As a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist I am trained to work with trauma. However, I am not a talk therapist. The way I am trained to work with trauma is to track what is happening in the nervous system through the felt sense via : my hands and palpatory skills, my observations of eye movements, facial expressions and body movement, the facial dynamics and motility holding patterns around organs, how the whole body fluid is orientating to the original fluid dynamics that we went through as an embryo, the articulation of brain through the pumping of cerebral spinal fluid and the movement of the cranial bones, and with my whole body through the resonance field.
I am essential listening to the whole physiology in the body and how it is interacting with the Breath of Life which is the driver and organizer of the whole system. I also listen with my ears to what and how clients tell me stories, to pick up ques’ as to how the experience in life in being manifested in the body. I also listen with my hands and my whole body which will mirror the clients wiring of the nervous system.
One of the aspects of a well trained Craniosacral Therapist (a Craniosacral Therapist with a full Osteopathic training) is that most of our training is centered on becoming still enough to feel the difference between a nerve and bone, organ and lymph, fascia, muscle and blood, etc. Not only that, but to be able to interpret what is happening in the quality of the tissue, how it is orienting to the experience and, how it is orienting to the original fluid dynamics.
I am trained to understand how all these parts are manifesting in the nervous system. My job is not to give advice or diagnosis about the stories, but rather to listen to whole system and help the physiology orient to the Health in a non-judging and neutral way.
Sometimes what is the organisms’ way of organizing the physiology to the Health can express itself in some very surprising ways. For example, someone might come in for chronic shoulder pain and find that their healing journey for chronic shoulder pain leads them to an exploration of some emotional trauma that happened in their childhood, and then feels moved to use art as an expression process the trauma. The shoulder pain may not disappear right away but after some time of really moving through the process in a heartfelt way (which craniosacral is supporting) the chronic should pain finally begins to shift and disappear over time. Another example is of someone who has sustained a major spinal cord injury and is seeking out Craniosacral Therapy as a way to help rehabilitate the nerves. This person may not ever gain back full movement in the body but, they begin to relate to the experience of being paralyzed in a different more resourced way, while finding self expression from the heart is somehow given back to the stream of life.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is Somatic Therapy. This means that it will bring out the fullness of the experience no matter how mechanical and compartmentalized you think your body is. All systems of the body are connected through fascia and when one system becomes compromised it affects all other systems. All energetic qualities in our bodies are also connected through the mind/body and spiritual dyad, and when one energetic system in the body (emotional, mental, physical or spiritual) becomes compromised it affects all the other energetic systems through fluid dynamics.
Sometimes it is a part of my job as a Craniosacral Therapist is to educate my clients on what is happening in the physiology of their body and how it relates to trauma. But that is as far as the talking aspect of my job entails other than accurately reflecting goals and intentions for the session at hand and periodically checking in to make sure they are comfortable on the table, or that something being stirred up in the nervous system during session is not overwhelming, giving them skills to titrate and settle into the experiences in a resourced way, or bringing their attention to the quality of the tissues in the body as they receive the work; the experience of the craniosacral journey should be one of self reflection and willingness to be in the whole experience with the support of the therapist that is assisting the physiology build resource via the nervous system.