Archive for the ‘Training News’ Category
Jul
14
Posted by John Dalton on
July 14, 2008
I was invited to teach a Post Graduate Seminar to Cranio Sacral Therapists in Cape Town. The seminar was titled, ‘Expanding the Base.’ and I’m finally getting around to writing something about my trip.
In short, it was a great success.
The teaching side of it went particularly well, the participants got a chance to go beyond the limits of what they thought was possible. We explored the boundaries, we questioned our perception of reality, we reframed many of what are considered difficult aspects cranio sacral work, we looked into why people get sick, why they get better and how we can support the process better.
We definitely expanded the base.
I had a great time and judging from the smiling faces and hugs at the end of the seminar, I think the people attending had a good time too.
And sure look at them, don’t they look delighted.
With a little help I managed to video the whole thing so it will be available on DVD in the future.
The seminar was held in a conference centre that was once a convent. Still run by the nuns it reminded me of places I have taught at in Australia and Ireland. I think it was the scones that tipped me off. They were the same in all three countries and I’m guessing in all convents around the world. Munching on one at tea break I realised that McDonalds didn’t invent franchising after all.
Cape Town was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. It’s a city of converging oceans, colourful people and bloody big mountains. It felt like around every corner was a different pocket of the world; some parts reminded me of the Gold Coast, here in Queensland, others the Mediterranean. There were city high rises and small terraces, a bit like Paddington in Sydney. Shantytowns next to security guarded housing compounds. And all of it adding up to what I am beginning to register as the very distinctive flavour of Africa.
The last post grad I taught in South Africa was in Johannesburg in 2002. I found Cape Town very different in a positive way. The Jo-burgers bristled a little whenever I commented on this but I found the atmosphere so much easier in Cape Town. Kitya, the coordinator of the Cape Town CST school, told me that the crime rate is generally about the same in the two cities but I found Cape Town a lot freer of the intense paranoia that made Johannesburg feel like one long held breath, for me at least.
I so enjoyed catching up with my friend Al Pelowski again. He is the principal of both cranio sacral schools in Cape Town and Johannesburg. I hadn’t seen him in two and a half years but by the second glass of wine we had pretty much picked up where we’d left off. He is doing great teaching work there and beginning to set up lots of very good out reach programs in the community, including educational seminars on the facts, all the facts, of vaccination.
That’s us doing the self portrait thing at the early morning airport after the late night supping before.
I’m always made to feel made so welcome in South Africa and the people are so great. I look forward to returning soon.
.
Jul
14
Posted by John Dalton on
July 14, 2008
As adults we are no longer physically held in the way we were as
children. Full body release is a technique that holds us like a baby.
A team of cranio sacral therapists tune into a patient and literally
pick them up as they provide complete support for their system.
When provided with intentioned gravity-free support, our bodies
begin to release deep, full body patterns.
Wonderful and beautiful as it is, this is a technique that is used infrequently in practice as the logistics involved are prohibitive. A minimum of six cranio sacral therapists is required to make up a team. When each therapist has a busy practice this is not easily organised.
I use full body release as a post graduate workshop because it is an excellent tool for helping cranio sacral therapists gain a deeper sense of whole body patterns. They can take this knowledge back to their practice where it informs their one to one patient work.
Each participant at the workshop takes a turn leading a team and being a patient. At the beginning of the process the ‘patient’ is surrounded by the therapeutic team.
The team leader begins to tune into the patient’s cranio sacral system and calls in the other therapists as they are needed.
As the patient’s system begins to release and unwind it stretchs out. The team follow this and give support as the patient becomes airborne.
My role in the process is to monitor the patient and team and offer assistance where needed.
The patient’s body goes through and intricate ballet of movement that the therapeutic team must keep up and follow accurately, holding as the patient’s system releases. Like a big piece of cellophane that has been scrunched up for years, once given the right support, it begins to unravel.
There is continual communication between the lead therapist and the patient.
The process feels timeless but eventually draws to a natural close and the patient returns to the ground. Their system is settled by the lead therapist and the team takes a well earned rest. We then go through a debriefing process where we assess the effectiveness of the team.
What sketching is to artists, full body release is to cranio sacral therapists. It gives them a chance to deepen their palpatory skill and get a broader sense of full body patterns. When they return to their practices and are once again working alone with their patients, the benefits of the full body release seminar are evident.
