,
into a more responsible perspective.  It goes with
the cutting edge territory we have chosen.

I hadn’t heard of Beth Cachat before but from
what I have since read she sounds great.  I love
that, Beth ‘The Goddess’ Cachat, thing.  I think I
should adopt it too.

Let’s see, John ‘The God’ Dalton.
No, I don’t think I could back that up.
How about, John ‘The Demigod’ Dalton.
Alliteration, curses!
John ‘The Hands’ Dalton?  The Mouth?

Oh, I can’t decide.  I know, I’ll have a
competition.  Send in your suggestions,
for me or yourself and I’ll feature them in the
next newsletter and the winner gets a free place
at my right hand.

What?

***FROM PENI IN CAPE TOWN***

Hello John
I’m truly excited about receiving my first news
letter – Thank you!
No, I don’t have any leftover headaches from any
new year’s hangovers…..becoming wise (and
boring) in my young age. However, I promised
myself to celebrate life much more this year

The idea of mentor sounds good. How exactly do I
go about registering ?

I’m still getting a feel of how the articles are
written so that when I do contribute it will be
short and to the point.

With regards cancer patients.
I’ve only seen a few and not over long periods of
time.

I would rather work with clients who are in
remission but this is not always the case.

My approach is with great respect and caution. I
always check in with the client’s ‘Inner
Physician’ to see whether it is appropriate for me
to work with the client.
Also, I ask that the area of concern to be ‘walled
off’  if necessary, while the rest of the body can
receive the benefits of CST. I trust this process
implicitely.

A friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer (now
in remission) which resulted in a mastectomy is
now busy having reconstructive surgery. She came
for CST session purely for the experience as she
now councils women with breast cancer and would
like to be able to give them as much information
re well being as possible.

I was guided by her ‘IP’ to avoid the area which
is being reconstructed which I duly did and
continued to address the rest of her body.
She felt the benefits of the session strongly.
This prompted her to invite me to speak to the
women about CST and its benefits which I’ll be
doing in a few months time.

Another client diagnosed with a cancerous brain
tumor and medical science can no longer assist
him.
He has adjusted his life accordingly and is doing
pretty well on his own. He asked me for a CST
session and only received one treatment which he
found very beneficial. As yet, he has not been
back for more.

re focal dystonia – Unable to comment as I’ve not
had anyone as yet.

re shingles – I’ve had an attack of shingles and
was lucky to detect it before it was full blown.
Immediately saw my GP (who is also a Homeopath and
practices Chinese medicine) who gave me
acupuncture directly into the ‘alarmed’ area.  I
did some self help at home by using the ‘cranio
balls’ 15mins a day and recovered within 2 days.

Treating family members: personally prefer not to
treat my own family if a serious case as I feel we
are emotionally ‘hooked in’ which can get in the
way.

Smells: This one for Gayle (i should tell her
myself)…some time ago I was picking up alot of
smells during  clients sessions -they weren’t
pleasant smells. Since I was unable to understand
what they were about, I asked a colleague of mine
who flatly said -
‘I don’t know, I can’t help you….perhaps you
should wear a nose peg’ . the mind boggles !

Since then have not had those smells but have had
a smell which triggered a past life for a client
(she smelt it as well) …..oh,could go on and on,
but won’t !

Until next time,
be well

Peni
Cape Town

MY COMMENTS:

Thank you for all that Peni. To register as a
mentor just let me know you are interested and I
will add you to the list I am putting together. It
will be going on the web site in the next couple
of months.

For myself, I have always felt cancer to be
part of the person’s body and different to a virus
or bacterial infection, which feels alien to the
person’s system.  So the idea of walling off the
cancer doesn’t really come up for me.

Physically cancer feels to me like the body
reverting back to being one cell type.  Just like
is was in the hours after conception.
Just one type of cell.

Cancer feels like the whole body trying to
become one type of cell again, what we call a
cancer cell but one type of cell none the less. It
always strikes me as symbolic of a desire for more
simplicity.

As I’ve said before in other newsletters

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/cancer/

what I focus on more are the reasons behind why
the persons system might be doing that.

It sounds like you are doing good work with the
people you are treating with cancer related issues
and best of luck with your talk in a few months.

***FROM NICA IN BERLIN***

dear john,

here some thoughts for -maybe-the next newsletter:

cancer:
my experience with women after a breast-cancer and
chemo-treatment is very positive. the gentle touch
and the immune system-support treatment is helping
them to release again their body, to trust their
body, to believe in their body and sometimes even
to love their body again.

so its a lot concerning the psychological support
to these women after the very aggressive  chemo-
treatments. -I am always working very slow and
very very careful. just observing how much space
the client needs. usually a lot!

parents:
there i have right now the situation that my dad
has serious problems with his heart.
he did not contact me for any help, but during our
phone calls.. i live in berlin and he in
switzerland… happens regularly a lot.
what I mean: at the phone he asks me for example
if I would have an advice for him what to do when
he is afraid to hear his heart not beating
regularly.

then I give him “small tasks” like “touching and
talking” to his heart….and: he reacted very open
and positive!
a few days later I send him a letter with the same
things again (important to open the door-but not
too wide…)and things like for example:
“if it helps you, you can draw a picture from your
heart”.
heart ,4 words:
hear
heat
art
ear
(out of hugh milne book nr.1)

he was very open and right now his heart is
supporting him again…

thats it!
sorry for my english!!!!!!!!

greetings out into the cranio world from berlin!
nica

Nica Berndt – Caccivio
Berlin

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Nica.  As I said above, it was
very nice to meet you in person when I was in
Berlin.

‘Important to open the door-but not too
wide…’  I like that, very wise.

***FROM GEORGETTE IN SOUTH AFRICA***

Hi John,

Yes I have treated a lady with breast cancer
receiving chemo and radiation as well as
homeopathic support.
Although the cranio sessions were supportive, not
trying to fix anything, she released a lot but
never had a healing crisis afterwards.
We talked a lot about a positive attitude, healthy
food, fun in live and death.
Unfortunately she passed away but I know that
Cranio helped her to leave smoothly.
As you say, she choose her departure.

Talking now about my client with shingles, he had
3 cranio sessions and in between came on the
magnetic blanket 3 times a week for 3 weeks.
The lesions have completely subsided, he doesn’t
feel any discomfort anymore.

Cheers.
Georgette

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Georgette.  It is never easy
when someone you have been treating dies.  I am
sure your treatments and your presence made the
final part of her life so much easier.

***FROM FREDERIC CHERRI IN NEW ZEALAND***

“… The Craniosacral Clinic & Institute of New
Zealand is looking for 1 or 2 experienced
practitioners to come and help us launch another
brand new clinic.

We can arrange with local immigration and for the
right applicant a working visa. Ideally we would
like for the applicant to stay and work with us
for 6 months (12 is possible). If the applicant
has or desire to acquire an assistant experience
on an existing 2-year Training Course, there is a
possibility to integrate one of our Trainings in
an assisting capacity.

We need a couple of confident and experienced
practitioners (minimum of 2 to 3 years of regular
clinical practice).  You will recognise yourself:
adaptable, ease with people of all walks of life,
skills and passion for the work !!!, travellers or
adventurers and fun lovers (NZ IS a great place to
live! ask me I have been here 15 years).

We will make it worth your while in adventure
whilst over here. If you already have a specialty
or a passion for some specific aspects of CST
(perinatal, pediatrics, immune or any other topic)
it will be even better as we are developing
clinical aspects and research in these fields.

We can help with Immigration as well as
accommodation. This clinic is also the
Headquarters for the Craniosacral Institute of New
Zealand (www.csti.co.nz) with a planned Student
clinic, and on-going supervision. We already have
2 trainings on the go.

The intention is to have a CST only clinic with 3
to 4 full time practitioners.

Please contact Frederic Cherri at any time:
Email: info@csti.co.nz
Ph: +64 9 3760 963
Mob: +64 21 640 660 …”

***FROM BARB IN NEW ZEALAND***

Hi John
Thank you for another ‘right rivetting read’.
Much to digest as usual.  I love folklore so I
also thank you for that insight into the ways of
the Kings of yore.  I consider myself to be pretty
damn special too so quickly checked my diary to
see exactly when I came ‘splat’ off my bike -
phew, the relief – the 13th!

