what is biodynamic craniosacral therapy? a brief introduction educati… · in biodynamic...

1. Touch and Presence 2The influence of another presence 2Craniosacral touch 2

2. What is Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy? 3

Overview 3A brief history of cranial work 3Biodynamics 5

3. Breath of Life 6

4. We Are Shaped by Experience 7Patterns of experience are imprinted on the body 7Trauma 7

5. Curriculum 8Curriculum mindmaps 8seminar 1: relational touch 10seminar 2: the midline 10seminar 3: whole body dynamics 10seminar 4: craniopelvic resonance 10seminar 5: birth, ignition and original health 10seminar 6: visceral intelligence 10

seminar 7: neural matrix 11seminar 8: the facial complex 11seminar 9: deepening into the relational field 11seminar 10: cellular intelligence 11

6. About Body Intelligence Training 13Intention of the training 13Living anatomy 13Learning process 13Study and Practice 13Accreditation 13Some further reading suggestions 14What the course offers 15Directors of Body Intelligence Training 15Application 15Postgraduate courses 15

Graduation requirements 16

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What is BCST v14.pages! © Body Intelligence Training! 1

What Is Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy?A Brief IntroductionContact: [email protected]: www.bodyintelligence.comWiki: www.bodyintelligencewiki.comBook and blog: www.cranialintelligence.com

Steve Haines, Jun 2016, Updated 18 Dec 2017

1. Touch and Presence

The influence of another presenceJust being there is no small thing. When we are

present with someone’s expressions of their life force, there’s a profound affect created that brings about healing. How relieving it is to be heard. Just to be heard. Not having someone qualify the hearing of you with providing a solution, intervening, or trying to offer something else. Rare indeed is it that someone will just listen intelligently without intervening with their own life story, opinions, solutions, or ideas/concepts/fantasies of what is happening.

When you experience this, a wonderful healing takes place and there is a natural relief of your suffering. This can be so profound that you have physical sensations and changes as well emotional expressions. Someone has acknowledged who you are. It might only be for a short time or just a moment but that’s all it needs. It’s the deepest form of communication, being to being. There are no words in this connection and it feels timeless. As a craniosacral therapist you bring this into the therapeutic space. Your beingness. The more deeply you can manifest this the more powerfully people respond to your touch and presence.

Sit for a moment and see if you can be with your state of beingness. When you reside in it you can truly be the witness. Its qualities are presence, clarity, simplicity and non-doing. It’s a state of repose and acuity, it’s not a sleepy state. You are actually bringing together a balance of internal and external awareness into harmony. From this place you can begin to see what is happening. Let go of ideas of what you might find, or formats for making sense of things. Try to observe what is, unfettered by your own fantasies or anxieties. Only then will you be able to have any sense of what is happening in yourself or in another person.

Craniosacral touchIn biodynamic craniosacral therapy we use touch as

a way of communicating and listening. The focus is always on exploring sensations and the nature of being in a body. The cranial paradigm teaches that there are certain phenomena that occur in the body and the space around us. These include a sense of stillness, expansion and contraction through all the tissues and structures, a surge and tide like movement of fluids and shifts in an electric like charge we call potency. A skilled therapist can interact with these phenomena to support a movement towards health.

At the heart of the craniosacral touch there is a state of being present. Practice will make you more skillful at being able to manifest this. Eventually this starts to become part of you in a more apparent way. What you will notice too is a burgeoning sense of spaciousness. Both gross and subtle. You will feel bigger and fuller as if you not only occupy your body but the space around it too. Also you will notice a mental and emotional spaciousness that allows you a deeper and richer contact with your thoughts and feelings. The spaciousness allows a disengagement, so that a natural state of non-attachment comes about.

You can engender this state through a practice of opening into this spaciousness. The wider the space, the deeper and more energetic the manifestation of health. As you widen out there is an expression of energetic forces within the body that can be felt as tingling or fluid like movements throughout the body. This is the movement of potency and the phenomenon of primary respiration.



Fig 1 The whole body takes part in the phenomenon of primary respiration. Left: The inhalation phase of opening, rising, widening. Right: The exhalation phase of closing, sinking, narrowing.