The main feedback I get about this seminar from the therapists is how much more they can feel in their patient’s body.
Jul
14
Posted by John Dalton on
July 14, 2008
Jenny Palmer invited me to give a postgraduate seminar in Brisbane in April 07. I delivered my ‘Core Success’ seminar, which is a seminar for therapists generally not just cranio sacral therapists. As well as the Brisbane folk, some therapists flew up from Sydney. Here is what Jenny has to say about it.
Lost and Found - gifts from John Dalton’s Core Success workshop in Australia.
by Jenny Palmer.
If you’ve ever been fishing, you’ll know that casting the line out may be the trickiest part. It’s important to get the bait right out to where the fish are biting.
Sometimes, you find huge balls of tangled fishing line amongst the rocks, where someone did that thing where the line spools out into a giant knot behind you, instead of flying cleanly through the air in front of you. In desperation, they cut the line and get rid of the giant knot instead of spending hours trying to undo it.
So what’s that got to do with a craniosacral workshop?
Well, before John came back to Australia to do the seminar, I had loads of questions - about my practice, about some people I’m treating and about cranio in general. It felt a bit like a giant ball of knotted fishing line. There had been years of ’stuff’ happening in my personal life as well that seemed to have sucked the essence of ‘hope’ from my being.
So, the day of the Core Success workshop finally dawned and in I went, expecting to get loads of answers. John welcomed everyone and began the day with the statement that he had ‘no answers for anyone’.
Great! I thought…….
What John was going to attempt to do was to help everyone realise that they inherently had the answers all along. (I thought, ‘Like a good cranio session perhaps?’)
Using simple exercises (the ‘interactive’ part), there began a gradual awakening to John’s opening statement. It’s often shocking when things are revealed to you in seemingly simple ways. It reminds me of my own inner ‘complicatedness’. My brain gets in the way at times and wants to know everything - right now - please!
After a couple of these interactive exercises, I couldn’t really remember my list of questions. They’d disappeared, or the couple I could remember seemed to not really be questions at all. (That may be categorised as having a ’seniors’ moment, but I don’t think so.) It was like holding that big ball of knotted fishing line and all you really have to do is find that one little strand that seems to hold it all together - the more you dig your fingers in and search, the more frustrated you get. The tighter the knots seem to get. But if you just sit with it, soften your eyeballs and really look at it, see how the threads are running, the one bit that holds it together will become apparent. Just loosen it, a little, and see how the ball of knots falls apart, slowly, slowly, easily…
As the day progressed, I got some wonderful insights into myself and my practice and the people I’m treating and how I’m approaching everything. I had been having some serious doubts about myself, and my ability to help some people. My hope had taken a battering. That had also affected my faith, in myself.
Some of what I really got was:
• We’re NOT in the business of imparting wisdom (that’s a relief in itself).
• We don’t teach people to ride a bike by riding it for them.
• Assumption - if people come to me they want to get better.
• Assumption - when it looks like you’re sharing a reality, you’re not.
• We really don’t want to know the end of the movie before we see it
- even if it is a happy ending.
• Our biggest trap is success (you think you know for certain what’s going on).
• The other main trap is failure (you’re certain you’re no good).
And the most beautiful, yet unsettling thing?
You’re part of the liberation that you might not even see……
And that’s the beauty of the mysterious, still places that we go to every day as therapists. Or, as that infamous ex US Defence Secretary once said. “As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
Makes perfect sense to a craniosacral therapist.
We (craniosacral therapists) are pioneers. And that’s tough in itself. It’s enriching to get together with other practitioners and students and just chat. I wish we could do that more often. In the meantime, I sit back in that great ‘armchair’ and find the stillness that’s demanded of us the most (and remember, you can’t see round corners).
The day was lovely - I want to thank John. For his wisdom and insight and understanding.
He created a still place for us all (calming and unsettling) - inspiring, gentle, nourishing, illuminating, warm (just like a good cranio session?). What I got from that day is still unravelling in myself, and in my practice. I’ve really moved forward with what I want to be doing, and it’s falling very nicely into place.
I can’t wait for next year’s workshop - I’m starting on my list of questions now. (Kidding!)
Jenny Palmer
www.ynt.com.au
Jul
02
Posted by John Dalton on
July 2, 2008
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 imitative 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