Having not hurt myself since 1990 (pretty jammy
really) it was fascinating to experience my
assessment of the accident as it happened,
immediately post, and then during recovery. Though
craniosacral therapy works best with the attention
of another practitioner I have to say that in
emergencies your own hands are the next best ones.

I feel I did some really good work with myself.  I
covered all the basics and the bits that hurt, and
then a little thought popped into my head.

I replayed my acrobatic arc into the air,
registering that instead of traveling forward I
was suddenly traveling sideways.  I realised I was
moving so fast I was unlikey to lose much skin as
I was coming down like a ton of bricks (I really
must lose those extra kilo’s) and unlikely to
skid.  My body streched out fully (why? to spread
the impact?). I landed hard on my right side
taking the brunt of the impact on the ribs below
my armpit, my head crashed onto my arm then my
right hip touched down – hardly even a bruise
there – a lovely purple imprint of the rough seal
on my side though.

Now the little thought that popped into my head
was about my sternum – that had to be the big
bounce point.  I put my hands their even though
there was no pain.  Now here’s what I love, though
there was as yet no discomfort, the sense of
relief was huge.

I had stretched every muscle from my hips up, even
those little ones under your chin (I’m sure the
workout did that area good), had left-ear-ache for
two days and then the ribs kicked in for 10 days
or so.

My CST colleague was unfortunately away on holiday
for the first 8 days of recovery so I was my own
very best practitioner throughout.    The ribs
resolved at 2.24am with a winded sensation in the
right lung, quickly followed by a massive sense of
nausea and a sweat – all done and dusted in 15
seconds or less.

Clever old body, huh? So,  I can now get out a do
a little running as well now.  Oh, one other
thing, much and all as I wanted to get off the
road immediately to prevent the potential coup de
grace of being squished by a car, my body was
still assessing it’s function levels and would not
move as fast as I wanted.  Luckily for me, no
cars.

I look forward to your next installment.
Cheers
Barb
New Zealand.

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Barb.  I think it is a great
description of what you can do if you have to.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,
I loved your article. I have
been learning and practicing cranio-sacral therapy
for the past year and have had lots of amazing
results. I didn’t know what it was but was drawn
to it and am so grateful.

I was just wanting to ask your advice about
anorexia. I am seeing a girl next week who is a
friend of the family who will be undergoing
treatment at Flinders Medical Centre here in
Adelaide Australia for her anorexic condition.

I am wondering what has been your experience with
these type of people.  I am expecting that there
will be some cranial compression. I want to
monitor her CSF rhythm. I want to balance the
cranio-sacral system and all of the cranial bones.

Have you got any interesting case histories you
could tell me about or advice to treat this
person?
Attached is my photo so you know who you are
talking to

Yours sincerely
Laney Thomas

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Laney,
I have found anorexia to be like a mixture of
drug addiction, obsessive-compulsive behaviour and
self-harm.

I approach people with anorexia in the same way
I would any person with a destructive addiction.

‘Are there constructive addictions?’

Here is my experience of the way addictions
work.  There is a pain inside that we really don’t
want to look at and the object of our addiction
helps us avoid having to look at that pain.

The most obvious example of this dynamic in
action is alcohol or drugs. Both of which give a
very pleasurable distraction from the pain.

Addictions can take many forms and we all have
addictions of one kind or another.  Whether it’s
chocolate, soap operas, sex, charity, work,
shopping, exercise, model train sets, knitting or
any of the many other things I do on Saturdays, it
is the same dynamic. A pleasant distraction from
the pain.

‘Isn’t that a rather bleak perspective?’

Yes, but it stops you from separating yourself
from people with destructive addictions, which is
an easy thing to do.

‘I don’t know what is wrong with these people?
I have no addictions’, kind of thing.

I think it is easier to access your compassion for
these people if you do a bit of looking around on
the inside and realise that the mechanics of
addiction are at work in you on a small scale.
The difference is the order of magnitude.

That way, when you look at someone with a
destructive addiction you can look at how much
damage their addiction has done in their life and
that will give you an idea of how big the pain is
they are trying to get away from.

So how does the addiction dynamic work with
anorexic people?

Well it is subtle because there is no obvious
benefit but the underlying dynamic will be the
same.

They will be using the not-eating to avoid a
bigger pain. Being open to seeing what that pain
is will help a lot.

Look at the level of disruption and pain the
anorexia is causing in this girl’s life and it
will give you an indication of how much bigger the
pain is she is distracting herself from is.

I suggest you start from a perspective of
respecting her decision to choose the lesser of
two pains, which in this case is her anorexia.

The symptoms are digestive so I would start
there.  That is where I would have me intention
though my points of contact would initially be far
from there as it has been my experience that
people with anorexia are highly sensitive around
their abdomen.

***FROM SARAH WILLOGHBY***

Below is a poem sent in by Sarah Willoghby.
Depending on how you feel about poetry you will be
either groaning and rolling your eyes or
pleasantly surprised.  I am including it because I
like the way it talks about being with someone who
is in pain.

Let me know what you think.

The Invitation
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

***QUESTION***

Dear John….

18 months ago a Body Stress Release therapist sent
a young boy to me, aged 6yrs.  He has recurring
‘flailing arms’ and his parents have had him
checked out by medical professionals but they
can’t find a problem.

During his first visit, a lot of persuasion was
needed to get him to lie down – he is happy but
very active – mom was good at ‘bribing’ him with a
promise to buy a treat,  which worked.
Very little was done in this session but it
certainly resulted in him being a lot calmer and
the arms no longer flailing about.

Some months later he had another flair up so once
again mom brought him to me.
This time he was happier to be on the bed and a
lot more co operative. Again, a release was felt.

Since he was undergoing BSR therapy it did not
feel right to impress upon the family to bring him
in more regularly.  The releases seemed to hold
for a long time and I then realised that when he
was under stress, the flailing arms started up.

I saw him last week, now 71/2 yrs old. Initially
he was quite wriggly, moving about a lot – again
in need of persuasion to just be still.. I was
drawn to his lungs and that is when mom told me of
a near drowning at age 2yrs.. His cranial base was
tight and painful for him. As gently as possible,
I managed to release it.

Corrections were made for flexion and right side
bend lesions to the Sphenoid.  Temporals were
cleared and that is when he went into a very deep
sleep. Actually, so did mom. She dropped her head
onto the bed and fell asleep.

During his sleep state I just sat with one hand
under his head, the other under the sacrum
monitoring his csr.

When he awoke his words were ‘WOW mom, that was a
good sleep’. I suggested another session in a
weeks time and he wanted to know how long a week
was. Her reply ‘about 7 sleeps’ His reply ‘ no,
can we make it in 5 sleeps or 3 sleeps’.  I then
said ‘you have your son back’. This was very clear
to me and to her and most of all, to him.

My feeling is that when he is stressed, be it at
school or even at home he could be recalling the
near drowning – the arms flapping to keep abreast.

John, could you or any one else comment on
flailing arms?

Thank you

Kind regards

Peni – (Cape Town)

MY COMMENTS:

It sounds to me like you are on the right track
here Peni.  When I think about trying to stay
afloat in water, I automatically feel my arms
wanting to move.

It is a great case and a great example.

I could go on all night but we are at the end
of this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Your Mate,

John D.

April 5 – 2008

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Report from Al Pelowski about the role cranio is playing in the Boikarabelo Orphans Eco-Village Cranio Project in South Africa.
+ CST and orthodontic work?

Hello,

I was sent a very interesting video recently.
It is of a talk given by neuroanatomist, Jill
Bolte Tatlor.  In the video she describes her
experience of having a stroke and how it changed
the way she viewed the brain, how it works and who
we are.

It was obviously a powerful experience for her
and at times she is quite emotional.  You can see
it here. http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
I am very interested to know what you think of it.

I also want to let you know about an update
over at the Wellness Detective Agency, about money and going broke doing
what you love.  It’s not like there are any cranio
sacral therapists going broke . . . but I thought
you might be interested.

http://www.wellness-da.com/detective/do-what-you-love-and-go-broke/

If you’re not subscribed to the Updates already
you can subscribe on that page too.  Audio updates
are in the works and should be out within the next
week.

And finally, I was heartened to see that Dr.
Darlene Ertha gave a talk last month to The
American Holistic Nurses Association.  The title
of her talk was,  ‘Exploring Nature’s Blueprint:
Fractals, Pathways, Meridians, and the Collective
Unconscious.  Bringing It All Together In Hands-On
Healing.’

