Spring Cranial Wave

Spring 2010
www.craniosacraltherapy.org
Cranial Wave
The Publication of the
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America
Introduction
The Integration of Pre- and Perinatal Therapy and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy .............................................. 2
Articles
A Baby Story .............................................................................................................................................................. 32
Craniosacral Therapy with Four Babies ...................................................................................................................... 34
Interviews with Pioneers Integrating Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy
with Pre- and Perinatal Therapy
Ray Castellino .............................................................................................................................................................. 4
William Emerson........................................................................................................................................................ 13
Franklyn Sills .............................................................................................................................................................. 18
Myrna Martin ............................................................................................................................................................ 25
Cherionna Menzam ................................................................................................................................................... 28
Practitioner Feature
Janet Evergreen ......................................................................................................................................................... 36
Sarah Gayle Shoenbaum............................................................................................................................................ 38
Of Interest
Some Resources on the Web Around Embryology and Birth .................................................................................... 39
Standards of Practice for Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy with Infants and Children ........................................... 40
Organizational News
Breath of Life Conference Integrates BCST and Pre- and Perinatal ............................................................................ 3
BCTA Changes and Progress; Linda Kurtz Retires as President ................................................................................. 27
Poems
Oh, Great Heart ........................................................................................................................................................... 3
Being .......................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Letters
Whether to Renew Membership ............................................................................................................................... 12
Course Listings ........................................................................................................................................................... 42
BCTA/NA Directory .................................................................................................................................................. 44
2 Spring 2010 Cranial Wave
INTRODUCTION TO THIS SPECIAL ISSUE ON
The Integration of Pre- and Perinatal Therapy and
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy
Kate White, RCST

Guest Editor
Just after I graduated from my BCST foundation
with Michael Shea in1999, a pattern of clients remem-
bering their births began in my private practice. It all
began with one particular client I shall call Diane. She
was in her mid-50s at the time, a beautiful tall woman
with long white hair and brown eyes. She originally
came to see me because she had been assaulted by a
police officer. The resulting trauma left her confused
and hurt, and she thought craniosacral therapy might
help. My intake form included questions about birth
that she never before had considered . At our next ap-
pointment she said that after thinking about her birth,
she realized that its difficulty was probably the root of
her lifelong depression, and she wanted to heal it with
me.
Not knowing what else to do, I gave her cranio-
sacral treatments, during which she would process her
breech birth. She was a large footling breech (i.e.,
born feet first) in the 1940s. When her mother began
to hemorrhage, there was little hope for her or her
mothers survival. She recalled the panic, the fear, the
anger, the determinationand the triumph of her birth.
She had turned herself around mid-labor and in so do-
ing saved her life and the life of her mother. Then I
started having panic attacks during sessions with her.
Unsure about what this meant or what do to, I called
William Emerson, whom I had heard speak at the first
BCTA/NA conference in Colorado, and explained the
situation to him. Why are your clients remembering
their births? he wanted to know. I had no idea. So,
he told me, you need to be trained. And he sent me
to study with one of his students. Eventually, I came
to understand that my own breech-birth experience
had been triggered by my clients pattern.
Thus began a decade-long search for teachers,
books, and seminars and finally the manifestation of a
prenatal, birth,
and attachment
professional
training taught
by Myrna Mar-
tin that I com-
pleted in Feb-
ruary 2009. In
that time, I
have witnessed
the fields of
pre- and peri-
natal (PPN) therapy and Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapy start to come together in the classroom as
well as the treatment room. When I tell my story to
experienced craniosacral therapists, they all nod in
agreement. It makes sense that the deep patterns left
from difficulties in utero or during birth linger in the
tissues of the body. In the classroom, some cranial
teachers include in-depth explorations of embryonic
development. At the very least, birth and its impact is
covered in one of the modules. In the treatment room,
therapists have said that many patients enter into
states that access their younger selves (their little
poopsies, as Franklyn Sills says). I now recognize
that there is a baby in everyone that, if its wounds are
unhealed, influences the decisions the adult makes
today.
Having practiced craniosacral therapy for 10 years
now, with all those years including intense educa-
tional searches and instruction in working with babies
and birth, it is clear to me that the integration of PPN
into our BCST practices is vital, just as vital as the
integration of Biodynamic concepts into pre- and peri-
natal work Studying prenatal, birth, and attachment
therapy is deeply healing for the practitioner. Without
it, the practitioners history is likely to be triggered
from an unconscious place, like happened with me
when I worked with my client Diane. It is equally im-
portant for our clients, since, for many of them, true
healing will come only when they are able to approach
and integrate their ownconscious or unconscious
prenatal, birth, and attachment issues.
This integration is the theme of the upcoming Bio-
dynamic Craniosacral Therapy conference in Califor-
nia. In this issue, you will read the words of those who
are pioneers in both fieldsRay Castellino, William
Kate White, RCST
is a Biodynamic Craniosacral and mas-

