Summer 2011

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

Cranial Wave
The Publication of the
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America

Articles
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy: A Conscious Spiritual Path ................................................................................... 3
Polarity Therapy and Biodynamics .............................................................................................................................. 7
The Castellino Prenatal and Birth Training Supervision Process ............................................................................... 15
A Mothers and Babys Story ..................................................................................................................................... 20
Reflections on BCST and Massage ............................................................................................................................. 21

Book Review
New and Improved: Volume 1 of Franklyn Sillss Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics ................................... 22

Organizational News
Reminders.................................................................................................................................................................. 23
Update on Professional Consultation and Feedback from Members ....................................................................... 24
Annual Member Meeting to Be Held August 5, 2011 in D.C. ................................................................................... 26
New BCTA Website Up; Help Write About BCST ....................................................................................................... 26
BCTA/NA 2010 Financial Report ................................................................................................................................ 28
Edwin Nothnagel Scholarship Fund ........................................................................................................................... 28
Pre- and Perinatal Regional Meeting in Washington, D.C. This August .................................................................... 29
Board Update: New BCTA Members and Officers ..................................................................................................... 30
Returning Teacher: Scott Zamurut ............................................................................................................................ 31
New Teacher: Ged Sumner........................................................................................................................................ 31
Member Renewal ...................................................................................................................................................... 31
Active BCTA Committees ........................................................................................................................................... 32
Pioneer and Service Awards ...................................................................................................................................... 34
Prayer Request .......................................................................................................................................................... 34

Letters
Working with Newborns Exposed to Drugs............................................................................................................... 27
Reach Out and Touch a Soldier ................................................................................................................................. 27
Member Handbook ................................................................................................................................................... 27

Poems
Neutrality................................................................................................................................................................... 21
Down ......................................................................................................................................................................... 32

Course Listings ........................................................................................................................................................... 35

BCTA/NA Directory .................................................................................................................................................. 36

2010 BREATH OF LIFE CONFERENCE

The Cranial Wave is published one to two times a

year by the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America (BCTA/NA).
Contributions, including advertising, articles, illustrations, and photos, are welcome. Please forward all
material, with authorization to publish, to the editor,
Linda Kurtz, at lindakurtz@netzero.net.
Editing, use, and placement of all material will be
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the right to approve all copy and artwork prior to publication and to insert advertisement, at the top or
bottom of any ad. Copyright infringement is the sole
responsibility of contributing advertisers/authors. Reprinting, in whole or in part, is expressly forbidden
except with permission of the editor.

Summer 2011 edition printed June 2011

Editor: Linda Kurtz, RCST
Editorial Assistance: Sandy Smith
Design & Layout: Linda Kurtz, RCST
Additional Editorial Assistance & Proofreading:
Peggy Risch, RCST, Melanie Hegge, RCST
Cover photo courtesy of pdphoto.org
Figures 25 reprinted from The Polarity Process: Energy as a Healing Art, by Franklyn Sills, published by
North Atlantic Books, copyright 2002 by Franklyn
Sills. Reprinted by permission of publisher.
Figures 1, 6, 7, and 9 are reprinted with the permission
of the American Polarity Therapy Association from
Stone, Randolph (1986), Polarity Therapy: The Complete Collected Works of Dr. Randolph Stone. Vol 1.
Disclaimer
The information contained in this newsletter is provided only as
general information and is not intended to represent that Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is used to diagnose, cure, treat, or
prevent any disease or psychological disorder. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is not a substitute for medical or psychological treatment. Any stories, testimonials, or other information contained
herein do not constitute a warranty, guarantee, or prediction regarding the outcome of an individual using Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapy for any particular issue. While all documents are posted in
good faith, the accuracy, validity, effectiveness, completeness, or
usefulness of any information herein, as with any publication, cannot be guaranteed. BCTA/NA accepts no responsibility or liability for
the use or misuse of the information provided herein. BCTA/NA
strongly advises that you seek professional advice as appropriate
before making any healthcare decision.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy:

A Conscious Spiritual Path
Julia Marie Gillett, RCST
Julia Marie Gillet has been a student of
ontology (the nature of being) since 1980.
She was first introduced to craniosacral
therapy in 1994 as a massage student.
The experience was profoundly transformative and sparked the recognition that
this form of healing would become her
lifes work. She received the RCST designation in 1999.
With the invitation of her mentor, Mike Boxhall, RCST, she
is now offering courses in advanced practitioner skills,
based on the principles of Craniosacral Biodynamics. Julia
Marie has a private practice in Ridgway, Colorado, the rural
Rocky Mountain community that she calls home.

The practice of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy

tends to invite intimate contact with the undifferentiated
realm, and if one were so inclined, one might draw the
conclusion that this undifferentiated realm is actually the
realm of Spirit. To label it as such seems entirely unnecessary and because labels tend to create limitation, in
most cases, I am inclined to peel them off rather than to
put them on. However, the label may serve an interim
purpose here as my intent is to explore the potential of
BCST as a conscious and intentional practice for the determined spiritual seeker, that not so rare breed of human
who is preoccupied with the attainment of enlightenment, and especially for those embattled spiritual warriors who have jumped through every sages hoop yet have
not arrived at their desired destination. It occurs to me,
after 16 years of practicing the fine art of BCST, that
perhaps I have taken for granted something that seems
precious and elusive to some.
During the past decade I seem to be increasingly
surrounded by spiritual seekers, those individuals for
whom the primary focus in life is to become enlightened,
or as some would say, Awake. That I find myself in
such an environment is not entirely surprising because I
have zigzagged a spiritual course for the last 35 years,
often aimlessly but occasionally with serious intent. It
was during one of my seemingly aimless periods that I
was drawn to attend massage school and therein discovered craniosacral therapy. I was 44 at the time and had
never received a professional massage. Consequently, it
remains a mystery as to how and why my attention suddenly turned toward a profession in the healing arts.
However, for those of us traveling a spiritual path, be it
conscious or unconscious, mystery often has a firm toehold in our lives.
In recalling my first craniosacral encounter, a sense
of mystery is what lingers amid the details. Everything I

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ever thought I knew about myself, and about the world,

seemed to evaporate within an unfathomable silent aliveness. What I had always thought of as me seemed to be
pushed aside, and something else moved into that space,
something immense, something other yet familiar. I
could not speak for some time after that first CS session
ended, and even now words are inadequate, but in the
afterglow of something so real, so radiantly alive, the
only word that comes to mind is Yes ! However, with
that resounding Yes ! to the experience, a previously
casual spiritual seeker became a hooked fish, a bona fide
enlightenment junkie no longer content to be a noncommittal seeker. Suddenly, my desire to know the truth was
fueled by revelations from deep within my own flesh, a
possibility I had never before considered. What I did not
realize at the time was that I already was everything I
would spend a whole decade in hot pursuit of.
BCST has proven to be the perfect antidote for the
spiritual malaise I was suffering and, as it turns out, for
several of my clients who have been similarly afflicted.
A recent example is a woman, whom I shall call Megan,
who is in her early fifties. Megan initially sought BCST
treatment for the migraine headaches she had been experiencing at least once a week for more than a decade.
She had explored a wide range of alternative and conventional remedies. At the time of Megans first visit to my
office, she was receiving weekly acupuncture treatments,
along with some herbal formulas. That course of treatment provided some relief but the results were inconsistent and she had resumed taking a prescription medication for the pain. Megans degree of suffering was severe
and it was affecting her ability to function. Understandably, her primary goal was to make the pain go away.
Megan experienced her first migraine shortly after
contracting an acute illness while traveling in India when
she was in her mid-twenties. She had gone to India in
search of a spiritual teacher but returned to the US disappointed at not having found one that suited her needs.
Over the course of the next few sessions I learned that
Megan was under the tutelage of a tai chi master and that
she meditated daily.
Strong resistance revealed itself in the first few sessions on the table. Megan had been unaware of how
much she was resistingnot just the pain in her head
but, even more so, the conversations in her head. As we
continued to listen to her system what really surprised
her was the recognition that so much more was going on
in her body than just the pain. The recognition of other
sensationsmany other sensationssparked her curios-

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ity and opened

her awareness
even further.
Some weeks into
the work Megan
reported that she
had not had a
headache for a
week. She was
very excited and
sure that she was
cured. I was
doubtful but
shared her happiness at that moment. Two
weeks later, the
pain returned full
force. Fortunately, she had
committed to
weekly sessions, which gave us the time needed to
deeply explore the undigested life experience her system
was holding. The table sessions developed Megans skill
at listening to her body, which she did throughout the
week, not only when she was in my office, and her reports were filled with insights. The migraines became
sporadic instead of weekly occurrences and were generally much less severe.
Eventually, Megan became less preoccupied with
whether or not a migraine was imminent and far more
interested in the shifts in consciousness she was experiencing. About four months into our work together, in the
middle of a session, she reported that her body had entirely disappeared. How interesting, I thought to myself, and then I gently queried, So, what notices that the
body has disappeared? Megan was quiet for such a long
time that I wondered if she had heard the question (not
that it really mattered, for it was evident she was deeply
immersed in stillness). Even so, I was surprised at the
response she finally gave, which was, Well, there is
nothing here, so I guess its just that . . . noticing notices. I gave that observation some time to deepen, then
asked, And where are you? Silence again permeated
the room. As the session concluded, Megans countenance dimmed a little as she spoke: It was not at all
what I expected. I thought it would be dramatic, like
flashing lights, choirs of angelic voices or something like
that. If I had not been paying attention I would have
missed it entirely. I had to laugh, because the true nature of what we are is closer to us than our own breath,
and yet it is so elusive.
I continued to work with Megan regularly for six
months and during that time observed a dramatic shift in
her orientation to her own suffering. She still has migraines occasionally, and it really does not matter to her

any more. I believe Megans radical shift in awareness

came from a combination of BCST and a particular ripeness for inquiry of a spiritual nature. I, too, was ripe for
this inquiry when I received my first CS session 17 years
ago. Perhaps if the practitioner who initiated me into this
mysterious art had encouraged me to explore what was
beneath all that was being experienced, I might have realized that I did not actually know who was having an
experience. To sincerely question who, or what, we human beings are is the essential spiritual journey. I was
ready the first time I received BCST, as are many who
are coming through my office door these days.
Inquiry of this nature will eventually strip away all
of the egos protection and this can be terrifying, both to
the client and to the practitioner. One of the difficulties
with taking such an approach is that it will open up Pandoras box, so to speak, and I am clear that many practitioners have no interest in such an approach. Nevertheless, a determined seeker of truth will eventually find
themselves in this predicament, with or without the support that BCST can provide. As a practitioner, I have
found that to work at this level I must be prepared to deal
with my own insecurity and that of my clients. Perhaps
more importantly, I have learned to actually welcome
insecurity as the disguised blessing that it truly is. I realize this may sound preposterous to some so I will attempt
to explain what I mean. A blessing is generally understood to be a beneficent gift or a means to happiness. The
word insecurity refers to a condition of want of safety, or
assurance. So, how is it that a condition of being unsafe,
assured of nothing, could be viewed as beneficial, as a
gift? The pairing of these two words seems quite contradictory on the surface and requires a deeper investigation
into what drives our desires and fulfills our needs. The
following might be questions to consider:

Does feeling safe provide a means of happiness?

What needs protection?
Is safety necessary?

To the question What needs protection? I might

respond by saying that the body is vulnerable and needs
protection from the elements and from assaults to its integrity. Im sure most people would agree with that statement, as do I. But then the question arises as to whether
the body is what I really am? My own experience tells
me that I am much more than a body and, at times, not
even a body. Perhaps, instead of a body, I am the sum of
my thoughts and beliefs. However, thoughts and beliefs
are concepts and are not subject to assault from the elements, or from invasive forces, in the same way as my
body. Regardless of this fact, I sometimes act as though
my thoughts are precisely what I am, as seemingly solid
as my physical form and absolutely in need of protection.
So, let it be understood that the inquiry I am undertaking
here has nothing to do with the security that our physical
form requires in order to thrive, but rather, the security
that the ego desires in order to survive.

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According to the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chgyam

Trungpa, concepts are filters that we use to shield ourselves from the direct perception of what is: If a world
of nameable things exists, then I as one of the nameable
things exists as well. We wish not to leave any room for
threatening doubt, uncertainty or confusion. 1 However,
when I trust my actual experience, I know that I am not
merely a body (a nameable thing) and also not my concepts or beliefs, so the question remains as to what it is,
other than my body that actually needs assurance of
safety. The philosopher Alan Watts elucidates this dilemma very precisely in The Wisdom of Insecurity when
he says, It must be obvious from the start, that there is a
contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity.
But the contradiction lies a little deeper than the mere
conflict between the desire for security and the fact of
change. If I want to be secure, that is protected from the
flux of life, I am wanting to be separate from life. Yet it
is this very sense of separateness which makes me feel
insecure.2
This dilemma started to be addressed for me several
years ago when I attended Mike Boxhalls course, The
Blessing of Insecurity. I now facilitate my own version
of this course because of the profound understanding that
has come from working with the notion of welcoming
my deepest fears instead of attempting to hide from them
or make sure that no one else could see them. I began to
realize that ego is simply resistance to what is, and as
resistance to what is fades away, the ego, or identity,
diminishes. Insecurity has indeed turned out to be a
blessing because it has shown me, very clearly, what
issues still remain unresolved within my body-mind.
When feelings of insecurity arise I know something is
waiting in the wings to be acknowledged and full recognition of that something is all that is required. This brings
me to the reason I so appreciate BCST as a means of
mending the body-mind-spirit divide and why I see it as
so useful for the spiritual seeker: BCST is thoroughly
experiential. As Trungpa says, our concepts shield us

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from the direct perception of what is. BCST brings us

fully into contact with what is. In my practice of BCST,
as perception widens and I sink deeper and deeper into
stillness, meeting all that arises, moment by moment
without expectation, my unadulterated experience is revealed to be what I really am and the possibility emerges
for the I that I thought I was to vanish, leaving only
pure awareness.
Perfect. Brilliant. No more pesky ego to deal with
and the spiritual search is over because I am now pure
awareness. The only hitch is that although I may now be
fully aware, in trying to describe what I am aware of, I
must use concepts to tell you about it. Everything I can
say about what is perceived is an idea, a concept, not the
actuality and therefore, in a sense, false. That being the
case, it seems that I am once again on the trail in search
of truth and returned to the role of spiritual seeker because the ego must be revived in order to speak. So here
a caveat must be inserted: nothing I have said, or will
say, is the truth. Truth cannot be spoken. Truth cannot be
spoken because words are not the actual things they represent. Words are symbols that stand for something else.
For instance, the word tree is not the living growing life
form that it points to nor is the word happy actually the
feeling of happiness. It seems truth can be realized, but
not with the mind. The mind can only process in terms of
concepts which are not the actual thing they represent. I
imagine the confusion that may arise around this statement, that truth cannot be spoken, comes from the fact
that we all recognize those singular moments in which
somebody speaks and we recognize truth in what they
have said. What I am suggesting here is that upon hearing particular words that convey a particular idea, a resonance is struck within our core and truth is that feeling of
resonance rather than the word, which is a symbol. Truth
is not the word but rather the direct experience and is
always felt somewhere in the body. This is often a missing link for those on a spiritual path. Many spiritual practices tend to ignore the role the body plays in the search
for truth and some teachings go so far as to denigrate the
human form because it is seen as a hindrance to enlightenment.
So to take this a bit further: Direct experience happens only in the present and functions outside of conceptual understanding. The body is always present; it is
never in the past or the future, but always right here,
right now. In the Satipatthana Sutta (the primary Buddhist discourse on the foundations of mindfulness practice) the Buddha states that enlightenment is in the body,
suggesting that truth is an embodied experience. Though
words are not truth, we can speak of our experience and
thus bring the light of awareness to the mind, even
though truth is beyond what the mind itself can conceive.
The question may now arise: What experiences and
realizes truth if not the mind? I might respond that, I
experience truth, however, if I am not my mind what is

