February 26 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ The CST steak knives set.
+ Facial bone movement revisited (how knowing how to describe it could save your life)
+ Why do we need to learn anatomy and technique if the work is fundamentally energetic?

Hello John,

I’m feeling a bit like a steak knife salesman
in an infomercial because I’m excited!!
I’m excited about all the great stuff I’ve
added to my web sites. . . and it’s all just for
you.
No, don’t thank me, just call the number at the
bottom of your screen now.

In the ‘Patient Resources’ section of my sites
I have added Free downloadable Articles and Books!

There is a great article by Al Pelowski about
treating a new born baby that won’t stop having
seizures and another one by Trish Banks about how
to address the emotional needs of the family,
particularly the children, when going through
separation and divorce.  It’s basically a mine
field map and excellent stuff.
There are the Wallace D Wattle books.  That’s
right all three of them.  The science of getting
rich, being well and being great.

As you might have noticed, it is giving me a
lot of pleasure to finally get around to making
all this great information available.
You can direct your patients to the page and
let them get whatever article they want or you can
print out the article you feel is relevant and
then give it to them.
John Upledger, Peter Levine, Jim Jealous, there
all here at

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/resources/downloads.html

But wait there’s more!

I have finished the ‘CST Therapist and Student
Resources’ section.  So now you can find all those
cranio sacral books you have been looking for, all
in the one place.
Edward Muntinga’s excellent 3D Cranio sacral
DVD is there too.  It is such an excellent tool
for getting your head around the way the cranio
sacral system moves.

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/resources/

And it just gets better!!

Etienne and Neeto Peirsman have just brought
out a book about Craniosacral Therapy for Babies
and Small Children.  It has heaps of very cute
pictures of Etienne treating babies.
Get a warm glow here. http://www.craniobabies.com/
Now I know where Geppetto ended up.
Pinocchio will be so pleased.

But that’s not all!!

I’ve been keeping the best till last!!!
I finally managed to do something I’ve wanted to do
for ages.
No, not combine roller balding and hang gliding,
though I am getting closer on that one.
No, what I’ve finally managed to do is set it up so
you can now download Free Anatomical Animations from my
sites.
You can see a fetus and a developing embryo here

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/embryonic-development/

Phew! I think I need a lie down after all that
excitement.  So while I’m doing that
let’s have a look at the mail bag.
Okay, there’s no bag really.
It just sounds better than saying, ‘Let’s have
a look in the Inbox.’

***QUESTION***

Hi John,
Just a quick question on your last issue about the
face.  I didn’t get the box on the balloon thing
for the face.  It sounded good but I just didn’t
get it.  The movement of the facial bones is
something I had given up on being able to
verbalise.
I can feel it but couldn’t describe it to save my
life.  I do know if I could get my left brain
involved it would good.
Any (other) ideas?

Saludos
F.K.
Berkeley, CA.

MY COMMENTS:

Man, your letter made me laugh.  I immediately
had this mental image of you having to describe
the movement of the facial bones to save your
life.

There you are with a gun to your head and the
villain whispering menacingly in your ear, ‘Just
tell me the way the vomer moves in flexion and no
one needs to get hurt.’

What a hoot.
Far be it from me to get in the way of you
living to a ripe old age so I’ll do my best to get
you out of danger.

Let me explain why you may be having trouble.
We all have a predominance in the sense that we
receive information through.  The common
descriptors for this are visual, auditory and
kinaesthetic.  Smell and taste are included under
kinaesthetic.
Visual people will receive information by
seeing.  Auditory people will receive information
by hearing and kinaesthetic people will receive
information by feeling.

Our predominance shows itself in the way we
communicate.
A visual person will say, ‘I SEE what you
mean.’
An auditory person will say,  ‘It SOUNDS like
you understand.’
And a kinaesthetic person will say, ‘I FEEL
like you both missed the point.’

Learning styles is a large field and well worth
knowing about so you can adapt your language to
you improve your communication.   If you know what
type of person you are talking to, visual,
auditory or kinaesthetic, you can adjust your
language to the way they will best receive what
you are saying.
You can find out more about it here.

http://www.vaknlp.com/

http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm

http://www.grapplearts.com/Learning-Styles-in-Grappling.htm

So I hope you see what I mean and you are now
feeling like you will be able to really hear me on
this facial bone thing.  (That should cover all my
bases.)

I am guessing you are predominantly
kinaesthetic.  So my description of the cranium
and face being like a balloon with a box stuck on
the front didn’t really hit the mark with you
because it is a visual metaphor.

Here’s the good news.
Once you know about these learning styles you
can translate one style into another or more
importantly into your own style.
So in this case I suggest you get a balloon and
inflate it but not too much.  Then draw a face on
it. Then pull it into extension and squash it into
flexion.  Do it a few times until you can really
feel it.  Then get a little box and tape it to the
balloon.  Then make the balloon go through flexion
and extension a few more times. Watch the way the
box moves as you do this.

Taking my visual metaphor and turning it into
something you can actually feel should make it
instantly understandable to you.

You can translate anything you are having
difficulty learning into your own learning style.
Kinaesthetic people can make models of everything.
Visual people can translate everything to
pictures, graphs and diagrams.  Auditory people
can translate everything to sound, musical if
possible.

Another really powerful thing that kinaesthetic
people can do is include smell and taste wherever
possible and practical.  These are very powerful
senses and will really lock it in.

You are right about getting your left brain
involved.  It is very important.   I am going to
talk about it more in my response to the next
letter so I won’t go on about it here.

One last tip, stay away from medically
inquisitive villains that carry guns – it will end
in tears.  Probably obvious but someone had to say
it.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,

I am a year into my cranial studies and very
excited and captivated by the beauty of this work.

I avidly consume everything I can about cranio
sacral and have read most of the major works.

In Hugh Milne’s books he talks about this work
being fundamentally energetic yet goes into great
detail about anatomy and technique.  John
Upledger’s earlier books are very technical and
mechanical but his later books are more spiritual.
Franklyn Sills books are mostly spiritual and
philosophical with some mechanical stuff and
William Sutherland’s writing is very spiritual.

You haven’t written a book but the topics you
cover in your newsletters (Thanks by the way,
they’re great.) range form very specific and
technical to very ‘out there.’

What I am trying to understand is if this work is
fundamentally energetic then why do we need to
learn all this anatomy and technique?  If it is
all so fluid why so much structure?

Looking forward to your answer and your book if
you ever write one.

Joe
Sydney.

MY COMMENTS:

Well Joe, I HAVE written a book (sniff, sniff,
pout, pout) it’s just not about cranio sacral per
se.

Anyway I’ll pull in my bottom lip for a minute
and answer your question.

Yes, this work is fundamentally energetic but
it doesn’t follow that we don’t need to learn
technique or to know about anatomy and physiology.

That would be like saying that playing a
musical instrument is basically about passion and
expression so why do we need to practice the
scales or learn how to read music.

Learning technique is like learning the scales
on a musical instrument or the mastering brush
strokes in painting.   Learning physiology and
anatomy is like learning to read music or the
rules of perspective in drawing.

Once these skills are mastered and the
knowledge becomes part of you then you are into
the expression and passion side of things.  At
that point your craniosacral work will be very
energetic.

Got it?

Not really.

Okay, here are a couple of stories to
illustrate the point.

I have been roller blading for about 7 years
now.  In the beginning I just got it into my head
that I wanted to learn so I bought myself some
skates and went to the nearest bike track and just
. .  started.

I fell over a lot but with practice got the
hang of it.  Within a couple of weeks I was able
to go forward without falling over and was very
pleased with myself.

If you had asked me back then if I could roller
blade I would have said yes and I would have been
right, to a point.