2. What is Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy?

OverviewTwo big ideas go to the heart of cranial work. One;

the whole body expands and contracts in a rhythmic or tidal way. Two; there is an intelligence expressed through the whole body.

A skilled practitioner can interact with the rhythms and tides expressed by the body. The rhythms are very rich in information. If you were watching someone breathing and they were breathing quickly and rapidly in their upper chest you might learn to associate that with activity, excitement or anxiety. Similarly the tempo, strength and presence of the various tides in the body tells us huge amounts about that person. Sutherland initially described five key movements in the body; the mobility of the cranial bones, the fluctuation of cerebrospinal fluid, the motility of the central nervous system, the reciprocal tension membranes and the involuntary mobility of the sacrum between the ilia. When Sutherland was first struck with the thought that the bones in the head moved, this was against the accepted model of his time. The tide is not limited to theses five elements, it is expressed through out the total human system; every cell knows the tide. Every cell breathes, inhaling and exhaling within cycles of what Sutherland called ‘primary respiration’.

The smartest thing in the room is the intelligence expressed in our bodies. There is millions of years of evolution behind the shapes and forms and movements in the body. There are lots of coordinated self regulating processes that respond to events and maintain an internal balance and flow. This intelligence defines the chemistry, nervous activity and alignment in the body. Biodynamic craniosacral therapy experiences this intelligence as an expression of a wider ordering principle in nature. Health is an active principle, it is a living breathing reality that can be palpated by knowing hands. Sutherland named the ordering principle as the breath of life. We also use the term biodynamic health to represent this principle.

A brief history of cranial workThe work grew from the pioneering insights of

William Garner Sutherland. His identity was very much that of an osteopath and his writings are full of references to his teacher A.T Still, the founder of osteopathy. He started writing about and teaching ‘osteopathy in the cranial field’ from the late 1920’s. He died at the age of 81 in 1954.

Sutherland’s early descriptions of the ‘primary respiratory mechanism’ defined five phenomena:

1. The fluctuation of the cerebrospinal fluid - the potency of the Tide.

2. The function of the reciprocal tension membrane.

3. The motility of the neural tube. 4. The articular mobility of the cranial bones.5. The involuntary movement of the sacrum

between the ilia.

Towards the end of his life his writing underwent a shift in emphasis to include not just the mechanics and infinitesimal movements of the structures of the body, but also an increasing reverence for the breath of life. It was during the last few years of his life that he began to describe principles such as being a more passive observer and waiting for something to happen rather than just applying techniques, ‘liquid light’, primary respiration as being outside as well as inside the body and the power of stillness.

The cranial approach was passed on through a lineage of osteopaths, Rollin Becker and James Jealous being the most prominent.

In the 1970s an American osteopath, Dr John Upledger, observed the distinct, regular movement of a dural tube (the tough membrane that surrounds and protects the spinal cord) during surgery on a patient’s neck. He studied the work of Sutherland, did his own experiments and caused a schism in the work by starting to train non osteopaths in ‘craniosacral therapy’. Upledger was a prolific writer and trainer and has done a huge amount to increase awareness of craniosacral therapy. The Upledger Institute claims to have trained over 100000 people around the world. The Upledger training is a modular approach with different certification levels from a few weeks to a couple of years in training.




What is BCST v14.pages! © Body Intelligence Training! 4Fig 2 Sutherlands’ initial five phenomena making up the craniosacral system.

BiodynamicsBiodynamics is an attempt to always

appreciate the whole of things. The work is about a surrender to the priorities of the body. There is a trust that, given the right relationship and with enough resources, the intelligence in the body will choose the best way to heal. In biodynamics we do not impose a plan from the outside. We listen and support the inherent striving of the organism away from fragmentation and towards health. This approach orients to the slower tidal movements (mid tide and long tide) expressed by primary respiration. Stillness is a defining goal and experience in the work. Change happens in the still moments where an individual comes back into relationship to what is around them.

Jim Jealous adapted the term biodynamic from his study of the embryologist Erich Blechschmidt. Jealous calls his work the ‘biodynamic model of osteopathy in the cranial field’. He emphasizes the embryo as being ever present in the living organism. The word biodynamic has connotations of holism and interrelationship.