Quite a lot to fit on a poster, I know.  In her
talk she described how cranio sacral therapy,
among others, made use of universal patterns to
alleviate intractable pain and heal body, mind,
and spirit.

Now that we’re feeling all warm and fuzzy,
let’s get on with the mailbag.

*** BOIKARABELO ORPHANS ECO-VILLAGE ***

Hello John,
An idea for linking the Boikarabelo Orphans Eco-
Village Cranio Project

http://www.boikarabelo.org/

The Boikarabelo orphans village is located about
100km NW of Joburg in the Magaliesburg.  I was
wondering if it might be a good test site for your
idea of getting cranio into the world’s villages.
Just thinking really…

There are 90+ children in a surrounding
‘informal village’ of some 1000 people (refugees,
the displaced and isolated).  All of them are
orphaned or abandoned, most are severely
truamatised (e.g., nearly all the girls have been
raped; maybe half the kids are or were
malnourished; many are burdened with HIV and other
opportunists; and most carry unresolved alarm or
shock survival behaviours–ADHD, anorexia,
learning disorders, autisms–compounded by
toxicity from vaccinations and pollution).

We are fortunate to have 3 student practitioners
living there, and cranio is a crucial part of a
therapeutic mix including homeopathy, nutrition &
chelation, counselling and lots of patience &
love.

Today, Sunday 30 March, there were 8 of us
practitioners working, and we saw about 30 of the
kids, most of whom have had several sessions and
settle into it quickly.  Quite a few end up in
deep sleep so we leave them on the table at one
end and bring on the next at the other end.  The
kids literally queue up for treatment, even if
they are not scheduled for it.

Being held cranially is a big hit out there,
thanks to the regular sessions they get with our
resident practitioners.  When a child is lost in
shock or fighting all the time in alarm we find
that cranio holding works best to re-establish a
secure bond and thus initiate their healing,
gradually bringing in the other modalities.

Some time ago a visiting woman from Europe went
away inspired and then sent the community 20 new
desktop computers.  They are ready to be linked
into a server and used in the school they run on
the premises.

In SA far more people live in ‘informal
settlements’ on the fringe of cities than in
traditional countryside villages.  The challenge
here as well as in Africa as a whole is to make
entirely new homes/communities for millions of
kids with nowhere else to grow.

The Malawi Children’s Village (with which I am
also involved) is one way this is being
approached, and Boikarabelo is another.  I plan to
visit Malawi in the dry, July perhaps.  I’ll
report on MCV after that visit.

Boikarabelo does have more problems but also
more going for it than almost any other village I
can think of in all Africa.  So much goes on
there, births, deaths, new arrivals all the time,
crisis after crisis as you can imagine.  But
despite all the challenges, the aim is not only to
provide a basic home and identity for the kids,
but to give them the very best in life skills and
turn the situation into an educational advantage..

I could go on..and on..what do you think?

Al.

MY COMMENTS:

What do I think?

I think you’re a bloody legend!

I think the therapists working with you are
bloody legends!

I think the people who run the place are bloody
legends!

If ever somewhere needed more cranio sacral
therapists it would be there.  It’s the sort of
place my Open Source Cranio idea is all about.
Getting cranio sacral training information to
where it is desperately needed.

***QUESTION***

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply to my letter regarding
cancer in the New Years Newsletter.
As to what to call you how about the “enlightened
one”?
Your reply to my question made me laugh but if I
had received it a few weeks earlier I would have
cried, can I remind you of your words

“the chances of you giving yourself a major
fright and setting you palpatory skills back years
is very high.

For example, let’s say you go against your
teachers/mentors recommendation and start treating
someone who is in the middle of dealing with
cancer.
And let’s say they have a major episode the day
after you treat them and end up in hospital.

Take a minute and think about how you would
feel.  Can you imagine how difficult it would be
to stay objective about your contribution to their
being in hospital.  Can you imagine how hard it
would be to avoid putting yourself through the
wringer wondering if your intention was too heavy
or too light, how you could have missed what was
coming and so on.”

Well I can tell you how I felt !!, my Aunt had
been given the all clear following Non hodgkinson
and all the horror that the treatments entailed,
bald and full of life she stayed with us for a
week over xmas on the day she was leaving I asked
if she would like to try some cranio (are you
wincing?) her system did not react and as I had
not practiced for some weeks thought it was me so
pushed the intention a bit harder but all she got
was a nice still point and a vision of a being in
a crater looking at the blue sky (that made me
wince!). She phoned me 3 days later to say she had
not been out of bed since she got home she could
not stay awake (but she felt good) I told her to
go to the Drs asap! she had no white cells and was
very close to dying.

So how did I feel! all of the above! my teacher
was on holidays but when I finally contacted her
she believed the cranio probably brought it to the
surface alot faster. My Aunt is doing alot better
they think she is one of the rare ones that get a
reaction to some injection they give post Chemo,
but they also discovered her heart and lungs are
stuffed from the Chemo! I offered her Cranio and
we both laughed (but I don’t think either of us
will go there!)

I have been going through all your archives a
couple at a time as it makes my head hurt! so many
questions!

So I will start with; I read about your case
study, the girl you helped with facial disorders,
my 18yr old son has a protruding lower Jaw they
have done one lot of orthodontic work and are now
waiting until he stops growing to operate on the
lower jaw to pull it back ( a nasty sounding
operation) and then a couple more years of braces
to correct the bite. Do you believe that cranio
could stop the jaw coming forward anymore and even
better bring it back slightly? and my daughter 15
has had two years of braces but because she had to
a have a baby tooth removed that had no adult
tooth to replace it they expect she will have
braces for two more years! Do you believe cranio
can really help in these situations, I have read
in some of the Cranio books to seek out a
orthodontist that works with Cranio but I don’t
think there is such a person in Australia? I asked
my orthodontist and he was very “polite” “what
the?!!!”

Many thanks
God opps John
Karen
Australian

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Karen,
Thanks for sharing your experience about your
Aunt.  It must have been awful for you.  Our
palpatory skill is a wonderful but fragile thing.

I’ve had a few emails from different people
asking about orthodontic work and cranio sacral
therapy and since both your questions are about
that too, I’ll kill the few birds, humanely of
course, with one stone and answer them all
together.

Can cranio sacral therapy really help in these
situations?

Hell, yes.

Let’s start with the basics. Teeth are
basically bone and contrary to common perception,
bones ain’t bone china.  Bone is plastic and wet
and it grows and most importantly responds to the
pressure it is placed under and adapts.

Wolf’s law and all that, don’t you know.

What’s Wolf’s law?

Wolf’s law states that the son of two wolves is
equal to the son of the bears on the other two
hides. . . or . . something . . like . .that.

It basically means that bone will adapt to the
loads it is placed under.

That is how they can dig up someone from a
thousand years ago and from a careful study of the
shape of the bones of their forearm, work out that
the person used to be a charioteer.

The fact they were buried in a chariot helped
but it was the bones, Jim, the bones.

So just because our teeth are sitting in bone
and our bite is essentially made of bone that
doesn’t mean that it is fixed for all eternity.

When you think about, that’s what Orthodontists
are kind of banking on.

From our perspective, you could think of braces
as being like a form of direct technique, carried
out over a numbers months or years.

When I think of our ‘bite’, and this is
probably because I used to be a carpenter, I
always think of the mandible as being like a door
and the temporo mandibular joints as being like
the hinges of the door, with the temporals and the
maxillae making up the doorframe.

Thinking of it like this helps keep all the
different parts in their rightful place.

The mandible is roughly solid.  Yes, I know it
used to be in two parts and in some ways still
behaves as if it is but compared to everything
else involved that still ARE in separate parts, it
helps to think of it as solid. . . like a door.

So if a person’s bite is off it is probably not
the mandible itself but the temporals or the
maxillae.

Because if the doorframe is not straight the
door will keep banging on the frame and never
close properly.

Now let’s look at the two examples you gave.

You write that your son’s lower jaw is
protruding.  The first thing I would ask myself is
why is it doing that? Is the mandible sticking out
or is the face pushed in? or is a bit of both.

I would palpate his whole face and try and get
a sense of what the overall pattern was.

Once you do that you can begin to look at the
hinges and the doorframe.   For example: There
could be a pattern where his temporals are
torsioned anteriorly and inferiorly in a kind of
temporal nose dive and this in turn could have the
knock-on effect of pushing his mandible
anteriorly.