I skated like that for 4 years.  Then I
befriended someone who was a roller blading
instructor.  I thought the idea of having lessons
was a bit below me, I was self taught after all,
but I gave it a go.

The difference was remarkable.  With a few
simple lessons and practicing some simple drills I
was skating better, faster, for far greater
distances, with greater ease and confidence going
up and down hills I would never have dreamed of
and all with a lot more safety.

4 years of skating hadn’t actually improved my
skating.  I discovered that practice doesn’t make
perfect it just makes permanent.  It wasn’t until
I had those lessons and practiced the right things
and yes, some of the drills I had to practice were
boring, that I really began to skate.

When I am out skating now, I sometimes pass
someone who reminds me of what I must have looked
like before I had those lessons.  Sweating a lot,
working very hard but inefficiently and with very
little grace or control.

Here’s my second story.

One day a Zen master cam upon a group of men.
A large boulder had become dislodged in a
landslide and the men were trying to shift it out
of the road.  They had obviously been at it for a
while because they were covered in sweat.  It was
also obvious that they weren’t having any success
because the boulder hadn’t moved an inch.

The men recognised the Zen master and asked him
if he could help.  He told them to have a rest
while he reviewed the situation.  The men sat on
the grass and watched the master closely.

He walked around the boulder once and then came
to a stop at a point that seemed significant to
him but didn’t look any different to the men.

He placed his two hands on the boulder and
began to apply gentle pressure to the boulder.
The men looked at each other thinking the master
had gone a bit soft in the noggin.

Suddenly the boulder began to move and rolled
off the road.  The men were astonished.  They
rushed forward cheering and congratulating the
master.

When they asked him how he did it, he replied
that the difficult part was seeing which way the
boulder wanted to go.  Once he saw that he simply
helped it go the way it wanted to go.

I love that story.  I read it about 18 years
ago and I’ve never forgotten it.  The thing about
it is that if you took the master aside and asked
him how he ‘saw’ which way the boulder wanted to
go he would have told you that it took him years
to get to the point where he could see it.

He would tell you that when he started out
years beforehand he was just like the men
struggling.  He would then tell you how he had
gone through a series of learning steps to get to
the point where he could see.

But you never get that kind of ‘behind the
scenes’ with those Zen stories you just get the
wisdom.  Which is great but it can make you feel
like you will never be as cool and have ‘moving
really big boulders’ as your party trick.

Cranio sacral teachers are faced with a
dilemma.  They have had the dazzling insight that
it is, as you say, all energetic but they also
know that they did a lot of ground work to get to
the insight.

Good teachers manage to convey both aspects.
The need to learn good techniques so it can lead
to the fluidity of expression.

My experience of teaching students who had been
through trainings that focused on the end result
and left out the steps to get there was that they
were very broad spectrum in their approach.

Lots of very colourful descriptions about how
they and the patients body were feeling but very
little specific information about what the root
cause was physically and mechanically.  And when
questioned more closely, had a very shaky grasp on
the anatomy of the region they were describing.

Here’s another reason to know the anatomy and
physiology.  Once you start to become competent in
cranio sacral work the word of mouth builds
quickly.  But the word of mouth won’t be about how
cranio sacral therapy works it will be just that
you were able to help someone.   When people come
to see you they will often be doing so against the
consensus of their friends and family.

The fact that you can understand the language
their doctor uses and can explain the physical
aspect of their symptoms to them in language that
is familiar and similar to the language their
doctor uses goes a long way to soothing their
concerns.

Which explanation do you think sounds most
reassuring?

‘Your head feels very tight and heavy and I’m
sensing a lot of tension on the left side.  It
feels very red and angry.’

or

‘Your head feels to me like it is overfull with
cerebrospinal fluid.  The reason for this is that
one of the bones that forms the floor of you skull
on the left hand side, the particular bone is
called your temporal bone, is being pulled inwards
by the membrane that attaches to it.

This has the effect of pinching your jugular
vein because the hole that your jugular vein goes
through is actually formed in the junction of your
temporal bone and another bone called your
occipital bone.

Blood is pumped into your head by your heart
but there is nothing in your head pumping the
blood back out again.  So it’s really important
that the channels of drainage out of your head
are clear and unrestricted.

One of those channels of drainage is your
jugular vein.  So you can see that if it is
pinched then the blood being pumped into your head
can’t drain out as quickly as it needs to.  So you
get the sort of pressure build up that can cause
the sorts of headaches you are getting.’

Learn the physiology and anatomy Joe and master
all the techniques.  They will lead you to mastery
of the energetic work at the heart of cranio
sacral.

So that’s it for this issue.  Your
steak knives are in the mail.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

May 06 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ How to convince Doctors of the validity of cranio sacral therapy?
+ Migraine question.
+ Do you have to get ‘hands on’ when treating post vasectomy pain?

Hello,
I’m just back from a trip to Brisbane where I
was delivering my ‘Core Success’ seminar.
How did it go?
Very well, thank you for asking.

It was great meeting old friends and some new
ones too.  Some of the very first students I taught
in Australia were there, though they are seasoned
therapists now, and some therapists I hadn’t met
before, some of whom flew up from Sydney especially
for the event.

Jenny Palmer, who organised the seminar, is
going to write something about it so I will pass it
on when she does.

Lastly I want to point you to this wonderful picture I came across in the National Geographic. The man lying in the hospital bed is only days after open-heart surgery. He is having cranio sacral therapy.  I like the picture because it is confirmation of where cranio sacral therapy is heading.  But I’m getting ahead of myself,  as you will see when we get into the first letter in the mailbag.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,
I recently had a patient who told their Doctor they
were having craniosacral therapy.  The Doctor
dismissed it out of hand saying there was no
scientific basis for it and discouraged her from
‘wasting her money’.
My patient told me she wasn’t keen to continue
treatment.
I intend to visit the Doctor in question and see if
I can’t change his mind.
I know Dr John Upledger has done some scientific
studies on CST, I am just wondering if you know of
any other studies or can suggest some good
arguments for the validity of CST.
Thank you for your newsletters.

C.S.
Sydney.

MY COMMENTS:

I was only talking about this at the seminar in
Brisbane the other day.  The simplest way to
explain it is to ask you to look towards the
future.  About one or two hundred years in the
future.

Medicine will look very different.  The
exclusively mechanical model that is currently in
vouge will have expanded to include an appreciation
for the body’s ability to fix itself.  Cranio
sacral therapy, or whatever it is called then, will
feature largely.

Every ambulance and para-medical team will
include a cranio sacral therapist.  Emergency rooms
will include cranio sacral therapists as standard
members of staff.  Maternity wards, and in
particular, delivery rooms will all have cranio
sacral therapists.  Every child born will receive
cranio sacral treatment within the first hours of
life.
Rehabilitation facilities will be dealt with
predominantly by cranio sacral therapists.  The
treatment of chronic pain and illness will rely
heavily on cranio sacral therapy to provide lasting
solutions.
Inmate rehabilitation programs in prisons will
include cranio sacral therapy.  Children with
learning difficulties will receive cranio sacral
treatment as part of their special care.  The main
treatment for autism will be cranio sacral therapy.

On a hill there will be a golden castle where I
will ride out on my favourite unicorn, Tabatha.
No, hang on.
That last bit was a dream.

Now let’s come back to the present.  At the
moment, we are ahead of our time.  We are the front
runners, the pioneers.

The thing about being a pioneer is that it is
difficult.  Just ask anyone from the turn of the
century who was saying that one day humans would
walk on the moon. Or someone from the middle ages
who was saying that one day people would travel by
air.
Think about all the things that we take for
granted now, like radio and TV and the internet.
At one time they all seemed far fetched ideas.  Now
they are commonplace.