The biodynamic principles began to be applied to craniosacral therapy through the work of Franklyn Sills and the teachers at the Karuna Institute in the UK. There is now an International Affiliation of Biodynamic Trainings (IABT) consisting of ten schools. The biodynamic approach is one in which the main focus is the forces at work within the human system via mid tide, long tide and dynamic stillness. The work orients to insights from the later years of Sutherland’s life.

To review; there are cranial osteopaths and craniosacral therapists (sometimes described as having a biomechanical approach). There are biodynamic osteopaths in the cranial field and biodynamic craniosacral therapists. This leaflet is about the latter approach.



Fig 3 Top: On inhalation the whole head widens side to side and narrows front to back. Bottom: The cranial base opens like a flower around the sphenobasilar junction (SBJ). In biodynamics the orientation is to the whole skull changing shape as a fluid, membrane bag or the cranial base opening and closing like a flower, never just the movements of individual bones.

3. Breath of LifeSutherland discovered the existence of a movement

in the body that he termed primary respiration. The animating force behind this movement he called the breath of life. He believed this was an energetic expression of an intelligence in the universe. The expression of primary respiration is a longitudinal fluid motion that has two phases of inhalation and exhalation, oriented around the midline of the body. Inhalation can be felt as an arising movement that expands laterally and exhalation as a complementary movement that recedes down towards the lower body and narrows side to side. Very much like the ebb and flow of the tide. The qualities Sutherland attributed to the breath of life are:

• Basic constitutional energy of the body, having a potency and healing function.

• Conveys intelligence to every cell and tissue of the body and is the inner physician.

• Maintains order and integrity in the body.

The breath of life has several expressions that can be palpated by the skilled practitioner. One of the most common is the expression of primary respiration as a tidal movement, sometimes called the Tide. Often you will be struck by its longitudinal expression which can feel very tidal, like an ebb and flow. The flow is a potent surge of fluid potency that moves up the length of the midline to the head. A strong expression of this can feel like its pushing you out of your chair. The

other expression is the lateral widening and narrowing that can feel like an expansion and contraction. Sometimes the head and body feel like a balloon that is inflating. Sometimes you have a full sense of the movement as a rising and widening and it feels like the balloon changes shape but not volume. It is interesting how you perceive it and how different aspects of show themselves to you.

As you become more adept at feeling these expressions you can gain a sense of the nuances of the Tide. This is the characteristic movements for that individual. So how the inhalation and exhalation phases are, the pauses at the change of the phases, the drive or amount of potency behind the movement all defines the body system and becomes the baseline for tracking change. Being in relationship to this force of life changes everything. There’s a chain reaction that brings about a greater order of health. Watch the Tide and see what happens. It’s as if the body is made of sand and the movement of the ocean is reshaping and smoothing out the contours. The action of the Tide itself highlights the body’s forms and patterns and then brings about reorganization. In a treatment the Tide may not reveal itself all the time. If you are following the inherent treatment process and orienting to the body with an adaptable perceptual field you will be in relationship to what the body wants to show you i.e. its priorities for treatment. Then, often the Tide will reveal itself at key moments in the treatment and bring about deeper and more holistic changes.



Fig 4 The embryo is a very powerful motif in biodynamics. The human form takes shape from a ball of cells. The growth movements that occur in the first 8 weeks of life give many clues for understanding how the adult body heals.

4. We Are Shaped by Experience

Patterns of experience are imprinted on the body

Sometimes we meet events in life that we cannot deal with because they are too overwhelming. These experiences are then held in the body-mind as imprints and memories and create physiological affects. We use the term patterns of experience to describe how the body centres and responds to the conditional forces of life events. Biodynamic forces represent the inherent adaptability of the body, its continual striving for health. How much you are affected by an event depends on your resources and your relationship to biodynamic health. We all do the best we can, given our history and current circumstances. Many of our responses are deep reflexes embedded in our personality that are based on previously successful strategies. Bringing awareness and choice to our habitual responses and our deepest imprints is a huge part of biodynamic craniosacral therapy. This is necessarily an embodied awareness as most of our defining experiences our encoded non-verbally and non-consciously in our bodies.