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having the experience? Hmmm . . . Is there an I that is

separate from experience? . . . What part, if any, does the
body play in the realization of truth? . . . Could awareness and experience actually be the same? These are
some of the questions that have arisen for me in the process of practicing BCST. I offer these questions for consideration not as the basis of a philosophical debate but,
as a means of personal discovery for each individual,
whether on a conscious spiritual path or not.
It is obvious to me that practitioners will naturally
employ the skills acquired in BCST trainings for their
own spiritual development. Clients, on the other hand,
may have no idea how helpful BCST can be to them for
that purpose. Like many spiritual seekers, my client
Megan, had been attempting, through a variety of spiritual practices, to attain enlightenment, as though it were
an object that could be possessed or added to her identity. What she discovered through our work together and
by her willingness to be with what was arising within her
own body, was that she is not an object but, rather, pure
consciousness.
What has shifted the experience of the work for me
in recent years seems to be primarily three things: 1) the
genuine attempt to do nothing during sessions, 2) the
willingness to sit with the discomfort that comes as certain thoughts and questions arise, and 3) the refusal to
believe that any thought is true. To actually do nothing
has proved to be an enormous challenge. As I sit with a
client, being as present as I am able to be, the inclination
invariably arises to interact (to do something) on some
level, however subtle, with what is perceived (either in
the clients system, my own system, or within the environment). I have found that the axiom Trust the tide is
a lovely concept, but to actually live this suggestion
takes more courage than I sometimes seem to have. Only
when immersed deeply within the undifferentiated realm
do I experience moments of actually doing nothing. It is
usually during this time that the clients system begins to
reorganize. And all is well, at least until a thought arises,
and gains purchase somewhere in my mind. The second
thing about the work that has shifted for me is that I am
now willing and able to sit with the discomfort that
comes with the thoughts and questions that arise, particu-

Write for the Wave!

We are seeking submissions for the next issue of
the Cranial Wave. I hope that you will contribute to our
next issue. Articles, poems, book reviews, questions,
and accounts of your experiences are all welcome. So
are drawings and photographs. Share your thoughts
and questions about Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy with your fellow members.
Please send your contributions to the editor, Linda
Kurtz, at lindakurtz@netzero.net.

larly those questions mentioned throughout this article.

And this brings me to the third, and perhaps most transformative, shift in my awareness: In realizing that words
cannot be true because they are merely symbols, it becomes clear that thoughts cannot be true either, because
they are simply unspoken words. About two years ago I
began the practice of rigorously questioning the validity
of every thought. What I am discovering is that every
belief I hold is supported only by a thought. This practice
of consistently questioning every thought, whether my
own or someone elses, seems to have flung the door
wide open to the undifferentiated realm, or realm of
Spirit, and for this I am deeply grateful.
I am somewhat hesitant to call what I now practice
Biodynamic only because the phenomena I associate
with that model (fluid tides, potencies, even dynamic
stillness) seem to have disappeared within the undifferentiated state that orchestrates each session. My meditation practice, which is resting as awareness, has become
indistinguishable from my BCST practice. I hardly know
what to call anything anymore. I tentatively offer the
term biospiritual with the hope of inspiring a dialogue
with others among our ranks who may be similarly disposed or confused.
For those who are interested in exploring BCST as a
conscious spiritual path, I recommend subscribing to
www.theemptychairteachingfoundation.org. This is Mike
Boxhalls teaching website. Dialogue among all participants is encouraged and you need not have taken courses
with Mike to participate in the discussions. I have also
found the teachings of both Adyashanti
(www.adyashanti.org) and Gangaji (www.gangaji.org) to
be clear, direct and very useful in the integration of my
personal spiritual practice with my BCST practice.
NOTES
1. Chgyam Trungpa (1973). Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. Pp 67. Shambala Publications.
2. Alan W. Watts (1951). The Wisdom of Insecurity. Page 77.
Vintage Books .

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Polarity Therapy and Biodynamics

Roger Gilchrist, RCST
Roger Gilchrist, MA, RPP, RCST, is the founder
of Wellness Institute, an international school
for training in Polarity Therapy and Craniosacral Biodynamics. He is the author of the
book Craniosacral Therapy and the Energetic
Body and has developed a distance learning
program for certification in Polarity Therapy.
For more information, visit www.WellnessInstitute.net.

namic relationships in the living system. Potency interacts with the fluids and influences the functions of the
fluids. Fluids interface with the tissues and cells and exchange information between the organizing energy and
the structure and functions of the body. Polarity Therapists have specific skills for engaging with each of the
three fields of function. I will mention some key skills as
we go further in this article.

Polarity Therapy presents an elegant description of

the human energy system, and details the energy dynamics in the living system at work, in health, and in therapeutic practice. The intention for the article is to summarize the main points of Polarity Therapy theory in relation to biodynamic practice and to examine skills that
may contribute to our clinical work.
A basic understanding of Polarity Therapy can bring
benefits to our practice of Craniosacral Biodynamics for
two reasons. First, Polarity Therapy helps us appreciate
the full breadth of the Original Matrix by elaborating the
relationships in the human energy system. The term
Original Matrix was coined by Rollin Becker, DO and
has been popularized in use by James S. Jealous, DO to
describe a primary level of energy dynamics
(relationships of potency) that subtend the living system1. Polarity Therapy describes the levels of energy
relationships that step down from primary energy, the
potency of the Breath of Life. These dynamics create the
human energy system, a fabric of relationships that are
unseen yet orchestrate all the functions of life. Later in
the article I will describe important features of this energy system and their relationship to Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy practice
Essentially, the Breath of Life manifests its potency
as a primary energy that directly infuses the living system. Additionally, a multifaceted set of energy dynamics
establish relationships and govern functions in the living
system; these could be considered secondary energies.
Franklyn Sills has discussed the relationship of primary
energy (the Breath of Life) and secondary energy
(elemental forms, geometric patterns, and more) in a series of workshops he has taught since the early 1990s
called Being and Becoming.
The second way that Polarity Therapy potentially
benefits Craniosacral Biodynamics is that certain skills
drawn from Polarity Therapy can expand our capacities
and create useful nuances in our therapeutic approach.
Biodynamic practitioners recognize three fields of function: potency, fluids, and tissues. These are different levels of action in the living system, and each dimension has
distinct operational dynamics. Potency, or energy dynamics, creates organizing forces that establish the dy-

HISTORY OF POLARITY THERAPY

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A quick sketch of the history of Polarity Therapy

begins with Dr. Randolph Stone, an osteopath who studied healing traditions from around the world. Dr. Stone
spent a lifetime pursuing the common denominator in
health. He found that all traditional medical systems have
an energy-based foundation, and he often made the statement Energy is the real substance behind the appearance of matter and forms.2 This is similar to the biodynamic awareness that the intelligent potency of the
Breath of Life is organizing all of the dynamics in the
living body.
The strongest influences on Dr. Stones thinking and
the development of Polarity Therapy come from ayurveda, Chinese medicine, and the Hermetic philosophy
of ancient Egypt. Drawing on all of these traditional systems, as well as his studies in osteopathic, chiropractic,
and naturopathic healing, Dr. Stone developed Polarity
Therapy. Polarity Therapy is a unique, modern system of
health care that presents an integrated view of the human
energy system.3 As a holistic approach to health care,
Polarity Therapy is comprehensive and includes therapeutic bodywork, energetic nutrition, exercise, and selfawareness. It also emphasizes Love as the essence of the
healing process.
There are several historical links between BCST
and Polarity Therapy. Dr. Stone knew of Dr. Sutherland
and the emerging model of cranial osteopathy. There are
several references to craniosacral concepts in Dr. Stones
written work, including an emphasis on the cerebrospinal
fluid as the central repository of life energy.4 Dr. Stone
uses the term the Breath of Life many places in his writing.5 He strongly recommended Harold. Magouns book,
Osteopathy in the Cranial Field (1951), which is essentially the first cranial osteopathic textbook.6 Furthermore,
an important student of Sutherlands in the late years,
when the Breath of Life model was more consistently
explicated, Robert Fulford, DO, was Dr. Stones good
friend, even though Fulford was much younger. Fulford
embodied the essence of Sutherlands teachings in cranial osteopathy and studied Dr. Stones work in Polarity
Therapy. Fulford became an energy medicine practitio-

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Polarity Therapy Energy

Principles

Chinese
Medicine

Inherent
Nature

Natural
Movement

Neutral

Gunas
(Ayurveda/
Sanskrit)
sattva

tao

Positive

rajas

yang

source,
unmanifest
ground
action,
force

stillness,
dynamic
equilibrium
expression,
outward

Negative

tamas

yin

result,
form

contraction,
inward

English
Translation of
Sanskrit Term
truth

action

inertia

Table 1. Polarity Therapy energy principles and their equivalents

ner, much more than a run-of-the-mill osteopath, as was

indicated in his 12 years of giving the Dr. Sutherland
Memorial lecture annually at the British School of Osteopathy in London.7 I have copies of letters that went between Dr. Stone and Dr. Fulford in my files, and I am
fortunate to have studied with several of Dr. Fulfords
protgs. The letters between these two important osteopathic originators demonstrate a great deal about the relationship between energy medicine and cranial osteopathy.

For example, when we look at how the client holds

their experience, embraces their life, and embodies their
thoughts, we are looking at how the negative principle
and the function of inertia is expressing in the clients
life. When we ask, How free is the potency to accommodate change? How strong is the fluid drive? we are
asking questions about how the positive principle of en-

BASIC THEORY OF POLARITY THERAPY

Polarity Therapy can be viewed as a defining model
for all of energy medicine as well as a specific practice
within the larger field. There are two primary components to its underlying theory: (1) the three principles of
energy movement (the gunas) and (2) the five elements.
The Three Principles of Energy Movement
The three principles describe the basic energy dynamics in any field of function, ranging from the interaction of subatomic particles to the depth of physiology in
complex living systems. The three principles are the basic energetic charges of neutral, positive, and negative.
Chinese Medicine calls these tao, yang, and yin, respectively; and ayurveda calls them sattva, rajas, and tamas.
Polarity Therapy commonly uses the latter nomenclature.
It is the interaction of these charged forcesneutral,
positive, and negativethat establishes motion in an
energetic field.
In biodynamic terms, the three principles are space
(neutral / sattva / tao), potency (positive / rajas / yang),
and structure and function (negative / tamas / yin). The
ayurvedic (Sanskrit) terms sattva, rajas, and tamas can
also be translated as truth, action, and inertia. This is
very relevant to our work in biodynamics. There is a
great deal of emphasis on space and the neutral in our
work, but we should not forget the action of potency and
the crystallization of the pattern form in structure and
function. We are always working with the relationship of
these principles in therapeutic sessions. See table 1.

Figure 1. The chakras

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ergy is expressing in their living system. The question,

How clearly are dynamics oriented to the midline
(central energy channel) and the natural fulcrums? allows us to orient to the neutral principle.
The three principles also define the poles of the energetic field. There is a neutral middle pole, a positive expressive pole, and a negative receptive pole, or repository for life energy. The positive pole is superior in the
body, and the negative pole is inferior. Energy moves as
a fluctuation between the charged poles of the field. Enter the Tide. Dr. Sutherland would emphasize: I want
you to recognize that the first principle in my Cranial
Concept is the inherent fluctuation of the cerebrospinal
fluid!8 The movement of the CSF is following the energetic fluctuation of potency between the poles of the body.
When a practitioner assesses the fluid drive during
inhalation (tidal movement toward the positive pole of
the body), they are bringing into their awareness the positive, active, rajasic principle and the driving force of potency. The largest reservoir for CSF, in the lumbosacral
region (near the water chakra), is an area that Dr. Stone
called the vital reserve.9 Think about the function of
exhalation stillpoints being oriented to this negative pole
of the body. As the potency and fluids come to rest in the
inferior waterbedsthe negative polethe living system
deepens its relationship to the storehouse of energy
within. This is an aspect of the negative, tamasic principle. Finally, consider the perceptible dynamic in a state
of balance and you will understand the essence of the
neutral, sattvic principle. In these ways, biodynamic
awareness potentially adds something to the practice of
Polarity Therapy.

Figure 2. Fire triad

Cranial Wave

The Five Elements

An Introduction to the
Five Elements
The other central
feature of Polarity Therapy theory is the five
elements. Most traditional medical systems
have a five-element orientation. As energy
moves in its field
(driven by the three
principles), it moves
through a series of
stages. These stages are
the five elements. The
five elements define
features and qualities of
energy and process. One
of my Polarity Therapy
teachers, Eleanora LipFigure 3. Water triad
ton, has said that the elements are states of matter, energy, and consciousness. It
is important to understand that the five elements describe
qualitative states of one unified life energy in motion.
The Breath of Lifes potency has been called primary energy This means it is undifferentiated life energy.
The potency of the Breath of Life is unified, whole, and
completely integrated in its functioning. The five elements are the first level of manifestation from the Breath
of Life, which establishes the energetic matrix for the
living system. As energy moves farther from the source

Figure 4. Earth triad

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

(primary energy and

the Breath of Life), it
takes on different
characteristics and
qualities. It moves
through stages of
differentiation described by the five
elements. This level
of interaction can be
called a secondary
energy system. Thus,
we have the Breath
of Life, its potency,
and the orienting
axis of the midline as
expressions of primary energy, and we
have the chakras
emerging from the
midline and maniFigure 5. Air triad on posterior body
festing the different
frequency domains
that are the five elements (differentiated energies),
thereby creating a second level of the energy system. See
figure 1. The five elements interact with the three principles and establish themselves in the three poles of the
biofield. The three poles are the positive pole from the
diaphragm up to the top of the head; the neutral pole
from the diaphragm down to the pelvic floor; and negative pole from the perineum and hip joints down to the
bottom of the feet. As energy circulates among the three
poles of the field (and the body) following the principles
of energy movement, each element establishes positive,
neutral, and negative relationships. Each element governs a specific area within each pole of the body. Locations and functions are set up in relation to each element
moving through the three poles. The fire element is superior in all three poles (in nature, fire rises up); thus, it
governs the head, the solar plexus and digestive organs,
and the thighs and motive power in the organism (see
figure 2). The water element is inferior in all three poles
(in nature, water seeks its lowest ground); thus, it governs the breast, the pelvis, and the feet (see figure 3). The
earth element governs areas of support in the body: the
knees in the negative pole, the colon in the abdomen, and
the neck in the superior pole (see figure 4). The air element governs areas of balance: the shoulders and lungs,
the kidneys, and the ankles (see figure 5). The ether element governs the spaces of the body.
These three-pole functions of each element triangulate through the early embryo, creating positive, neutral,
and negative relationships for each element through all
three poles of the body (see figure 6). In relation to
health dynamics, if an element goes out of balance in one
pole, compensation will be created in the areas of the
other poles governed by that element. This fact alone

10

creates a wider view in biodynamics, in the sense that it

defines commonly related fulcrums. When the practitioner knows this, they can have insight into some of the
intricacies of the living system. With an awareness of
commonly related fulcrums, the practitioner can understand why they might be seeing relationships of imbalance.
It is often useful to work with all three poles in the same
session to facilitate better overall balance for the client.
Thus we see that the elements establish harmonic
relationships throughout the three poles of the biofield.
In other words, the area governed by a given element in
one pole of the body will resonate with the areas governed by the same element in the other poles. (For example, the breast, as it is governed by the water element, is
harmonically resonant with the pelvis and the feet, which
are also governed by the water element.) These resonant
relationships are harmonics of each other, just as middle
C on a piano will resonate with all the other octaves of C.
Working with all the harmonics of a given element helps
to bring an overall balance to that element as it circulates
through the living system. In this way, Polarity Therapy
is especially adept at balancing the circulation of energy.
Each element has a central theme, dynamic quality,
and overall function. These general correspondences are:

Ether: space, the field, dynamic equilibrium

Air: movement, balance, integration
Fire: power, concentration of energy (drive),
motivation
Water: flow, relationship, cohesion
Earth: structure, boundary, and the form of experience, including physical body.