Or both his maxillae could be driven
posteriorly.

If it is in the temporals I would treat it with
indirect technique.

If it is his maxillae I would treat it with a
combination of indirect and then direct technique.
Indirect to follow into the pattern and help it
release then direct because the influence of the
cranial rhythm is weaker in the maxillae and they
can need a little help getting where they want to
go.

If the maxillae are driven posteriorly you will
need to assess the palatines and help them release
too if the pattern goes back that far.  You will
also need to look at how the sphenoid is affected
by this pattern, particularly the pterygoid
plates.

With your daughter, it sounds like they are
trying to even out the gap left by the extraction.

Again, I would palpate her whole face and try
and get a sense of an underlying pattern that
might have caused the situation.

If nothing major presents itself, it may be a
case that her body doesn’t register the situation
in her mouth as being a problem.  This would make
you work a lot more difficult and require a lot
more direct technique.

Assuming that your daughter’s braces are not
fixed, you can work on the teeth individually.
You can take each tooth and ‘unwind’ it.  That in
itself may begin to even out the gaps.

And finally, as a general note about working
with the mouth, the bite and teeth, it’s important
to rely on the fact that our body is NOT
predisposed to have a banging, jarring,
disharmonious bite. It wants to bite right.

All you have to do is help it. Having said that
I have found as a general rule that while bone is
responsive it can take a while for it to grow in
new directions and by a while I mean 2 to 4
months.

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

May 25 – 2008

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ The interweb thingy.
+ Twitter.
+ Book recommendation from Renee in Australia.
+ Comment from Etienne in Belgium.
+ Comment from Joyaa in Australia.
+ Comment from Eva in Australia.
+ Question about contact pressure and effectiveness.
+ Question about intracranial hypertension.

Hello,

Very Important Breaking news: Russia won the
Eurovision song contest.  Personally I think
Israel should have won but you decide for
yourself and let me know.
Russia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XR5xrU02yo&

Israel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw_6gdieBRY

If teaching new mothers how to make nutritious
meals for their new babies sounds like a good
idea to you then have a look here

http://www.indiegogo.com/mouthofbabes

and if you like what you see then make a
contribution and help Rene, who is also a cranio
sacral therapist as you will see below, get the
project off the ground.

I obviously think it is worthwhile having
already put my money where my mouth is.
A-har!! and I didn’t even mean that pun.

I want to ask a question. Now I don’t want you
to get anxious but it’s about the internet.

Are you on it?

While you are thinking about that let me tell
you some things about my practice.

1. EVERYONE who comes to see me comes from the
internet.
2. I don’t do ANY other advertising.
3. Currently my waiting list is 6 weeks long.
4. I charge more than most natural
therapists in Ireland. [It was the same in
Australia]
5. If you search for cranio sacral therapy in
Ireland or Australia on Google my website
will be in the top ten.
6. When I moved to Ireland I was able to set up
my practice from scratch with no drop in
patients or income all because of the way I
use the internet.

I’m not telling you the above to blow my own
trumpet, you don’t want to hear that racket once I
get started, no I’m telling you to highlight how
powerful the internet is.

Now back to my question.  Are you on the
internet?  If not, is that because your practice is
as big as you would like it to be thank you very
much or because the internet is a complex and scary
place?

If you are on the internet, are you getting the
sorts of results you want?

It has been my experience that, with a few
exceptions, most cranio sacral therapists are not
very computer friendly.

Well let me correct that they are friendly to
their computers, if they own one, they just don’t
feel like their computers are very friendly towards
them.

How to create a successful website that actually
gets the sort of people you want to treat to call
you and then get that site to the top of the google
ranking is a big subject and not something I am
going to go into here.

I am thinking of putting together a special
training on the subject so if you’re interested let
me know.  Whether I do it or not will very much be
determined by the level of interest.

Something you can do right now for free is get
yourself on TWITTER.

Twhatter??

Twitter.
Without getting too technical, Twitter is what
is called a ‘micro-blogging’ platform.

And no that’s not a kiddies toilet step.

On Twitter, users post short updates about what
they’re up to.  (Max. 140 characters. So it’s short
and to the point.)

When I first heard about Twitter I didn’t really
get it.

It just seemed like a load of back and forth
‘chat’ between people.  My initial thought was, ‘I
don’t have time for this.’

But not being one to allow good sense to stand
in the way of having a go, I dived in.

Within a week it really started to dawn on me
how deceptively powerful Twitter was.

And you don’t have to be sitting in front of
your computer to use it, you can post from your
cellphone.  That’s one of the things I really like
about it.

Because Twitter posts happen so fast (i.e.
someone could witness an event and instantly post
about it from their phone) it’s becoming a valuable
source for REAL-TIME information.

The typhoon in Burma and the earthquake in China
come to mind immediately.

Here’s a story that illustrates how powerful it
can me.  James Buck, a graduate student in
journalism from the University of California-
Berkeley was arrested last month in Mahalla, Egypt
while covering an anti-government protest.

Thinking quickly, James was able to send a one-
word Twitter update: ‘Arrested.’

The people who were following him on Twitter in
Egypt and the US reacted by contacting the
university and the consulate on his behalf.  Before
long, James was updating Twitter with another one-
word message, ‘Free.’

Twitter is also becoming a powerful ‘crowd
sourcing’ tool.

Someone can post to Twitter and ask ‘What’s the
best digital camera for under $400?’ and in a
matter  of minutes have tons of replies from other
people giving great feedback and advice.

This is one of the ways it can be useful to you
and your practice as the number of people who talk
about their health and emotional life is huge.

You can use twitter to grow your practice by
specifically searching for and connecting with
people in your country, area or city.

You do this by ‘following’ which simply means
letting Twitter know you would like to be informed
whenever the particular person posts a comment.
Most people will reciprocate and in turn ‘follow’
you.

Some of the more popular people on Twitter have
10,000′s of people following them.

Think about that for a minute in relation to
your practice.  You could let 1000′s of people know
if you were moving offices or had a particularly
successful case or were giving a talk.

You can also use Twitter to connect with other
cranio sacral therapists around the world.  This
means that should you need to refer someone to a
therapist in another country or city you will have
someone you know.  I have already been asked for
referrals like this a few times.  As you connect
with more cranio sacral therapists, they too will
refer to you.

Okay so here’s what to do.

Go here http://www.twitter.com and get yourself
an account.  It’s free and quick and takes about 3
minutes.   Make sure you include ‘cranio sacral
therapist’ or  ‘cranio sacral student’ in your bio,
which is also limited to 140 characters.

If you want to get an idea of what sort of
things I twitter about you can look at my Twitter
page here.

http://twitter.com/john_dalton

If you want to ‘follow’ me, and I encourage you to
and any other cranio sacral therapist you can find
on twitter, make sure you click ‘Follow’ under my
photo.

Once you do that you will be notified whenever I
make a Twitter post.  I will ‘Follow’ you back.

If the whole thing makes no sense to you just
try it for a week.  I found it took about that long
for me to get into it and to know what was worth
posting about.

-o-

Now, lots of response to the last newsletter,
so let’s get on with the mailbag.

***COMMENT FROM RENEE IN AUSTRALIA***

Hi John,
I love reading your newsletters whenever you send
them.  I have been reading this book which is
absolutely phenomenal.  And I would just like to
share it with the cranio community:

The Secret Teachings of Plants In The Direct
Perception of Nature by Stephen Harrod Buhner.

It is a really revolutionary book that has been
around for a while so maybe many people already
know about it.  Stephen looks into the energies
coming from our hearts and how our hearts
communicate with every other thing on earth.
Plants is where he starts and speaks about how
aboriginal peoples have been able to learn from
plants themselves what and how they can be used to
heal people through this vibrationary language.  As
the book progresses he speaks of how we can use
this heart awareness to communicate with each other
and to learn the nature of disease and discomfort
within each other.

He calls this depth diagnosis, and reading his
discriptions of his work it sounds just like
cranio.  I just love the language he uses, the
extensive quotes from Goethe and other Earth poets.
I haven’t finished reading the book yet and I wish
I could describe it better, but I highly recommend
it to everyone…

On a different note maybe I have missed some of
your newsletters as well, but I was really excited
reading about the village in SA and your comments
on Open Source Cranio.  I would really love to hear
more about that in your newsletters.  My mother
works in Burma as a teacher trainer for
kindergarden and upwards kids.  I believe
craniosacral therapy could be so helpful in that
environment when the population is under such
stress, repression and poverty.