The flaws in the current medical model are
becoming more and more apparent to the general
public.  When you think about the future it doesn’t
make sense to seek the approval or ally yourself
with a model that is failing. This is one of the
reasons that I have never tried to convince a
Doctor of the validity of Cranio Sacral Therapy.

Another reason is that the methods of evaluation
and the science are not sophisticated enough yet to
measure what we do.  When they are sophisticated
enough than there will be more of a bridge for us
to talk.

Another reason is that we have not got our act
together enough as cranio sacral therapists.  There
is way too much infighting and ‘my-way-is the-
right-way’ sort of thing going on.  Too many 4-day
courses after which you can call yourself a cranio
sacral therapist.  Too much cranio sacral therapy
as an adjunct to other approaches.  We can’t even
stick to one name for crying out loud.
By the way I am renaming what I do, cranio-
vision-quest-bio-morphic-angelic-sacral-therapy-
approach.

Catchy, no?

Moving on.

It is like the underlying fear and insecurity
that often drives therapists to associations.  The
thinking being that if we all band together we will
be taken more seriously.

Which leads me to ask, by whom?
Doctors?  I don’t think so.
The public?  I doubt it.
In my experience the public will go with a
referral from someone they trust over any number of
qualifications and association memberships.

So I would discourage you from confronting the
Doctor.  Instead I encourage you to trust in the
part of your patient that brought her to see you.
It will do the right thing for her.

Also trust in the Doctor to acknowledge your
successes.

Your work hinges on your trust in the human
body’s ability to correct itself.  I am encouraging
you to trust in the body of humanity to correct
itself too.  It really is no different.

***QUESTION***

Hi John,

As always, these newsletters give me great insight,
so thank you for supplying us with it!

I just thought I’d give you some feedback about the
chronic fatigue client I posed a question about in
an earlier newsletter.

I treated the person before the newsletter reached
me, so didn’t have the added help from your
insights. I had been treating this woman for other
things for a while, when the time came to deal with
the chronic fatigue directly. In the space of only
3 weeks the whole issue seems to have been
resolved.

It started off with really good communication with
the hypothalamus, pituitary and membranes where
they were able to correct themselves and stay good.
Next week several past life traumas and associated
local restrictions needed to be released after
which chakras 1 and 2 were able to start releasing
their restrictions. The biggest problem was in the
2nd chakra where lots of damage had been done when
the client as a newborn was given drugs to
counteract kidney failure.

Those drugs caused damage to the nervous system,
which lasted for quite a few years. The result was
a very big block in the energy flow in the area.
I’m sure there were other contributing causes for
the chronic fatigue starting up 7 years ago, but it
wasn’t necessary to go into them. After one and a
half sessions over 3 days with work only with the
2nd chakra there was a definite endpoint, where her
whole body came to peace and I got a very strong
communication that that was the end of it.

She didn’t jump up and down like a two-year-old
right away, but has continued to get stronger and
more energetic every week since. She hasn’t had any
relapses since those treatments in November.

Question.
A friend of mine suffers really bad migraine and
I’m about to start looking for the reason. I don’t
know if it is always the same thing that is wrong
or if the causes are many and varied. I happened to
be there when my friend got really bad with the
migraine, so I tried to help. Someone else who was
there said migraine comes from the stomach
meridians being blocked and building up too much
pressure, giving pain behind the eyes (linking in
with the light fenomena sufferers experience) and
vomiting.
But when I sat with my sick friend and started to
tune in I got the feeling that that is only the
symptom, that the cause lies elsewhere, and her
pineal gland was very persistently engaging with me
and giving me the idea that the cause may have to
do with the pressure of fluid inside the head.

What is your experience in finding and treating the
cause of it?

Eva Kuhl Bornefelt
Central Coast
Australia

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for the feedback Eva.  I am glad your
chronic fatigue patient made such a good recovery.

The first thing that stood out to me about your
migraine question is when you said, ‘I’m about to
start looking for the reason.’  I encourage you to
change this approach.  I have found it much more
effective to let the reason find you.

Instead of actively looking for the reason,
which is a very active dynamic, I encourage you to
trust the persons system and be available for the
reason to reveal itself to you.

On the nuts and bolts department the pain behind
the eyes can often indicate tentorial tension.
This happens because of the recurrent, meningeal
branch of the mandibular branch of the trigeminal
nerve.  It can be referred pain from the tentorium.

If you were being drawn to the pineal gland then
I would go with that.  Because you also mentioned a
feeling of pressure I would check the integrity of
the aqueduct of Sylvius.  If it is restricted it
can cause back-pressure problems.  You can read
about a woman I treated with this very problem

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/cases/intracranialtension.html

***QUESTION***

Hello John,
A guy is coming to see me next week to see if I can
help him with his vasectomy pain. Have you had any
experience with this? And if so do you have to
treat it ‘hands on’ so to speak.  I’m not
homophobic or anything but I’m really hoping that
you don’t have to.

Thanks.

B.A.
Perth.

MY COMMENTS:

A hundred cheap jokes swirl around my mind but I
am a bigger man than that and much as I might like
to, I will resist.

Fear not.  You can have excellent success
without having to get hands on.  A lot of the
problems with vasectomy pain come from trauma
inflicted during the surgery where the surgeon tugs
over zealously on the vas deferens to get it clear
of the scrotum so they can get on with the
procedure.

When you look at the anatomy of the vas deferens
you will see that it travels from the testes
superiorly into the lower abdomen where it makes a
hairpin bend in the inguinal area before
descending to the prostate.

I have found that the trauma gets stuck in this
bend.  Working in the area of this bend is roughly
where you would have your hands when working on the
pelvic diaphragm.  You can help whatever
restriction is present to release with this
contact.  You can also help any restrictions
further down or in the testes themselves from this
contact using your . . . intention.

So breathe a sigh of relief and be glad you
learned about intention.

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

June 08 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Do I use Somato emotional release?

Hello,

If you sent me an email towards the end of May
and I didn’t reply, I’m not ignoring you and I am
interested, no really.

Sorry, . . what were you saying?

My email server dropped the ball for about 5
days and I didn’t get any mail so if you sent,
please resend.

I have some treats for you now and no, I’m not
trying to butter you up.  Here are some videos of
John Upledger talking about two cases he worked
on. The volume is low so be ready to crank your
speakers up.

The first one is about a boy who had
developmental delay, a spinal tap, cephaly,
seizures and neutrapenia.  The video is in two
parts.

The second one is about a girl with hearing
loss, seizures, and stiffman syndrome.  This video
is in two parts also.

The last one is of Dr John doing his thing. You
may need to lower your volume for this one.

As you know I gave my ‘Core Success’
postgraduate seminar in Brisbane in April. Jenny
Palmer organised the event and she has written an
article about it, which you can read here.

And speaking of postgraduate seminars, I have
also got around to putting up an article about a
full body release seminar I gave last year.  There
are some good pictures of the full body team in
action here.

And lastly I am putting together a page of
links for my web sites.  I have been collecting
and book-marking web sites for a couple of years
now an am just getting ready to share them.  So if
you have a favourite website, a cause, an
organization or a just plain funny site that you
want to let me know about please send me the
address.

Anyhu, let’s get on with the
mailbag.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,
Thank you for your newsletters.  I find them
fascinating and very useful.  I particularly like
what you say about craniosacral at the bottom of
each newsletter. It is a vision which I fully
support.

So this is me participating by asking a question.
I notice that you haven’t talked about somato
emotional release in any of your newsletters.  I
am wondering if you use it and what you think
about it.
Keep up the good work.

KP
Toronto.

MY COMMENTS:

I have received a number of emails asking me
about somato emotional release.  I even had one asking
about its lesser known culinary equivalent,
Tomato emotional release.

Boom. BOOM.
I know. . .
Tomato. . .
No applause please.