Figure 6. The three-pole function of the elements weaving the

body

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Cranial Wave

Each element also has a way it behaves and a defining issue when it is out of balance. The behavior
(function) of the earth element is to provide stability,
foundation, ground, support, security, and trust. When
the earth element goes out of balance, issues of instability, ungroundedness, insecurity, and fear prevail. A different kind of imbalance in the earth element can result
in fixation, rigidity, and inflexibility. The lesson available at this level of experience is learning to trust. The
function of the water element is relationship, sensation,
fluidity, and feeling emotions. When the water element is
out of balance, difficulties present in relationships and
the ability to feel experience. For the craniosacral therapist, these effects might be noticeable in the fluids of the
body. The fire element is about power, assertiveness,
motivation, and physical action. Challenges around any
of these things could reflect an imbalance in the fire element. Conscious growth at the level of the fire element
often involves learning to forgive and finding balance
with the right use of power. The air element governs integration, balance, and communication. If the air element
goes out of balance, issues of imbalance, scatteredness,
and charged dynamics commonly occur. Finally, the
ether element is about our access to space and the ability
to seek a neutral. See table 2.

three poles of the body, allowing an energy to circulate

and balance itself throughout the entire field, since energy movement is a field dynamic in relation to the
charged poles of the field. For example, working with the
fire element often involves a series of connections from
the thighs (negative pole of fire) to the solar plexus
(neutral place of fire), and from the solar plexus to the
head (positive pole of fire). This helps bring balance to
the function of that element in all three poles. Another
example is balancing the water element with connections
between the feet and the pelvis, then the pelvis and the
chest or breast.
Polarity Therapy also uses different types of contacts
in relation to the three principles and the behavior of energy in areas of the body. A light, gentle, or off-body
contact that is often very subtle is called a sattvic contact.
This is most similar to the style of contact we typically
use as craniosacral practitioners. In Polarity Therapy, the
purpose of this style of contact is to let the life energy
move and to balance itself. Sometimes it can be valuable
to stimulate or promote the movement of energy. This is
done with a vibrating or rocking style of contact, called a
rajasic contact. (Obviously, we would never do this inside the craniosacral system, but this can be very useful
outside the dura in the fascial fields of the body.) Finally,
there is a deep, dispersing type of contact, called a tamasic contact. This is used to disperse deeply held inertial
energies and tissue contractions. In a massage orientation, the tamasic contact is most similar to a deep-tissue
approach, but there are ways to do this with intention as
well. Being able to use these different styles of contact
can add beneficial skills to ones therapeutic repertoire.
For example, Robert Fulford invented a device
called the percussion massager (similar to the modern

Bodywork Contacts
In the process of Polarity Therapy bodywork, it is
common to make connections with our hands between
two of the areas governed by one of the elements. We do
not typically do this in a pure craniosacral practice. The
Polarity Therapy approach is to connect energetic harmonics in order to bring deeper balance to the living system. Most commonly, connections are made among all

Element
Ether
Air

Fire

Water

Earth

Body Locations
CSF
Joints
Shoulders/lungs
Kidneys
Ankles
Head/eyes
Solar plexus
(digestive)
Thighs
Chest/breast
Pelvis
Feet
Neck
Knees
Colon

Chakra

Theme

Functions

Throat

Space

Field

Heart

Balance,
Integration

Solar plexus

Power

Lumbo-sacral
junction

Relationship,
Emotion,
Sensation,
Trust,
Safety, Security

Movement,
Inspiration,
Communication
Drive,
Focus, Concentration,
Motivation
Creativity,
Sexuality,
Continence
Support,
Boundary,
Security

Sacrococcygeal junction

Qualities
Openness,
Equilibrium
Expansion,
Clarity,
Speed
Warmth, Joy,
Assertiveness,
Control
Receptivity,
Fluidity,
Suppleness
Solid,
Grounded,
Physical Body

Table 2. Qualities, characteristics, and associations of the elements

Cranial Wave

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11

ficial changes possible. Focusing the

right frequency of vibration into
strained tissue or an inertial fulcrum
can create an opening to a new opportunity for healing. Again, this is done
with sensitivity and an awareness of
the entire biofield in relation to the
specific therapeutic process.

Figure 8. Vitruvian man

GEOMETRIC LINES OF FORCE

Figure 7. The five-pointed star

commercial product the Thumper) and he would use it

along adult clients spines before settling into subtler
cranial osteopathic work. He felt most adults energy was
too dense and needed liberating before their potency
could really make changes. This is a tamasic approach.
Basically, if there are deeply held inertial energies, it is
often more efficient to get things moving by liberating
the contracted forces. I should clarify here that a tamasic
approach is not used indiscriminately or as an
application of blind force from outside (to paraphrase
Sutherland); it is not done as a manipulation. Appropriate
use of tamasic contact can be done with sensitivity and a
deep orientation to the potency in the clients system and
the way it is holding experience.
Another example is the rajasic contact. In craniosacral work, this is sometimes used when working with visceral dynamics, wherein a vibratory contact is utilized
with the connective tissue envelopes surrounding organs.
Vibration transmitted through contact helps the connective tissues release adhesion and patterned conditions in
the protein fibers of the fascial matrix. As the initial release of the conditioned pattern occurs, potency sweeps
in, delivering the energy to make deep and lasting
changes. Then, utilizing states of balance and other
therapeutic skills helps the potency make the most bene-

12

Another contribution to our work from Polarity

Therapy is the awareness of lines of force and geometric
patterns in the body. There are two significant geometric
patterns we will consider: the five-pointed star and the
six-pointed star. These two patterns represent complementary energies, or yin and yang. The five-pointed star
is the more negative, receptive pattern and represents the
embodiment of energetic dynamics (see figure 7). Embodimentthe physical world and the physical bodyis
resonant with the negative principle, or yin. Indeed, the
shape of the physical body is a five-pointed star, which
the Vitruvian Man drawing by da Vinci clearly demonstrates (see figure 8). Thomas Myers brilliant work in
Anatomy Trains reveals how major fascial planes of the
body follow this pattern.10 These lines of force are both
energetic and structural. Because these lines of force run
through the bodys connective tissue matrix, understanding this pattern reveals the primary compensatory fulcrums built into the body. Hence, when a client has an
issue in the sacroiliac or hip joint on one side of the
body, it is common that the opposite shoulder joint will
begin to exhibit secondary inertia that attempts to compensate for the primary issue. Later, the jaw, A-O joint,
or SBJ might go out in relation to the inertia in the hip. It
is interesting to note that all the connective tissue tracts
of the body are suspended from the cranial base, with
musculoskeletal tracts attaching primarily to the occiput
and visceral tracts attaching primarily to the sphenoid
and pterygoid processes. This fact helps substantiate the
old osteopathic tenet that sphenobasilar dynamics are the
primary structural fulcrum in the body.
The second important geometric pattern is a set of
lines of force comprising a six-pointed star (see figure 9).
Dr. Stone also referred to this pattern as interlaced triangles. In this pattern, two equilateral triangles point oppositely through each other, one with its base superiorly
and directing toward its apex inferiorly, the other with its
foundation below directing itself toward an apex at the
top. This pattern describes the dynamic of projection and
reflection from one pole to the other and intimates the
wisdom in Dr. Stones oft-quoted Hermetic axiom: As
above, so below. In craniosacral practice, there are commonly reflective dynamics between, for example, the
head and the pelvis. Indeed, the occiput and the sacrum
sometimes look like oppositely pointing triangles in the
anatomy of the body. Franklyn Sills has referred to the
six-pointed star as the shape of the Primary Respiratory

Summer 2011

Cranial Wave

System.11 This pattern is the energy dynamic that maintains the integrity of the field. As it maintains the overall
equilibrium of the field, the six-pointed star is the geometric embodiment of primary energy rather than the
conditioned energies of the physical body and its processes (as in the five-pointed star).
Embedded in the six-pointed star are the midline and
the chakra system. The midline is the central energy axis
and the chakra system converts the primary energy of
potency into the resonant frequencies, or qualitative
states, of the five elements. The chakras are the energy
centers from which the vibrational frequencies of the
elements radiate into the field. Chakra is the Sanskrit
origin of the English word circle. The chakras are classically visualized as whirling vortices of energy emanating
from the midline. As energy descends from the ajna
chakra, or the seat of potency in the third ventricle, it
generates the five elemental chakras: ether, air, fire, water, and earth, successively. Energy fields form around
each chakra to support specific functions in the cavities
of the body (for example, the peritoneal cavity). These
cavities are divided by the various diaphragms
(transverse orientations in the connective tissues), which
are strongly influenced by tension gradients above and
below. The energy of each field, the visceral tone of

nearby organs (including hypotonus or spasticity), and

the fluid viscosities and pressures above and below each
diaphragm are transmitted into the diaphragm, an organizing divider, which is then subject to these forces. Subsequently, the diaphragms become primary force organizers in the body, which is why they are often poignant
places for therapeutic work. Here again we have a dynamic interface among energy dynamics, structure, and
functions in the body.

CONCLUSION

This article has explored the contributions that Polarity Therapy can make to the practice of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. In a significant way, Polarity Therapy
helps us understand the Original Matrixthe relationships in the field of potency that form the human energy
system. This subtle energy system is the underlying template for all the dynamics of life. To summarize important aspects of the energetic matrix of the living system,
we can name the following relationships: The Breath of
Life manifests an open field that is unencumbered and
permeated with biodynamic potency. The energy field
becomes charged (polarized) and potency fluctuates between the poles of the field. Three principles of energy
movement (neutral, positive, and negative) govern the

Figure 9. The six-pointed star

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13

movement of energy through the field. As energy moves

out from its source, progressively denser expressions of
energy occur, which can be seen as stages in the movement of energy. These stages are the five elements. In the
human energy system, the chakras along the midline express these elemental energies initially, as sequentially
lower frequencies (in the descending direction) of the
one movement of life energy (figure 5). The five elements then establish resonant harmonics in the three
poles of the human energy field. Additionally, specific
lines of force create organizing geometries to which the
body always orients its process. These lines of force and
geometric patterns are both energetic dynamics supporting the field and structural relationships supporting the
body. Considering the nature of the three principles
(space, potency, and form; or, neutral, action, and inertia)
and the nature of the five elements helps us appreciate
the energetic voice of the living system and engage with
it appropriately. Different styles of contact may be appropriate at certain stages of therapeutic work, and the
use of a range of therapeutic principles and energetic
resonance may be beneficial.
Biodynamic principles make a contribution to the
practice of Polarity Therapy as well.12 Appreciation for
the neutral principle is well developed in Biodynamic
CST. Especially, the use of therapeutic skills like the
state of balance is a profound healing principle. One of
my teachers, Tom Shaver, DO, himself a student of
Robert Fulford, has said: Boundary techniques will always work; working through the neutral is always more
powerful!13 Additionally, the recognition of the inherent
treatment plan is a valuable part of our philosophy. Life
has a self-corrective function that, when the conditions
are established to facilitate this, will infallibly guide the
living system back to a clear orientation to its natural
dynamics. Finally, a deep sensitivity to processes at play
in the living system and the specific dynamics of reorganization is cultivated in a biodynamic approach.
Awareness of the three fields of function and the interrelated dynamics of potency, fluids, and tissues becomes a
poetic way of appreciating the dynamics of life.
It is my hope that this article conveys a sense of relationship between the two fields of Craniosacral Biodynamics
and Polarity Therapy. While each discipline is a unique
therapeutic practice, each field contributes to the other in
important ways. There is much more to be discovered
about the nature of these two practices, together and independently. We can only wonder how Dr. Stone and Dr.
Sutherland would describe their work now, if they were
living in this new era of energy medicine!
REFERENCES
1. Jealous, Jim (1997). Healing and the Natural World: An
Interview with James S. Jealous, D.O. Alternative Therapies.
2. Stone, Randolph (1986). Polarity Therapy: The Complete
Collected Works of Dr. Randolph Stone. Vol 2: p 207

14

3.
4.

5.

6.

7.
8.

9.

10.
11.
12.

13.

(italics added). Sebastopol, CA: CRCS Publications.

Sills, Franklyn. (1989). The Polarity Process. Berkeley,
CA: North Atlantic Books.
For one of Stones references to the cerebrospinal fluid,
see Stone, Randolph (1985). Health Building: The Conscious Art of Living Well. P 13. Sebastopol, CA: CRCS
Publications.
See, e.g., Stone, Randolph (1954). Energy: The Vital
Polarity in the Healing Art. (in Polarity Therapy: The
complete collected works of Dr. Randolph Stone). Vol 1,
Book 1: p 57. Sebastopol, CA: CRCS Publications.
Stone, Randolph (1957). Energy Tracing. In Polarity
Therapy: The Complete Collected Works of Dr. Randolph
Stone. Vol 2: p 224. Sebastopol, CA: CRCS Publications.
Milne, Hugh. (2005). The Breath of Life Conference,
conference presentation. London.
Sutherland, William, Garner (1990). Teachings in the
Science of Osteopathy. Pp 13, 3132, 173, 176. Portland,
OR: Rudra Press.
Stone, Randolph (1954). The Mysterious Sacrum. In
Polarity Therapy: The Complete Collected Works of Dr.
Randolph Stone. Vol 1, Book2, Chart 11: p 18. Sebastopol, CA: CRCS Publications.
Myers, Tom (2008). Anatomy Trains (2nd ed). London:
Churchill Livingstone.
Sills, Franklyn (1993). Conference presentation. Burlington, VT: American Polarity Therapy Association.
Gilchrist, Roger (2003). Cranial Osteopathic Skills in Polarity Therapy. Boulder, CO: American Polarity Therapy
Association.
Boundary techniques are the direct and indirect approaches to membranous articular strains. These approaches often involve exaggeration of the pattern in
the direction of the strain (indirect technique) or against
the pattern of the strain (direct technique) and acquisition of the point of balanced membranous tension.
Working through the neutral advocates the wider
embrace of the state of balance in the tissues, fluids,
and potency and elicits therapeutic benefits through
dynamic equilibrium.