Patterns of experience can be created by:

• Physical trauma - injuries

• Birth process - foetal distress, interventions

• Nutrition - deficiencies, toxicity

• Emotional trauma - abuse, neglect, lack of support

• Belief systems - strong beliefs, attitudes can fix the body

• Environment - air, water, light

• Hereditary factors - genetic influences

They are formed when the potency of the breath of life is unable to dissipate the effects of an overwhelming experience. Often these patterns emerge and resolve themselves by coming into a new relationship with the breath of life. However sometimes the system needs help with this and a powerful way to help is for your client to come into a deeper connection with their own health. Patterns of experience are places of resistance and fixation in the body. They are formed by the inability to recover from an overwhelming experience. The following is a typical sequence of events:

• Threatening event

• Contraction

• Experienced as overwhelming

• Frozen state/fixation

• Fragmentation and compartmentalization

• Unable to express the primary respiration

• Lowering of potency and craniosacral motion expressed with altered shape

TraumaThe understanding of trauma is fundamental to

biodynamics. We are all hardwired to respond to overwhelming experiences in the same way. We contract away from danger. The control mechanisms (nervous, hormonal and immune) take us immediately into states of being activated (flight or fight) or dissociated (freeze). The good news is that we evolved to respond quickly to trauma and have the innate ability to process and overcome trauma. We would not survive as a species if this were not the case.

Biodynamic craniosacral therapy is very good at supporting safe, contained processing of traumatic experiences. This includes ‘hard trauma’ from single overwhelming events or the slow accumulation of stress and tension from multiple distressing experiences (‘soft trauma’).



Fig 5 Birth is an early defining experience. It can leave a trail of patterns in the body that affect future events and behaviours.

5. Curriculum

Curriculum mindmaps



seminar 1: relational touchExplores the phenomena of touch, space,

perception and Tidal forms. Looks at the craniosacral biodynamic concept in depth.

• The relational field

• Holistic shift

• Unfoldments of the Breath of Life

• Perceptual Fields

• Stillness

• Resourcing

• Patterns of experience

• Inherent treatment plan

seminar 2: the midlineExplores the spine as a unit of function and natural

fulcrum for the whole body’s health as well as a conductor for the primary energies of the bodymind system. Looks at how natural adjustments take place around this axis.

• Embryological origins

• Original health and blueprint

• Primal midline

• Holistic spine

• The two poles - sacrum and occiput

• Spinal motion dynamics

• Fluid spine

• Key joints

• Natural states of balance

• Tissues, fluids and potency

• Body learning

• Recognising and treating trauma affects

seminar 3: whole body dynamicsExplores the phenomenon of holism. When the

body communicates and moves as a whole, there is access to greater health. Looks at continuity of tissues, whole body patterns and shapes. Also looks at reciprocal motion through the body.

• Connective tissue

• The fascial web

• Reciprocal motion in membranes

• Horizontal and transverse structures

• Whole body, whole field

• Resolving whole body patterns

• Trauma models

• Hip and shoulder joints as key nodes in fascial web

• Wide perceptual fields and the Long Tide

• Practice development: skills of assessment, diagnostic baselines, language for touch, recording treatments

seminar 4: craniopelvic resonanceExplores primary respiration around cranial and

pelvic bones. Looks at how the two poles of the midline mirror each other and create health when there is synchrony.

• Mobility and motility of cranial vault and pelvic bones

• Patterns of experience

• Specific resonances

• Bipolar contact

• Integration and resourcing

• Bony-membranous expressions

• Core-periphery resonance: midline and limbs

• Practice development: structure of a treatment session, treatment processes, safety in practice

seminar 5: birth, ignition and original health

Explores how we develop in utero and the prenatal conditions for health. Craniosacral therapy can form a relationship to these early forces and facilitate a re-ordering of early affects. Looks at the process of birth and how the body shapes itself in response to this unique event.