So I will combine your answer with the others.
I don’t use somato emotional release per se.  What
I use is a technique I developed called
therapeutic inquiry.  My own cranio sacral
training was somewhat osteopathic in approach and
didn’t really encourage talking with the patient
during treatment.  I felt this ignored a whole
spectrum of possible information.

I studied a couple of different talking
approaches, including somato emotional release but
found that none of them covered everything that
needed to be covered.  I used elements from all
and filled in the blanks.

When it came time to teach this technique I
called it therapeutic inquiry because the essence
of what I was doing involved asking the patient
the right questions, at the right time and in the
right way.

Not everyone needs to verbalise what they are
experiencing when they are releasing a deep trauma
but if they do then you need to know very clearly
what is happening and be able to assist them
verbally and that’s where therapeutic inquiry
comes in.

Knowing the difference between who needs to
talk and who doesn’t is all part of the skill.

At other times you will have a sense that
someone is on the verge of releasing something and
it is one of those releases that needs to come
through the person’s consciousness.  The patient
needs to verbalise it but it just won’t come,
again this is where therapeutic inquiry comes in.

Therapeutic inquiry is used to help a
particular kind of restriction to release.  As you
know, in the course of treatment we use different
techniques for different kinds of restrictions,
some require direct technique, some require
indirect, some require remote work using intention
away from the site of restriction while others
require close work.
Well some restrictions require therapeutic
inquiry.  The sorts of restrictions that usually
require therapeutic inquiry often have a big
emotional component.

To explain why you would need to use
therapeutic inquiry, I need to talk a little bit
about how these kinds of restrictions are formed.
It usually happens during childhood and it goes
something like this: (You can hum along if you
know the tune.)

A child finds itself in a situation it can’t
cope with.  From the child’s perspective the
situation is threatening to its survival.  The
child needs to process the situation very fast and
arrive at a solution that will insure its
survival.  The child quickly reviews its part in
the circumstances that have led to the current
situation.
It identifies the behaviour that is responsible
and labels it as life threatening.  It then locks
that behaviour away in its unconscious, setting up
the emotional equivalent of a reflex arc.
Too important to leave to mere memory, the
child makes it part of its instinct.

Instinct?

If we hear a sudden loud noise our bodies will
have an instinctive protective reaction.  Without
thinking, our body interprets the noise as
potentially dangerous and reacts to protect
itself.  In these circumstances we are operating
from our instinct.
It is into this instinct that the child puts
this emotional reflex arc.   Whenever the child is
in a situation that is similar to the original
situation, it will have an instinctive protective
reaction.

Back to our child.  Time passes and the child
grows into an adult.  The difficult situation has
passed but the embellished instinct does not
change, it stays in place doing its job. Because
it doesn’t adapt with the growth of the
child/adult, what was once a lifesaver, becomes a
source of disharmony in the persons body, or put
another way, a restriction.

Not clear enough? Okay here’s an example.

A young boy pulls a chair over to the stove to
investigate the strange wispy cloudy stuff coming
from a pot.
His mother enters the kitchen. Horrified, she
sees her little darling about to scald himself.
She rushes to the stove, pulls him away roughly,
slaps him and tells him he is a very naughty boy.

The boy can see she is very upset.  In an
instant the boy decides the following, which I
will explain in adult language.

• ‘A. My mother is very angry with me.
  She has hit me and caused me pain.
  She normally doesn’t hit me.
  My mother is the source of love and
  nourishment in my life and if she
  continues to be angry, she will withhold
  her love and nourishment and she may
  continue hitting me.
• B. If she withholds her love and nourishment
  and continues hitting me, I will die.
  C. What did I do that has caused this
  disturbance in my mother?

Reviewing: : : : : – - – -

Answer: I was being curious and
adventurous.

• D. I must incorporate into my instinct

the following directive.

WHENEVER I FEEL CURIOUS AND ADVENTUROUS
I AM IN MORTAL DANGER AND MUST NEVER ACT
ON THESE DANGEROUS FEELINGS.’

The above conclusion is reached within minutes
of being slapped.  The boy includes the new
information in his instinct and gets on with his
life.
As an adult the boy/man finds change incredibly
difficult.  He experiences abnormal stress at the
prospect of changing house or jobs.  When his
marriage breaks down he becomes so tense he has
difficulty sleeping and experiences chest pains.

Fortunately he goes to a cranio sacral
therapist for help.

Cranio Sacral Therapy to the rescue.
High five!
Low five!
No?
Suit yourself.

Therapeutic inquiry allows the patient to get
in contact with the embellished part of their
instinct and begin to communicate with it.  All
going well this dialogue will lead to changing the
directive.

I have found that a restriction will only
change its function by a direct command from the
person.  Even then it can be reluctant to accept
that authority.  The command from the person has
to be with the same emotional intensity with which
the restriction was first imprinted, because the
restriction was charged with the job of protecting
the person against mortal danger.

Restrictions are reluctant to return the
authority if the person is half hearted.  They are
understandably cautious because of the life &
death imperative with which they were programmed.
The difficult part of therapeutic inquiry is in
easing this instinctive defensiveness.

Therapeutic inquiry is a difficult technique to
become competent in because it requires you to do
all the difficult work you are already doing with
your hands and presence AND include this very
precise line of questioning.

Just to give you a little window into the
technical difficulty involved, there is a huge
difference between asking,  ‘Are you afraid?’
or asking, ‘How do you feel?’
The first question suggests the
idea of fear and in a nanosecond the patient will
be thinking.
‘Why are they asking me this?  Is there
something I should be afraid of?’

Asking the patient how they feel allows them to
tell you the way they are experiencing the
situation; not the way you think they are
experiencing the situation.

It is very important to get it right because
you are engaging with a very powerful part of the
person and you don’t want to be messing around in
there.  Therapeutic inquiry is the one technique
that, far and above all the others, I found
students have most difficulty becoming competent
in.

As with every ‘technique’ it is something that
needs to be mastered and integrated.  In practice
I rarely use isolated techniques and this includes
therapeutic inquiry.  Everything blends together
and is significant.

From the first phone call with a new patient to
everything I say to them and everything they say
to me.  It is all significant and part of the
blend of treatment

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

January 27 – 2008

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Follow on from Jean in Ireland.
+ Blueprint follow on from Gayle in Cape Town.
+ Shingles follow on from Donovan in Durban.
+ Can you treat people with active Cancer?
+ CST and people recovering from Stroke?
+ Shingles follow on from Eva in Australia.
+ Treatment for Focal Dystonia.

Hello,

Another brand spanking New Year fresh from its
wrapping is off and running.  You know in olden
days Kings were very careful about what they did
on the first 12 days of each New Year.  They
believed each day represented its equivalent month
in the year.

So if they wanted January to be peaceful they
would spend the first day of the New Year in
contemplation.  If they wanted August to be joyous
they would have a party on the eight day of the
New Year and so on.   They were careful to not
have anything happen in those first 12 days that
would affect them negatively in the coming year.

Considering it is now the 27th I suppose I am a
little late in telling you all this.  Depending on
how wild and crazy your New Years Eve celebrations
were, January may be finding you with a continually
sore head and a feeling of remorse.

I’ll type softly.

For myself, the coming year will bring the
expansion of my Open Source Cranio project.   This
is about making cranio sacral training information
available to people in developing countries
through my websites.  For me this is a no brainer
as cranio sacral therapy doesn’t require any
technology to practice. Just a pair of hands.  But
then you knew that already.

The idea is that if someone in a remote village
has internet access, which is not as unlikely as
it sounds, they can begin to learn the basics and
start practicing.

Would you like to help? Register
yourself as a mentor or contribute an article or
suggestions or perspective that you think might
help that person.  If you can’t think of anything
else just let me know you want to help.

Anyhu John, on with this, bursting at
the seams, mailbag.

