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The Craniosacral Podcast

This podcast supports the personal and professional growth of craniosacral therapists via interviews and educational material from leading teachers and practitioners in the field. Hosted by Ryan Hallford, founder of the Craniosacral Resource Center and author of the Street Smart Craniosacral blog.
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Now displaying: October, 2015
Oct 31, 2015

A 16 minute recording of a simple practice in self-regulation.

www.energyschool.com

This is a practice to develop self-regulation skills.

Bring awareness into the body via sensation. Sensation is often simpler than mental activity or emotions.

Check in with things like position of body, breathing, sensation of gravity. Scan from the head down to the feet. Check in again with breathing.  Explore Surfaces you are in contact with. Feel textures and temperatures. We are observing the body, with the mind in the background.

Where in your body catches your attention? Maybe one area of your body emits a stronger signal. Focus on that area. Trace the boundary of wherever your attention is drawn to. Within that boundary, is it more on the left or the right? Is it moving or still? Is it shallow or deep? Where is the upper part, the lower part? We are just experiencing cleanly, without judgement or interpretation.

This first location will be the “target” of our attention.

Now, allow your attention to move to the feet or the hands. For example, choose the left foot and feel the details – contact with surface, temperature, texture, density. Wiggle toes in slow motion, count the toes. Press the ball of the foot into the floor, same with the heel. Pretend you have a magic marker and you are tracing around your foot.

Now go back to the “target” and hold some curiosity about any changes in the area. There may be small or large changes, but we hold no judgement about it. Check in with left/right and upper/lower boundaries. Is it moving or still? What color might it be? What sound might it make? Not looking for meaning, just qualities.

Now go to the finger tips and choose a hand to focus on. Make micro movements and feel into every detail that arises. Count the finger tips. Trace the outline of the fingers and hand as if with a marker, paying attention to the contours of the hand.

Now go back to the target area and notice any changes.

John recommends doing this practice at least once a day to remold the ANS, introducing motion where fixation may have appeared.

www.craniosacralpodcast.com

Oct 30, 2015

John Chitty lays out a 5-step sequence for working with babies.

John's website: www.energyschool.com

Episode highlights:

There is a strong tradition and justification for therapy sessions with newborn babies.

A main inspiration is Robert Fulford, D.O.

Books:

Dr. Fulford’s Touch of Life: The Healing Power of the Natural Life Force – Robert Fulford, D.O. - Gallery Books

Are We on the Path? The Collected Works of Robert Fulford, D.O. – Robert Fulford – Cranial Press

Mentioned by Andrew Weil in Spontaneous Healing – Random House

Fulford had good results with many common problems faced by babies. Baby’s problems affect the whole family. Fulford championed cranial base work and ANS health as useful areas for helping babies resolve echoes of the birthing experience. Babies have significant ability to resolve issues when given some support. Fulford helped us see what effective support looks like.

John has been teaching a class about working with babies annually for the last 8 years. The ideas he will lay out today are a summary of what he has incorporated into this class.

He likes Franklyn Sills’ Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics, Vol. II. It has several chapters devoted to babies. It is not exactly what John Does, but he likes it overall.

Other Books:

Craniosacral Therapy for Babies and Small Children - Ettiene Piersman  North Atlantic Books

Pediatric Manual Medicine: An Osteopathic Approach - Jane Carreiro  Churchill Livingstone

Craniosacral Therapy for Children -  Daniel Agustoni  North Atlantic Books

 

Ray Castellino – Santa Barbara - clinic pioneered recognition and conversation skills. www.castellinotraining.com

 

Carrie Conti PhD

www.carriecontey.com

 

APPPAH – Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health

www.birthpsychology.com

 

Dave Paxson

www.facebook.com/davepaxson

 

John is working on a book right now about working with babies. Release date TBA.

Many people feel daunted by working with babies, but a little goes a long way and it is better to go ahead and start. There are babies right now who could use your help! Changes made now have a lot of leverage in the life of the child and happiness of the family system.

Armed with only a few steps and some basic knowledge, you can be of significant help. Try it out.

John’s 5 step sequence for working with babies:

Can be useful for many different issues and employed at varying depths.