Grateful acknowledgement is given to Scott Zamurut for assistance with

bibliographic citations while the author was teaching in Europe and away
from his library.
Figures 1, 6, 7, and 9 are reprinted with the permission of the American
Polarity Therapy Association from Stone, Randolph (1986), Polarity Therapy: The Complete Collected Works of Dr. Randolph Stone. Vol 1.
Figures 25 are reprinted from The Polarity Process: Energy as a Healing
Art, by Franklyn Sills, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright 2002
by Franklyn Sills. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Letters: Share your thoughts

Do you have an opinion or news youd like
to share with the BCTA community about BCST,
Association policy, or something that touches on
BCST? Do you have a question youd like to ask
our community? Submit your thoughts and letters to the to the editor, Linda Kurtz, at lindakurtz@netzero.net.

Summer 2011

Cranial Wave

The Castellino Prenatal and Birth Training

Supervision Process
Raymond Castellino, RCST
Ray Castellino, RCST, RPP, RPE,
DC, has pioneered a way of working
with early trauma that was experienced
in the womb, during birth, and during
the first years of life. He is constantly
developing his work, drawing on 40
years as a Polarity Therapy practitioner and educator
and 30 years as a craniosacral therapist, his chiropractic diagnostic skills, and his immersion in the pre- and
perinatal field for the last two decades. He works with
couples (including pregnant couples), families with children, and individual adults in a variety of settings: He co
-facilitates About Connections with Mary Jackson, RN,
LM, RCST, is clinic director of the nonprofit BEBA
clinic he co-founded in 1993, and offers private sessions
and phone support/supervision, small-group Womb Surround Process Workshops, and a two-year foundation
training in pre- and perinatal therapy. His website is
www.castellinotraining.com.
Editors note: The BCTA is printing this article by Ray
Castellino because it provides a very effective process for
professional consultation (supervision), one that you could
use in your own professional consultation sessions. It provides an equally effective format for formulating intention
in sessions with clients. Please note that not all of the forms
of supervision Ray discusses here (e.g., group, peer) count
toward the BCTAs professional consultation requirement.
Ray is presenting the type of supervision he uses with his
staff and with students in his trainings. Nonetheless, any of
these forms could be added to your professional and personal self-care. For the BCTAs professional consultation
requirements, see your member handbook.

During the 2008 Breath of Life Conference in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, there was a discussion
about supervision (or, as it is called in the BCTA, professional consultation). Franklyn Sills, myself, and others
stated that supervision is necessary for us to be effective
practitioners and teachers. I could not ethically practice
or provide training without strong, effective supervision.
Supervision makes me a better practitioner, a better
teacher, and a better person.
It is an exciting growth process for all concerned. I
look forward to supervision in a variety of forms. Supervision is necessary for students, practitioners, and teachers during all levels of the work because it helps us learn
and practice ethical, safe, and effective therapy.
I am sharing with you information that I developed

Cranial Wave

for myself, trainees in the Castellino Prenatal and Birth

Therapy Training, individual and group supervision clients, and staff at BEBA (Building and Enhancing Bonding and Attachment). I will discus what supervision is,
why it is important on a personal and professional level,
what might be covered in a supervision session, and
some of the formsindividual, group, etc.that it might
take. I will present the structure for supervision that I use
for myself when I receive supervision and that I use with
my supervisees. Key to this structure are the practitioners process, the formulation of an intention for the session, and de-emphasizing story as the sessions focal
point.

WHAT IS SUPERVISION?
Supervision is a way for students and practitioners to
develop clinical skills with the support of more experienced practitioners, instructors, training assistants, and
peers. During supervision, the supervisee may explore
activation and counter-transference issues, challenging
situations that occur during practice, business decisions
and issues, and scope of practice issues. Supervision also
addresses our human need to integrate our experiences as
practitioners and teachers. Supervision is about what
comes up in us, the challenges we face in some aspect of
professional practice or teaching, more than about developing techniques or problem-solving a clients issue. By
giving attention to ourselves and the issues that come up
for us we become clearer, more effective therapists.
Supervision can be a place for the practitioner to
develop specific therapeutic skills, including holding
presence, establishing appropriate contact, setting and
holding boundaries, tracking the client, reflection, and
developing awareness of how one, as practitioner, is using and placing ones attention.
Here are some key ideas about supervision:
Supervision is for ourselves.
The benefits of supervision to ourselves and our
clients are monumental.
We are always learning. A key asset of a good
therapist is beginners mind. Beginners mind
is the perspective of the learner, the listener. It is
a perspective of deep interest and listening that
supports our relationship with the people we are
working with so that they may deepen into
themselves. When this quality of listening is
given or received, everyone grows.

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15

young midwives in her midwifery practice. She

mentors and works one-on-one with the people
she is training.

Supervision gives us the opportunity for feedback, the opportunity to learn, and the opportunity to grow and to improve our skills. It helps
us do a better job; therefore, our clients get
better care.
Staying on the leading edge (the edge of our
learning curve) keeps us young.
Supervision is a place to work with our own
countertransferences.
By working with a supervisor, we have another
point of view from which to survey our work.
As a supervisee, I get an opportunity to broaden
my perception and become aware of what I do
not see, what is outside of my perception. What
I dont perceive, I dont perceive for a reason.
When a supervisor points out to me what I do
not see, I can then ask myself what was happening for me that I missed something in my work
with a client or family. Exploring what I miss,
my blind spots, has the effect of broadening my
perception.
Supervision is a place to develop therapeutic
strategies and useful clinical procedures and
therapeutic formats.
Supervision is a business cost. Account for it
when you set your fees for the service you give.

Individual, or Personal, Supervision

At BEBA, facilitators receive supervision in person,
on the telephone, through Skype, and occasionally via
email. Regular individual supervision sessions are required for all clinical staff. As the clinical director and
supervisor for BEBA, I make myself available to my
staff for supervision, either by phone or in person, as
their need arises. These individual supervision sessions
have four primary focuses:

FORMS OF SUPERVISION
There are several forms of supervision. In this article
I am focusing on individual, peer, and group supervision,
each of which is discussed more thoroughly below. The
following are some examples of forms that individual,
peer, and group supervision may take:

16

Individual supervision: dyad (one-on-one) with

a professional.
Peer supervision during training and professional practice: dyad or small group
Group supervision with an experienced teacher
or practitioner.
Clinical group supervision: Our clinical staff at
BEBA meets about every six weeks for a group
staff meeting where we review the work going
on in BEBA and support the BEBA practitioners
with the families they are working with.
Mentorship structure: We have a whole structure
for developing strong, perceptive practitioners
for the work we do at BEBA and About Connections. I work with trainees and mentor them in
BEBA, in the Womb Surround Process Workshop structure, and am now mentoring teachers
in my work. Another, great example is how
Mary Jackson mentors and trains assistant and

1. Supporting the practitioner to translate personal

activations into effective and efficient therapeutic interactions with their clients. This is the
main purpose of supervision. Supervision is
about the practitioner integrating what is activating for them. These activations occur because
our unresolved material gets activated when we
are working or because we are under-supported
and dont realize it. In traditional therapies,
these practitioner activations are called countertransferences. Countertransference occurs when
the practitioners own historical material is activated. One of our jobs as practitioners is to
translate our activations, or countertransferences, into useful statements and activities that
are cooperative and supportive for ourselves and
the people we are working with. Supervision can
help us do that. And when we leave a session
where we are questioning our therapeutic
choicesand sometimes ourselvessupervision
helps us to gain perspective, reorient, and regulate our own nervous systems. Supervision is
more about the practitioner than the client.
2. Examining how the practitioner is working with
their client in the following areas:
a. developing appropriate therapeutic contracts
b. setting and maintaining appropriate boundaries
c. communicating effectively
d. implementing effective therapeutic strategies
3. Maintaining consistency within individual sessions and over the course of the therapy with
each client (i.e., maintaining the therapeutic contract)
4. Business issues:
a. effective business structures
b. business relationships
c. scope of practice issues
d. practice-building
e. practice maintenance

Summer 2011

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Peer Supervision During Trainings and Professional

Practice
During the course of studying pre- and perinatal
therapy, students form strong peer support relationships.
These paired (dyad) relationships and small groups become a basis for a developing network for peer supervision. Students share and give feedback to each other on
creative home projects and may form study groups and
give each other emotional support.
After graduation, peer support and study groups become increasingly important. Peers discuss and reflect on
challenges they experience as practitioners with clients.
There are peer study and supervision groups that meet
for years after a training. Some meet in conference calls,
some in person. Some groups do regular phone, Skype,
or conference call support with each other and meet in
person two or three times a year. There is a group of six
people from the Swiss training that completed in 1999
that, as of this writing in May of 2011, are still meeting
with each other twice a year. This provides fertile ground
for professional growth: they are learning from each
other and seeing how each of them are developing in
their professional practices.
Group Supervision and Tutorial Groups
During the Castellino Prenatal and Birth Therapy
Training, I introduce a program for group supervision.
Many of the clinical skills presented in this foundation
training take five to ten years to fully integrate. During
group supervision and tutorial groups, practitioners present cases they are working with. These tutorial groups
can be peer groups or led by a professional who facilitates and is paid. Trainees use a group process that I developed in the Womb Surround Workshops that I facilitate and at BEBA. This format is described below in the
Structure for Supervision section.
During individual or group supervision sessions,
clinicians can describe or show video clips of sessions or
describe situations that are challenging to them as practitioners. (All sessions that take place at BEBA are videotaped. Most sessions that I facilitate in my private practice and Womb Surround Process Workshops are also
videotaped.) They are asked to share how they are interacting with clients in specific situations, focusing on (1)
how the therapy is progressing, (2) what is working for
them as a practitioner, (3) what skills they are developing, and (4) what they consider their challenges to be.
Presenting clinicians receive support and feedback from
the supervisor (if there is one) and the other participants
in the group. Some supervision groups are triads. Some
are larger. In the past, Europeans have been much more
willing to form and travel to tutorial groups than Americans. This system has proven itself to ensure effective
application of the work and increase the investment students have made in their professional and personal
growth.

Cranial Wave

STRUCTURE FOR SUPERVISION

The following structure for supervision is a fivephase sequence that I have developed over decades. It is
a suggested structure and has proven to be very efficient,
minimizing time and maximizing benefit. It is derived
from a combination of traditional psychotherapy supervision models, what I have learned from decades of receiving supervision, and from my experience supervising a
wide variety of practitioners, including different helping
professionals (medical to holistic), architects, accountants, actors, politicians, writers, business professionals,
CEOs, and even fire fighters. This process can be applied
to dyads or groups. I have tested this model in both individual and group supervision settings in the U.S. and
Europe. This structure is the same as the structure I use
when working with participants in Womb Surround
Workshops and other therapeutic settings. It is also the
process I follow when I do telephone and Skype consultations. I follow this five-phase sequence though every
supervision session that I conduct. The phases of this
sequence are detailed below.
1. Intention phase
What is the intention for the supervision session? At
the start of the session, the supervisee states their intention for the session. Stating a clear intention allows both
supervisor and practitioner to focus and have their mindfield bring forward what is really relevant to the supervision process. Note that the mind organizes itself around
intention whether our intentions are in our conscious
awareness or not. It then organizes our somatic experiencing, bringing forward the somatic memory to find the
way through our challenge.
Supervision can be a place for the practitioner
to develop specific therapeutic skills, including
holding presence, establishing appropriate
contact, setting and holding boundaries,
tracking the client, reflection, and developing
awareness of how one, as practitioner, is using
and placing ones attention.

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

17

If the supervisee doesnt know what the intention is,

thats all right. They should simply state that fact. The
intention can be discovered during the session.
I like the supervisee to give some attention to what
they want out of the session before the session. If, when
we begin the session, the supervisee is not clear about
their intention, I help them formulate an intention for the
session. As supervisor, I want to have the felt sense that,
Yes, this is an intention I can really support the supervisee with. This is an intention that I can really get behind.

important that practitioners cultivate an awareness of

what their own leading edge is, where the edge of their
own learning curve is. Awareness of my own leading
edge lets me know where my challenges as a professional lie and gives me information that will help me
continue to hone my skills. This is a continual process,
reforming itself each time the leading edge shifts. My
experience is that when I am mindful of my own leading
edge in relationship to a challenge that I am experiencing, new possibilities open to my awareness in relationship to my clients. My job as a supervisor is to support
the practitioner to make good use of what they are feeling and to support them to discover their leading edge.

The mind organizes itself around intention

whether our intentions are in
our conscious awareness or not.
It then organizes our somatic experiencing,
bringing forward the somatic memory
to find the way through our challenge.

An intention can be very general (e.g., I want to

explore such-and-such) to very specific (e.g., I want to
know where my reaction to this client comes from so I
can do a better job facilitating him or her). What is most
important to me is that the intention is clear, not how
general or specific it is. In most supervision sessions, the
intention arises out of a specific situation with a client, so
the intention will be specific to that situation.
Often the supervisee attempts to begin a session by
describing or giving client history and information about
a particularly challenging client. While this information
is useful, I like to hear it later in the session. Up front I
want to know what is going on with the practitioner.
Then later we can find out about the client. So, my first
questions are, What is your intention for the session?
and, If you meet this intention, how would you change,
or what would change in your practice? Here are just a
few examples of intentions: I want to gain a greater
sense of confidence with this client. I feel like I am missing something and not sure what I am missing. I want to
know what it is I am missing and to be able to work effectively with them. I finish the day tired and drained.
I want to be able to do my work and feel resourced and
uplifted. I want to establish strong, clear, and compassionate boundaries with this client.

3. Relevant history phase

Focus on the parts of the history that are important to
achieve the intention. This part of the process can include the clients history and/or that of the supervisee. I
will often ask the supervisee to pause and settle within
themselves and then see what comes up for them, discover what history to share. I ask them not to predetermine the content of what they say but to share what occurs to them in the moment. I assume that whatever they
say is relevant to the history and the intention. The key
questions have to do with what is going on for the practitioner in relationship to the client. I do not allow the
practitioner to just rattle off information about their client. I am listening for the core information that will serve
the intention for the session.
4. Activity phase
The relevant history phase leads to an activity that
supports the practitioner in deepening into the material
they are presenting, into the truth of their needs, and into
the resources that provide the internal guidance and potency that enables them to find their way through their
challenge and leave them with clarity and a balanced
field. This section can look like a Somatic Experiencing
session.
It is necessary for the person in the supervisor role
(and peer support people, if present) to reference midline. I give myself plenty of permission to not be in mid-

2. Personal challenge phase

Whats the personal challenge? State your challenge.
This could sound like, I feel confused. There are so
many layers in this familys history that I get lost. I cant
find my midline. My tracking skills drop out. Im afraid
for my client. I go away from the sessions feeling
tired. I feel stuck with this client. They are not progressing. I feel inadequate. Often when the challenge
gets stated, the intention increases in accuracy and clarity. We then restate the intention, bringing in this greater
clarity.
Many times, even very competent therapists find it
difficult to state what their personal challenge is. It is
18

Summer 2011

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line: I have an intention to be mindful of what Im doing

with my attention and to do the practice of returning to
midline over and over again. As supervisor, I listen with
the intention to support the supervisee in deepening into
themselves and integrating their experience in real time.
One thing that we do a lot in BEBA clinic supervision sessions is use the videotapes of client sessions to
review the part(s) of the client session where the practitioner or the clinical team that is working with a family is
challenged. The discussion that ensues from, and growth
steps that all make, in this process are very rewarding.
The main purpose of supervision is to support
the practitioner to translate personal activations
into effective and efficient
Therapeutic interactions with their clients.

