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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A key aspect of energy is that Energy Follows Thought.

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

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

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

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

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

Now hold that thought while you feel the next bit.

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

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

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

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

Confused? Here is a diagram that will help.

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

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

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Fundamentally Cranio Sacral Therapy helps remove trauma from the body. This can be physical trauma, like a car accident, a fall on the back steps or a difficult birth.

Trauma can also be emotional like a deep shock, prolonged unhappiness or witnessing violence. Trauma leaves an imprint in the body, which over time can inhibit normal function and cause pain.

In the example of a car accident, the broken bones and lacerations caused by the accident will heal within a matter of months, but the physical after-effects can go on for years. This is because the crash leaves a deep but subtle imprint in the body. Over time these imprinted patterns of restriction can inhibit the body’s natural function causing an array of symptoms, which progressively worsen.

The body tries to release these patterns of restriction from the moment they are imprinted. Under the right circumstances it can spontaneously free itself of these restrictive patterns, but if the imprint is too intense it overwhelms the body’s ability to effect a release.
Cranio Sacral therapy works with this naturally occurring release mechanism, inducing the ‘right’ circumstances under which a natural release occurs.

With emotional trauma, the process of imprinting a restriction pattern happens in the same way. An intense emotional trauma can be imprinted in the body leaving restrictions, which can cause significant physical problems.

Treatment

There are two aspects to the process of Cranio Sacral treatment. The first is to locate the primary restriction causing the problem. The second is to encourage this restriction to release.

We use highly refined palpatory skills to perceive areas of restriction. Palpation is defined as ‘examining by touch’ or ‘listening with the hands’. It relates to how things feel with your hands.

Rather than pushing or manipulating the body into a set or ‘correct’ position, we use techniques to assist the body to release its own restrictions.
When restrictions are released in this way they are gone for good. Once a treatment program is complete there are no follow up or maintenance programs.

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HOW ARE RESTRICTIONS RELEASED?

We use two approaches
✬ Indirect technique
✬ Direct technique

It is through a combination of indirect and direct technique that restrictions can be assisted to release.

INDIRECT TECHNIQUE

Indirect technique requires the skill of being able to follow the body to the point of restriction.

FOLLOWING
Following the Body is a skill that takes a lot of practice to get proficient at. Without getting too flowery about it, it’s a bit like singing along to a song. It requires you to keep in time and in tune so that your singing harmonises with the music. The combination of the music and your singing produces something more than the individual components.

If you put your body in a flotation tank it will generally start to move because when your body has a gravity free environment it begins to unravel.

Like a piece of cellophane that has been you crinkled up in your hands. When you let it go it begins to unravel.

Following the body means providing this gravity free environment in which the body begins to move. The skill comes in following the dance.

Indirect technique is a process of Unlatching.

You are at a door that is locked. There is a key in the lock but when you try to turn it the key is stuck. You lean your weight against the door, pushing it even further closed knowing this will give the barrel of the lock the space it needs to turn.
While pushing the door in, you try the key again and it turns freely.
You release the door and it springs open.

Indirect technique works in a similar way. It is one of the gems of the cranio sacral approach. It takes the view that substantial permanent release can be achieved by following the body into the pattern of restriction.

If one of my vertebrae has been displaced to the left by a trauma, a whole pattern will have been established around the vertebrae that will keep it displaced to the left.

No amount of pushing to the right is going to keep the vertebrae in line permanently. If that approach is taken the vertebrae will keep ‘popping out’ and will need to be ‘put back in’ with increasing regularity.

A permanent release and subsequent realignment can be achieved by following the vertebrae into the pattern of restriction, that is to the left. At the point of the trauma the restriction will release and the vertebrae will return to alignment naturally.

Indirect technique, going with the restriction pattern.

DIRECT TECHNIQUE

Direct technique is used when indirect technique fails to achieve a release. The restriction pattern has been felt and the therapist knows the structure needs to release in a certain direction. Direct technique is moving in that direction against the restriction.

Direct technique works because of another gem of the cranio sacral approach; a little pressure over a long period of time can move mountains.

You have just made a peanut butter sandwich. You suddenly decide you want to put jam in your sandwich too. If you pull the pieces of bread apart too quickly you will tear them. But if you apply a small amount of pressure and wait, the two pieces of bread will come apart in time.