 

1) Recognition – we suffer as a culture from over-scientification of ourselves. This misses the reality of the baby’s identity as a newly arriving soul into our realm. This can be approached in a secular manner, with only an acknowledgement that there is an invisible world out there that is not understood by science. Religion or mysticism is not required to work with John’s ideas, just an acknowledgement that the therapist be comfortable with the idea that we cannot measure all of reality, as much of it is invisible.

We need to recognize the Baby. A formula for recognition:

  1. I know who you are
  2. I know where you came from.  
  3. I know why you are here.  

Look baby in the eye with appropriate proximity he/she would have with mom’s eyes (12 inches or so) . and recognize:

I know who you are - a unit of consciousness from another sphere

I know where you came from - the invisible world

I know why you are here - to encounter the resistance of matter for the fulfillment of consciousness.

Recognition alone may bring about positive changes.

 2) Tidal Movement

From Craniosacral Biodynamics - simply palpating the Tide seems to stabilize the system, and recognize baby on another level of embodiment. It can be done anywhere on the body. May have one hand on baby, one hand on mom. Babies may have inhibition of the downward phase (exhalation). Our culture contributes to this. We need to be more conscious of caring for the autonomic nervous systems of babies. They are mostly oriented to the social nervous system, and have limited defaulting to sympathetic arousal modes. If that fails, they go into parasympathetic shock and enter a shut down, numbed out, spaced out. We call these babies “good babies” (!) Helping mom is a high order priority for working with babies. Helping her relationship with her husband can be beneficial to the family system, and baby can slide into a healthier ANS state embodied by the parents.

3) Cranial Base disengagement.

Address the strain in the system introduced by natural processes or unnatural interventions. All of the different factors seem to settle in the cranial base (occiput/sphenoid/temporal).  Vagus nerve passes through the Jugular foramen in the cranial base. This is a good place to start. A basic way to work with this is light contact on the occiput behind the ears. It does not need to be precise. Hold an intention of space for the system as an inherent emerging principle. Try to establish better range of motion in the cranial base. This often helps with nursing.

4) Birth Story

This does not need to be told “over” the baby. Work with the baby to review the way birth was supposed to be in order to help the body resolve urges for fulfillment. John will give more examples in the book. Too often in therapy the emphasis is on fixing what was bad. We should emphasize resources first. Revisiting stages of birth is done with intention and physical contact. Some resistance followed by release, at feet, shoulders, head, finding way to optimum. It is always good to conclude with baby moving to mom.

5) Polarity Two-Chair Method

Developed by Robert Hall M.D., student of Fritz Perls, Randolph Stone, and Ida Rolf. John holds the baby and lets mom have a conversation with the baby. John does Body Low Slow Loop with mom (a practice from Chapter 9 of John’s book Dancing with Yin and Yang and presented in the next Craniosacral Podcast Episode) to settle mom and then imagine the baby is in the empty chair. Mom is asked to speak to the baby, and even ask questions. Revelation often emerges. Mom is asked to be the baby and even more insight arises. Mom accesses her intuitive information. Issues of the estranged father, if important, can also be addressed. Dad is often left hanging when baby arrives. It is good for the baby if mom and dad can work some of that out (chapter 11 of Dancing with Yin and Yang.)

This is a low-pressure form of therapy, much of the above approach can be done non-verbally.

Follow baby’s gestures. They have meaning!

Our whole healthcare system would benefit greatly from spending more time understanding the state of consciousness of babies and really bringing that understanding into clinical work. The medicalization and scientification of birth overlooks some very important factors. At least we could administer some of our interventions with a higher degree of sensitivity to the baby’s needs. Our insensitivity can contribute to many problems later in life for individuals.

John likes William Emerson’s work, but is not a fan of cathartic methods when working with babies. The baby is not excessively activated during the interaction in his sequence. Looping and pendulation (Peter Levine) is a more skillful way of working. We are always looking for signs of the social nervous system coming back on line.

 

Stephen Porges - triune nervous system

www.stephenporges.com

 

www.craniosacralpodcast.com

 

Oct 28, 2015

Ryan Hallford of the Craniosacral Resource Center tells the story of how he came to discover and practice craniosacral therapy. He briefly relates his experience of studying with the Upledger Institute, Michael Shea, Hugh Milne, and others in the fields of classical and biodynamic craniosacral therapy.

Please give feedback and ask questions at www.craniosacralpodcast.com

 

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