Thanks again for the great work you are doing.

Renee
Australia.

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for passing it on Renee.  I haven’t read
the book myself so can’t comment.  From what I do
know of it you may also like Connie Grauds work.

http://www.spiritedmedicine.com/

***COMMENT FROM ETIENNE IN BELGIUM ABOUT JILL BOLTE TATLOR’S VIDEO***

Hi John,
I guess more Dr’s and scientists need a stroke.
Etienne

MY COMMENTS:

That is so naughty – hilarious but very naughty.

***COMMENT FROM JOYAA IN AUSTRALIA***

Hi John & Greetings from Queensland!
Re. Karen & Orthodontics, I thought that I might
add a couple of points?
1. “Underdeveloped maxillae” (that’s the key
phrase) are not uncommon, and are seen a lot in
persistent mouth breathers.
2. More progressive orthodontists tend to use
expanders (sometimes maxillary alone, sometime with
mandibular expanders too).  Breaking the mandible
to try to reduce its size may be going the wrong
way aobut things (as you suggested).
3. There are progressive dentists and good
orthodontists in Oz.  Whereabouts is Karen based?

Love, Joyaa

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Joyaa and thanks for your comments.
I never found much credence in the
underdeveloped maxillae – mouth breather
theory/approach myself.

I haven’t come across an underdeveloped maxillae
yet.  When there is a problem it is because they
are compressed posteriorly or superiorly or
medially or all three.  The compression coming from
trauma of some kind or another.

I’m not a big fan of expanders either because
they are usually too tight and elicit a defensive
response from the maxillae locking them down.

***COMMENT FROM EVA IN AUSTRALIA***

Hello John,

I have a case story that really shows how easy it
can be to work with the teeth and bones they attach
to.

I treated my niece when she was 10 years old. She
had sucked her thumb until the age of 8, so her
front teeth (both upper and lower) were standing
out at a pretty sharp angle.

The orthodontist had of course said she would need
braces.  She had some acute neck, back and pelvic
problems and I only had the possibility to give her
2 sessions with about 2 weeks in between, so the
focus was not on fixing the teeth.  But I worked on
the teeth and face for a bit any way in these two
sessions.

I worked individually with all the teeth as well as
the associated structures in the face (maxillae,
incisors, mandible, temporals, TMJ, vomer,
palatines etc).  The front teeth really needed some
serious unwinding.

I saw her next one year later and her teeth had
nearly completely straightened out. They only
needed a tiny bit more adjustment.

I have since worked with a few other children,
mostly early teens, as well as my own daughter who
is 7 and busy shedding teeth and the new big ones
coming out with not enough space for them, causing
them to come out crooked.

They straighten out very easily, especially while
they are still growing.  I must say I find teeth
very cooperative to work with.

Best regards,

Eva
Central Coast
Australia

***QUESTION***

Hi there. Was searching for someone to ask some
questions to about CST and found you. Thanks. I
have my two levels in CST. I totally love doing it
on clients but feel guilty in a way because of the
fact that they get up after looking at me like I
haven’t done anything for the past hour to them. I
always try to explain that they probably won’t feel
anything but that things are occuring within their
bodies. There is another therapist at my place of
work who has been doing CST for a few years now and
she does her treatments SOOO different. She uses so
much force it is like a massage and I actually was
sore the next day. So when one of her clients came
to me on Monday she left feeling confused because
she told me how different my session was from the
other person’s so although I explained that how I
do it is what I was taught I began to doubt myself
that I wasn’t doing things correctly.

I sometimes have a difficult time feeling the
diaphragm releases happening in clients. Will this
just come with more practice?

Also I don’t know what this is about but when I am
working on the cranium alot of times their heads
will start to move around in circles or back and
forth. Is this releasing or what is happening? I
just try to go with what I feel and don’t second
guess myself.

But I really can’t say I have had anyone feel any
change after a session. Can you give me any advice.
Thanks for your time.
Regards, Lorraine

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Lorraine,
It’s hard for me to answer your question because
I don’t know where you are training or what stage
you are at in your training.   So bear that in mind
as I answer your questions.

With regard to how much pressure to apply, it
shouldn’t feel as strong as a massage.  Sometimes
in the releasing process the therapist may have to
hold against a lot of pressure but that doesn’t
happen too often.

Far be it from me to pass judgement on the other
‘cranio sacral therapist’ in your practice but from
what you have written it sounds like they either
had poor or insufficient training or more likely
they weren’t properly assessed, if at all.

It would probably be wise to avoid sharing
patients and if you do, you would need to make it
very clear to the patients that you both have very
different styles.

Now to the diaphragms.
The transverse diaphragms are not easy to feel
because they are, . . . well. . . big.   Compared
to some of the finer work we can be involved in,
the size of the diaphragms can be daunting and too
big to hold in your intention.

You may find it easier to think of them
individually rather than as a group.

They each have a different quality and the more
familiar you are with the quality of each, the
easier it will be for you to feel releases as they
occur.

If you can’t hold the whole diaphragm in your
intention do it in two halves.  Do one side first
and then the other.  Aim to hold as much of the
diaphragm in your intention as you can as you work
on one side or the other.

Over time you will be able to hold more and more
of the diaphragm in your intention until eventually
you can hold the whole diaphragm.

Heads moving around in circles?
Yes it can happen but if it’s happening for you
with everyone then there’s a good chance that it’s
your stuff.

In fact you can pretty much apply that to
everything you find in ‘everyone’, if you know what
I mean.

No?

What I mean is if you find the same thing going
on in everyone you would need to take a good look
at what is going on for yourself. Chances are it
will be your stuff.

As to people not feeling different after a
session. If they are getting better I wouldn’t be
concerned about it.

I have found that people will only give you a
hard time about the things you expect them to give
you a hard time about.

So if you are concerned that people are going to
feel like you are not doing anything, because they
can’t feel it, then they will probably have that
problem.

On the other hand if you are saying that the
people you are treating are not improving at all,
well that’s a different kettle of much more serious
fish.
It’s serious because people getting better is
kind of the whole point.

You will need specific help with this. You will
need to go to your trainer or mentor and get them
to assess you.

Get them to tune in as you are working. They
should be able to give you specific feedback about
how you are working, what your intention is like
and so on.

Don’t take it personally if they suggest having
some treatment yourself.  It can often sort out
obstacles in training.

***QUESTION***

Hi John,

Liane from Australia. I am a physiotherapist
working in a new position with chronic pain
clients.  Could you please give any experience you
have had with this condition: intracranial
hypertension. This lady has had 2 labours, (2
caesarians with 2 epidurals). Symptomology came on
following childbirth.  She is very overweight,
looks to have a thyroid disorder.

I look forwards to your insights and advice,

Yours sincerely,

Liane

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Liane,
Let direct you to this case history about an
overweight woman with intracranial hypertension I
treated in Brisbane a number of years back.

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/cases/intracranialtension.html

As well as the intracranial membranes you may
also want to look closely at the dural tube around
the lumbro-sacral junction and her pelvis
generally.

The 2 caesareans and epidurals could have left
patterns of trauma that are causing or exacerbating
the intracranial hypertension.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

August 2 -2008

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Report on feasibility study on the effectiveness of cranio sacral therapy on migraine.
+ Open letter from Cranio Suisse®, the Swiss cranio sacral association.
+ Comment from Al Pelowski in response to Joyaa Antares and maxillae.
+ Comment from Cathryn Nitschke in Australia about her Osteopathy training and how it compares to cranio.
+ Question about therapist burnout.
+ Question about talking about emotional issues.

Hello,

Well it’s a positively groaning newsletter this
Time it is so full.  Lots happening in the world
of cranio sacral with a report on migraine and an
interesting initiative from the Swiss cranio
sacral association but more on that later.

I have spent quite a bit of time reworking the
training part of the Open Source Cranio website,
making it a better learning tool.  I have begun to
add my training notes and to lay out a learning
schedule.

One of the new features is a search function
which should make it easier to search the site for
specific topics.

Another new function is the comments feature.
This allows you to leave comments directly on the
site, under specific articles.  You have to click
the comments tab.  So you can comment on the
article and letters in this newsletter directly on
the site if you want.
I encourage you to leave comments or send me an
email letting me know what you think.  The more
feedback I get the better I can make it.