You are in a lake. In front of you is a huge yacht. You have to move it 200m from one jetty to another. You run at the boat and push it with all your strength. (Not easy when you are waist deep in water holding a peanut butter sandwich.) The boat hardly moves. Luckily you are a trained cranio sacral therapist and you apply direct technique. You place your index finger against the boat, applying a small amount of pressure and you wait. In time you will see that this huge boat has moved and if you continue you will cover the 200m in no time.

Direct technique, going against the restriction pattern.

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Every interaction that occurs between a cranio sacral therapist and the person you are treating follows the same general outline.

❍ Tuning in to yourself and then the patient
Tuning in means being open to receive whatever the person’s system wants to reveal to you. Tuning in is making yourself available for communication.

It is important to approach the person with as little going on inside yourself as possible. Our thinking is often unconscious to us. We need to tune into ourselves (make it conscious) to see what is going on in there before we approach another.

As we tune into ourselves we can drop as much tension in our bodies and unnecessary thinking as possible. Once we have
made a ‘blank slate’ of ourselves we can then approach the person and tune in to them.

❍ Following the body
This is giving the body the space in which to move and the sensitivity to follow it.

❍ Holding Against Restrictions
Following is important but it will be pointless if the therapist doesn’t identify the restriction and hold against them at the right time.

❍ Waiting for Release
It is vital to allow the body time to release in. You may find yourself in an awkward position or just get bored, but you must wait on the body, trusting that it will release.

❍ Following through
Following through is continuing to follow the dance once the release has occurred. It means avoiding just plonking the limb or whatever part of the body you are working on, back on the table when you are finished.

❍ Reassessing
This means standing back and looking at the bigger picture in the light of the new release you have helped to achieve. What difference has it made? What does that difference prompt you to do next?

The above goes on in the larger scale of the whole treatment program, in each session, in each technique and in each release within each technique.

So the fundamental cranio sacral treatment approach is

❍ Tuning in to yourself and then the person
❍ Following the body
❍ Holding against Restrictions
❍ Waiting for Release
❍ Following through
❍ Reassessing

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In the video above I go through the difference between Attention and Intention and how we use intention in craniosacral therapy.

Here are some other aspects of intention to consider. We use intention to help restrictions release. Intention has the potential to sound almost mystical. Particularly when the therapist works on the head from the feet, which can happen from time to
time. Intention is similar to attention but includes intent.

You are in a forest. A young boy is hiding behind a tree about 1 meter away from you. 10 meter in front of him you can see a young girl whom you suspect is his sister. She is hiding behind another tree. In the distance you can see their father looking for them. You are enjoying the reactions of the children in their game of hide and seek.

What you are using in the forest is your attention.

You look at the boy close to you, then the girl in the middle distance and then the father in the distance. When you are looking at the girl you are aware of the boy and his father, because they are all in your line of sight, but your attention is on the girl. The same when you look at the boy or his father.

Attention has no intent in it. It is simply the focus of your observation. With intention we are talking about the focus of our palpation. What level or depth you are working in the person’s body. Like the princess and the pea, we feel through all the mattresses (layers of fascia) to the pea (restriction) at the bottom.

You are six years old. Your grandmother has sent you a Christmas gift in the mail. Your parents place it under the Christmas tree and say you can’t open it until Christmas morning. As soon as you are alone you pick up the package and start to feel it. It feels like it might be a doll. But Granny has wrapped the doll in something before she put the wrapping paper on. It feels like bubble wrap. It is kind of squeaky and plasticy.

You are palpating through two layers now, the wrapping paper and the bubble wrap.

Opps! You have popped the dolls leg out accidentally. You can feel it through the dolls clothing. (That’s three layers you are palpating through.)

After some wriggling and squiggling you manage to get the dolls leg back in its socket. You have done this without ever contacting the dolls leg directly. You have used a form of intention to put the dolls leg back in place.

In Cranio Sacral Therapy we use our intention in a similar way to help structures to release, that are impossible to contact directly.

You can read my answer to a question about intention in the newsletter archive here.

