Monthly Archives: March 2015

Morley College Two Day Intro Course To Craniosacral Therapy!

CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY

This two day course will introduce you to Craniosacral therapy, cranial-sacral therapy, which is a form of bodywork focused primarily on the concept of ‘primary respiration’ and regulating the flow of cerebrospinal fluid by using therapeutic touch to manipulate synarthrodial joints.

RETURN TO HEALTH STUDIES COURSES

  • 13 Jun 2015 – 14 Jun 2015

    DAYS:
    Saturday Sunday
    TIMES:
    10:00 – 15:00
    DURATION:
    1 Week
    TUTOR:
    Alfredo Hunter
    COURSE CODE:
    HPD036A
    LOCATION:
    Westminster Bridge Road
    FULL FEE:
    £100
    SENIOR FEE:
    £100
    AVAILABILITY:
    Yes

Keeping it Simple by Steve Haines

Keeping it Simple

I love biodynamic craniosacral therapy; the art of using touch to support health. When you touch people they change. It is that simple.

Many people struggle with safety; it can be hard work negotiating being in the body. Coming into relationship with a skilled therapist can ease the pain. The inherent drive for self-regulation within our physiology is very powerful. Appreciating how the human body strives for health and how health is expressed as coherence, connection and a pulsing flow, is the skill of cranial work.

The essence of my work uses presence, education, movement and touch to help people reconnect with health. I use embodied presence supported via non-doing touch.

Awe and wonder is a huge part of biodynamics. It is mesmerising being alive, being conscious and being part of nature. There is a lot of spirituality in the writing about biodynamics. It often over complicates the simple process of touch. When people use the word spirit I just insert the word nature. Spirit does not speak to my experience, it is frequently far too speculative. There are many responses to the mystery of why there is ‘something other than nothing’. Religious frameworks are not part of my practice or teaching of biodynamic craniosacral therapy. I find they tend to obscure and confuse the simple path to the body.

The other big complication for me in the field of cranial work is a focus on alignment models. I am deeply uninterested in the position of bones and in trying to line up, stretch, and balance tissues if the focus is on an external model of how something should be positioned. Cranial work, despite the unfortunate name, is really not about how bones in the skull move. Sutherland’s model is in urgent need of an update in the light of so little evidence supporting rocking bones. The head probably creaks and accommodates tensions in membranes and muscles, but it is becoming increasingly hard to justify more than that.

There is wonderful evidence to support what happens in a biodynamic cranial session. There is good science on the power of mindfulness and presence, touch feeding our sense of self and research on using education about pain and the nervous system as a tool to relieve pain. We know that being in relationship with other people and the wild and natural world supports health. There are clear models on how interacting with the neurology of creating safety helps to overcome trauma. Systems theory helps us understand how intelligence emerges from complexity. That is a lot of great stuff without recourse to mysticism, esoteric anatomy and outdated paradigms of ‘issues in the tissues’.

Keeping it simple is my constant goal. I try to be as present as I can whilst using a light touch. As the relationship deepens I can be a witness to the patterns held in my client’s gently pulsing body. Something happens, always. Easy really.  – Steve Haines

article taken from:  http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=cb698f96aa0dab2901a7e5929&id=0fb8c944f7&e=06663473f3

Craniosacral Therapy: escaping the cycle of stress and insomnia

Craniosacral Therapy: escaping the cycle of stress and insomnia

Insomnia affects so many of us. At its root lies a simple problem: the inability to let go and relax at night. Yet the results of this lead to many complex problems in the lives of those who experience it.

The spiralling cycle of stress and sleep

Does this sound familiar to you? Here’s a typical pattern you may recognise:

• All the stresses of the day – from work and home, friends and family – refuse to stop spinning around in your head, so you just can’t switch off or wind down.
• The result is another night of interrupted sleep that leaves you feeling exhausted before the next day has even begun.
• Because of this you are unable to face the day’s challenges.
• And these continue to spin round in your head when you try to wind down at night.
• The cycle continues and further deepens.

Sleep can quickly become a stress in itself: as an unattainable goal the pressure of trying to reach it only feeds the negative cycle. You feel powerless, you feel lost, you feel trapped and you feel anxious.

The masking effect of sleeping pills

Perhaps, as a last resort, you even visit your GP and receive prescription sleeping pills in the hope of gaining that rest your body, mind and soul so desperately crave. The truth is, however, that sleeping pills only serve to mask the underlying issues. They cannot address the fact that your body is out of balance, and they may actually leave you experiencing a deeper sense of dislocation and disconnection.

There has to be a better way

This is where Craniosacral Therapy (CST) can make a profound difference. The most powerful, immediate affect that most people experience with craniosacral work is the ability to shut off the stress response that has kept them prisoner to issues like insomnia and anxiety.

CST works immediately on the nervous system, and it is this that has been affected by our reaction to the stress that has caused our insomnia.

Every time we experience stress our bodies operate through our sympathetic nervous system, producing the anxious reaction of fight or flight. If we do not allow ourselves sufficient down time, our bodies get used to existing in this heightened state of stress. It becomes second nature to us, but it is never long before we become depleted. Our endocrine system spirals into defence mode, sparking a chain reaction that leaves us drained of vital energy. In this state we are vulnerable to illness, depression and anxiety.

CST restores our natural state of balance

This natural state of balance is known as homeostasis. Your body naturally wants to seek an optimal balance between responding to stress and allowing itself time for relaxation, rejuvenation and healing to occur.

By tuning directly into your central nervous system, a craniosacral therapist can induce a state of calm and relaxation that allows you to find the escape your body needs to recover. This means you can gain relief from the effects of stress, such as sleeplessness, incessant thoughts, feeling on edge, anxiety and more.

The beauty of CST

The beauty of CST, in my experience, is that it can take just a couple of sessions for people to experience that longed-for full night’s sleep and attain a desperately needed sense of calm.

And this is only the beginning of their journey.

After five sessions many are able to calibrate their stress response effectively to cope once more with their day-to-day situation more easily. They are able to make lasting changes in their life and experience a liberating transformation as they escape the cycle that has held them prisoner to its relentless rhythms.

This escape from helplessness, negative thoughts and sleeplessness can feel like a veil being lifted as they feel able to see the world clearly for the first time in many years.

And so to bed.

By Alfredo Hunter

 

http://www.shineholistic.co.uk/blog/?p=658