All organisms seek to find balance individually and within their whole ecosystem. We can see this clearly demonstrated in nature when we look at a tree that continues to live and grow by adapting its growth pattern around dismemberment or the way the tree may grow in a spiral around another neighboring tree that stands very close by. We also see how an ecosystem will strive to find balance when there has been damage or destruction by man, it adapts by producing imbalance in order to come back into balance. Our bodies work the same way. The manifestation of imbalance, disease, illness, and effects of mental health are all demonstrations of how our body seeks to find balance. We all carry this self corrective force within our bodies which are generated by deeper organized movements in the physiology and function as a continuum.
The Fluid Dynamic understanding behind Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is a particular approach into the study of the natural and creative forces that organize the human body. The forces that are found throughout the natural world are the same forces that we carry within your physiology. They include a subtle ordering principle that drives the creation, development and maintenance of all systems. Within the expression of these forces is a polyrhythmic movement that is stable and palpable, moving in cycles known as Primary Respiration. This movement is omnipresent in all living organisms and it moves in a natural expansion-contraction pattern that is very different than the respiratory breath and the heart beat. Interactions with the movements present in craniosacral understanding can have remarkable health benefits.
There are 2 basic forces at work in the living body: the Biodynamic Potencies generated by what Osteopaths call the Breath of Life and Biokinetic or Conditional Forces introduced into the system via trauma and life experiences (inertial fulcrums).
Biodynamic Potency is the universal force behind the Breath of Life and is the inherent authority that maintains order, integrity and homeostatic balance within the tissues of the body. It manifests at the moment of conception, organizes cellular differentiation, embryological development and is with us throughout life. Potency manifests as a bioelectric biomagnetic field phenomenon and it is a unified field of health around which fluids, cells and tissues organize. This is an intelligent life force that maintains the order and coherency of the cellular-tissue field and generates both fluid and tissue motility through the transmutation process which is carried out through Primary Respiration.
Primary Respiration is the most intrinsic motion with in our physiology. Its motion is present in cellular oscillation and is the fundamental quality of Fluid Dynamics. This sacred movement, moves in a fluctuation pattern of coming in and going back out like the Tides of the sea, all the while organizing the tissues to create balance between its original intention, its experience and that which is, in the present moment. In essence, Primary Respiration is the physical manifestation of the Biodynamic Potency behind the Breath of Life. It does this by organizing all bodily functions via muscular, visceral (organs), nervous system, bones, cardiovascular, etc all according to both our original essence and life experiences.
Within Primary Respiration there are different layers of organized movement. These movements are subtle and are experienced as the Cranial Rhythmic Impulse (CRI), Mid-tide, Long-tide, and Dynamic Stillness. The rhythms are the movements of our physiology and are present within us all, simultaneously. The state of the nervous system and how much Subtle Body awareness we have will indicate what layer we experience these rhythms.
Not only is Primary Respiration the organizer of tissues, operated by the Breath of Life, but it is also an aspect of a deep spiritual intelligence. Something emerges in Primary Respiration that is connected to source and is very much alive. It seeks to know itself and chooses to come into form, so the form can reflect its own original
intention. Behind the understanding of how this system works, is the body’s natural self correcting force which heals all injuries and traumas.
One of the most distinguishing features of the mechanics of Primary Respiration is its emphasis on the mid-line. Ventral mid-line pertains to the front or anterior of the spinal cord. It is the major axis of development within the embryo, as well as, the major organizing force behind the movement of Biodynamic Potencies within the adult. In utero, it expresses as an uprising force where the primitive streak and notochord form. It is the ordering axis for the generation of form in the embryo and its function continues in that same way into life as a natural orientation point for all the tissues of the body to be organized. This mid-line is where the Breath of Life can travel in a way that can organize. The mid-line is anatomically centered through the center of our bodies along the line of the front part of the spine, through the vertebral bodies. The action that the ventral mid-line is sometimes call “The Fountain Spray of Life” because the movement of the Breath of Life here can be palpated as moving upward from the coccyx, through the vertebral bodies, to the occiput, and “spraying out through the sphenoid”. In the same way it was formed, it continues to be a major organizing pathway for the Breath of Life to travel to bring balance and organization to our tissues.
It is possible to sense all these layers of Tidal Movement coming from the rise and fall of Primary Respiration by way it travels through fascia. Fascia is the tough connective tissue which covers everything and connects all the systems in the body. This makes the body like one big sweater that is interconnected throughout. When one part is affected the other parts will also be affected. The sates of fluidity in the body are directly mirrored in the fascia system which acts like a living matrix. It’s functional ability to shift and change, hold and support, and conduct, to fit the functional need of the body makes fascia a major contributor in the flow of information in the body.
The main objective of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is to find restrictions and/or compressions (inertial fulcrums) in the fascial system and cranial vault which are caused by injury or trauma AND could cause dysfunction/disease in the body (possibly effecting other systems then where the initial inertia manifested) if left untreated. The main objective of this work is to support and listen to the body in a way that honors the body’s natural ability to always be in a state of balance, even in the face of disease, illness and chronic pain. Our job as practitioners of this work is to support the health, listen to the body from a neutral non-judging way while supporting the stories and patterns that are there in the tissue to settle, soften and resolve just as its ready to do so on its own. We augment this by knowing the anatomy, Being in our Body with a wide open listening field, very present with the client in a safe Relational Field (one that is not diagnosing, giving advice or even stating what we hear in the system at all, but merely reflecting). The main objective of the therapist is to listen to this very intelligent system and to offer contact with floating, thinking feeling, knowing hands. In this way the tissues organized around restrictions and compressions have a chance to release, thus affecting the whole body/mind system.