sage therapist and a prenatal and early childhood educa-
tor. She is the mother of two children (she is pictured here
with her daughter Ella) and holds an MA in communication.
She completed her Biodynamic Craniosacral Foundation
Training with Michael Shea in 1999 and a professional
training with Myrna Martin, RCST
in prenatal, birth, and

attachment therapies in 2009. Her work combines somatic
therapy with brain development, attachment, and trauma
resolution therapies. For more info, see www.belvederearts.com.
Cranial Wave www.craniosacraltherapy.org 3
Oh, Great Heart

We formed embryologically
in mothers amniotic fluid

Her essence woven into
our innermost neural tube
imprinting her fears, sadness, and pain

Until with your love and our own karma
we began to make our own
cerebrospinal fluid

Let us touch this place
again and again
and return on breath to you

Janet Evergreen
Emerson, Franklyn Sills, Myrna Martin, and
Cherionna Menzamand in their stories you will see
the pattern of growth of our discipline. You will also
learn about different approaches, practitioners, and
case studies that show the efficacy of the PPN-BCST
combo. The importance of the Biodynamic approach
in pre- and perinatal therapy becomes clear when you
realize that an introductory level Biodynamic Cranio-
sacral seminar is the sole prerequisite to taking a PPN
training.
Pre- and perinatal psychology trainings were first
developed by William Emerson. Some of his students
have built on his work, developing trainings of their own.
One of these is Ray Castellino. Castellino has integrated
what he learned from Emerson with the energetics of
Polarity and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. Myrna
Martin, a student of Castellino and Emerson, has used
her psychotherapeutic knowledge to deepen the neuro-
science and attachment information in the training, and
Cherionna Menzam, a Castellino student with a PhD in
pre- and perinatal psychology, brings her base of knowl-
edge of movement to the work. Michael Shea, also a
graduate of Castellinos training, completely integrates
the perinatal period into his craniosacral training. He has
developed a standards of practice for work with infants
and children that he has kindly allowed us to reprint in
this issue.
Our field has changed so much since 1999 and the
birth of the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Associa-
tion of North America, broadening and deepening just as
the precepts of our work advise us to do when working
with a client. So, read. Enjoy. Process. Learn. And feel
free to email me with your comments and feedback at
[email protected].
the deep work of BCST. And, we will look at how
BCST integrates with other modalities, such as Po-
larity, Continuum, Alexander Technique, structural
integrative therapies, and stress management.
This conference will take place in a beautiful
natural location that has a retreat-like resourcing and
nurturing environment. It is quiet and away from the
city. Vegetarian meals are included. We have
worked to keep the cost lower than for previous con-
ferences. A detailed announcement and registration
materials are included in this mailing. We hope you
can join us. The most significant personal growth
and healing often takes place in community.
Breath of Life Conference Integrates
BCST and Pre- and Perinatal
This issue of the Cranial Wave focuses on the im-
portance of prenatal, birth, and attachment psychology,
and how it integrates with BCST. This same topic is a
significant part of the agenda for our upcoming confer-
ence in September. If you find this issue resourceful,
you will find the conference even more so. At Mount
Madonna, you will not only learn more about the sub-
ject, but address it in an experiential and interactive
manner. Myrna Martin, one of the BCST and PPN prac-
titioners interviewed in this issue, will be presenting
Holding the Whole: Baby, Mother, Father at the con-
ference, and Gary Peterson, a BCST Foundation teacher
and PPN practitioner will present Settling the Family
Nervous System of the Newborn .
The conference will also include a focus on the
issue of the importance of gaining trauma resolution
knowledge and skills, a skill set vital to those doing
I consider Ray Castellino, RCST,
RPP to be the Original Integrator, the
practitioner in the field who first be-
gan integrating Biodynamic and pre-
and perinatal therapies. He trained
with Randolph Stone in Polarity Ther-
apy in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Wanting to go on and study cranial
osteopathy, he enrolled in chiropractic
school. The years he studied Polarity and chiropractic were