5. Integration phase
A supervision session is complete only when the
material for that session is integrated into the supervisees practice. Whatever we glean from a session becomes part of us and fully part of our practitioner skills.
During and at the end of the supervision session, it is
important for the supervisee to pay some attention to the
felt sense of the experience of receiving support. Supervisees should allow themselves to feel the support down
through their muscles, viscera, joints, and into their
bones.
At the end of the session, the supervisee makes a
statement of what they received from the session. Either
I or the supervisee restates the intention for the session.
The supervisee then makes an assessment of how the
session met the intention. If the intention was not fully
met, the supervisee and supervisor can make statements
about what was not met and what still needs to occur.
This can lead to the formation of next steps.
The supervisee should make a statement or statements about how the new learning can be applied to their
professional work. This statement will help anchor the
new learning and make it more likely that the new learning will manifest in the supervisees clinical practice. As
a supervisee, follow the learning into your practice. Report back to your supervisor about how the integration of
the new skills or ways of being in practice are working
for you.
In the format I have developed, at the end of a group
supervision session other members of the supervision
team share brief statements about how they were affected
by the session. It is important that these statements be I
statements: They are not about the supervisee. They are
differentiation statements made for the purpose of naming what the other members of the group were tracking,
holding, and processing. The supervisee does not have to
do anything about what the others are sharing.

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TIME
In group settings, each individuals turn takes anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. Individual supervision
generally takes 20 to 60 minutes for a single-intention
question or for a single issue with a client or family.
Usually, individual supervision sessions take 20 to 40
minutes. Each additional intention can increase the supervision session time proportionately. Three or four
intentions or situations can take up to 1 hours.

OTHER COMMENTS
The supervisee can use this format with their supervisor whether or not the supervisor knows the format. I
have found that following this format makes my supervision as a client more efficient. I learn more about myself
and about my work in less time than with other formats
with which Ive experimented.
Collaborative sharing may be one of the exciting
outcomes of the supervision process.
I so look forward to participating in the supervision
process. It is a mainstay of my practice and my work.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and allowing
me to share this material with you. I hope you are able to
find your supervision work as rewarding as I have.
2008, Ray Castellino, DC, RCST, RPP, www.castellinotraining.com,
bebaray@cox.net, 805-687-2897. Feel free to reproduce this article in part or in whole. Pass the article around to your peers and
teachers. If you quote the article, reference the author. If you
want to publish the article, talk with me about this first. I reserve
the right to allow or disallow where this article is published. The
structure for supervision process described in this article is proprietary. If you use it or describe it to others, please reference the source.

Website Feedback Needed

The Association website is being revamped.
Please take a look at the site and submit your feedback to the board and website committee at admin@
craniosacraltherapy.org & acourageousheart@gmail.com.

Contribute to the New Website

Write, Edit, Proofread
A large part of this project is rewriting and adding to the text on the website to reflect the evolution
of our biodynamic approach. We need your input.
Contribute your knowledge of BCST! Make sure all of
BCST is reflected on the website!
We are seeking willing copyeditors and writers
to take on specific writing tasks. If you are interested,
please contact the committee chair, Margaret
Rosenau, at acourageousheart@gmail.com.

This is your chance to help increase our visibility

and affect how BCST is presented to the public!

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

19

A Mother's and Baby's Story

Marion Mazzocchi, RCST
Marion Mazzocchi is a practicing registered
nurse in the area of maternal child care. She
is a registered Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapist, Reiki Master, and Flower Essence
Practitioner and has an advanced certificate
in Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
Marion has a special love of working with
pregnant and new moms. She feels that the way we birth
our babies has a profound and lifelong impact on families.
It affects how we see ourselves and our ability to parent,
impacts our health and well-being, influences how we interact with our children, and resonates through our child`s
development and personality.

Over the past few months, I have had the honor of

working with little Mary and her mother, Dee. Dee has
given me permission to write about their experience, but
their names are changed to protect their privacy. I started
working with Dee as part of my research project for my
Biodynamic Craniosacral training. At that time, Mary
was six months old and did not sleephence, her mother
did not sleep.
When I first interviewed Dee, she said that Mary did
not sleep, but that she herself was fine and not feeling
stressed, even though she wasnt sleeping much either.
She had another daughter, seven years old, who was very
calmnothing like Mary. I asked Dee what her pregnancy had been like, to which she replied that it had been
good and that she had delivered in the hospital with a
midwife. Nothing had gone wrong, not like with her son.
Dee then went on to tell me that she had lost a baby
18 months prior to Marys birth. At the time, she and her
family were living in Britain. They were planning on
immigrating to Canada and were just waiting for the
baby to be born so they could put its name on the immigration papers. Her birth had been attended by a midwife, but not the midwife who had seen her throughout
her pregnancy. During labor, Dee felt that something was
wrong. Her midwife did not take her to the hospital, and
her precious son died during birth. There was a thorough
investigation into all those involved in the birth and the
sequence of events that led to the babys death. The midwife was found to be at fault. Once the investigation was
over, Mary and her family came to Canada.
Once there, the problems and stresses began to pile
up. The family arrived on a winter day, Dees husband
set to start his new job only to find out that the place he
was to be working at had blown up two days before their
arrival. Because her husband was now without a job,
they had to reapply for their work visas. If they didnt get
them, they would likely have to return to Britain. While

20

all of this was going on, Dee was also dealing with having moved a household overseas and unpacking. Somewhere in all that, Dee said, she had gotten pregnant.
After hearing this story, I asked Dee if she had been
worried about the new baby while she was carrying her.
She was not worried about the pregnancy but was fearful
of birthing. She said that in the end, the birth was lovely
and that she has a wonderful, healthy daughter, but one
who is very watchful and wakes at the least noise. Since
birth, the baby would sleep for no more than two
hours at a time and would wake in an anxious, fearful
state.
For the first seven months I worked only with Dee.
She felt the sessions were helping her relax, and although
Mary wasn't sleeping any better, Dee was better able to
cope with her own lack of sleep. Dee would feel settled
for a few weeks after a session, then was ready for another one.
I was a student in cranio at the time I began working
with Dee and did not feel comfortable working with infants. It had been several weeks since my last session
with Dee and she was very stressed, as Mary was still
only sleeping three hours at a time and very little overall.
Dee was feeling that it was stressful not only for her but
also for Mary, as Mary never seemed to get into a deep,
restful sleep. I said that I would give Mary a session and
we could see if anything changed.
Mary was asleep in her car seat when I worked with
her. Even in her sleep I could not make physical contact
with her, as she would jump and pull her foot back and
start to wake up. I worked with my hands about four
inches from her feet. During the session I felt a great deal
of anxiety surface in Mary, then a relaxation in both my
body and Mary's body. Mary felt like she was much
more settled following this work. She woke after about
25 minutes and looked for her mother, but not with the
hypervigilance I had witnessed before. I asked Dee to let
me know if she noticed any difference over the next few
days.
Two days later Dee sent me an email stating that
Mary had slept through the past two nights. Dee felt that
Mary was less anxious and that her fear on waking was
gone. What a change for not only Mary but her whole
family! Since that time I have continued to work with
Mary. She is much calmer and although she doesn't always sleep through the night, she goes back to sleep
without much fuss. And of course Dee is feeling less
stressed because she is more rested.

Summer 2011

Cranial Wave

Reflections on BCST and Massage

Ginger Ingalls, RCST
Ginger Ingalls, LMT, NCTMB, RCST has
been a journalist and actress and has had
lots of movement training. Being a therapist came out of her two previous careers:
wanting to help people and to develop
kinesthetically.

This piece integrates what I have been taught and a

sense of pioneering and following my heart. It follows my
work with one client and comes out of my daily practice
of contemplating my SOAP notes (notes about a clients
condition) and then writing in my diary about what feels
new, interesting, or refreshing. The SOAP notes are not
a requirement of the spa where I work nor of Washington, D.C. law. They are tremendously helpful for me in
keeping track of my clients. Both notes and diary entries
increase my consciousness, focus, and responsibility. I
decided to do this on my own, and this practice is consistent with the way I have been writing since the age of
five. I also did diary writing during my first two careers
of journalism and acting.
People who usually receive only massage and are
trying cranial work for the first time tell me that, to them,
craniosacral therapy feels like massage from the inside
out. More than one person has used these exact words!
I meditate to continually resource my sense of
groundedness. I recently returned to Transcendental
Meditation first taught to me in the 1980s and, similar to
finding that once I have connected with a deeper muscle
(and suddenly therefore find my hands in it without
linearly going through other muscles superficial to it),
often find myself in a particular fulcrum that feels like it
is governed by a sense of nurturance combined with the
laws of physics.
January 23, 2009. My forearm cross-fiber glides
down serratus posterior superior, and the whole scapula
slides; then fingertips meet the nuchal ligament and I
seem to sink back deeper into my feet. My whole back
opens up, and I breathe deeply. Then, as if by magic, my
hands come together with fingertips touching at C-7 and
sweep up (but not too fast!) to the external occipital protuberance. And I wait there, breathing. I release contact,
and my fingers again find C-7 and very, very gently, but
precisely and specifically, make tiny, circles up the
nuchal ligament and then fan out as I sense fibers of rectus capitis posterior minor.
January 26, 2009. I am in the foramen magnum
hold, and the energy of it feels very horizontal and open.
I am waiting. Suddenly, maybe because I have known it
before, the left rectus capitis posterior minor loosens. Oo
la la ! I try not to become emotionally satisfied. Then the

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trapezius loosens.
February 4, 2009. I wake up for the first time feeling
that my head is on straight. I feel restitution in every
sense of the word: physical, mental-emotional, spiritual.
February 8, 2009. I hold, like a cup, C-7 in the palm
of my hand. For the first time, I connect this bone in my
perception with the sense of the sacrococcygeal hold, and
it feels like the bone and everything else (spirit, energy,
tissues, and fluids) is in the center of the palm. This bone
and everything else seems to effervesce to the left serratus posterior superior, through the nuchal ligament,
then through the right trapezius, the right semispinalis
capitis, and then the right rectus capitis posterior minor.
There is a felt sense of something more full.
February 10, 2009. I cradle the occiput and have
tears of compassion in my eyes as I think and feel the
continuum between the nervous system and the muscles.
There is more of a sense of the center of my palms and
less of a sense of many digits doing the hold. Later, I
meditate as I usually do.

Neutrality
Feeling broken ((unheard)),
I forget I am the well
that breathes through the veil.
May you be a reminder of the wonder
and let the pain also be there.
For neutrality heals
the depths of our history.
No blame, no shame.
I am love, I am life, I am that
which breathes through the veil.

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

Leyla Castro

21

BOOK REVIEW

New and Improved: Volume 1 of Franklyn Sillss

Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics
Kate White, RCST
The recently released Foundations in Craniosacral
Biodynamics: The Breath of Life and Fundamental Skills
Volume 1 by Franklyn Sills is good news for the current
biodynamic practitioner. Finally a body of work that is
more explicit about the skill set needed to evoke the most
sensitive and deeply healing level that can be supported
within clients! Readers can see this immediately from the
contents list, with large sections of the book dedicated to
primary respiration, the practitioner-client relationship,
and the inherent treatment plan. Franklyn differentiates
this volume from his other work right away in the preface to the new volume. He says:
I am starting from a very different point in this volume compared to my previous books. I will not discuss
historical techniques or approaches, but will concentrate on the foundations of a biodynamic orientation in
craniosacral therapy. This includes the understanding of
the relational field, the ability of the practitioner to
settle into a being-state, where his or her mind is settled and oriented, the holistic shift, a shift to wholeness
and primary respiration, and the unfoldment of what
Becker called the inherent treatment plan. [pp xxixxxx]

Filled with exercises for practitioners, the text details

the essence of the biodynamic practice: a focus on stillness, relationship, being, and primary respiration. The
book, he says in the preface, is organized to be a useful
reference guide for both students and practitioners and is
not organized in a strictly linear fashion, because learning the work is a nonlinear process where skills are continually being recycled as new pieces are brought in (p
xxx). This is a replacement of my previous works, he
said in a recent interview I had with him. I wasnt comfortable with my approach until 2002 and then felt completely comfortable with what I was teaching starting
four or five years ago. This new volume brings professionals up to date, into a biodynamic mental set. Franklyn also presents work supporting the biodynamic approach, including that of Rollin Becker, Mae Wan Ho,
William Sutherland, and Donald Winnicott.
There are familiar sections about bone motility, especially holds for bones that the seasoned practitioner is
familiar with, such as the vault hold, but this volume
departs from his previous books by spending a lot time
on the inherent treatment plan, holistic shift, dynamic
stillness, and relationship. In many ways, Franklyn hopes
to reinforce a shift in the craniosacral paradigm. He
states, for example, in his chapter on tissue motility:

22

In a biodynamic context the biomechanical understanding gives way to a much more integrated perceptual understanding in which the actual forces that organize the tissue field, and the deeper dynamics they
generate, are the focus of practitioner awareness. The
practitioner orients to the whole field and notices the
particulars that arise within it. All tissue structures are
perceived to be part of a unified and fluidic field of action. Bones are sensed to express an inner, cellular motility that is not separate from the wider tissue field.
Bony motion has more of a sense of flower petals opening all at once, rather than of separate structures moving around different axes. The practitioner senses the
whole of the flower as it opens yet each flower petal is
also distinct. [p 157]

The text revolves around the health in the clients

system more than on deviance from midline or inertial
energetics: The work is about hearing the health and
facilitating a reconnection to it (p 159). Many sections
of the volume present the reader with listening skills,
fluid functions, tissue and bone motility, and ways to
understand a holistic approach to working with clients.
The book also provides useful language for interfacing
with consumers and the medical world.
The volume houses a surprise or two. Franklyn addresses the shadow aspect of the craniosacral approach. Shadow is a term used in Jungian psychology to
refer to unconscious material in someones mind. It can
represent repressed weaknesses, instincts, tendencies, or
implicit memories. According to Jungian psychology, the
shadow is commonly projected
on other people
or the surrounding environment, in a process called transference. Franklyn says that the
importance of
the shadow to
cranial work is
this: Our selfsystems are inherently split
and we are all
prone to split-

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Cranial Wave

ting, shadow projections, and the projection of goodness

and badness onto others. The Breath of Life supports all
of our life processes and intentions, does not discriminate
as to high or low, good or bad, and thus supports our
wisdom and our shadow side. Work in relationship to the
Breath of Life can intensify our shadow side, our fears
and projections as well as our insights, and we can all get
caught up in that. I am doing my best to look at whatever
shadow issues are present for me, and hope others in
the field will do the same (p xxix).
The book includes a chapter on the shadow by his
new wife, Cherionna Menzam, entitled Transference,
the Shadow, and Biodynamics. It is a good surprise to
see that leadership in the biodynamic field is addressing
the ways practitioners can get out of balance. In a recent
interview, Franklyn explained his understanding of how
the shadow operates in a craniosacral context: As soon
as one deepens and widens and enters the territory where
something else takes over, it reflects the inherent plan
nicely. It is like this in all great healing practices. The
shadow is deeply held within the awareness of the long
tide but without judgment. All of you intensifies. If you
dont take responsibility for it, you become itthe
shadow not seeing its fulcrums in yourself. Take responsibility. Heal those parts. We all have that territory,
and it is fruitful territory. I do this by knowing what my
tendencies are: whether I protect, defend, withdraw, or
run away. I notice more and more how they start to
emerge. I breathe through them and let them dissipate. I
am aware of this in myself and others. As I do this, I see
suffering and, also, I take things less personally.
Another wonderful inclusion is chapter 20, on birth,
heart, and conception ignitions. This chapter also has a
good review of traumas that can impede ignition and
exercises in their exploration. Volume two of the series
will address trauma more deeply. The chapter is supported by information on embryology and birth. The final chapter is a light outline of shamanic resonances
when working with the Breath of Life. Laid out in linear
fashion, the process includes five stages. If this first volume could be improved, perhaps it would be by including more information about the shamanic nature of the
work and its connection to the natural world.
Well supported throughout by drawings and professional resources, this book is necessary reading for the
serious biodynamic practitioner. I thought it was important to create new texts that bring things up to date, says
Franklyn. This is a biodynamic mind set, a certain way
of being, and is something I am very happy I can do at
this point in my life. His next volume is due out at the
end of 2012. He has a new website, www.craniosacralbiodynamics.org, where he will soon be posting some
instructional videos.