• Pre-natal experience and the psyche

• Cranial base patterns and their resonance

• Whole body birth shapes and posture

• Understanding entrainment

• Ignition processes

• Attachment and bonding body affects

• Relating to the transpersonal

• Pacing and containment

• Practice development: developing trust in body intelligence, diagnosing health and assessing change

seminar 6: visceral intelligenceExplores how organs feel and move - their

embryological origins and primary health expressions. Looks at how treatment can change their physiology in a profound way.

• Visceral nervous system

• Fight or flight response and the brain stem



• Limbic system and emotions

• Individual organ expressions and clinical considerations

• The gut and umbilical affects

• Physiological affects of stillness

• Practice development: acute and chronic conditions, dealing with serious illness, relationship with short, medium and long term clients

seminar 7: neural matrixExplores the fluid/electrical phenomenon of the

central nervous system right at the heart of us. In particular how the brain feels and responds to light touch. Looks at how to relate to neural patterning to bring about smoother neural flow dynamics.

• The whole brain

• Neural flow

• Ventricles and deep potency reservoirs

• Blood and brain

• Brain states and nerve facilitation

• Understanding pain

• Stillness in the central nervous system

• Sea of stillness

• Practice development: being a successful fulfilled craniosacral therapist, how to survive as a self employed therapist

seminar 8: the facial complexExplores the dynamics of the face and the special

senses. Looks at how the face functions in relationship to the neurocranium, the whole body and a plethora of inter-relationships. Particularly looks at the pivotal relationship of the jaw and throat to the whole body and how it is the fulcrum for powerful physiological and psychoemotional expressions and repressions.

• Cranial nerves and special senses

• Motions and emotions of the face

• Hard palette dynamics

• The jaw and TMJ harmonics

• Emotional entrapment and its expressions

• Shock and the jaw

• The pivot of the throat

• Key joints of the lower body

• The empathetic practitioner

• The power of acknowledgement and non-action

• Practice development: framing the physiology of emotion and pain, developing presence and simplicity in the treatment session

seminar 9: deepening into the relational field

Pregnancy, birth and early life are profound and formative times. These first moments can determine many aspects of our health and nature that condition the rest of our lives. Craniosacral therapy offers a powerful understanding of these events and through a unique and deep contact with the human system can help the expression of the innate life force within each individual. To be able to use these skills effectively can help the development of the embryo, foetus, baby and mother.

• Mother and baby resonance

• Treating the pregnant woman and acknowledging the baby's presence

• Physiological changes during pregnancy

• Conditions that can develop in the antenatal period

• Natural labour

• Labour complications, the medical model and cranial perspectives

• Postnatal period and the changes that occur

• Treating mother and baby for the first time

• Health expressions/trauma expression in mothers, babies and children

• Physiological differences in the young child

• Treating mobile infants

• Maintaining practitioner neutral under challenging circumstances

• Verbal skill enhancement

• Skills for staying present)

• Practitioner self care and the role of supervision in practice

seminar 10: cellular intelligenceThis workshop will look at how the body response

is holistic in its very nature. The nervous system, endocrine system and immune systems are intricately linked and complementary, co-influencing our emotional and psychological states. Attachment theory and neuroscience will be examined as theories to help us understand what lies behind physical and emotional conditioning along with practical ways to



bring this knowledge into the treatment room and meet your client's system in a truly holistic way.

• The phenomenon of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis

• Metabolic fields and the thyroid

• Immune system potency and the immune organs

• The hormonal molecular fluid matrix

• Regulation of the neuro endrocrine immune system

• Understanding the stress/inflammatory response

• Practice development: building your practice, legal requirements, ongoing development



6. About Body Intelligence Training

The training offers a 50 day practitioner course for individuals wanting to become qualified craniosacral therapists. The training is biodynamic in its approach orienting to the body’s natural wisdom allowing innate intelligent processes to emerge and bring about authentic change. These changes are physiological and psycho-emotional. The body’s own priorities for change are listened for and encouraged to arise. The art of the therapist is to connect with the underlying forces of health and facilitate a process of natural reorganisation. These forces express as subtle motion of tissues and fluids that can be felt by informed hands. Biodynamic craniosacral therapy takes a whole-person approach to healing and the inter-connectedness of mind, body and spirit are deeply acknowledged.

