Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy
Biodynamic Touch : Foundations
January 10-12th 2025 in Portland, OR
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCT) is a subtle non-invasive healing art that touches the many layers of ones being and encourages the life force resources to promote a process of change toward greater health- toward a unified wholeness.
There are many branches of craniosacral therapy. Some utilize a systematic or mechanical approach while others, such as Biodynamic Cranial, embrace an all inclusive approach that invites the innate healing & transformation agent to guide the session.
Rather then focusing on a set of symptoms or disease, Biodynamic Cranial focuses instead on the intelligence that resides in every body-mind as the primary mover of the process of change that both practitioner and recipient are participating in.
The practical application of Biodynamic Touch is helpful in relieving body-mind symptoms that result from life stressors and traumatic events (including physical &/or emotional impact). The nourishing presence offered by the practitioner helps the nervous system come into a resting state that supports the self healing mechanisms to restore balance and calm. Restoration of movement in places of inertia supports the release of life force that can be then utilized throughout the whole body system in support of systemic health.
Generally, Craniosacral therapy sessions are given with recipient fully clothed. However, at times, additional tools may be used to support the healing process that are best applied with the recipient disrobed to their personal level of comfort (such as with the inclusion of massage therapy or acupuncture).
About the Biodynamic Approach
Biodynamic Principles
The body is a unit; the person is a unit of body, mind and spirit. Structure and function are reciprocally related.
This unity encompasses the complex interrelationships of all physiologic functions. In biodynamic practice the focus is on the unity of the organism, rather than its separate parts. Unity or wholeness provides a definition of health, in which all functions of the body are synchronized, coherent, and fully expressed.
The Biodynamic approach takes the wholeness of our being into account, and includes the extended energy field which permeates and surrounds the physical body. The energy dynamics of this biodynamic field is transpersonal and the structure and function of the physical body is directly related to it and relies on it for vitality.
The body is capable of self-regulation, self-healing and health maintenance. The emphasis on self-regulation and healing is essential to the practice manual therapy because treatment can then be oriented toward utilizing, supporting and helping to restore the mechanisms of self-regulation. Reverence is held for the self-correcting power alive in the human body & in Nature. The Biodynamic approach is a holistic and non-invasive/non-directive approach to healing that allows for natural adaptation which may occur on a body-mind and spiritual level during and after treatments.
* These principles are reflective of the fundamental tenets central to the practice of Osteopathy.
Health & Healing
The Biodynamic approach emphasizes that health is inherent in the body and explores how health expresses itself in every living process. The heart of the therapeutic processes is to return the body to a greater relationship to this inherent health. Challenges to health such as injury, illness, or trauma are held in the energy dynamics of the body along with the physical structure. The beauty of the Biodynamic approach is that it works with the inherent resources available to support change and healing.
Biodynamic touch follows the Intelligence of the body and its energy field. The treatment is led by what the body-mind-energy field shows you during the treatment. As a practitioner, we notice what is presented by the body without interfering. The work is about a surrender to the priorities of the body. There is a trust that, given the right relationship and resources, the Intelligence in the body will choose the best way to heal.
In biodynamics, we do not impose a plan from the outside. Instead, we listen and support the inherent processes of the organism away from fragmentation and towards optimal function.
Practical application of the Biodynamic Practice
The practice: All inclusive, listening, following and engagement with the governing agencies of health with responsive reciprocity through the vehicle of attunement.
The practice of Biodynamic therapeutics can be applied to a variety aspects of life. In relation with oneself, the practical application is applied to the inner world. In relationship with the outer world, the practical application of Biodynamic therapeutics can take shape in various expressions via the vehicle of relationship. The biodynamic practice is applicable in both personal and professional settings.
Biodynamic Touch as a practice of Meditation
A practice of attuning to the present moment with a flexible mind while uniting with the potency available within the movement and stillness of life.
Recommended Reading
For students, practitioners and those with a general curiosity about Craniosacral therapy
Life in Motion
Life in Motion: The Osteopathic Vision of Rollin E. Becker, DO opens a door into a way of healing that is both practical and profound.
your inner physician and you
Dr. John Upledger describes the discovery and therapeutic value of the craniosacral system in easy, understandable terms healthcare professionals and laypeople alike can understand.
Stillness of life
The Stillness of Life: The Osteopathic Philosophy of Rollin E. Becker, DO. This book is a collection of his more personal communication and teachings, including ideas he was not comfortable to freely share in public at the time.
The Breath of Life: An Introduction to Craniosacral Biodynamics
Cherionna Menzam-Sills draws on her extensive background in pre- and perinatal psychology, embryology, bodywork, Continuum Movement, and other somatic therapies—as well as years of working with her husband, Biodynamics pioneer Franklyn Sills—to present this accessible introduction to the meditative healing practice of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST).
The Heart of Listening
(Vol. 1 & Vol. 2)
Hugh Milne, a third generation Scottish osteopath, begins by explaining the visionary approach to healing, and how it may be applied to the realm of craniosacral work. He explains the importance of meditation, centering, and the cultivation of heartfulness in the development of compassionate practice.
Craniosacral Biodynamics
Written by Franklin Sills for students and practitioners but accessible to lay readers, this text presents the fundamental concepts and techniques of a method that redirects the cerebrospinal fluid to areas of imbalance, thus enhancing overall health. Volume One covers both the history and conceptual ideas fundamental to Craniosacral Biodynamics, as well as the more complex structural and tissue relationships.
Interface: Mechanisms of Spirit in Osteopathy
R. Paul Lee, DO illuminates Stills philosophy that the living being is an inseparable unit comprising of body, mind and spirit. Interface synthesizes current scientific understanding to explain the mechanism of the mind, body, spirit connections.
Autobiography of Andrew T. Still
With a History of the Discovery and Development of the Science of Osteopathy.
A.T. Still From the dry bone to the living man
A biography of osteopathy’s founder written by John Lewis. It explains how his science grew from a biological explanation for the origin of disease, based on the cutting edge medical science of the day, and how from it grew a system of treatment.
“The hands are not transmitters, they are not doing anything, they are a symbol of being in touch and convey a felt sense of relationship. Genetic expression is powered by relationship. Love is a relationship. The hands are simply receivers. The practitioner does nothing, (s)he listens; (s)he listens with all his (her) senses in full attention to the client and from the heart, not the analytic brain. There is no diagnosis, prognosis or treatment plan, the practitioner listens and as the trust in the process develops, and the client begins to feel that there is, perhaps for the first time ever, someone fully there for her (him), then the conditions are present in which she (he) can begin to have the courage to explore her (his) long and deeply buried trauma. There is no treatment as such, the hearing is the healing and the more profound the listening, the deeper the healing.” — Mike Boxhall RCST.,FCSTA.