Cranial Wave

REMINDERS
Trademark Reminder
The trademark symbol
serves to distinguish us in the
marketplace as highly trained
biodynamic practitioners. It indicates that the
mark has been awarded to the user and is protected by copyright law. It is required to be used
with the RCST designation; thus, RCST. Preferably the trademark symbol will be superscripted; thus . The need appear with RCST
only once in an article and once on a web page,
even if RCST appears more often. In places where
it is not possible to add the trademark symbol,
such as in the Yellow Pages, it may be omitted.
See the Member Handbook or the Fall 2006
Cranial Wave, p 5 for more information.

Spelling Reminder
The approved name and spelling of the modality is Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy.
Please make sure that you are spelling it correctly
and not using the spelling used by the Upledger
Foundation.
If you are using the RCST designation, you
must use the term Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, not simply craniosacral therapy. However,
on business cards, Yellow Pages ads, and other
places where the entire term will not easily fit,
you may omit the word Biodynamic.

Testimonials
Under our Ethics Code (adopted in 1999),
RCSTs may use testimonials from clients regarding the clients experiences with Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy as a modality. However, practitioners may not use testimonials from clients
regarding the quality of their clinical services; nor
do they use statements intended or likely to create
false or unjustified expectations of favorable
results; nor do they use statements implying
unusual, unique or one-of-a-kind abilities.
[Principle 4.c.] Please see the Member Handbook
and the Fall 2006 Cranial Wave, p 2 for examples
of the type of testimonials you may use.

Name of the Association

The name of our association is the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North
America. Please update your website and written
materials.
The acronym is BCTA/NA. Note that there is
no S in the acronym: B-C-T-A / N-A.

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

23

Update on Professional Consultation and

Feedback from Members
Effective the first week of June 2011, the BCTA
board disbanded the Professional Consultation Committee. The committee had not met since its formation in
2010 because nothing was ever brought to it. The board
has, since the fall of 2010, been discussing the professional consultation process with Foundation Training
teachers. The board feels that it wants to take a primary
role in any discussion of and decisionmaking process
around professional consultation.
The board is constantly investigating different ways
that people can meet the professional consultation requirement and is encouraging teachers to develop trainings and workshops that meet the goals of the professional consultation policy. It is possible that in the future
a portion of professional consultation hours may be met
through work done in certain courses. Individuals would,
under a plan being considered by the board, have to show
that the work they have done in such a course has fulfilled the goals and intentions of the policy. Members
with input about the professional consultation policy and/
or using certain coursework to fulfill a portion of the four
hours of professional consultation required each year
should write to the board at admin@craniosacraltherapy.org.
Members may also send letters for publication in the
Cranial Wave to the editor at lindakurtz@netzero.net.
As a reminder of what professional consultation is about,
the following is reprinted from the Member Handbook.
Please see your handbook under the tab Member Requirements, for detailed information on professional consultation.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is an extremely
intimate and potentially life-changing modality. As
biodynamic craniosacral therapists, each one of us
may work with, or at least touch upon, our clients
deep, and often unconscious, emotional processes.
This may trigger our own unresolved issues. Sometimes we will be aware of this, sometimes we will
not. It is important that we as practitioners be as
clear as possible about our relationships to ourselves and our clients so that we can hold each
clients experience as gently, compassionately,
neutrally, and clearly as possible.
In your professional consultation sessions, you
may be discussing/working with what is going on in
your own life or you may specifically focus on what is
happening in your relationships with clients. Such
consultation improves our practices by helping each
of us to better hold a neutral space and be more
open to accessing and supporting the inherent treatment plan that already exists in a given clients system.

24

Professional Consultation and CEUs

[Editors note: The following letter is a response to the
letter the board sent out in July 2010 regarding professional
vs collegial organization and the possible replacement of professional consultation (supervision) with continuing education
credits. The boards letter is reprinted on page 25.]
Dear BCTA/NA Board of Directors,
Thank you for all your hard work! I
appreciate so much being part of a very
high-quality professional community
and organization. Makes me proud to
include these credentials on my business
cards, website and along with my other
professional listings.
I am not personally concerned with the need for the
BCTA/NA to become a profession because I have
other modalities through which I may become licensed
and able to receive third-party payments, group insurance, and other benefits. I think that most of us who
practice are combining several modalities, and many
members fall into this category. Other members may
feel more concerned about this if their RCST is their
only credential and the only way they might see these
benefits. Food for thought!
I just met with my two supervision students. They
brought the above and below information [Editors note:
Elizabeth is referring to the letter the board sent out to members in July 2010. ] to my attention. Which leads me to
my second point. Those of us with busy, full lives might
not read the "fine print" and I recommend/suggest that
you hold off deciding about the supervision/
consultation vs. continuing education credit for at least
a year and give the membership more time to 1) know
about this pending decision, 2) consider all the options
and repercussions, and 3) respond to the BCTA/NA
board with their thoughts and concerns. Please don't
rush this decision!
For myself, I have found supervision to be an invaluable resource throughout my 24 years in private
practice. Client/therapist transference is a profound and
powerful part of the therapeutic relationship. If not
managed appropriately, the outcome can be devastating
for both parties. If managed appropriately, the transference can be absolutely transformative and deeply healing. This can only be managed with the help of an outside partya supervisor. One with more experience and
one with the ability to guide and support. I cannot emphasize this point enough!
Please consider this very carefully. The BCTA/NA
board worked very hard to get the supervision requirement in place. Please do not eliminate it without very

Summer 2011

Cranial Wave

careful consideration of the repercussions of such a

choice for our profession and for our clients.
Rather than eliminate the supervision requirement,
I would much rather see the board keep this requirement (including the signature requirement) and help us
all to hold accountability for our professionalism and
professional growth. And add a continuing education
requirement. The CEU requirement would best serve
our community, I believe, if any professional conference,
training, or workshop were allowed to count toward our
CEUs. And to follow a two- to three-year time frame
(the Yoga Alliance has us turn in CEUs every third
year), to set up a page on the website where we can enter our CEUs in ourselves as we go along (APTA does
this), and a reasonable amount: fifteen to twenty hours
over a two- to three-year year period. Any related
study ought to count because as we all know, all relate
back to the primary impulse and deep tide anyway!!!
Some examples of related study:

anatomy and physiology

counseling/psychology

energy medicine
therapeutic bodywork of any modality

yoga, meditation, contemplative practices

Biodynamic Craniosacral advanced courses (of

course!)
nutrition, nutritional counseling

special population education (aging, recovery,

special needs, etc.)

wellness education, life coaching

spiritual, philosophical study

Please slow this process down and give us all more
time with this!
Thank you so much for your kind attention and
consideration.

Yours In The Tide,

Elizabeth Whirlabout, RPE, RYT, RCST, RPP
Plymouth, MA

Letter from Franklyn on Supervision and CEUs

I want to support Elizabeth Whirlabout's message
re: supervision and again give my support for a supervision requirement and for a flexible continuing education requirement. I really
feel it is imperative that practitioners
are in supervision. I certainly have
been all of these years, and it is invaluable to me. It creates a wonderful holding environment for my needs as a human being in private practice, helps keep my process
differentiated from my clients, and gives me a really
creative space for reflection both relative to client work

Cranial Wave

and to myself in the role of practitioner. I deeply agree

with Elizabeth's comments. Supervision helps one keep
clear differentiation of one's own process from that of
the client and gives a practitioner their own neutral and
very needed holding field. It is essential in the maintenance of a safe holding environment and in the clarification of shadow, transference, and clinical issues. This is
really a professional issue, not one for me about past
board decisions.
I feel that continuing education is a separate issue
and should not be coupled with supervision. Continuing
education courses are important in themselves but are
certainly not a substitute for supervision. They are a
unique aspect of what is also needed in professional
practice. The CE requirements can be very flexible to
include conferences and really anything that supports or
extends one's work. I know this has been discussed over
the years by various boards and no decision has been
made, but feel it is essential for us to maintain both supervision and CE work as part of the holding field
which supports us in practice. My guess is that people
do not really understand the essential nature of supervision and how it creates a holding environment for the
practitioner's relationship to their work and clients and
allows the practitioner to settle into a holding field oriented to their professional practice and be supported. I
firmly believe that it is an essential aspect of safe clinical
practice.
Franklyn Sills, RCST
Devon, U.K.

July 2010 Letter from the Board to Members

[Editors note: The following letter from the board was
sent out in July 2010.]
Fellow BCTA/NA Members,
This letter from the Board of Directors is being
sent to update you on recent changes and to invite your
feedback on some items of interest to the Association.
Communications
This newsletter is being sent to you by both surface
and email. If you do not receive it by both modes, it
means we do not have a current email or surface address
for you. Or it may mean that your web browser has
screened the email as spam. Please let us know of any
changes. Also, we are in the process of developing a new
website that will have easier navigability, and will give
us new options for communication within our community. Please contact us if you have any ideas or suggestions regarding this project.
Personal/Professional Consultations
We are making some changes in how you verify
your personal/professional consultation (formerly
known as supervision). You now need only to state the
practitioner and date of your consultation. There is no
longer a requirement to obtain a signature from your

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

25

practitioner(s). This will simplify the process of your

verification. You can still use the old form if that is easiest for you; just be aware that the practitioner signature
part no longer applies.
Also relating to personal/professional consultation;
it has been suggested and requested by some members
and teachers that continuing education activities be allowed to count as consultations. This matter is being
evaluated by the Board, and we ask for member input and
feedback on this issue. After hearing your points of view,
and considering all aspects of the issue, the Board will
make a decision on this issue sometime this summer
2010. [Editors note: No decision has yet been made, and the
board continues to ask for your input.]
Professionalism
On a more general note, we want to address the
often discussed matter of whether our association is
community or professional. The current Board does
not see these as mutually exclusive goals. We see our
organization as a professional community, and want to
enhance the collegiality of the community. A key goal of
our association is to support our members and teachers
in the development and vibrancy of our field. Biodynamic craniosacral therapy is still relatively new, evolving and growing. The founders of the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America
(BCTA/NA) and the current Board both have seen the
importance of a community that continues to be a
container and supporter of our graduates and members.
We also recognize the importance of
professionalism and professional standards. They are
important to the continued growth of the members and
the community. But to clarify, this is a way of being in
practice, not necessarily a way to create a profession.
We want you to know that the current Board is NOT
pursuing any interest or effort towards the creation of
biodynamic craniosacral therapy as a licensed profession,
with possible regulation by government agencies. We
think such a stance reflects the views of our members,
and we welcome any comment on the issue.
The BCTA/NA Board and Teacher Liaisons are
looking to enhance our community and look for ways to
best serve our members. We look forward to any communications you have for us in this regard:
admin@craniosacraltherapy.org.

Members, please submit items for discussion

The BCTA/NA annual member meeting will be held
August 56, 2011 in Washington, D.C. Most BCTA
Foundation teachers will be attending this meeting.
Members are encouraged to contact the board or teachers
prior to the meeting about any issues you would like the
board to address or discuss. The meeting will be held in
at the CourtyardChevy Chase, 5520 Wisconsin Ave,
Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815, near the northwest section of our nation's capital. Members are invited to a
lunch with the board and teachers on Saturday the 6th at
noon, to be followed by a 90-minute formal meeting
open to members, which will end at 3 p.m. If you are
local, and even if you arent, we encourage you to come.
Members will need to call in or email their questions by
Tuesday, August 2. Note the date, and we hope you can
participate. Email admin@craniosacraltherapy.org or
call Dave Paxson, President, at 843-347-1609.
On Sunday, August 7, there will be a regional networking meeting of folks interested in pre- and perinatal
psychology (see the article on page 29, Pre- and Perinatal Regional Meeting in Washington, D.C. This August,
for more information). Several of the board and teachers
plan to participate in that gathering, which is open to all
who are interested.

New BCTA Website Up;

Help Write About BCST
Margaret Rosenau, RCST, Website Committee Chair

Thank You,
BCTA/NA Board
Edwin Nothnagel, President
Marilyn Angell, Secretary
Dave Paxson, Treasurer
Michael Brightwood, Director

[Editors note: Please note that these names reflect the

composition of the board at the time this letter was written. See
page 36 for a listing of the current board of directors.]

26

Annual Member Meeting to Be Held

August 5, 2011 in D.C.

The website has changed! If you haven't been to our

website lately, it's time for a visit. The look and userfriendliness of the website has changed and will be undergoing further changes in the coming months. Look for
changes in June to the practitioner directory, membership
renewal, and all things related to maintaining your membership. Also keep your eye on the site in the coming
monthswe will be changing the look and feel and the
content even more.
In fact, the website committee is actively working on
reworking the website at every level to reflect who we
are as an organization. A large part of this project is rewriting and adding to the text on the website to reflect
the evolution of our biodynamic approach. Those of us
on the committee are very excited about the website we
are creating. We are seeking willing copyeditors and
writers to take on specific writing tasks. If you are interested, please contact the committee chair, Margaret
Rosenau, at acourageousheart@ gmail.com.

Summer 2011

Cranial Wave

LETTERS__________

Working with Newborns Exposed to Drugs

I would like to touch base with anyone who has any experience working with newborns who are withdrawing from
prenatal exposure to methamphetamine, cocaine, or heroin.
You can contact me at lisapiediscalzi@hotmail.com. Thank
you.

