November 22 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.facebook.com/

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

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

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

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

Finished?

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

***QUESTION***

Hi John

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

Odile Grisel

http://www.odilegrisel.com.au

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Odile,
Thank you for your email.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep it up

Al

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Al, you describe things real sweet.

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus

*As with all anatomy I suggest you search for each new term on google then click on the ‘Images’ tab at the top of the page.  Look at as many different pictures of each structure, from as many different angles as you can. Then look at it on the Visible Body. This will help you get a 3 dimensional image of the structure in your head.

The Ventricular System is a system of cavities and canals deep within the brain and spinal cord. They have a thin membranous lining called the Ependyma.  The whole Ventricular System is filled with Cerebrospinal Fluid. The Ventricular System consists of four ventricles connected by various communicating channels.

These are:

❍ Two lateral Ventricles (1st and 2nd Ventricles) located within the two cerebral hemispheres, each of which communicates via an inter-ventricular foramen to

❍ The third Ventricle located between the two Thalami of the brain.
The Third ventricle communicates inferiorly through the cerebral aqueduct (aqueduct of sylvius) to

❍ The fourth Ventricle located between the Cerebellum (posteriorly) and the Pons and Medulla (anteriorly).  The fourth Ventricle is continuous inferiorly with the central canal passing down the centre of the Spinal Cord.

In the roof of each of the four ventricles are located Choroid Plexi.
These are filter like structures through which Cerebrospinal Fluid is formed as a filtrate from arterial blood.  Arterial blood enters the Choroid Plexi from the cerebral arteries; then blood cells, proteins and other large particles are filtered out (remaining in the blood).  The pure colourless fluid that filters through this Choroid Plexi into the Ventricular System is Cerebrospinal Fluid.

HOW DOES CEREBROSPINAL FLUID GET OUT OF THE VENTRICULAR SYSTEM?

In the posterior and lateral walls of the fourth ventricle are three foramina -

The Foramen of Magendie (medial aperture), posteriorly, and
Two Foramina of Luschka (lateral apertures), bilaterally.

Cerebrospinal Fluid flows throughout the Ventricular System. It passes out through the Foramina of Magendie and Luschka into the sub-arachnoid space where it circulates throughout the Sub-arachnoid space around the Brain and Spinal Cord.

Cerebrospinal Fluid also seeps through the walls of the ventricles into the nerve tissue of the Brain and Spinal Cord.  From the sub-arachnoid space it seeps through the Pia Mater into the tissues of the Brain and Spinal Cord. Cerebrospinal Fluid also seeps out with the peripheral nerves of the spinal cord as they leave the Central Nervous System and travel out to the periphery.

REABSORBTION
Cerebrospinal Fluid is eventually returned to the blood via the Arachnoid Villi which protrude from the sub-arachnoid space through to the Superior Sagittal Sinus of the Brain. It re-joins the Venous blood which then drains from the Venous Sinuses via the Internal Jugular Vein to be returned to the heart.

So the direction of flow is,

• Arterial blood is pumped into the Choroid Plexi in the roofs of the Ventricles where it is filtered into cerebrospinal fluid.
• The lateral ventricles drain into the Third Ventricle via Inter-ventricular foramina.
• The third ventricle drains into the Aqueduct of Sylvius to the Forth Ventricle.
• It is in the Fourth Ventricle that the cerebrospinal fluid leaves the ventricles and enters the sub arachnoid space via the foramina of Luschka and Magendie. (It also travels down the central canal of the spinal cord.)
• It travels throughout the sub arachnoid space.
• Some of it seeps out with the peripheral nerves and is reabsorbed as an extracellular fluid.
• The bulk of it is reabsorbed by the arachnoid granulations of the arachnoid villi. These transform it into Venous blood as they deposit it into the Venous sinuses, particularly the superior sagittal sinus.

<< Back to Basics 1 syllabus