also the years his children were born and so, too, his inter-
est and fascination with the birth process. His colleague
and friend, Franklyn Sills, was with him in the Polarity work-
shops taught by Jim Said, DC. He began studying and col-
laborating with William Emerson, PhD, one of the early
pioneers in healing birth trauma, in 1979. Ray assisted
Franklyn with the first U.S. Biodynamic Craniosacral Ther-
apy training in the late 1980s. In 1993, he started the BEBA
(Building and Enhancing Bonding and Attachment) baby/
family clinic with Wendy Anne McCarty, RN, PhD. His work
with colleagues holding space for families in the baby clinic
was the model for what Ray calls the womb surround and
birth process workshop, or birth process workshop. The
collaboration he has with midwife, Mary Jackson in About
Connections is providing an innovative approach for pre-
paring families, supporting them through birth, and follow-
ing up after birth to ensure the best possible beginnings for
babies and families.
How did you develop your work?
Biodynamic cranial work is about attention to mid-
line and fluid-tide movement; its attention to the life
force in the body. My own background started out with
Polarity Therapy with Randolph Stone, who was also a
cranial osteopath, chiropractor, and naturopath. I went
from Polarity Therapy to craniosacral therapy work via
chiropractic school. I really wanted to study cranial oste-
opathy, inspired by Dr. Stone. In those days, Franklyn
Sills wasnt out, John Upledger wasnt out. The only
access to that material was in books from Dr. Suther-
lands work, Harold Magoun, DO, or Robert Fulford,
DO. Cranial osteopathy was in written form or you had
to go to chiropractic school or osteopathic school. I did-
nt want to prescribe drugs or do surgery, so I chose to
go to chiropractic school in 1978. But I started studying
Randolph Stones Polarity Therapy in 1968, ten years
before. I had the privilege of studying with Dr. Stone
directly, along with fellow classmates Jim Feil, Cindy
Rawlinson, Sharon Porter, Jim Said, Chloe Wordsworth,
Sandra Castellino, Rod Newton, and several others.
I was always interested in birth and the questions
about how consciousness comes into physical creation.
In 1969, my son was born. I got to be at his birth and
hold him. He was born in a hospital, and, in hindsight, I
dont think we needed to go to the hospital. Though at
the time we didnt know it, all we needed was good mid-
wifery care. So it was the combination of these two path-
waysstudying Polarity Therapy and chiropractic, on
the one hand, and the birth of my children, on the
otherthat planted the seeds for the work that I do.
So my son was born in a hospital. Ten years later,
my daughter was born at home with midwives. I was
fortunate to be at both of my childrens births. As a fa-
ther, Ive experience both a hospital obstetric birth and a
home birth with midwives. As I sat with my son, and
later my daughter, after they were born, they would
move their bodies in ways that appeared to me like they
were showing us how they were born. And the same
thing happened with other babies when I practiced my
version of Polarity and cranial work. Babies would move
their bodies and act like they were being born. Some-
times they made sounds similar to the sounds their moms
made in labor.
When Franklyn did his first American cranial train-
ing, I assisted him, along with Claire Dolby from Eng-
land. Mary Louise and Christopher Muller organized that
training. Franklyn and I had studied Polarity Therapy
together. I have known him since 1979/1980, before he
went to England. During the cranial training, Franklyn
shared with us how he and some of his colleagues had
run a free baby clinic one day a week for a year. They
took anybody that came. That gave me the idea to start
the nonprofit research clinic that I began with Wendy
Anne McCarty in 1993 that we called BEBA, Building
and Enhancing Bonding and Attachment. BEBA now has
two clinic sites in California.
When I first studied Polarity Therapy, craniosacral
therapy, and chiropracticthrough the 1970s and
1980sI practiced as a solo practitioner with individual
clients. When babies came, they always came with some-
one else, usually their moms. It did not feel right to me to
make the baby or a child the identified patient or client.
If I was doing something useful with the baby or child, I
wanted the people that came with them to be able to do
that with their babies themselves. This caused me to re-
think how I practiced. What became most important to
me, more than what I was doing with those babies and
An Interview with Ray Castellino
Kate White, RCST