Lisa Piediscalzi, L.Ac., RCST, IBCLC

Aptos, CA

gellbt@gmail.com,

Marilyn Angell, RCST

Greensburg, PA

Reach Out and Touch a Soldier

Especially since September 11, 2001, our
men and women in the military (over 500,000
army soldiers alone) have been totally dedicated to the safety of the citizens of the
United States of America and throughout the
world.
It has also come into the acute awareness
of many professionals that our veterans returning from war are
not doing well. The news media is frequently reporting that
our soldiers are in duress because of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Having a son that has over 20 years of active duty service
in the U.S. Army has led me to seek out any and every avenue
possible to offer BCST to our returning soldiers. As a result, I
have been in touch with a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed
Medical Center at Fort Bragg, NC and the director of the VA
clinic in Johnson City, TN. I have also spoken with a member
of the BCTA board who attended an Armed Forces Health
Conference concerning the health status of our soldiers. The
information I have gathered shows very clearly that our veterans are not adequately responding to traditional medical treatments and are increasingly seeking alternative health-care options. As practitioners and recipients of the work, we know
that BCST is the very best modality to assist them in reducing
any unresolved stress and/or trauma they may have encountered.
Unfortunately, BCST is not yet a common household
term, and alternative therapies are not yet recognized as effective by the traditional medical system. Currently, the only way
we can offer BCST at a VA clinic or hospital is as a volunteer
for the purpose of stress management.
To volunteer at a VA clinic or hospital, contact their
volunteer services department and simply follow their instructions. They may require a background check and fingerprinting, which they will pay for. If possible, work with the psychiatric department, as they are more apt to be monitoring a soldiers improvement.
If you personally know of a veteran, please do not hesitate to offer your services. Be advised that, to date, it has been
my experience that most vets who have a session or two feel so
much improved that they do not return. Our major objective
is for them to experience the benefits of BCST.
In an effort to expand the number of practitioners for the
soldiers, I have been organizing a group of alternative and

Cranial Wave

allopathic professionals and army personnel. Peter Levines

group, the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, is partnering with us. We are interested in expanding our group to include practitioners from various alternative therapies.
To volunteer to help our veterans, please contact me so
that we can pool our efforts for this great cause. If each of us
could volunteer to reach out and touch just one soldier, what
a difference it would make! You can reach me at a n-

Member Handbook
I just received the new Member Handbook
today and just want to say thank you for all the
thought and effort that went into it. Great job!!
It works especially well for someone with my
personality traits, so I enjoyed putting it together and using that process as an opportunity
to get familiar with the organization and information contained in the handbook, as was suggested in the
instructions. Having photos of individuals helps me feel more a
part of a community. Also, I think the committee is on target
with a handbook that allows for updates of only those pages
that change. And even though I would have thought I was capable of inserting the pages correctly without benefit of instructions, I found that I did use them. The only thing that I
would suggest for future consideration is placing the sheet with
basic organization contact information as the very first page,
before everything else. For me, I always find it most convenient
if contact information is prominent and incredibly easy to locate. To avoid changing the page numbering, perhaps the first
page could be a Quick Reference Contact Page, and just
keep the Administration page as is.
Very well done, and thank you again for your hard work
in putting it all together.

Leah Hake, RCST

Chicago, IL

Join the Primarywave

We would like to invite you to join the
Primarywave. Members of the BCTA/NA sit with Primary Respiration and the intention of peacefulness,
1:001:30 p.m. EST, every second Sunday of the
month, as a way to strengthen our biodynamic community and perhaps encourage a shift toward world
peace.
We encourage you to share your experiences
during Primarywave with the community. Emails may
be sent to sjberman@mindspring.com (Sarajo Berman) with Primarywave in the subject line.

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

27

BCTA/NA 2010 Financial Report

Dave Paxson, RCST, 2010 Treasurer
For the first time since the 2007 financial year, expenditures exceeded income for the BCTA/NA. This
was due to the following: (1) work on the development
of a new website, a project that has been deferred for
years; (2) more in-person meeting contact between the
board and teachers; (3) an expanded edition of the Cranial Wave (44 pages); and (4) the development of a new
handbook for members. The handbook expenses should
be low in upcoming years, as the new handbook format
means that only pages with changes will be replaced
each year. The Cranial Wave expenses will stay about
the same or increase as the publication moves from a
short newsletter to a many-page journal that will be published once or twice a year.
Expenses also increased because there was more
utilization of contracted office services for tasks that
were done by volunteers (usually board members) in
previous years. The Association contributed nearly
$2,900 to support the 2010 Breath of Life Conference.
This is the first year that the Conference has nearly paid
for itself. In past years, the Association has contributed
$65008000 toward conference expenses.
We spent $7230 more on the Association than we
took in in dues. We spent $2880 more on the conference
than we took in registration fees. Note that we had a
reserve of money in previous years at least in part because we did not do things we should have sooner (e.g.,
the handbook and website), and the higher expense is a

Liability Insurance for Members

The BCTA/NA has established a relationships
with two companies in order to provide our
members with easy and reasonably priced methods of acquiring liability insurance.
Canadian members desiring discounted professional liability insurance should contact Preventative Health Services, 416-423-2765,
www.preventativehealthservices.com.
U.S. members should contact the Association
of Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), 800458-2267, www.abmp.com.

Reviews
Have you read an interesting article or book youd
like to tell others about? If so., submit a short or long
review for the next Cranial Wave to the editor, lindakurtz@netzero.net.

28

result of us finally taking on the projects.

Assets
12/31/2010

$33,760

12/31/2009
12/31/2008
12/31/2007

$43,864
$41,780
$37,216

($10,100 less than assets held

at the end of 12/09)
($2,084 more than 12/08)
($4,464 more than 12/07)

2010 Expenses
Office and Administrative Services
$15,040
Website and Telecommunications
5,160
Board and Teacher Meetings
8,410
Professional Fees (tax, insurance, legal, research) 4,770
Cranial Wave and Newsletters
5,440
New Handbook for Members
10,160
2010 Conference Expense
33,760
TOTAL

$82,250

2010 Income
2010 Dues Income
2010 Conference Income

$41,750
30,880

TOTAL

$72,630

Edwin Nothnagel Scholarship Fund

Due to the generosity of Edwin Nothnagels contribution to our scholarship fund, six additional members
were in attendance at our BCTA/NA 2010 Conference.
Thank you, Edwin. In exchange for their full scholarships, each member performed some form of work-study.
We are grateful for the recipients, as they certainly contributed to the smooth operations of the 2010 conference
at Mt. Madonna. Each request for a scholarship was determined on an as-needed basis. All recipients indicated
that they were most grateful for our organizations generosity.
Our scholarship fund is now depleted. Ideally, we
would like to offer work-study scholarships to our members for future events in addition to our conferences. Of
course, we cannot do so without funding. As a result, we
are inviting each BCTA/NA member to contribute the
fee collected from one session to the fund each year. This
is will ensure that others may continue to participate in
this lovely and symbiotic relationship. We will be happy
to accept all contributions in any $$ amount. Please send
your contribution (checks made out to BCTA/NA) to
Dave Paxson, 219 Wedgewood Lane, Conway, SC 29526.
Summer 2011

Cranial Wave

Pre- and Perinatal Regional Meeting in Washington, D.C. This August

Dave Paxson, RCST, President

There will be a regional meeting of and fundraiser

for the Association of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and
Health (APPPAH) this August 7th and 8th, 9 a.m.5 p.m.,
at the CourtyardChevy Chase, 5520 Wisconsin Ave,
Chevy Chase, Maryland 2081 (near Washington, D.C.).
This is the first APPPAH meeting of any kind on the
East Coast in a number of years. It will be an opportunity
for APPPAH members, potential APPPAH members,
those interested in pre- and perinatal psychology and
health, and those working with babies and expectant
Mothers as well as for those working with adults on issues related to prenatal, birth, and early attachment psychology to meet for networking, resource sharing, and
education. We will work creatively and collaboratively
to support each other in improving our knowledge and
build our skills.
You should attend if you want to connect with other
East Coast folks interested in the PBA (prenatal, birth,
and attachment) psychology field. Those interested in
learning about our discussion of the public policy and
health-care economic issues related to our field should
also attend. We hope to create a cadre of informed and
interested folks who will be close to the DC area as the
health-care delivery debate continues to unfold in the
next few years.

Cranial Wave

On each day there will be both presentations and an

opportunity for attendees to share their knowledge and
experience in our field. Presenters and discussion leaders
will include William Emerson; Cherionna Menzam,
RCST; Myrna Martin, RCST; Ellynne Skove; and
David Paxson, RCST. On the first day we will review
the issues and latest research and activity in the all of the
areas of interest including conception, the embryonic
period, the fetal period, birth, post-birth (lactation, circumcision, etc.), and the attachment issues that are created in the first 18 months.
The second day will be more somatically oriented.
For the morning segment Ellynne Skove will be presenting Moving from the Inside Out: Connecting Heaven
and Earth. This is a movement-oriented experience that
explores the embodiment of issues from the Primary Period, and the physicality of developmental movement.
The afternoon will focus on discussion and demonstration of the therapeutic practices and techniques being
used in the PBA field.
The cost is $90 per day, lunch included. There will
also be informal social activities in the evenings. For
further information or to register, please contact David
Paxson, DavePaxson@aol.com, 240-346-5155.

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

29

BOARD UPDATE

__________

New BCTA Members and Officers

Edwin Nothnagel retired as president of the BCTA
effective May 31, 2010. He served on the board for four
years, two of those as secretary and two of those as president. He has agreed to continue on as treasurer until a
new treasurer is appointed in August. (Except for the
president, officers do not have to be members of the
board.)
Dave Paxson has been appointed president of the
board and Marilyn Angell is serving in the dual role of
vice president and secretary.
Michael Brightwood continues as a member of the
board, and Kathleen Morrow, Mary Louise Muller, and
Margaret Rosenau continue as teacher liaisons to the
board.
Three new people joined the board in late 2010:
Debra Hodgen, Mimi Ikle-Khalsa, and Eric Sjoberg.
Their biographies follow.
Mimi has taken over responsibility for emails that
are sent to or come from admin@craniosacraltherapy.org.
Linda Kurtz, although no longer on the board, answers
the Association phone. Calls about member renewal,
membership, and RCST status are routed to Marilyn
Angell, Membership and RCST Chair.
The board is expecting to appoint up to four new
members at the August 2011 board meeting to be held in
Washington, D.C. If you are interested in joining the
board or know someone who might make a good board
members, please contact any member of the board.
Nominations to the board are taken at any time.

pressed by impact that Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy

had on me. When she suggested taking a course, it
seemed like the perfect thing to do.
As you all know, being in a professional training
program of BCST can be quite a life-altering experience.
I found that slowing down and listening was a life skill
that I had very much needed. I really enjoyed my training. Toward the end of my course, I expressed to my
teacher, Roger Gilchrist, my interest in assistant teaching
for him in future courses. We began that process just a
month later, giving me a straight five years (20012005)
of introduction to this work.
I've found over the years, and especially in the current course that I am a teacher-in-training for, that teaching is truly the best way to master any subject. Although
I am far from having mastered the vast content that Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy has to offer, I do feel confident in my ability to convey this art in a loving, safe,
and respectful way.
My intention as a board member is to continue the work
that I've started in my conference committee role. I think
the best way to make the organization you care about
thrive is to put yourself into it and be proactive. I've been
very pleased with the collaborative efforts the conference
committee and I have had. And want to take this time to
give back to the organization, hopefully making it
stronger and better.

Debra Hodgen

I am a perpetual student, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, yogi, and somatic

therapist in San Diego and am nearly finished training in BCST with Peggy Reynolds-Olsen. I have joined the board as
student representative.

I studied with Peggy Olsen and received my

RCST certification in 2007. I was the
chair of the 2010 Breath of Life Conference at Mount Madonna. I am very excited to help support the organization by
being a member of the board. I see clients
in private practice, am a teaching assistant
for Peggy Olsen, and teach Anusara yoga.

Eric Sjoberg

Cranial Sacral & Depression

Request for Submissions

Mimi Ikle-Khalsa
I started bodywork when I entered
Potomac Massage Training Institute in
1994. Although I loved being a full-time
massage therapist, the hours of deep tissue
were hard on my body and I realized that
continuing with a massage-only practice
was unsustainable. In 2000 I started oneon-one mentor ships for both my APP and RPP (Polarity
Therapy). It was near the end of my Polarity training that
I was referred to Stephanie Abramson, who is both a Polarity and craniosacral therapist. I was profoundly im-

30

Gathering material for a book

that combines my own experiences of
depression/bipolar with
perspectives from traditional
and complementary practitioners.
Requesting essays of 250 words
See: http://davids-inferno.blogspot.com/
or write davidblistein@gmail.com

Summer 2011

Cranial Wave

Returning Teacher: Scott Zamurut

New Teacher: Ged Sumner

Scott Zamurut has rejoined the BCTA/

NA as a teacher after an eight-year hiatus.
Scott was a founding board member of
BCTA/NA and one of its original Foundation Training teachers. Scott has a degree in
philosophy, with a minor in religious studies.
In the late 1980s, Scott trained in massage
and Polarity Therapy. Finding his love of teaching in
Polarity Therapy, he began on the teaching path in 1990.
Through the Polarity community, he learned of Franklyn
Sills, participated in the first Biodynamic Craniosacral
training Franklyn taught in the U.S., and was invited to
join the initial teacher-training group. Scott was on
Franklyns teaching team in Boston, MA and Boulder,
CO. In this time he also co-taught with Michael Kern and
Katherine Ukleja, two British osteopaths who are part of
the British biodynamic community. Inspired by the preand perinatal content in his original biodynamic training
(the teaching assistants were Ray Castellino and Claire
Dolby, DO, both of whom brought substantial knowledge and experience in pre- and perinatal work) and the
birth of his daughter in the late 90s, Scott began training
in birth trauma resolution with Karlton Terry and is now
a senior co-teacher with Terrys Institute for Pre- and
Perinatal Education (IPPE).
Scott left BCTA/NA about eight years ago for professional reasons and has recently rejoined the Association. He says:

Ged Sumner, of the U.K., joined the

BCTA/NA as a Foundation Training
Teacher in 2009. He has taught Biodynamic
Craniosacral Therapy as a senior tutor and
course director for the Craniosacral Therapy
Educational Trusts (CTET) practitioner
trainings in London since 1995 and as a
senior tutor for Resonance Trainings courses in Australia
and New Zealand since 1999. He studied Biodynamic
Craniosacral Therapy with Franklyn Sills in 1993 and is
passionate about the way the therapy accesses our natural
capacity to metamorphose at an anatomical and physiological level and move to new forms of awareness.
He set up the Fountain Clinic in London
(www.fountainclinic.com), which works with mothers
and babies, children, chronic fatigue, performance artists,
and students. He also runs a living anatomy training,
which offers a holistic view of the bodys anatomy and
physiology (www.anatomy4you.com). He is a director of
the Healthy Living Centre (www.thehealthylivingcentre.co.uk),
a multi-disciplinary alternative therapy practice in London, and director of and teacher at the College of Elemental Chi Kung (www.elementalchikung.com). He is
the author of Body Intelligence: Creating a New Environment (2nd ed 2009), which presents an experiential
anatomy approach to body awareness, and co-author,
with Steve Haines, of Cranial Intelligence: A Practical
Guide to Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (2010). He
runs Body Intelligence Training, which offers foundation
training in BCST in over 10 locations worldwide
(www.bodyintelligence.com). He has studied shiatsu and
attachment-based psychoanalytical psychotherapy and
has a degree in chemistry.

Around the time I stepped away from BCTA/NA I

was teaching a group that was a mix of veteran Rolfers,
and former Upledger Institute teachers. These folks
were challenged by the way I was articulating biodynamics, and I recognized that I had learned to teach a
curriculum but I had not learned how to teach biodynamics. Looking back at this pivotal class, I would say I
got Rolfed out of a fixated pattern. My journey of reorganization allowed me to see biodynamics through
fresh eyes, freed from the rigidity of teaching structures
and standards that I had internalized over a ten-year
period, freed both as a teacher and practitioner. My
studies and personal process in pre- and perinatal work
were huge factors, too, creating more internal freedom
and opening me to an expanded experiential understanding of the dynamics of somato-energetic healing.
The coalescence of this process has me practicing and
teaching with simplicity but great focus on the natural
fulcrums of biodynamics. I teach a continually evolving
curriculum.