I also encourage you to send me articles that
you think might help someone in a developing
country who is using the material to begin their
cranio sacral learning and I will post them.

I have fixed the problem with the newsletter
subscription block so if you tried to resubscribe
before and it didn’t work it’s working now.

Speaking of learning let me direct you to a
website I came across and intend to use a lot in
teaching.  It is called the Visible body and is an
online 3D anatomy viewer.  You can view the demo
for it here.

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/3d-anatomy/

If you like the look of it you need to go to
their site and register and then you can use the
models yourself.  If you’re a Mac user forget PC
only.  Discrimination rears its ugly head again,
sigh, pout.

Rightio, let’s get on with the mailbag.

***REPORT***

Below is an extract from a press release I
received about a proposed test for the
effectiveness of cranio sacral therapy on
migraine.  They propose to use low-strength static
magnets as the control group.

Double blind studies are not my field of
expertise and is it just me or what, but I think
people would know the difference between a
therapist and a magnet.

Ah well, they’re trying.

————————————————–
Craniosacral therapy for migraine: protocol
development for an exploratory controlled clinical
trial.

Migraine affects approximately 20% of the
population.  Conventional care for migraine is
suboptimal; overuse of medications for the
treatment of episodic migraines is a risk factor
for developing chronic daily headache.

The study of non-pharmaceutical approaches for
prevention of migraine headaches is therefore
warranted. Craniosacral therapy (CST) is a popular
non-pharmacological approach to the treatment or
prevention of migraine headaches for which there
is limited evidence of safety and efficacy.

In this paper, we describe an ongoing feasibility
study to assess the safety and efficacy of CST in
the treatment of migraine, using a rigorous and
innovative randomized controlled study design
involving low-strength static magnets (LSSM) as an
attention control intervention.

Methods: The trial is designed to test the
hypothesis that, compared to those receiving usual
care plus a treatment with low-strength static
magnets (attention-control complementary therapy),
subjects receiving usual medical care plus CST
will demonstrate significant improvement in:
quality-of-life as measured by the Headache Impact
Test (HIT-6); reduced frequency of migraine; and a
perception of clinical benefit. Criteria for
inclusion are either gender, age >11, English or
Spanish speaking, meeting the International
Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD)
criteria for migraine with or without aura, a
headache frequency of 5 to 15 per month over at
least two years.

After an 8 week baseline phase, eligible subjects
are randomized to either CST or an attention
control intervention, low strength static magnets
(LSSM). To evaluate possible therapist bias,
videotaped encounters are analyzed to assess for
any systematic group differences in interactions
with subjects.

Results: 169 individuals have been screened for
eligibility of which 109 were eligible for the
study. Five did not qualify during the baseline
phase because of inadequate headache frequency.

Nineteen have withdrawn from the study after
giving consent.

Conclusion: This report endorses the feasibility
of undertaking a rigorous randomized clinical
trial of CST for migraine using a standardized CST
protocol and an innovative control protocol
developed for the study.

Subjects are able and willing to complete detailed
headache diaries during an 8-week baseline period,
with few dropouts during the study period,
indicating the acceptability of both
interventions.

Author: John D Mann, Keturah R Faurot, Laurel
Wilkinson, Peter Curtis, Remy R Coeytaux,
Chirayath Suchindran and Susan A Gaylord

Credits/Source: BMC Complementary and Alternative
Medicine 2008, 8:28

Published on: 2008-06-10

You can read the full report here.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/8/28

***OPEN LETTER FROM CRANIO SUISSE®.***

I was forwarded this open letter from Cranio
Suisse® who have launched an initiative to
encourage communication between different schools
and therapists which, as you know, I am all for.

Their website is not in English so that limits
the initiative immediately but other than that I
think it’s great.

If you want to read their site in English you
can run it through Google translate.

http://translate.google.com

You need to scroll to the bottom of the page and
enter their web address.

http://www.craniosuisse.ch/

————————————————

*International Networking for the Advancement of
Craniosacral Therapy*

Dear collegues,

All the schools and therapists for Craniosacral
Therapy in Switzerland have organized themselves
in a new association – Cranio Suisse®. We are now
number two among the associations for
complementary therapies. The goal of this
organization is to bring together all the
different approaches of Craniosacral Therapy
within Switzerland and to guarantee a good quality
of schools and therapists. Cranio Suisse® is the
official representative of Craniosacral Therapy
towards governmental institutions and health
insurance companies. In short, Cranio Suisse® is
supporting and promoting Craniosacral Therapy
within in the Swiss Health System.

Furthermore the association acts as connecting
link between patients and therapists. You will
find more details under http://www.craniosuisse.ch/

This year Cranio Suisse® established a new *study
group for international contacts and research*. My
task within this group is to establish contacts
with associations/schools all over the world, thus
building the basis for an efficient networking
beneficial to all of us.

I should therefore be very grateful if you could
let me know whether you are interested in such an
exchange of thoughts and knowledge.

We would suggest the following procedure:

*Step 1*: We put together a list of all
associations/schools interested in putting up a
Craniosacral “Knowledge Network”.

*Step 2*: Evaluation of the importance and
positioning of Craniosacral Therapy within the
health system of each country (questionnaire). The
final goal will be to exchange research reports
and study designs or even realize common research
projects to get more and broader evidence based
facts about Craniosacral Therapy.

Are you interested in such a project and if yes,
do you agree with the proposed procedure or do you
have different suggestions?

We are convinced that an exchange of knowledge
like this would create positive synergies for all
of us, whether it be with regard to the handling
of public health aspects for complementary
therapies in general or strengthening the position
of Craniosacral Therapy specifically.

We are looking forward to your feedback. If you
feel that there is some other institution, school
or person who could be interested in the above
project, please let us know.

Thank you for giving our ideas a friendly,
constructive thought.

With best regards

Barbara Liniger

praxis@barbaraliniger.ch

Member of the study group for international
contacts and research of Cranio Suisse®

http://www.craniosuisse.ch/

PS: Between July 8 and August 24 I will not be
able to answer any emails. I will get back to you
in September as soon as possible. Thank you.

Contactaddress:

Barbara Liniger

Praxis für klassische Homöopathie und
craniosacrale Osteopathie

Alpenstrasse 14
6300 Zug

Tel 041 720 03 20

praxis@barbaraliniger.ch
www.barbaraliniger.ch

Barbara Liniger

Praxis für klassische Homöopathie und
craniosacrale Osteopathie

Alpenstrasse 14
6300 Zug

***COMMENT FROM AL PELOWSKI IN RESPONSE TO JOYAA ANTARES AND MAXILLAE***

Joyaa query, comments:

Maxillary hypoplasia, where the maxillae have not
grown properly, as distinguished from impaction,
is a feature of some craniosynostotic syndromes.

We see quite a few babies with that here in
Africa.  I had a query on that yesterday in fact.

In these cases you find hydrocephalus, premature
closure and ridging of the sutures, bulging vault
bones, protruding fontanels, webbing between
fingers and toes, and distorted distal phalanges,
all in varying degrees.  The maxillae can be
unable to hold in the eyes.

I had one case a few years ago where I had to push
an eyeball back in..!  Most of these kids end up
with craniofacial surgery and shunts.  Some of
them can respond to cranio!  But by no means all.
Many die young gagging with oropharynx
restrictions.

As to possible causes and complications I could
speculate at length, but it wouldn’t amount to
much (estrogenic pollution, dioxins, severe
malnourishment in mother during 1st trimester,
etc..).

I would be interested if any of your readers have
come across this and worked with it.
Al in Joburg

***COMMENT FROM CATHRYN IN AUSTRALIA***

Dear John
Thanks for the link. I have just had a quick wizz
through the site and I think what you are doing is
brilliant, worthy and highly commendable. Good on
you.

I first met you maybe around 2002 or 3 when you
were still in Brisbane. I did one of your
introductory CST courses and really enjoyed it. I
believe that the school wound down shortly
thereafter (my memory is not the greatest so
perhaps this is not quite the case). Anyway, I was
keen to look more deeply into CST which led me to
doing Patricia Farnsworth myofascial release/cst
course and then Roger Gilchrist came to Australia
for 4 years to teach biodynamic CST.