***FOLLOW ON FROM JEAN MCDONALD***

Hi John,
good on you for your description of
cerebral palsy – can’t really add to that!

Thanks for the listing. The practice is general
and of course working with the children is
particularly interesting.

In the Novara Centre some multidisciplinary work
is happening and this is working well. A boy of
four at present is being cared for from an acute
episode when starting big school- my colleague is
a Kinesiology’s suggested we work together.
Progress is apparent – from a craniofacial
viewpoint second trimester showed as problematic
and the child had suffered some bullying at
playschool.

Stillpoints are amazing for this child, he becomes
so insightful of his own place in the
difficulties. He has returned to his birth and re-
entered many times over, a much calmer child!

Little Jodie (the case study I sent you a while
ago) is doing well. The treatment involves
palpating the parietals and now that she is older
some more on her cranial base which has
dysfunction with the left side.  Drawing the
sacrum to lengthen the dural tube is always
necessary and the respiratory diaphragm with a
tonic liver for the last number of months has been
less so on the last visit.

Jodie is receiving remedies for her vaccines and
at present the polio one is being addressed. She
is much more affectionate to Mum and to her little
sister and initiates hugs and kisses with both,
this is separate form the craniosacral treatments
which would frequently end with a move to Mum’s
knee.
She has overcome her great difficulty with Music
class – she tolerates it now if it is not in the
big hall and can articulate that they don’t give
her the guitar or whistle.
Best wishes,
Jean

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Jean.  From the feedback I get
from other therapists and students who subscribe
to this newsletter, getting a glimpse into someone
else’s practice is very helpful.

***BLUEPRINT FOLLOW ON FROM GAYLE IN CAPE TOWN***

Hi John

I don’t know if they were in your part of the
world, but a few years back there were these 3D
pictures around. They basically look like a whole
lot of messy dots, and then when you relax your
eyes, you suddenly see the picture.

And you can always see that picture every time you
look at it. The more of these 3D images you look
at, the better you get at seeing the image.

Ok so I know that was using an image- like
description, but it might make sense to some
people. The blueprint – to me at least- is as
solid and as apparent as the image that you would
see.

If I had to compare “seeing the blueprint” with
any other of the more common 5 senses, I would say
that it is like your sense of smell. Perhaps the
‘whispy and mist-like’ can be described as an
aroma. It is tangible, it is stronger from the
direction of the source. It has an associated
memory or emotion. It also has a “rabbit-hole”
effect. The more you try to analyse the smell, the
more you can describe the components that make up
that scent.

Hope I made some sort of sense?

Gayle (Cape Town, SA)

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Gayle.  It is always good to
get another perspective on how different people
relate to different structures.  I’m not a
‘smeller’ myself but I really like it when someone
can involve their sense of smell in their
palpation, it must add a whole other dimension.

Try as I might, I could never do those ‘magic
eye’ things.  In the end I decided that there was
no image there really and it was all an elaborate
conspiracy to make me look stupid.

What?

It might be . .

***SHINGLES FOLLOW ON FROM DONOVAN IN DURBAN VIA
HIS WIFE – HE HAS HIS HANDS FULL AT THE BARBEQUE -
GIVE HIM A BREAK***

Dear John

Thanks so much for your lovely newsletters (this
is Dee, Donovan’s wife and mother of his adored
2.5 year old daughter Naomi!!!!).

I have to confess that I read your newsletters
with great enjoyment, especially as I am handling
the advertising and promotion of cranio here in SA
and I eagerly absorb all information about the
various conditions and problems it can treat, and
as you are a guru in this therapy, I hope you
don’t mind me sneaking a peak at the info you send
to Donovan.

Yes, Donovan has treated a woman who had shingles.
She was brought to him by a student practitioner
who was feeling overwhelmed and asked for his
support.  The whole top half of her body was
covered in the sores and she also had HIV AIDS.
She believed she was cursed by the local
witchdoctor and she was going to die if the
shingles spread and joined at the midline of her
body (she was told this by an “Inyanga”/aka
Traditional Healer).

Yes, we live in a very interesting culturally
diverse country with many of our inhabitants being
governed by very strong cultural beliefs.  He has
asked me to tell you this on his behalf (he is
braaining [barbequing] our meal and his hands are
filthy) that during the 4 sessions he had with
her, he worked on boosting her immune system and
holding into, and working with these deep seated
fears.  When this began shifting, her healing
accelerated dramatically.  Unfortunately, she was
very unreliable in keeping her appointments and
only came for the 4 sessions – even though she was
being sponsored to come.

I trust that you were suitably rewarded by Santa
for being a good boy this year, and I look forward
to more of your newsletters in 2008.

Warmest regards from Sunny South Africa and
wishing you a fabulous 2008.

Dee, Donovan, Naomi, Hamish and Angus (our 2
scottish terriers)

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for that Dee and Donovan.  It conjured
up a very cute mental image of Donovan up to his
armpits in barbeque sauce, roaring cranio sacral
descriptions to Dee.

‘I said holding into her deep seated fears,
not folding into her cheap pleated smears.  What
does that mean anyway??’

It sounds like you helped the woman in question
a lot Donovan.  It was also another glimpse into
the different sorts of issues that practitioners
in different parts of the world are dealing with.

***QUESTION***

Hi John,

I look forward to putting my details on your site
when I finish my course and get some more
practical hours up!

I am interested in your theories on treating
cancer patients?  My Cranio teacher says it is a
contraindication if any cancer active is in the
body?

I have tried looking it up in Cranio books but
have not found any information, if you do treat
cancer patients what are you treating them for,
the cancer, the pain, the side effects?  I read
somewhere (it may even have been on your site) of
people having chemo being treated but it did not
say why or how?

Luv your work!

Karen
Australia

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Karen,
The main thing to get about contraindications
is they are for YOUR protection as much as the
patient.

The chances of you doing any harm to the
patient are slim to nonexistent.  On the other
hand, the chances of you giving yourself a major
fright and setting you palpatory skills back years
is very high.

For example, let’s say you go against your
teachers/mentors recommendation and start treating
someone who is in the middle of dealing with
cancer.
And let’s say they have a major episode the day
after you treat them and end up in hospital.

Take a minute and think about how you would
feel.  Can you imagine how difficult it would be
to stay objective about your contribution to their
being in hospital.  Can you imagine how hard it
would be to avoid putting yourself through the
wringer wondering if your intention was too heavy
or too light, how you could have missed what was
coming and so on.

I am not saying don’t treat people with cancer
or who are having chemotherapy.  I am saying that
you need to nurture and protect your growing
palpatory skill.  It is hard enough to develop
without unnecessarily putting it in the way of
potential body blows.

To answer your question, I have treated people
with most stages of cancer, benign, malignant,
aggressive, in remission and I have treated people
who are having chemotherapy and radiation
treatment too.

Here are some things to consider . .

When someone has a life threatening condition
you need to take a very long perspective on their
situation.  We need to stand back from our
conditioned response that the happy ending is
where the patient ‘beats the big C’ and lives
happily ever after.

When working with people with life threatening
illnesses, more than anything else you need
humility and respect for their process.

Bearing in mind that you don’t know what their
process is about.

I have found it helpful to adopt the
perspective that the circumstances of a patient’s
life are not random but are very significant to
them.  This includes the way they will die.  I
take it that the way they choose to die is as
significant as the way they choose to be born.

This makes it is easier for me to stand back
and not try to ‘fix’ them.

I have talked about this in other newsletters
so won’t go on about it too much now.

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/cancer/

Treating someone who is having chemotherapy or
radiation treatment can be very helpful for them.
I have found it is similar to treating someone who
has had a pin or plate put in their body to help
with a compound fracture.

Their body will be freaking out and trying to
dispel the foreign object.  Treatment usually
involves helping their body to integrate or make
peace with the foreign object.