Intention of the trainingThe intention of the training is to provide a life

transforming educational process that creates practitioners of excellence. The training is in-depth and comprehensive and honours the classical roots of the work along with recent developments in the field. Emphasis is placed upon the development of palpatory, perceptual and treatment skills which the student practitioner can integrate in a step by step process. The course is designed so that the information and skills gained in each seminar are layered and built upon during subsequent seminars. There are a number of elements running through the course that create a basis for successful practice: contact and treatment skills, clinical understanding, practice management and self-development. The training’s goal is to facilitate student practitioners in the application of skills and theory to the practice of craniosacral therapy in order to provide effective and safe treatment.

Living anatomyIn order to become aware of subtle motions and

qualities in the body it’s necessary to develop a high degree of sensitivity. To enable this, the course places an emphasis on body awareness exercises and covers anatomy through self-experiencing. This opens up ways of becoming more body conscious and creates an ability to differentiate tissues and structures within your own body and ultimately in your client’s.

Learning processThe training is offered in a format of ten 5-day

seminars over one year. This period of time is

necessary to allow key skills to develop through regular practice. The seminars are powerful experiences and are a mixture of verbal teachings, discussion, small group explorations and hands-on bodywork. The development of practical skills is based on the student practitioner’s own explorations and experience of the work, supported by supervision from tutors. Biodynamic craniosacral therapy is a process-oriented practice and requires practitioners to be skilled at working with their own somato-emotional patterns as well as with a client’s. The deep listening that is offered in the work allows the experiences that are held to arise as body and mind processes. The contact sessions in the seminars will naturally engage with your deeper patterning, which is both personally transforming and a key learning experience for becoming a therapist. Most of the deeper understanding of the work emerges from the experiential work on the course. It’s necessary to continue this process between seminars with personal one to one treatments throughout the duration of the course.

Study and PracticeThe training includes homestudy that is a mixture

of reading, writing, and hands-on practice. Written work and practice write-ups help you and the tutor team understand how you are progressing. The written work includes craniosacral oriented anatomy, philosophy and clinical material. The training offers a continuous assessment with regular feedback on your understanding and skills. At the end of the first year there is a self-assessment program to help clarify any areas of uncertainty. In the second year there is a case study program offered to help develop your understanding of practice and treatment processes. There is also a regular student clinic to create confidence in practice. There is regular hands-on feedback at tables and opportunities to put your hands on tutors. Comprehensive course notes are provided to support the learning process.

AccreditationUpon successful completion of the training you will

be certified as a biodynamic craniosacral therapy practitioner.

The training is accredited by the Pacific Association of Craniosacral Therapists (www.biodynamic-craniosacral.com) which maintains standards of practice in Australia, New Zealand and SE Asia.

The training is recognized by the Association of National Health Practitioner of Canada (www.nhpcanada.org) which sets competency-based



standards for natural health disciplines and modalities in Canada.

The training is provisionally accredited by the Craniosacral Therapy Association (CSTA), a professional body which maintains standards and represents therapists in the UK.

Senior tutor are recognized teachers of the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America (www.craniosacraltherapy.org) which sets standards in practice and education.

The training is a member of the International Affiliation of Biodynamic Trainings (IABT) which sets standards in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy courses (www.biodynamic-craniosacral.org). The designation BCST (Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist) is awarded to graduates of the Body Intelligence Foundation Training.Books to learn more about biodynamic craniosacral therapy

Some further reading suggestions

Essential Books for the course

Cranial Intelligence - A Practical Guide to Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy

Ged Sumner and Steve Haines (2010)

Singing Dragon

From senior tutors of Body Intelligence Training. Available from Amazon or Singing Dragon or on Kindle

Body Intelligence

Ged Sumner (2009)

Singing Dragon

A very useful book for getting to know the body in a holistic way

In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness

Peter Levine (2010)

North Atlantic Books

Excellent book - a deepening of the model developed in Waking the Tiger.

Painful Yarns Lorimer Moseley (2007)

Dancing Giraffe Press. ***Only available as an ebook (Kindle**)*

A very funny, short and clear book on pain. A primer on how your nervous systems creates meaning.

