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Student and Therapist Newsletter Archive
Dear John, When I underwent my craniosacral training we were taught that being 'still' was paramount to depth. We were inculcated with a deep respect for the process. We spoke of the work with reverence, something which I initially found missing in your writing. For reasons unknown, I continued to read your newsletters and as I did I began to see that what you were describing was in fact what I was feeling . . . but thought I shouldn't. Sometimes patients did get to me. Sometimes I was scared. I often feel overwhelmed. I had previously discounted these feelings as the product of a lack of stillness on my part. Eventually I have come to see that acknowledging these parts of myself, the reality of myself, has led me to better relate to my patients and for that I am grudgingly thankful. Grudgingly because I don't fully understand what is changing in me or if it is totally good or what your influence has been in it. With all that said, let me ask my question. I have my first autistic child coming to see me next week and frankly I am terrified. He is four years old and is at the higher end of the spectrum. I have done my research and read everything I could about it. I know it is possible for me to help this boy but the unknown and uncontrollable aspect of it terrifies me. Do you have a particular way
of working with autism? >>>MY COMMENTS: Well three lusty cheers for your honesty Sally. Yes I am irreverent about certain things and I'm definitely not holy. I smoke bigish cigars. I drink too much wine on occasion. Sometimes I do both at the same time. I watch stupid sitcoms. I roller blade down hills I probably shouldn't. I play the piano accordion in spite of public opinion and neighbourhood petitions. I inflict my artwork on anyone who visits my home. The net result of this living IN my life rather than living INSPITE of my life is that it all goes towards helping me to relate to the people I see. I'm not hovering above them on my angelic little cloud. Don't get me wrong, I do all the above because I passionately enjoy doing all the above. It is the living passionately part that helps me relate. I came across this quote from Theodore Roosevelt about 25yrs ago. I've never forgotten it and in many ways it conveys what I'm talking about. Bear in mind he said this in a speech in 1910. The world was much more male dominated back then so don't get all politically correct about it and miss the point. "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." So when someone is telling me about how they drank too much and kissed someone they maybe shouldn't have, I'm right down there with them. I've done more than my share of dumb things too. In that moment they know they are not being judged and it helps to heighten our connection. Two humans doing our best in difficult circumstances. Sometimes it's pretty sometimes it's not. Respect? Reverence? Please! Now in relation to you being a big scaredy pants. Here are some things to look out for mechanically. Autism is often associated with overfilling in the head. This can feel like current hydrocephalus or hydrocephalus that occurred as a child or a baby, which has since normalised. The head will have retained this overfilled quality or may be much bigger than normal. You can confirm this with the parents. Ask them if they remember a big difference in the circumference measurement of the child's head between birth and release from hospital. I have heard of increases of up to 4cm that wasn't diagnosed as hydrocephalus. Check all the channels of drainage, paying particular attention to the base of the cranium. Often you will find a bigger pattern of restriction along the base of the cranium with one of the side effects being inhibited drainage. Another common pattern of restriction I have found in people with autism is a traumatic imprint from a forceps or a ventouse cup. These imprints are usually very obvious on the cranium. It almost feels like the child will have two big depression on their head when you open your eyes that you just hadn't noticed before. The less obvious restriction pattern left by forceps and ventouse is a sort of whiplash some where in the dural tube. It feels like at the moment when the babies head cleared the cervix, the person pulling the forceps wasn't quick enough to stop pulling with force. The result being that the babies head is pulled very forcefully. Just remember what it felt like when that big kid at school used to pick you up by the head. Well okay, maybe that only happened to me but you get the idea. The dural tube is stretched like a piece of elastic and then snaps back into place, leaving an accordion type restriction pattern somewhere along its length, often in the lumbar spine area. Going deeper than the mechanical causes, the most common autistic picture I have come across is a particular system's response to trauma. Symptom pictures are created by a combination of the person's system and how it interacted with the circumstances it found itself in. Not all babies that have traumatic births are traumatised. Not all babes that have trauma free births are trauma free. It may have been the birth, grizzly Caesar, wedged in the wrong place for the wrong amount of time, that kind of thing: Or it could be the trauma of finding yourself in a body that you can't work properly and everything is big and scary. The main feature of the autistic picture as a response to the trauma is withdrawal. It's like the person withdraws deep into themselves to have a think about things and to wait for the environment to look safer. It's often a long wait and they can kind of get stuck in there. You will find you make the most progress with people with autism if you relate to them as someone who is choosing not to interact with you. They won't look like that. They have a way of creating an atmosphere around themselves that most people find unconsciously disturbing. If a person is not put off by that the next line of defence is a strong impression of absence. It is my experience this is just that, an impression, there is a part of them that is always looking. They will generally sweep the room with their eyes without fixing on anything. I have found that the part of them that is looking is usually found at either end of the sweep. From the first time I meet them I am watchful for the looking part. Don't get me wrong it's not a staring match but if you know it's there you will spot it and when they see you, seeing them, they are usually shocked. They usually do an almost imperceptible double take. Before you see this boy I strongly suggest you think about what it must be like for someone with autism. If you view their symptoms as a choice not to interact, you need to think about what would make a person make that radical choice. You have to think about it long enough until you get to a place where you truly respect their choice and you have no agenda about trying to talk them into changing their mind. No cheating - they'll pick it up. Then when you are with him it's vital that you communicate that you respect his choice. Now, please, I hate to have to say this to you because you sound like an intelligent woman but when I say communicate I DON'T mean you say it out loud. I'm hoping you are rolling your eyes indignantly right now. Everyone else in this boy's life is probably trying to get him to interact. The unsaid communication being, 'Come on in, the water is lovely.' Which without meaning to be is disrespectful to his choice. When I come in contact with someone with autism, my unsaid communication is, 'I understand you're reluctance to come into the water. This water can be pretty scary sometimes and you never know when.' That communication in itself will usually get their attention. Give him time to get used to the fact that you can see him. He will be used to people falling for his defences. As he gets more comfortable with being seen you can add this to the communication. 'The thing is this is the only water we have and I think, at one time, you came to the beach so you could go swimming. So I will be here and if you want some help with coming into the water I am really good at helping people, particularly people who are scared, to do that.' Then wait. Make no inner moves towards him. He will come or he won't. If he decides not to he will still be happy with the company. It's pretty lonely sitting on the sand on your own. Here's another thing. This may be obvious to you but I feel compelled to say it. Never give parents the impression that you are going to totally cure their child. I am sure that as a rule you wouldn't give that impression to anyone for any condition, but it's particularly important with autism because there is often such a "want" in the parents to be told that it can all be fixed. All you can say is what you have found, a certain number of restrictions, and you will help them to release and then both you and the parents will see what the results are. Best of luck with it. Make sure you don't make any mistakes whatsoever! because none of the rest of us ever do and we will all point our fingers at you and laugh, lots.
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 Copyright John Dalton 2007 Top |