Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Volume Four


Book Description

Interest in craniosacral therapy has exploded in recent years—not surprising given its gentle, effective approach to working on the spine and the skull and its cranial sutures, diaphragms, and fascias. The treatment focuses on the 92 percent of the human body composed of living water, rather than the eight percent that most therapies address. Building on the previous books, which explored underlying principles, differentiating the components of the practice, and combining theory and practice, this volume illustrates the evolution of craniosacral therapy over the past 30 years. More than 50 hand positions are presented in detailed photographs—many with multiple views—each of which can be used immediately and effectively. Additional chapters focus on the correct use and boundaries of the therapist’s hands, a precise sequence to follow when practicing biodynamically, and working with the therapist’s perception of the therapeutic process. Written for practitioners in the fields of massage, mental health, complementary and alternative medicine, and chiropractics, this book, like the others in the series, is equally useful read on its own or in sequence.




Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy


Book Description

"A thorough description of the evolution of cranial osteopathic medicine into a new form available to many health care providers, this book presents a technique of touch therapy that is extremely gentle and subtle and gives practical exercises to be proficient in healing physical, spiritual, and emotional conditions"--Provided by publisher.




Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Volume Three


Book Description

Dr. Michael J. Shea’s series on Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is based on healthcare providers physically sensing love and accessing a deep sense of warmth and stillness in the heart. He begins this third volume by emphasizing the therapeutic application of touch therapy skills. As in the previous two books, he teaches these skills by explaining the importance of practitioners being able to perceive Primary Respiration, a slow rhythmic tidal movement in the fluids of the body. He goes on to discuss the distinctive influence of human embryology on any therapeutic modality. A number of other experts in the field contribute chapters that illuminate the spiritual and psychological dimensions of human embryonic development, especially the heart. Dr. Shea offers valuable new skills for anyone, from midwives to pediatricians, working therapeutically with infants. In addition, he summarizes current thinking on infant brain development, discusses the long-term consequences of attachment issues between the mother and infant, and explores the importance of understanding the similarities of the mother-infant and the therapistpatient relationships.




Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Volume Five


Book Description

In Volume 5 of his innovative series on biodynamic and craniosacral therapy, Michael Shea presents invaluable information about therapeutic approaches to pre- and neonatal babies--in particular, low-birth-weight babies. In addition, more than 50 meditations on stillness are provided for the benefit of the practitioner. The first part of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Volume 5 contains multiple photographs and descriptions of the best ways to make physical contact with low-birth-weight babies. Included are several protocols for babies while they are in neonatal intensive-care units, as well as protocols for once they have been discharged and are at home. Shea also offers insights on therapeutic approaches to babies in utero. Using photographs and text descriptions, he explains how to position a woman who is pregnant on a table in order to practice biodynamically, and which hand positions to use during the session. The second part of the volume provides more than fifty meditations and guided visualizations, all of which were transcribed and edited from the full foundation training in biodynamic craniosacral therapy. These meditations can be used to help the practitioner to establish proper orientation to the body and breath and to balance focused and unfocused attention. Lastly, mindfulness meditation and the research surrounding it is discussed.




Cranial Intelligence


Book Description

At the deepest level of our physiology, all living tissues and fluids expand and contract with the 'breath of life'. Through gentle touch, the skilled practitioner can interact with these subtle rhythms to address physical aches and pains, acute or chronic disease, emotional or psychological disturbances, or simply to promote enduring health and vitality. This new and important textbook demystifies the biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy and shows how and why it can be so effective at bringing about a natural realignment towards optimal health. The authors describe how to 'listen' and respond appropriately to each client's system, how to create a safe space for working with different kinds of trauma, and how to address specific states of imbalance to support deep-felt and lasting change. Throughout the book, experiential exercises encourage the reader to practice their newly-acquired skills, and refine their knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. A final chapter on practice development covers issues pertinent to practitioners trying to set up and maintain a successful practice. This intensely practical textbook will transform the practice of craniosacral therapists, and contains much that bodyworkers of all kinds will find useful.




Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics, Volume One


Book Description

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) is commonly seen as the spiritual approach to craniosacral therapy (CST); in fact, BCST as taught by Franklyn Sills, the pioneer in the field, is quite different from conventional CST. Biodynamic work is based on the development of perceptual skills where the practitioner learns to become sensitive to subtle respiratory motions called primary respiration and also to the power of spontaneous healing. Through the Breath of Life, which, Sills asserts, echoes the Holy Spirit in the Judeo-Christian tradition, bodhicitta in Buddhism, and the Tai Chi in Taoism, students of BCST learn to enter a state of presence oriented to the client’s inherent ability to heal. In Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics, Sills offers students and practitioners an in-depth, step-by-step guide to the development of perceptual and clinical skills with specific clinical exercises and explorations to help students and practitioners learn the essentials of a biodynamic approach. Individual chapters cover such topics as holism and biodynamics; mid-tide, Long Tide, Dynamic Stillness and stillpoint process; the motility of tissues and the central nervous system; transference and the shadow; shamanistic resonances; and more.




Craniosacral Therapy and the Energetic Body


Book Description

This useful book discusses craniosacral therapy’s history and present situation as well as its spiritual implications and practical contributions in the world of healthcare. Gilchrist demonstrates how the subtle patterns of this practice become a dynamic force in the body, and how this influences overall functioning. What most sets the book apart is Gilchrist’s discussion of the relationship of the craniosacral system and biodynamic functions to the human energy system. Though dealing with a complicated topic, the book provides a grounded, progressive approach that is both specific and insightful.




Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Volume Two


Book Description

The first volume of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy presented the basics of craniosacral therapy as a gentle, compassionate healing art that can be used by psychologists, midwives, chiropractors, and massage and physical therapists. In this second volume, author Michael Shea goes deeper into the entire biodynamic paradigm, analyzing the relationship of trauma resolution, psychodynamics, and shamanism, and providing practical meditations, visualizations, and clinical skills to restore physical, spiritual, and emotional health. The book opens by exploring the meaning of biodynamic, followed by a discussion of human embryology as a path to healing in any form of therapy. This section offers a set of pioneering techniques based on perceiving stillness—slow movement–as a fundamental healing influence. The next section describes the bridge between trauma resolution therapy and biodynamic work, establishes a new containment model, and offers skills for resolving shock and trauma. A special section contains fresh strategies for anyone working with infants and children, along with a provocative analysis linking the infant-mother relationship to the patient-therapist relationship. Finally, Shea provides a unique perspective on depth psychology, mythology, and healing. This includes the defining difference between biodynamic craniosacral therapy and all other forms of craniosacral therapy: the focus on the nature of spiritual disease and shamanism.




Myofascial Release Therapy


Book Description

Michael Shea, one of the foremost experts on myofascial release, presents straightforward, practical instructions for dramatically releasing pain and restriction of motion in the body's fascia, muscles, and connective tissue. He introduces a soft tissue, hands-on approach for massage therapists, physical therapists, and other healthcare practitioners that reduces tension and stress in their clients' entire myofascial systems, as well as their musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. Therapists with little or no background in myofascial release and deep tissue reorganization can follow this book's easy guidelines in order to facilitate substantial orthopedic changes and pain reduction in their clients. Illustrated with 70 black and white photos, Myofascial Release Therapy includes an at-a-glance section that provides a step-by-step procedure for quick reference. Each photo is supplemented with instructions, as well as with arrows for easy reference in the clinic. This book provides the first integration of the verbal, visceral, and palpation skills of the therapist. It also includes work on the viscera as a way of integrating soft tissue work through the abdomen and pelvis. While manuals on the bones, muscles, and viscera have previously been divided into separate volumes, this book combines them into one. The author offers specific tools and protocols for helping patients "destructure" past somatic experience and reform it into something healthier. He illuminates the interconnectedness between bodies and their relationships to the outside world, including how sensations, feelings, and emotions are organized in the body and how they are coupled to meaning and memory. The result of many years of experience and knowledge, this book provides compelling evidence that myofascial release therapy encourages more rapid healing response of injured tissue.




Craniosacral Biodynamics


Book Description

Covering the period c.1200-c.2000, this book provides an innovative investigation of entrepreneurship in a long-run historical perspective, presenting new insights into the personal characteristics of successful business people and deepening our understanding of the roots of industrialization and economic growth.