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.

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.