The new series of classes Scott is teaching through

the IPPE led to his return to the BCTA/NA after he approached board member Dave Paxson about promoting
the classes to the biodynamic community. After Dave
and Edwin Nothnagel encouraged him to rejoin the community he helped found over a decade ago, Scott decided
to return.

Cranial Wave

Member Renewal
The 2010 member renewal deadline was extended
to June 30 of this year. On April 1, the board decided
to update the website to make it possible for members
to make payments online. As part of the process of
revamping the website, the Association contracted
with a company called MemberClicks, which assured
the board that the new system would be up and running in no time. It was not, and is still not. Meanwhile, the office services company the Association has
been using, Your OfficeRaleigh, was supposed to have
mailed member renewal forms out to members in early
May. They did not do so, mailing them so late that
members did not receive them until after the June 1
renewal deadline. For these reasons, the renewal deadline was extended to June 30. Please not that in the
future, the deadline will continue to be June 1.

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

31

Active BCTA Committees

Down

The Website Development Committee

Manages the content, appearance and operation of

the BCTA/NA website. The committee has an ongoing goal of improving the websites navigability and
appearance and increasing the literature, links, and
other resources that are included in the website.

Can you look inside and tell me what you see

Closing eyes are the gateway to the deep
When youre going down
When youre going down, down, down, down, down, down

Chair:
Margaret Rosenau, acourageousheart@gmail.com
Volunteers:
Serena Fennell, inbodyingprayers@mac.com
Cherionna Menzam, cherionna@cherionna.com
Franklyn Sills, office@karuna-institute.co.uk
Eric Sjoberg, eric@ericsjoberg.com,
Mary Louise Mueller, Lifeshape@aol.com
Mimi Ikle-Khalsa, mimi.ikle@gmail.com
Elizabeth Hammond, icteducate@gmail.com

When youre going down, down, down, down, down, down

Get rid of what doesnt serve you
Its the truth that sets you free
And sometimes what comes round
Is exactly what you need
When youre going down
When youre going down, down, down, down, down, down
When youre going down, down, down, down, down, down

The Conference Committee

Plans, organizes, and runs our biennial conference.

Tasks include arranging the meeting facilities, recruiting and managing speakers, promotion, planning the
conference schedule, arranging for audiovisual equipment, recruiting volunteers, and budgeting for all of the
above. The committee presents its plan and budget to
the board for approval.
Chair:
Mimi Ikle-Khalsa, mimi.ikle@gmail.com
Volunteers:
Sarah Hovey, sarahhovey@shaw.ca
Robyn Michele Jones, robynmichele@sbcglobal.net
Gayle Buchner, gayelee@columbiawireless.ca
Dave Paxson, davepaxson@aol.com
Edwin Nothnagel, edwinnothnagel@embarqmail.com
Debra Hodgen, Nirmaladeb1@aol.com
Marilyn Angell, angellbt@gmail.com
Mary Louise Mueller, Lifeshape@aol.com
Kate White, katercst@gmail.com
Stephanie Rogers, stephsbodyworks@mindspring.com
Jennifer Song, craniosacral@cogeco.ca

Slowing down, Slowing down

Can you open your heart and tell me what you feel
An open heart is the gateway to whats real
When youre going down
When youre going down, down, down, down, down, down
When youre going down, down, down, down, down, down
Get out of your head
Can you tell me what you feel
Get out of your head
Can you tell me what you feel
Stay out of your head
Can you tell me what you feel
When youre going down
When youre going down, down, down, down, down, down
When youre going down, down, down, down, down, down
Slowing down, Slowing down

The Publications Committee

Responsible for the publication of the Cranial

Tami Deal

Wave.

Chair:
Linda Kurtz, lindakurtz@netzero.net
Volunteers:
Sandy Smith, mountainstar@live.ca
Peggy Risch, peggy@dynamicwholeness.com
Melanie Hegge, melaniehegge@mac.com

The Ethics and Research Committees are not currently active.

32

Organize a Wave Issue!

Would you like to see a Cranial Wave issue around
a specific topic? How about organizing an issue? I will
work with you to make it happen. You can write articles,
find Biodynamic therapists to write about specific topics,
conduct interviews, etc. Contact me, your editor, Linda
Kurtz, at lindakurtz@netzero.net.

Summer 2011

Cranial Wave

THE BIODYNAMIC CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY ASSOCIATION

OF NORTH AMERICA
WOULD LIKE YOU TO SAVE THE DATE FOR THE SEVENTH BIENNIAL

BREATH OF LIFE CONFERENCE

Healing the Heart, Reclaiming the Body, Integrating the Soul

September 2023, 2012

OUR CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD AT THE

PEARLSTONE RETREAT AND CONFERENCE CENTER
IN REISTERSTOWN, MARYLAND
DATES TO SAVE
REGISTRATION: THURSDAY SEPT. 20, 2012
CONFERENCE: FRIDAY, SATURDAY, AND SUNDAY SEPT 2123, 2012
POST CONFERENCE WORKSHOP: MONDAY AND TUESDAY SEPT 2425, 2012
Our conference committee is excited to be cultivating another amazing retreat for our community where we
can all come together to learn and connect. We are looking toward a weekend of lots of nature and nurturing. We
have found the perfect setting to hold the space for this miraculous work to unfold. I am very excited to be working on this event with such a devoted and determined group. Looking forward to seeing you all at next years conference.
Sincerely,
Mimi Ikle-Khalsa
2012 Conference Chair
Our Theme
Our theme this year will be Healing the Heart, Reclaiming the Body, Integrating the Soul.
Post Conference Workshop to be announced.
Our Site
Set in the rolling farmlands of Maryland, Pearlstone Retreat Center offers an ideal setting. Pearlstone promotes environmental awareness by modeling bio-sustainable business practices and facilities management. They
have a game room, an exercise room, an organic farm, a pond, a nature trail, and a campfire site!
Pearlstone has 3 different types of overnight accommodations: log cabins, lodge rooms and dorm rooms.
Each of their overnight rooms and cabins have their own bathroom, and Pearlstone provides linens, towels, and
soap. All facilities are handicapped accessible.
They will accommodate vegetarian/vegan options, allergen-free alternatives, or child-friendly selections.
With produce coming straight from their organic farm, their delicious and varied menu offerings change regularly,
selected by their seasoned chef.
Pearlstone is certified as a Green Center by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education. http://www.pearlstonecenter.org/

If you would like to volunteer to help with the conference, please email Stephanie Rogers, our volunteer coordinator, at stephsbodyworks@mac.com.

*Conference participants are required to be members of BCTA/NA or have a biodynamic background. Information regarding this conference or about joining the BCTA/NA can be found by emailing us at
info@craniosacraltherapy.org.

Cranial Wave

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

33

Pioneer and Service Awards

At the 2010 Breath of Life Conference, two awards were presented to
members for their contributions. Elizabeth Hammond, RCST received the
Pioneer Award in recognition of her pivotal role in the creation and formation of
the BCTA/NA (formerly known as the
CSTA/NA). Inspired with the simple aspiration to ensure that her students would have support to thrive and
develop in the nascent days of Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapy, she organized early members of the Association, established its governance, responded to email requests from the public, and participated fully in shaping
the organizations direction and mission. Over the past
13 years, Elizabeth has continued to support the Association as a teacher, teacher liaison, and consultant.
Linda Kurtz, RCST, past president,
was presented with the BCTA/NA Service
Award. Linda served on the board for three
years, two of them as president. During
that time she worked with the board to
help the organization achieve financial
solvency and organizational stability during a rocky time in the Associations history, initiated
dialogue with the teachers over the boards role in Foundation Trainings, and worked with the board to clarify
the professional consultation policy. She also edited and
designed the layout for the Cranial Wave. She continues
to work with the Association editing and laying out the
Cranial Wave, answering the Association phone, and as
a consultant to the board.

Prayer Request
Please send prayers to Ginger Ingalls, who has just
undergone surgery for cecal-colon cancer, around trusting the tide and going into the unknown.

Write for the Wave!

We are seeking submissions for the next issue
of the Cranial Wave. I hope that you will contribute
to our next issue. Articles, poems, book reviews,
questions, and accounts of your experiences are all
welcome. So are drawings and photographs. Share
your thoughts and questions about Biodynamic
Craniosacral Therapy with your fellow members.
Please send your contributions to the editor,
Linda Kurtz, at lindakurtz@netzero.net.

34

2010 BREATH OF LIFE CONFERENCE

Reminder: Member Meeting

The BCTA/NA annual member meeting will be
held August 56, 2011 in Washington, D.C. Please
contact the board or teachers prior to the meeting
about any issues you would like the board to address
or discuss. The meeting will be held in at the CourtyardChevy Chase, 5520 Wisconsin Ave, Chevy Chase,
Maryland 20815.
Members are invited to a lunch with the board
and teachers on Saturday the 6th at noon, to be followed by a 90-minute formal meeting open to members, which will end at 3 p.m. If you are local, and
even if you arent, we encourage you to come. Members will need to call in or email their questions by
Tuesday, August 2. Email admin@craniosacraltherapy.
org or call Dave Paxson, President, at 843-347-1609.

Advertising
Submit all advertisements to lindakurtz@netzero.net.
Ad specifications are found at www.craniosacraltherapy.
org under the tab Newsletter.

Summer 2011

Cranial Wave

COURSE LISTINGS___________________________
July 69, 2011, Restoring Resilence in the Nervous System: A Biodynamic Approach, LifeShapes Institute, Temecula, CA. An Introductory Level Class that explores the biodynamics of healing through restoring balance in the nervous system. $605. Reg. deadline July 6, 2011. Size limited to 20. To
register: Lifeshape@aol.com, 951-677-0652. More info:
www.lifeshapes.org.
July 3031, 2011. Embodying Embryology: A Continuum
Movement Exploration, Cherionna Menzam-Sills, PhD,
RCST, Boulder, CO. Deepen your somatic understanding of
embryological forces and development. Continuum supports your
practitioner skills of settling into a spacious, fluid state, along
with deepening and widening your perceptual field. $170 ($125
early registration before June 30). To register: Jillfrazin@gmail.com,
303-709-7101. More info: www.cherionna.com.
August 1921, 2011. Introduction to Birth Trauma Resolution. Scott Zamurut, RCST, and Kathryn Kier. Boulder,
CO. Explore the dynamics of birth trauma and experience personal healing. Prerequisite for Foundation Series. $400. To register: sandy.enke@gmail.com. More info: www.ippe.info,
scott.zamurut@me.com.
September 24, 68, 2011 (6 days), Origins of Perception:
Dynamic Gestures of the Embryo, Carol Agneessens, Noord,
Netherlands. 1050 Euros. More info: www.biodynamicschool.com.
Sept 911, 2011. Not Just Glue: Revisiting the Nervous
System, with a Spotlight on Glial Cells, Cherionna MenzamSills, PhD, RCST, Nelson, BC. Join the paradigm shift in neuroscience as the focus shifts from neurons to the other 90% of the
brain we dont use. This seminar explores the relevance of these

roots of intelligence and creativity in relation to familiar neural

structures, CSF, and the Breath of Life. $375 ($325 if register
before Aug 9). Size limited to 20. To register:
info@kutenaiinstitute.com, 250-352-1655. More info:
www.kuteniinstitute.com, www.cherionna.com.
September 1011, 2011, Being With Babies for Craniosacral TherapistsLevel I, LifeShapes Institute, San Diego, CA. A
class for practitioners who know craniosacral to develop basic
skills and approaches for working with babies. $325 ($275 if register 3 weeks in advance). No reg deadline. Size limited to 20. To
register: LifeShape@aol.com, 951-677-0652. More info:
www.lifeshapes.org.
November 1920, 2011, Being With Babies for Craniosacral TherapistsLevel II, LifeShapes Institute, San Diego, CA.
A class for practitioners who know craniosacral to develop basic
skills and approaches for working with babies. $325 ($275 if register 3 weeks in advance). No reg deadline. Size limited to 20. To
register: LifeShape@aol.com, 951-677-0652. More info:
www.lifeshapes.org.
December 1418, 2011, The Way of the Viscera, Franklyn Sills, New York City. Advanced workshop for individuals
who have completed a Foundation Training. Cost for 5-day seminar is $900. To register: Clara Favale, 212-532-8539,
cfavale@stillpointcst.com, www.stillpointcst.com.
May 2012, Foundation Training with Franklyn Sills, New
York City. Ten-module Foundation Training. $9,000 in 10 installment payments over the two-year period of the training. To register: Clara Favale, 212-532-8539, cfavale@stillpointcst.com,
www.stillpointcst.com. More info: www.stillpointcst.com.

19912011
Energy Medicine Seminars
Craniosacral Biodynamics & Polarity
Therapy
International and USA programmes
Roger Gilchrist, MA, RPE, RCSTFounder
www.WellnessInstitute.net

718-797-2282

Cranial Wave

www.craniosacraltherapy.org

35

BCTA DIRECTORY
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dave Paxson, President
davepaxson@aol.com, 843-347-1609
Marilyn Angell, Vice President & Secretary
angellbt@gmail.com, 724-468-8578
Michael Brightwood, Director
brtwd@hotmail.com,619-295-2372
Debra Hodgen, Director
Nirmaladeb1@aol.com, 760-420-2104
Mimi Ikle-Khalsa, Director
mimi.ikle@gmail.com, 301-613-6830
Eric Sjoberg, Student Representative
eric@ericsjoberg.com, 619-807-3042
Edwin Nothnagel, Treasurer (not a Director)
edwinnothnagel@embarqmail.com
919-349-3914

_________
ACTIVE COMMITTEES
Conference
Mimi Ikle-Khalsa
mimi.ikle@gmail.com, 301-613-6830
Publications
Linda Kurtz
lindakurtz@netzero.net, 734-904-0546
Website
Margaret Rosenau
acourageousheart@gmail.com,303-507-3583

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE
Michael Brightwood
admin@craniosacraltherapy.org,
brtwd@hotmail.com,619-295-2372
Mimi Ikle-Khalsa
admin@craniosacraltherapy.org,
mimi.ikle@gmail.com, 301-613-6830

TEACHER LIAISONS TO BOARD

Kathleen Morrow
innerhealth@earthlink.net, 719-685-4805
Mary Louise Muller
lifeshape@aol.com, 951-677-0652
Margaret Rosenau
acourageousheart@gmail.com,303-507-3583

PHONE

Linda Kurtz
lindakurtz@netzero.net, 734-904-0546

Announcing an Advanced Seminar with

Franklyn Sills

The Breath of LifeDeepening Into Biodynamics

Washington, DC August 9-13, 2011
Topics include the Holistic Shift, the Inherent Treatment Plan, the
Relational Field, the Physical Body/Fluid Body/Tidal Body, Reciprocal Balanced Interchange, and Dynamic Stillness as a Gateway to the
Breath of Life.
Tuition for the Seminar: $895. Reserve your place with a deposit of $100, non
-refundable, made by check or online at the website below.
For more information visit www.WellnessInstitute.net
718-797-2282

36

Registrations are made in the order received.

Summer 2011

Cranial Wave