With chemo or radiation treatment the person’s
body will be freaking out in a similar way because
it is in essence being poisoned or attacked.  Your
job will be to help their body deal with the shock
of attack.  To find some kind of equilibrium in
the situation.

Treating people with life threatening illness
is not for the faint hearted.  It forces you to
look at very fundamental questions about what you
are really doing.  Once you embrace the inherent
challenges it can be very rewarding.

***QUESTION***

Hi, John

Your Q&A’s thus far have tremendously contributed
to my knowledge as a cranio sacral practitioner.
It is now my turn to ask a question.

My mother is 76yrs old and has had a stroke due to
her tissue (mechanical) valve being in for too
long without replacing it. She had a clot in her
frontal area, which was dissolved with medication.
She is back to normal and does not have any after
effects. How can I help her in a cranio way?

All the best for the New Year.

Regards,
Shahnaaz
Cape Town, South Africa

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Shahnaaz,
I am glad you find my newsletters helpful.

As you know, most strokes are caused by a blood
clot forming in some part of the body and then
travelling to the brain and causing a blockage to
the blood supply and then permanent neurological
damage to the effected area.

Recovery from stroke is the transferring of
function from the damaged area to another part of
the brain.

If someone comes to me for treatment and they
are recovering from a stroke, the first thing I
would do is check if they still had a tendency for
clotting.  If I got a sense that they did, I would
withdraw gently and not continue treatment.

Not because I could cause another stroke but
because of the effect it would have on me if they
had a stroke while I was treating them or even the
day after treatment.

Also the family of the person involved may not
understand that I couldn’t have caused a stroke
and that could cause a lot of complications and
ultimately interfere with me treating the other
people I treat now and in the future.

For me it’s not worth the risk.

So if you feel that the clotting is over. .

‘How will I know?’

If you are asking this question then you
haven’t had enough experience yet and you need to
get a second opinion from a more experienced
practitioner.

Assuming you are not asking that question I
would focus on assisting the transfer of function
process that will be going on in the brain from
the area that was damaged to the new areas.

Based on what you have written it sounds like
your Mother has recovered well.   Has she asked
you to treat her?

If not, you have a very weak contract with her.
By contract I mean the framework within which you
work with a person.   It is set by what they ask
you to help them with.

So if someone asks you to help them with their
painful knee then that is the contract.

Regardless of whatever other issues you may
feel in the persons system, if these issues don’t
affect the knee problem directly then you will be
going outside the bounds of the contract if you
start trying to treat these issues.

Just because you can feel it doesn’t mean you
have been asked to ‘fix’ it.

I have found the loosest contracts are nearly
always with family members.  This happens because
of the history between you and the fact that they
knew you before you were a cranio sacral
therapist.

There is no tricky way around this. It’s not
like you can go to your Mother and ask her, ‘Would
you like me to help you recover from your stroke?’

The strongest contracts come from a request
that has originated from the person unassisted,
un-enticed.

What to do?

If your Mother hasn’t asked you to help her
then I suggest you wait until the next time she is
talking about her health.  When she states a
concern that you feel you may be able to help with
then say it.

‘What?’

“I could help with that Mum.”

Then, and this is important, keep quiet.  If
she doesn’t respond, leave it.  You don’t have a
contract.   If you respect the fact that she
hasn’t asked you it will make it easier for her to
ask when she is ready.

***SHINGLES FOLLOW ON FROM EVA IN AUSTRALIA***

Merry Christmas John!

I have two responses to your newsletter below:

I would be happy to be a mentor. I’m at Lisarow on
the Central Coast, just north of Sydney,
Australia. Contact phone no 0410234490.

I have had shingles myself, or at least that is
what it was diagnosed as when I was 25. Situated
in a particular place between two ribs on the left
side.  Had pain off and on during childhood, then
a lot of pain and much longer periods during the 4
years I worked in Nigeria, which was a very high
stress time, emotionally.

What sent it on high alert was that I got mould
allergy and sneezed a couple hundred times a day
for a few months, and that’s when it was
diagnosed. It calmed down with nose spray to stop
the sneezing, but was still very much there in the
rib cage, just not rampant. I never have had any
blisters from it, though. Since I started having
and doing CranioSacral Therapy I haven’t had any
relapses.

I have also treated someone with an acute shingles
outbreak on her arm. The lady had already been for
treatment a few times for a lot of other problems
a few months earlier. This time she came for
treatment the shingles had come out in blisters on
her arm just 2 days before the session. I treated
her as usual but also did Photonic Therapy
(acupuncture with a red light instead of needles)
on the specific points for shingles as well as
around the blisters.
2 days later when she saw the doctor the sores
were nearly gone. The doctor had never heard of
such a rapid retreat of shingles without
medication.

Best regards,

Eva Kuhl Bornefelt
Central Coast, Australia.

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Eva,
I will add you to the Mentor list.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience
of shingles.

It sounds like you did a great job with the
woman you were treating too.

***QUESTION***

Hi John, Hope all goes well in the wider world
beyond our shores. . .

A quicky that may be a useful topic for the next
newsletter. . .

I’m currently treating a fellow who has presented
with Focal Dystonia. Being a writer, and avid
keyboardist, he is experiencing a gradual increase
in tonic spasm mostly within carpal/wrist flexors.

He is a man who lives life on his own terms, his
own agenda, despite the fact he has a couple of
very young children and a loving wife.  Driven,
ambitious, capable.

Any resource/ideas/anecdotes . . . politically
incorrect focal dysplasia jokes???

PS Happy X-mas to you and yours.

Greg Robson
Brisbane.

MY COMMENTS:

Hello Greg,

I don’t make jokes about conditions.

I am far too wonderful and holy for that.

From what you have written it sounds like your
patient has focal dystonia only and not focal
dysplasia, which is more on the epilepsy side of
things.   Let me know if I got that wrong.

The thing that stands out to me about focal
dystonia is that it mainly occurs when the person
is focused on a particular task.  Classic cases
being the concert pianist or surgeon who only get
the spasms when they are about to perform or
operate.

It always feels to me like the bodily version
of stuttering.

And in terms of root cause, this is where I
would be looking.   What is going on for the
person in relation to their expression or their
work?

Are they happy/frustrated in their work?
Do they feel the work is a good vehicle of
expression for them?
Do they feel like they are bursting with
expression and their work holds them back?
Are they frustrated?

Are the spasms symmetrical? If they are
predominantly in his left hand/wrist it could be
to do with receiving.  If on the other hand . . .

‘Hang on, that’s a joke!’

No it’s not. I actually meant his other hand.
His other hand is his right hand . .

‘Oh. . . ‘

If his spasms are predominantly in his right
hand it could be to do with expression or power or
expressing his power.

The medical model for what is going on
mechanically describes the brain as being a bit
like a cartoon character that has been given too
many instructions to carry out at once.
Eventually they shake their head vigorously, with
an accompanying sound effect, which I can’t spell
and shake the confusion away.

I know you have probably looked this up Greg
but bear with me while I explain it for the other
readers who may not have.

You know the way the left side of your brain
controls the right side of your body and visa
versa.

Just nod.

Well it gets more specific.  There is a sort of
map called your somatosensory cortex that deals
with each part individually.  So each finger, for
example, has a specific region.

This is different from you tomato-sensory
cortex which is the part of your brain that helps
you find tomatoes in the dark.

‘Really?’

No, not really.  That was a joke.

‘But you said . . .’

It wasn’t about a condition.

‘Oh . . ‘

Can we get on?
If you have ever watched a musician in full
flight you will notice that their fingers move so
fast they are almost a blur.