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You are in the fruit and veg department of the supermarket. You pull a bag from the roll provided. You are talking to your friend as you try to open the bag. You rub the end of the bag between your thumb and finger. After a couple of attempts you realise that you are trying to open the wrong end of the bag. If you look closely at where you have been trying to open the bag, you will see that your thumb and finger have left an imprint in the bag. You could say there is a pattern of restriction in the bag. If you smoothed out the imprint as best you could, you would still not be able to get the fine creases out of the plastic.

This is similar to the way restriction patterns are formed. The body undergoes a trauma of some kind. Let us say a car accident. The impact of the steering wheel on the body puts a large pattern of trauma in the body. Broken bones, lacerations etc. The body can release much of the pattern of restriction but it may not be able to release the entire pattern (the fine creases in the plastic). The residual pattern of restriction is what causes the symptoms that the person comes to you for help with.

You might wonder why these patterns of restriction are not detected and treated with expensive machinery, like MRI machines. Also how could such small residual patterns of restriction be so devastating?

To get an idea of what goes on in the body think of fascia as being like 20 layers of glad wrap one on top of another with a thin layer of fluid between each layer. When your body is functioning normally each layer glides over the next. If you poked your finger into the middle of those layers the imprint left by your finger would totally compromise the glad wrap’s ability to move one layer over the other. Take the above small analogy and multiply it by 1,000 and you will begin to get an idea of the effect patterns of restriction can have in the body. The machines are good but they are not looking for widespread minute restrictions.

Patterns of restriction are often wide spread but like anything that is creased, some parts are more creased than others. They are called focal points, trauma focuses or energy cysts.

Patterns of trauma are usually complex because the body moves as it is impacted. So in the example above the person would not have a steering wheel shaped pattern of restriction imprinted in the area of their body where they struck the steering wheel. The pattern of restriction will include the way their body moved as it was thrown around in the accident.

If you have ever seen crash simulations using dummies you will know that they move around a lot during the impact.

Also to be considered is the depth the pattern is imprinted in the body.

You have a large bowl of jelly and a ball bearing. You hold the ball bearing 5cms above the surface of the jelly and let it fall. It hardly breaks the surface of the jelly. You retrieve the ball bearing and drop it into the jelly from a height of 1 meter. The ball bearing has now embedded itself into the jelly to quite a depth.

With patterns of restriction the greater the force of the trauma the deeper into the body it is imprinted.

EMOTIONS
Emotional trauma also lodges in the body and can cause restrictions equal in severity to patterns of restriction formed in a purely physical way.

You are six years old. You are walking past a building site. A brick falls off the scaffold and hits you on the shoulder breaking your clavicle. 40 years later you have frozen shoulder.

You are six years old. Your father is angrily telling you that you are stupid. As he does this he taps you on the shoulder with his finger to make the point. 40 years later you have frozen shoulder.

The memory of these events may not be in the conscious mind, but stored in the cells of our bodies. In the course of a Cranio Sacral session these memories can spring into the conscious mind as patterns of restriction are releasing.

TISSUE MEMORY
If you find the notion of ‘Tissue Memory’ difficult to accept, think of it this way; videotape is made of plastic with iron filings stuck on its surface. There is nothing too amazing about that, yet when the videotape is played through the VCR and we watch the film, we laugh and cry and become emotionally engaged. The cells in our bodies are a lot more complex than videotape. They store an incredible amount of information and perform a mind boggling number of tasks every second, it is very plausible that they can also store individual memory.

TRAUMA RELEASE
Patterns of restriction release when the body returns to the position it was in when the trauma was imprinted. For example if a person’s frozen shoulder was caused years before by their arm being violently. Then the pattern of restriction resulting from that trauma will release when the arm is in the exact position it was in when the trauma occurred, in this case bent backwards.

When the body returns to the exact position that the trauma occurred in, a spontaneous release occurs.

It would be practically impossible for the therapist to find the exact body position a particular trauma occurred in based on the person’s memory and external guesswork. Luckily for us we don’t need to work it out because the body remembers. The cranio sacral therapist tunes into the body and allows it to move. With skillful following the body will lead the therapist to the point where the trauma occurred.

The cranio sacral therapist uses the body’s memory of the trauma and follows it knowing that with timely and appropriate assistance it will release it’s own restrictions.

We will go into patterns of restriction in great depth as your training progresses. For now, knowledge of patterns of restriction will give an appreciation of what you have at your fingertips as you practice.

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