Pain Is Really Strange

Steve Haines (2015)

Singing Dragon

Research-based comic book explains the nature of pain. www.painisreallystrange.com

Trauma Is Really Strange

Steve Haines (2016)

Singing Dragon

Research-based comic book explains the nature of trauma. www.traumaisreallystrange.com

Anxiety Is Really Strange

Steve Haines (2018)

Singing Dragon

Research-based comic book explains the nature of anxiety. www.anxietyisreallystrange.com

Recommended BooksRecommended Books

Body Intelligence Meditation: Finding Presence Through Embodiment

Ged Sumner (2014)

Singing Dragon

Highly recommended book by Ged on creating a deeply felt connection to the body.

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind

Shunriyu Suzuki

Weatherhill Pubs

Elegantly defines many principles essential to the work

Zen and the Art of Archery

Eugene Herrigel

Pantheon Books

Fantastic book on power of ‘non-doing’

The Body Has a Mind of Its Own. How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better

Blakeslee, S. and Blakeslee, M. (2007)

New York: Random House

Really good on how we map out our bodies, incredibly useful in understanding the neurology of perception.

The Spell of the Sensuous

Abram, D. (1996)

London: Vintage Books.

The best book I (Steve) know on perception.

Life Ascending. The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution

Nick Lane (2010)

Profile Books

Excellent summary of evolution. Highly recommended



http://www.painisreallystrange.com




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What the course offers• Experienced tutor team who create an open and

exploratory learning space

• Excellent student/tutor ratio that produces healthy and supportive group dynamics

• Appreciation of the holistic nature of the human experience

• Clear and sensitive feedback and supervision

• Safe environment to grow in

• Emphasis on producing effective successful practitioners

Directors of Body Intelligence TrainingGed Sumner – Ged is the Director and Founder of

Body Intelligence Training. He is a practicing craniosacral therapist. He has also studied shiatsu, healing and attachment based psychoanalytical psychotherapy. He has taught biodynamic craniosacral therapy as a senior tutor and course director for the Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust’s (CTET) practitioner trainings in London and as a senior tutor for Resonance Trainings courses in Australia and New Zealand. He set up the Fountain Clinic in London which is a specialized craniosacral therapy clinic (www.fountainclinic.com). He also set up and directed the ‘Living Anatomy’ training for CTET offering an holistic view of the body’s anatomy and physiology.

Fro many years he was a director of the Healthy Living Centre (www.thehealthylivingcentre.co.uk), a multi-disciplinary alternative therapy practice in London. He is also director of the College of Elemental Chi Kung offering Chi Kung classes, workshops, retreats and a Chi Kung teacher training program worldwide (www.elementalchikung.com). He is the author of ‘Body Intelligence – Creating A New Environment’ and co-author of ‘Cranial Intelligence - A Practical Guide to Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy’. He has a degree in Chemistry and has three children.

Steve Haines – Steve has been working in healthcare for over 25 years and as a bodyworker since 1998. He is the co-author of 'Cranial Intelligence' and author of the comic books 'Pain Is Really Strange', 'Trauma Is Really Strange' and ‘Anxiety Is Really Strange’.. Understanding the science of pain and trauma has transformed his approach to healing. He has studied Yoga, Shiatsu, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE). He is a UK registered Chiropractor and teaches TRE and Cranial work all over the world. His treatments now

use education, embodied awareness and light touch to help people move more freely and be more present. Steve lives and works between London and Geneva.

Treatments: www.stevehaines.net,

Teaching TRE: www.trecollege.com,

Comic Books: www.painisreallystrange.com, www.traumaisreallystrange.com and www.anxietyisreallystrange.com

For Skype supervision with Steve check www.stevehaines.net/geneva for dates.

ApplicationInterested individuals should complete the

attached application form. There are no formal criteria for entry to the training. However, it is important that prospective candidates have the right intentions and experience to take on the training, as it is personally and therapeutically demanding. Each application will be assessed on an individual basis and all applicants will be interviewed for suitability. It is highly recommended that you attend an intro day so you can be sure this is the right training for you.