The medical explanation for focal dystonia is
that with repeated practice of the same movements,
the brain gets confused and the regions of the
somatosensory cortex for the fingers involved get
kind of mashed up.  But unlike the cartoon
character the brain is unable to shake the
confusion away.

While it is a good explanation I don’t think it is
the full story.  To fill out the picture a little
more let me include a little quote from an
interview with John Upledger that adds another
perspective to the smearing of the somatosensory
cortex theory.

Here’s Johnny . . .

‘I just wanna share a little study that I came
across.
In February 1988, ‘Brain Mind Bulletin’
published in the abstract some work that was done
at UC San Diego. They were trying to understand
how somebody like a professional pianist or a
professional violin player could move so fast,
with the messages going up to the brain, decision
made, and back down again. So they used
electrodes, and they used an EEG.

What they found was that the electrical
impulses that control finger movement were not
going up the arm! The decisions were being made
right there in the hand! You could use electrical
measurement of neuron impulse conduction as a
reasonable indicator. So what that says is, you
have decision making ability in your hands!’

You can read the full article here

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/resources/articles/Intelligence.pdf

Now that’s jolly interesting isn’t it.

So another way of looking at it might be that
the people who don’t get focal dystonia could be
more surrendered to the intelligence of the hands
that John Upledger is talking about.  While people
who do get focal dystonia could keep engaging
their brain and so confuse it.

This would lead me to ask the questions I
always ask about anyone with any condition.

Why did they get it?  Lots of people don’t.
Why them and not someone else?
What does it mean?

While you are thinking about that here are some
of the mechanical places you can look because
regardless of the deeper issues everything prints
out mechanically.

As you know, nerve impulses are conducted by a
mixture of chemical and electrical means.  The
chemicals are conveyed in fluid and the electrical
impulses are . . . well . . energy  . . . and
guess what we work with fluids and energy!!

Alright!!

I would check the nerve supply from the brain
to the area involved, in this case his hand.  I
would also be taking a close look at the brain and
in particular the cortex around the posterior
aspect of the parietal lobes, around where they
meet the occipital lobes.

This is generally where the somatosensory
cortex is considered to be located.  I would be
checking the cerebro spinal fluid in this area and
the meninges.  The lambdoid sutures might give you
an indication for what is going on beneath.

That’s it for this issue.  I know,
hard to believe but don’t fret there will be more
next month.

Cheerio for now.

Your Mate,

John D.

Fairbairn’s Structural Theory.- Size 271KB

Article on Fairbairn’s structural theory. It is a hefty read but very helpful in understanding
how we relate to people as objects and how this affects us and our relationships.

Baby Talk: Can you hear my silent scream? – Size 108KB

Article by Al Pelowski, principal of South African Institute
of Cranial Studies. A call in the middle of the night from an overwrought
parent sets Al off to the hospital to help a new born baby who is having
seizures every couple of minutes.

Intelligence of Hands – Size 40KB

Excerpt from and interview with John Upledger about experiments that
give an insight into how cranio sacral therapists can ‘know without knowing,’
how to place their hands on the right part of the body and then help the
body release.

Healing and the Natural World – Size 228 KB

Wide ranging interview with osteopath Jim Jealous about everything
from the nature of healing to the origins of osteopathy. It is particularly
interesting considering cranio sacral therapy has its origins in osteopathy
which, as he says has been alternative since 1874.

Children and Divorce: How to guide your family through separation/divorce. – Size
240 KB

Article by Trish Banks, M.A. who specialises in psychosynthesis and
reflective practice in childcare. This article is a practical blueprint
for navigating the mine field of divorce and separation. The most common
response I have heard about this article is, ‘This would have been great
to know about when my marriage was falling apart.’ (The above link will
bring you to the download page of Trish’s site. The text says you have
been added to her mailing list but you haven’t and won’t be unless you
want to.)

The Search for Healing – Size 104 KB

Article by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. who specialises in chronic and
life-threatening illness. She is also medical director of the Commonwealth
Cancer Help Program. She discuses the interaction between practitioner
and patient.

Life Imitating Heart – Size 176KB

The story of Claire Sylvia, a heart and lung transplant patient. Her noticed
that her personality changed after the operation. She started drinking
beer, eating fast food and ogling girls – just like the dead boy who helped
her live.

Her story is an excellent example of tissue memory. The idea that memory
is not stored in the brain alone but also in the cells of our bodies.

The Effects of Early Relational Trauma on Right Brain Development, Affect Regulation, and Infant Mental Health – Size 1.6MB

Big, (check the size before you download) Long and academically written
paper by Allan N. Schore about the way babies bond with their parents
and how that bonding process can be affected by trauma.

Trauma-the Vortex of Violence – Size 192 KB

Peter Lavine has written excellent books on the effects of trauma. This
article is an excellent introduction to his work.

The Science of Being Well – Size 284 KB

The Science of Being Great – Size 420 KB

The Science of Geting Rich. – Size 496KB

Three powerful books written by Wallace D Wattles. The remarkable thing
about these books is they were written in 1910.

February 13 -2009

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Questions about meditation and why we need it.
+ Letter from Finland.

Hello,

I’m happy to report that the folks at the University
of Michigan are continuing their pioneering tradition.
You might remember that they were involved in a lot of
the early work John Upledger did on cranio sacral therapy.

This time a group of researchers, led by chemistry
professor Raoul Kopelman have done some very interesting
work quantifying the inherent energy fields of cells.
This is no news to us but I always like to see science
finding ways of measuring and proving what we do.

I particularly like the bi-line for the article -
“Individual cells have INTERNAL electric fields – as
powerful as LIGHTNING bolts”

Very 1950′s sci-fi movie don’t you think. You can
read the full article here:

Speaking of shockers, let me also direct you to the
cranio sacral poetry of Imur Ton.  Imur is a veteran
cranio sacral and massage therapist. He has written
poems about his experience and put them on his website.

Now before you get all dewy eyed and run off to
indulge in a bit of cranial iambic pentameter let me
warn you Imur’s peoms are not for the fainted hearted.
As he says himself, ‘Please put on your seat belt
and find something solid to hold onto.’ This is
honesty at point blank range with both barrels.

Enjoy the ride.  Here’s my favorite.

Zoë Grivas from Australia has been in touch with me
about her treatment table. She is selling it.  It is
an Athlegen powerlift table.  It is the same type as
the one I use but with a lot more folding table panels.
I like mine so much I shipped it to Ireland when I moved.
I have posted the details about Zoë’s table on the forum
you can have a look at it here.

Before we get into the rest of the newsletter
let me make a quick appeal. If you have been watching the news
about the bush fires in Australian and you would like to help
in some way, I encourage you to go here and donate.

That said let’s get on with the mailbag.

***QUESTIONS ABOUT MEDITATION***

I’ve had a number of letters about meditation and
why it was needed as part of the process of learning
cranial work so I’ll answer them all here.

The purpose of including meditation in your cranio
sacral training is to help you become familiar with
your inner state or landscape.

In that way you can begin to differentiate between
what you are receiving from the patient and what is
just you.

Think of it like this.
You’re sitting in front of a big wide screen TV.
The channel keeps changing but that doesn’t matter
because you find everything interesting.  Behind you
there is a small colour TV but you can’t turn around
to look at it.  You can hear what’s on the small TV
but you can’t make it out because the noise from the
TV in front of you is obscuring it.

Are you with that image so far. You’re facing the
big TV with the little TV behind you.

Every now and then, when the screen on the big
TV goes dark, you can make out something of the little
TV as it reflected in the darkened screen of the big TV.

Now let me explain this brilliant metaphor.
Okay, this metaphor.  The big TV is your body – mind etc,
your system.  The little TV is the patient’s system.

You want to be able to see their system – the show
on the little TV -  as accurately as you can.

