From the book cover

All healing occurs in relationship. Cranial Intelligence describes a state of knowing presence through embodied touch that orients our body to its deepest forces of health. This touch brings about a natural movement towards whole body relationship and a reorganization back to optimal alignment. There are subtle rhythmic movements in the body, underlying structure and physiology, that can be felt by a trained therapist.  The therapist can interact with these rhythms and promote the resolution of overwhelming experiences. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is an extraordinary paradigm for safely meeting our deepest, earliest and most painful stories and supporting lasting change.

Cranial Intelligence provides a practical approach to therapeutic work based on the authors clinical experience and teaching of the work all over the world. The book demystifies the model and attempts to articulate in clear simple language the essence of what actually works in clinical practice. The book includes meditation exercises, treatment guidelines and clinical highlight features. Unique in the biodynamic field are chapters on joints, organs and practice development.

Biographies

Ged Sumner is a practicing craniosacral therapist, craniosacral therapy trainer and chi kung teacher. He has also studied shiatsu, healing and attachment based psychoanalytical psychotherapy. He is passionate about understanding the remarkable processes that take place in the living body and educating people to be amazed at the wonders of their own bodies (www.anatomy4you.com). He is the director of Body Intelligence Training which offers biodynamic craniosacral therapy practitioner courses in North America and Australasia (www.bodyintelligence.com). He is the author of two other books: You are How You Move – Experiential Chi Kung and, Body Intelligence – Creating a New Environment. He has a degree in Chemistry and currently lives in Australia with his partner and has three children.

Steve Haines has been working in healthcare for over twenty years, primarily as a bodyworker since 1998. His worldview has been shaped by advocacy in mental health, being around AIDS activism and his practice of yoga, meditation and skiing. He is continually inspired by the change that can happen through biodynamic craniosacral therapy. He studied BCST with Franklyn Sills, Michael Kern and Katherine Ukleja. He is a UK registered chiropractor and also trained as a shiatsu practitioner. He lives and treats between London and Geneva and teaches cranial work internationally, including Switzerland, UK, North America and Malaysia. (www.stevehaines.net)

Preface

This book emerged from our experience of teaching biodynamic craniosacral therapy around the world. The goal is for it to be an intensely practical book directly relevant to clinical experience as a bodyworker. Primarily it is aimed at people interested in craniosacral therapy, however we feel that there is much that is useful for all sorts of bodyworkers. The first five chapters have debates on boundaries, perception, working safely with trauma, birth and how stories are held in the body that are relevant to many professions. The final chapter on practice development cover issues pertinent to all practitioners struggling to set up an abundant practice. The authors have studied and been around many forms of natural medicine, however, the biodynamic craniosacral approach offers something very profound and inspires a whole way of meeting the world and living your life that is sensitive and connected.

There are a number of key ideas that are fundamental to biodynamics; the breath of life and its expressions, how patterns of experience shape the body, meeting overwhelm with resources, being in a relational field, being in stillness, embryology, birth and ignition processes. These will be explored in chapters one through to seven.

Alongside the key concepts are a number of key skills essential to the practice of biodynamic craniosacral therapy. These are; the power of presence, developing perception, recognising the holistic shift, working with the inherent treatment plan, facilitating states of balance, orienting to tides, relating to Becker’s three stage process, working with augmentation or conversation skills and skills to orient to the deeper forces of health. All of these key skills will be introduced in chapters one and two and referred to throughout the book.

Anatomy is the language of the body. If you do not speak the language when you go to a new country then you can still have a great time. If you can speak the language things will happen much more quickly and there are far more possibilities. Knowing the anatomy and physiology of the the human system allows a practitioner to ask much more interesting questions of the body and to respond to the puzzles and challenges of disorder in much more effective ways. An intelligent system will know that you know, it will respond to your ability to bear witness to what you are feeling. As such, certain pieces of anatomy are explored more fully; the nervous system, the spine, the cranium, the organs, the connective tissue matrix, the fluid systems of the body, the facial complex including the jaw and throat and the major joints. Some of these subjects get whole chapters in the later half of the book, some, fluids and tissues especially, are woven into the whole text.

Throughout the book are experiential awareness exercises that lead you through explorations of your anatomy and biodynamic health expressions. These are a key part of the book and when practiced start to reveal a new relationship through touch and perception. From teaching experience, the authors strongly recommend these as powerful ways to increase your sensitivity.