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
+ Comment from Cathryn Nitschke in Australia
about her Osteopathy training and how it
compares to cranio.
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.