I have also studied with Mike Boxhall in England,
who I think is wonderful and have made contact
with Charles Ridley whose writings really inspire
me. Since then I enrolled in osteopathy at RMIT in
Melbourne, thinking this would take me more deeply
into the world of CST. I have just finished my
first semester there and it has been somewhat of a
let down. I really hear you when you talk about
problems with CST training or training of any
hands on healing modality. I find that the push
towards health degrees and measurable outcomes is
taking away from the power of the apprenticeship,
“hands on” model and I lament this.

I had studied at university before, but this was
in the arts faculty in the early 90′s.  The
science faculty as I find it in the late noughties
is a very different world. The lecturers are
generally not very competent or inspiring teachers
and they seem to find students a nuisance rather
than an opportunity. One of them told me I was
only allowed to ask one question per semester and
seeing as I had already used up my quota in the
first week, that was it.

I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t! This was
disappointing because he is a very knowledgeable
anatomist and I wanted to pick his brains, but
obviously this is not meant to be. Some of the
osteo lecturers find my questions challenging and
potentially threatening, especially the ones
firmly entrenched in the biomechanical model.

On the first day of practical osteo classes, we
practiced range of motion on the lower lumbars.
The technique left me with an instant sore back
and I had to self-treat with cranio work for the
next two days to relieve it! I thought, do I
really want to learn and be subjected to this? I
enjoy the philosophy and principles of osteopathy,
however, the prac classes seem pretty basic and
archaic compared to CST. I feel like it is a
backwards step for me. However, I have enjoyed
delving more deeply into the anatomy and
physiology, so my intention is to continue with
the medical sciences part of the course and drop
the osteopathic parts. Did you know that
osteopathy in the cranial field is only briefly
touched upon in 5th year?  All the rest of the
time is spent on HVLA, MET, counterstrain,
myofascial release, etc.

Many of my CST colleagues lament that they never
studied osteopathy and they seem to hold it up as
the holy grail of osteopathy.  This is not my
experience I can now say and I am glad that I
checked it out. I noticed that osteopaths in
Australia all have a pretty similar and extensive
training but in my experience there are some
pretty ordinary osteos around.

I am obviously not a fan of the “rub and crack”
school. And I have found a few gems whom I highly
admire and have as mentors. So this makes me
ponder what makes the difference b/w the
practitioners I adore versus the ones whose
treatments either leave me feeling worse or at
best, like I didn’t even have a treatment. I put
this down to the more subtle realms that CST takes
the time to unpack and explore. Consciousness,
presence, empathy, openness, etc. Such vital
qualities in a health practitioner of any
persuasion in my opinion.

So really what I want to say to you is good on
you. I admire the time and energy you put into
your newsletter and website to expose more people
to CST and encourage a discussion around all
things CST. I think this is vital work to bring
together a sense of community and to share ideas.

I notice the osteos have a very close knit
community and I think there is strength in that. I
love the opportunity to exchange ideas,
information, experiences with other health
practitioners with a biodynamic bent (gentle and
holistic). Also, I think that osteopathy is held
up as something quite exclusive and prestigious in
comparison to CST. They go to great lengths to
align themselves as primary practitioners with a
solid medical training. It seems that in turn, the
medical world rejects them and they are not really
embraced by the ‘natural therapies’ brigade
either. They are positioned in a potential no-
man’s land or on the flip side a potential
powerful middle way.

My greatest wish is to study this ‘stuff’ with a
mentor, one on one. I think anyone can teach
themselves certain things like anatomy and
physiology out of a book, but the influence of
someone who has walked the path before is
invaluable to point out some of the pitfalls, the
shortcuts and which bits of the scenery are worth
lingering on.

I have a chiropractic friend who I have great
discussions with, and he maintains that he could
teach me the ‘guts’ of the chiro 5 year training
in an afternoon and I believe him. This work isn’t
hard, as such, but the universities certainly turn
it into a cerebrally challenging exercise filling
the students heads with reams of facts at the
expense of understanding.

A phrase that speaks so much to me is “lose the
techniques” as I heard from Gangaji. After all the
study, to let it all go, and see what arises, to
follow the heart and the gut and the fingers and
the senses and feelings and to give the mind a
rest.  This is what I love and see as the power of
biodynamic CST.

So in conclusion, I think any monkey can be taught
the techniques, the vital part is how they are put
together in the final package, the quality of the
touch and the presence and care of the
practitioner.

I wish you all the best with this project.
kind regards

Cathryn Nitschke
somewhere between Brisbane, Melbourne and
Adelaide.

MY COMMENTS:

Thank you for all your kind words Cathryn.
What a great letter.  I cannot agree with you more
about the mentors, they are vital.

I think I was lucky because that whole,
‘osteopaths are a more exalted form of cranio
sacral therapist’ thing was nipped in the bud for
me early in my training.

Liz Kalinowska (http://www.craniosacralstudies.co.uk/about/frames.html)
was one of my tutors.  She told me that she
had become an osteopath first because she thought
it would prepare her to become a cranio sacral
therapist.  She spent 7 years becoming an
osteopath.  She told me she felt she had wasted
her time.  If anything she had to unlearn some of
what she was taught.

I have found over the years that it is very
hard to resist the temptation to ‘pop’ something
back into place if you know how.  I am lucky
because I never learned how to do any thrusting or
strong techniques so I don’t know how to ‘pop’
things back into place.   I am forced to sit and
wait and that is one of the reasons why I, and the
people I have trained, get such great results.

***QUESTION***

Hi John

Thank you for the very valuable information shared
by you and other CS therapists.  I’ve been a
little out of circuit lately – life’s little
challenges – so even though you may have not had a
response from me, I’m still keen to remain
connected.

My preference would be more frequent shorter news
rather than the other.
Kindly advise what the donations will be used for.

Any suggestions for therapist burn out? A long
awaited holiday is needed, I know ,and am busy
working toward one.  My forearms are taking strain
and was told that Kinesiology NOT treatment can
help.  I’m pretty good at caring for myself but
what with juggling teaching yoga, CST, VM and my
latest baby, doing readings it has all suddenly
caught up with me.  I keep the yoga, therapy and
readings for separate days giving me enough time
to replenish.  Please throw some light (energy) on
this subject.

Kindly yours

Peni in Cape Town

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Peni,
There are lots of different energetic
considerations when considering burnout but the
one that stands out to me, from what you have
written, is that you are doing A LOT!

It may be nothing to do with any of the
therapies that you are doing individually.  It may
be that you are doing so many plus your new baby.
I’m getting tired just thinking about it.

It sounds like you know what I am going to say
next but I’ll say anyway.  It’s important to find
a way, that works for you, of removing any
residual energy after you treat someone.

For some people this means a full shower for
others it is simply letting water run over their
hands.

Avoid seeing too many people in a week.  I have
found that somewhere between 12 and 18 adults is
about as much as most people can treat with cranio
sacral therapy without burning out very quickly.

Even if you find a way of removing excess
energy after each person and you don’t see too
many people you will still need to take a break
every 3 months for at least 7 days.

On top of all that you need to take a long
break, around 6 months, every 10 years.

It took me 12 years to figure that one out.

What will the donations be used for?

Well mainly to keep me in cigars and wine, oh
yes and also to help me run open source cranio.
It takes a lot of time and I do have to pay for
things like web hosting etc.  I also plan to put
teaching videos on the site and these all cost
money to make.

Primarily the ‘donate’ button is an opportunity
for people to give back.  This is good for me, not
just because of the cigars and wine, but also
because it’s important to be able to receive, me
included.  I have found that if you can’t receive
comfortably then you can’t really give.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,
Thank you for your wonderful newsletters they are
so helpful.  I find your wellness detective agency
idea novel and very useful.

I have a particular patient with chronic fatigue
and Fibromyalgia for 6 years.  She is in a lot of
pain.  The cranio sacral treatment itself is going
reasonably well but I feel she has emotional
issues that make her condition worse.

I have broached exploring the emotional causes of
her condition with her but she becomes very
defensive and then frustrated and then despairing.

Do you have any suggestions on how to approach
these issues with her.

Thanks again.

PM
Perth.

MY COMMENTS:

The secret weapon of cranio sacral therapy is
silence.

Personally, I can talk a lot about the other
stuff.  Why the person might be sick and so on.
I can talk about that stuff so much I wrote a book
about it for crying out loud.

But for some people talking can only make
things worse.  They will usually have been sick
for some time, like your patient, and will usually
have seen quite a few other therapists.  They will
have a number of theories crashing around in their
heads as to why they are ill.  Ironically each new
‘helpful’ perspective you might offer can push
them deeper into confusion rather than helping to
clarify.