The course includes an anatomical perspective however if you have no previous knowledge or training in this, it may be necessary for you to complete additional anatomy and physiology studies as part of the course homestudy program to enable you to have a fuller perspective of the body’s physical processes and to graduate. The training's accrediting bodies require a minimum of 80 hours of study.

www.bodyintelligence.com is the best source for dates, venues, prices and application forms for individual courses.

Postgraduate coursesBody Intelligence Training offers an extensive

postgraduate program for practicing Craniosacral Therapists. The intention of the program is to provide an exploratory learning space that enquires into the nature of the work and maintains the context of the clinical environment, keeping practitioners in touch with the latest evolutions in the biodynamic field. In recognition of continued professional development and effort towards practitioner excellence, Body Intelligence Training will certify practitioners who have attended five advanced workshops with an Advanced Diploma in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy in accordance with IABT guidelines. See website for current post-graduate schedule http://www.bodyintelligence.com/postgrads



http://www.stevehaines.net

http://www.stevehaines.net

http://www.trecollege.com

http://www.trecollege.com





http://www.anxietyisreallystrange.com/

http://www.anxietyisreallystrange.com/

http://www.stevehaines.net/geneva

http://www.stevehaines.net/geneva

http://www.bodyintelligence.com

http://www.bodyintelligence.com

Graduation requirements



Category Detail Complete?

1 Homestudy

2 150 Practice Sessions

3 Feedbacks

4 Self Assessment

5 Case History Project

6 Competent Contact Skills

7 Maturity and Stability

8 Receive 10 BCST Sessions

9 Payment of Course Fees

10 Attend Seminars 1 to 10. Complete any tutorials required for missed days.

All homestudy assignments are to be completed in good time to a satisfactory standard and sent to your tutor at least two weeks before the start of the next seminar. Homestudy must be submitted regularly throughout the course, it has been thoughtfully designed to aid your learning in each seminar. We strongly discourage late rushes of outstanding homestudy. This may incur admin fees due to the extra tutor time involved (country dependent) and there may be a delay in returning late homestudy.

150 practice sessions need to be completed over the duration of the course. This is an average of two practice sessions a week for the duration of the course. You will need to record each session and periodically show the all treatment records to your tutor. You will be asked to keep a running total of the number of treatments you have given between each seminar. Case history sessions count to the total of 150. We would expect you to work on at least 10 different clients in the 150 sessions.Sessions within a seminar and student clinic sessions do not count. The sessions must be with non fee paying clients and must be pure biodynamic craniosacral therapy practice sessions. (So, doing some extra cranial work at the end of a session with a client paying you for existing therapeutic skills does not count).

On going assessment and feedback during exchange sessions with students and tutors. Complete a final feedback towards the end of the second year to satisfactory standard, demonstrating the following core skills: negotiating and holding a safe space, tracking change in diagnostic baselines, supporting the inherent treatment plan and facilitating change in the clients system, appropriate verbal skills and client handling.

Completion of student self assessment at the end of the first year.

Completion of case history project (3 case histories and 1 research project) in the second year to a satisfactory standard.

Attainment of competent craniosacral contact and presence skills and ability to safely treat trauma.

Appropriate maturity and personal stability to become a practitioner.

Students are expected to take responsibility for their personal process. To encourage this and so that a student has a clear sense of an on-going therapeutic process, a minimum of 10 private sessions with a qualified practitioner is required to be undertaken outside of seminar time. Proof of this will need to be submitted.

Graduation is dependent on full payment of the course fees

It is mandatory to attend all seminars. If you miss a whole seminar, you will be required to attend the equivalent seminar on another Body Intelligence course. This depends on a new course running in your country or being able to do the seminar in another country. Attending a seminar in another country requires negotiation and cannot always be guaranteed.Any missed days in a seminar must be made up through tutorials and additional homestudy at your own cost. This should be negotiated with the course director. Generally we recommend at least one hour of tutorial time for every day missed, for two consecutive days three hours of tutorial time.

what is biodynamic craniosacral therapy? a brief introduction educati… · in biodynamic...

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