So the obvious thing to do is turn off the big TV,
then in the empty screen and without the sound, it is
much easier to see what is happening on the little TV
as it is reflected on the darkened screen of the
big TV.

Learning to meditate is like learning how to turn off
your TV. You need to be able to reduce your internal
static.  What you are left with is a sort of inner
silence into which it is easier to hear any ‘noise’
from the person you are working with.

Cultivating that inner silence is important because it
is the secret weapon of cranio sacral therapy.

Sure, it’s important to be able to talk with patients
about why they might be sick and so on.

But for some people talking can only make things worse.
They can have so many concepts floating around in their
head that talking can be like throwing petrol on the fire.

You can get a sense of this when you are taking
their case history.  They will usually have been sick
for some time and have seen quite a few other therapists
and they will have a number of theories floating around
in their heads as to why they are ill.  You can tell
that with each new ‘helpful’ perspective you offer
they go deeper into confusion.

That’s when silence really works. They get on
the table and you begin to work.  You might chat
with them but you don’t initiate it or keep it
going.  Eventually silence descends and in that
silence, and the depths of your work, changes
percolate to the surface from the depths of them.

Over time, deep changes occur and no one talks
about it. Sometimes they will tell you an insight
they may have had and it will usually have a deep
ring of truth to it.

What do you think about the role of silence
and meditation in cranial work?

***FROM ANU IN FINLAND***

Hello John,

Great to see how much work you have done to make
CST better known.
How did you end up into “CST-world”?

I moved back to Finland from the UK in Februari 2008
(I lived in London and Windsor for almost three years)
and I’m so anxious to let every single person in this
country to know about the power of this gentle, amazing
approach!! I started to learn CST in London 2006 and
have carried on since, been to Florida and North
Carolina to learn more.

My inspiration initially was my cousin who currently
lives in the US and has been practicing CST for…
at least 15years more or less. But the main force
that made me sign myself in to take a workshop was
after a personal injury (proper car accident/whiplash)
in 2005. I was treated by an amazing therapist in
London and one day I told her I think I just have
to start learning CST and she encouraged me. I know
now that I found something I was meant to find, the
important piece for me personally and certainly
professionally had been missing.

I hope you have an amazing year 2009 – it will be
an exciting year!

Lots of greetings from Helsinki, Finland!

-Anu

>>>MY COMMENTS:

I think this is a great letter and highlights the many
different ways we come to become cranio sacral therapists.

What is your story ? How did you come
to cranio sacral work?  Let me know and I will include
the best stories in the next newsletter.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

+ Teaching family members basic techniques? – October 06

Hey John, thanks yet again for the e-newsletter. As always, and I
don’t know how you do it, you’ve included material that prompts
me to write. Usually I’m too preoccupied with matters here in SA
to respond. But here is one SA real world question / comment.

Quite often in my practice I see a baby and parent(s) or grandparent
or carer just once or twice. This is because of my hectic schedule
and because we often don’t have practitioners nearby to follow-up,
or because people can’t afford it.

Most of these families come into teaching clinics in courses where
there is no cost. They may come from distant places, but only the once.
However, I usually find that mum or dad or somebody in the family
can easily learn to hold their baby in constructive ways, especially
during tantrums.

They get a demo and a paper by Aletha Solter to explain this. It is
also possible to show how to massage the scalp (e.g. with shampooing),
how to stroke the spine and conception channels. Parents will usually
respond to recommendations for dietary (chelation) and feeding /
weaning problems. I have many parents / carers working very
creatively with their babies, some even coming forward for training
in CST, with others coming regularly (with their babies) to learn
more in our local evening empowerment workshops.

This situation isn’t ideal, but in the far flung communities in SA it’s
often all we’ve got. Sometimes I worry about this. One would always
prefer to be in a position to follow-up with the baby and family as a
whole, however long it takes.

However, I find that the whole family conflict situation often resolves
with up-skilling and empowerment of the parents. It helps to break
the chain of disassociative and inconsistent behaviour that the baby
is adapting to within the family.

Any feedback welcome!

Al Pelowski in Joburg

>>>MY COMMENTS:

Being able to do follow up is ideal, Al. I’ll talk more about the
IDEAL a little later.

It looks like you’re faced with the dilemma John Upledger was
faced with when he realised he couldn’t treat everyone. It prompted
him to develop his ShareCare program, which is the second worst
idea he has had in a long line of good ones.

What was his first?

Well, calling what we do cranio sacral therapy, of course. He could
have picked a hundred different names. Quirky, fun, easily pronounced,
easily remembered names. Like Voltron or Gobon or Praxas or Flow…..

What I wouldn’t give to be able to say I am a Flow therapist, when
asked what I do for a living at a dinner party.

But oh no, I have to say I’m a cranio sacral therapist and they have
to ask me if I was at the Tour De France and then I have to correct
them and say, ‘That’s cranio SACRAL, not cranio CYCLE.’

So we’re stuck with it and for the sake of public recognition we
shouldn’t change it or add to it or fiddle with it at all.

No matter how much we feel that what we are doing is different
or visionary or resonant or balanced or biodynamic or whatever . .

All this re-labelling is confusing adolescent assertions of individuality
and just leaves Joe and Mary Blogs scratching their heads wondering,
‘What the?’

Okay, back to shades of ShareCare.

While imparting new information and different perspectives is
definitely part of our job, it’s important to acknowledge the limits
of just how much skill you can impart to parents or family members.

The sorts of things you have described sound good and practical.
Massaging the scalp, stroking the spine and conception channels.
All good.

The temptation is to think you can build on this by teaching family
members to do simple techniques which I’m strongly against,
if you hadn’t noticed, and here’s why.

What has become second nature to you in terms of holding, following,
supporting and so on has taken you years to achieve.

And while the process of gaining mastery in CST is one of realising
how little needs to be done, it’s important to remember that it’s a
very informed and focused ‘little’ that we do.
Its simplicity is deceptively complex.

When you think about how long it has taken you to gain the level
of skill with a particular technique and all the subtle nuances that
only reveal themselves through time and practice, it doesn’t make
sense that you can show someone a technique and think that they
will be able to do any long lasting good with it.

Sure, everyone will feel good about it.

The family member will feel good when you’re showing them the
technique because it will feel like they’re being empowered.

You will feel good when you’re showing them the techniques because
it will assuage the aching knowledge that you can’t treat the person
yourself long term.

The person will feel good every time the family member does the
technique. They will feel good for about ten minutes or maybe
twenty but the chances of it helping long term are slim.

It takes a long time to learn how to do this well for a reason.

It’s not easy to master.

The whole SharCare idea is like giving a one-day workshop for the
friends and families of virtuoso violinists. At the workshop they learn
how to play a couple of notes on the fiddle.

They can use these ‘new skills’ on the nights that the virtuoso is a
bit tired and needs someone to fill in the for them at certain times
throughout the performance. The family member can play the notes
the virtuoso is too shagged to play.

Ridiculous, right? But it gets worse.

Giving friends and family of patients the idea that they can learn a
few techniques that will help their loved ones, generates the idea
that what we do, can be learned in 10 minutes.

It’s shooting yourself in the foot with both barrels and then
bludgeoning yourself with the gun..

I don’t think you are about to launch your own South African
ShareCare program Al, but I do understand the pressure that
the kinds of situations you have described can generate.

Considering what you have to deal with and the constraints you
have to work within, the fact that you give these families ANYTHING
to help their situation is nothing short of a bloody miracle!

And you’re not alone in that, your students and graduates are doing
remarkable things too. The outreach work you all do. The education
programs you have set up. It’s brilliant. You are all doing excellent
work in VERY difficult situations.

What I’ve talked about above is the IDEAL, what you have to work
with in South Africa is far from ideal and in that, anything you can
do is great.

I commend all the people involved in cranial work in South Africa
and you in particular Al.