That’s when silence really works. Just let them
get on the table and begin your work.  You can
chat with them but don’t initiate it or keep it
going.  Eventually silence descends and in that
silence and the depths of your work, changes will
percolate to the surface from the depths of them.

Over time deep changes will occur and no one
will talk about it.  Sometimes if you are lucky
they will tell you an insight they may have had
and when they do it will usually have a deep ring
of truth to it.

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Your Mate,

John D.

October 2 -2008

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Shunts?
+ 2 cases from Australia.
+ The wonders of entrainment.

Hello,

I’m delighted to report that the Boikarabelo Children’s
eco village in Johannesburg, South Africa have begun to use
my training materials on Open Source Cranio in the training
3 of their careers. Which is great. All I have to do now is
finish putting all the training material up.. yikes!!!

Which reminds me if you haven’t had a chance to look at
‘The Visible Body’ definitely have a look – it is awesome.

http://www.visiblebody.com/

Because it doesn’t work on Apple computers I couldn’t get
a decent look at it so I snaffled my wife’s laptop one night
and four hours later I was still at it.

I don’t care where you are in your cranial career you can’t
but find this useful. To be able to look at these structures
from whatever angle you like, to peel off layers and see how
one structure relates to another. It just helps so much.

If you haven’t already done so have a look
and let me know what you think.

Speaking of visuals I want to tell you about the beautiful
cranial artwork of Ray Lacy.  As you know I used to work in
animation before I became a cranio sacral therapist so I
got to work with lots of first rate artists and I can tell
you Ray is right up there. He has produced see beautiful
drawings of the structures we work with. Have a look
then if you feel so moved, write a review and send it to Ray.

http://www.craniosacral-art.com/index.php

Anyhu, on with the mailbag.

***QUESTION***

Hi John

Your newsletter’s archive is fantastic.  Very easy to use
(much better than mine). Thanks.
My question today is about treating people with a shunt
in the head. Do you(or anyone else) has experience with that?
Is there a risk of having the shunt come out of place
(and causing big problems to the personn) when working
on the personn? I was wondering because of the movements of
the bones and membranes in the head (things coming back
in place).
Any comments will be much appreciated.
Odile. Brisbane.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Hello Odile,
I’m glad you find the newsletter archive useful.
I’m hoping the ‘search’ function makes it easier for
people to find what they are looking for across the
whole site.

I have treated quite a few people with shunts.
I’ll just explain what they are for any of the other
readers who don’t know.

A shunt is tube that is fitted surgically to relieve
cerebrospinal fluid pressure. There is a one way valve
in the shunt that stops the cerebrospinal fluid coming
back up the tube.  They are usually fitted in people
who have prolonged or extreme hydrocephalus.

The types of shunts I have treated have fallen into
two categories.  Cranio shunts and spinal shunts.
Spinal shunts go from the drural tube and drain into
the stomach. Cranial shunts drain from the cranium into
the heart.

From my experience they are pretty robust arrangements
and I have never got the feeling that they would dislodge
with treatment. The main thing I have felt when treating
people with shunts is how the fluid dynamics of their
cerebrospinal fluid is screwed up. Their cranio sacral
rhythm is usually confused.

Most of my work has been firstly dealing with the
underlying cause of the hydrocephalus and then helping
the person’s system come to terms with the foreignness
of the shunt.

This is similar to any kind of work where there is a
foreign object in a person’s body be it a pin or a screw
or a pacemaker.

***QUESTION***

Dear John

From reading your emails its great to see that the world
of cranio is opening up.. I have to say the enquiry coming
in to the clinic for treatment for complicated cases from
all over Australia is amazing. And hence I am in need of
some guidance with a couple of troubled young lads..

The first is 15…born with a large head that expanded
from the parietals but little frontal growth, at 12 months
his head was so heavy he carried it on the side…at 8 had
a head on collision on a jet ski into a tree an acquired a
compressed skull fracture and brain injury
…although the extent of that is not clear as they suspected
ADD anyway…has learning difficulties, class clown and
recently attempted to throw himself off the tallest building
at school. He has 5 steel plates in his head holding the
parietals and frontal together…his system is very
sensitive and flexion, extension inhibited by the plates..

The second boy is 14, a difficult birth resulting in
emergency c section, swallowed blood and meconium has
chronic asthma, seems ok at school but suffers anxiety
especially separation from mother… she bought him
because 3 separate clairvoyants told her he died in birth and
came back and that there were issues for him to sort out.

Both these boys seem to have a space or separation in their
system from which they are operating that does not seem to
belong to them but is quite a definite separate space…then
there is a pretend who I am and a big hole to the other…
where do I start…seeing that both these boys are seeming
in a serious situation for themselves..

Your pearls of great wisdoms will be greatly appreciated
as usual!!!

LK
Brisbane

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Well these certainly are serious cases and my response
has to be based on what you have written only. Which is
another way of saying I could be completely wrong.

I had to read the part about the sense of space or
separation you were feeling quite a few times to get an
idea of what was going on.  The main thing that it sounds
like to me is the detachment that comes from shock.

If I am right it should resolve like any other trauma.
I suggest you don’t treat it any differently to any other
kind of trauma even though it may feel more intense to you.

With the first chap, the 15 year old, it sounds like
you are dealing with 3 separate issues.

The first sounds like a developmental problem. Why didn’t
his frontal develop in tandem with the rest of the bones in
his skull? Why did his head become so full?

My guess would be some problem with his embryonic
development and if that’s the case then it will probably by
a problem with his blueprint.
I’ve written about this before so won’t bore you with it again.
If you need a refresher go here

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/

and search for blueprint.

Love that ‘search’ function.

The next thing be has going on is the head trauma he
received from the jet ski accident. So  now you have a
system with underlying blueprint problems, so its healing
response is compromised to begin with, trying to deal
with a major trauma.

The the third layer is all the surgery and the ensuing
plates in his head.

It’s enough to make someone detach. .hmmmm. . .

It would be nice to deal with each thing separately but
in practice it probably won’t work out like that. It will
probably be a bit of a mash up of all three layers.

Probably the best way to deal with this is to see it as
whatever arises is what needs attention at that moment.

So in any given session the blueprint issue may come up,
then the head trauma, then the plates in his head, then the
head trauma again and so on.

The second chap sounds like a straightforward case of
birth trauma, if you can call any case of birth trauma
straight forward.

It sounds like he is stuck in chronic alarm as a result
of his birth.  I have found that issues relating to Mother
can often end up in the lungs and chest area.
I suggest you focus your treatment on the birth trauma
first, then as the separation anxiety begins to ease you
can focus on what remains of the asthma.

***QUESTION***

Hello John

I have been practicing CST for two years, but have the most
amazing results since switching to the biodynamic style of
work.  I am always enthralled by the intelligence of the body,
as it guides the healing process. Clients are just as
captivated, felling me remaining absolutely still while the
Breath of Life takes over within them.

Recently I have seen two people with head injuries, one
from a surfboard blow, the other from a fall backwards onto
the occiput. The first man was blown away, exclaiming that
his head had completely changed shape over our three sessions,
and that he could sleep at night, something rare in his
experience. During a large part of his session time his body
chose to work on trauma from ear surgery 3 years ago, for
which he was relieved and grateful. The second client, a woman,
felt as though a veil was lifted from her head after the first
session, she almost needed to wear sunglasses, the world looked
so bright and clear. She still had some nausea and dizziness
but was well enough to drive herself to the second session.

Sometimes I feel in my own body what is happening with the
client, and other times I sense directly what they are
experiencing. Can you shed any light on this?

Christine Whitelaw

Moruya NSW
Australia

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Hello Christine,
Thanks for sharing your stories. It sounds like you are
doing great work.

Now to your question. When you are treating someone your
system becomes entrained with theirs.  Entrainment is a
multi-spectrum connection that includes a lot more than
just your cranio sacral rhythms coming into sync.

Once entrainment happens the persons system will show
you everything you need for the session.  Sometimes this
is a strong sense of what the person is feeling.  At other
times you might feel what they are feeling directly in
your own body.

Feeling things in your own body is fine in small doses
but if it is persistent it can be tiring.
If you can’t stop feeling things in your body and it
becomes a problem you might want to look at your boundaries.

So that’s it for this issue.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.