PIONEERS INTEGRATING BIODYNAMIC CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY
WITH PRE- AND PERINATAL THERAPY
children, was the relationships they had with their moth-
ers, fathers, siblings, and other caregivers. It became in-
creasing clear that how healthy the babys growth was is
dependent on the quality of relationship the baby had
with the people that held them, as well as the quality of
relationships between the people who held the baby.
Later, in the 1990s, it was scientifically proven that the
babys nervous system, physiology, and growth are de-
pendent on the quality of the energy in their primary re-
lationships. It is these relationships that organize the
babys body in terms of how that baby is going to func-
tion physiologically and psychologically in the future
not just when they are growing up, but when they are adults.
The focus of my practice became the energy and the
relationships in the family, not on a single client with me
as the practitioner. If someone asks me, Do you do baby
work? I would say, No, I pay attention to relationships.
I pay attention to the quality of the energy in relation-
ships. I attend to my midline and anchor in the long tide.
The crucial difference between traditional craniopathy or
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and what I am doing
is, I am focusing on the relationships between the mem-
bers of the family and tracking the familys fluid-tide
system as well as what is going on in an individual. This
is a social or family nervous system approach. In
this context, it makes space for babies to show their sto-
ries and heal in relationship to the people who are hold-
ing and raising them.
Ive also developed a way to do this with small
groups of adults in what I call Womb Surround Process
Workshops. The womb surround workshops have seven
adult participants and take place over four days. Each
participant has a two- to three-hour turn as client, or
turn person, while the remaining people participate as
surround members. These sessions are very powerful and
are often corrective experiences that help heal early
wounding for both the turn person and the surround
members. These workshops require the facilitator to ex-
ercise all of the basic craniosacral skills. Except there is a
difference: The skills are applied to the social relation-
ships between members of the group. So it takes the
same set of skills to facilitate families with babies and
children as it does to facilitate a Womb Surround or
small group of adults.
These skills are giving attention to the health in the
family system or womb surround, to the vital energy and
the potency in the family system or group. We do this as
cranial practitioners by sitting in our own midline, hav-
ing the practice of returning to midline, and giving atten-
tion to the fluid tides, especially the slower long-tide and
mid-tide rhythms. Again, these skills are applied to the
social nervous system of families and small groups of
adults. Doing this seems to have the basic effect of sup-
porting our clients to view the world from the perspec-
tive of their own midlines and to move at tempos that
allow family members and group participants to integrate
their experiences as they are having them in real time.
This then tends to have the outcome of building har-
monic healing resonances in the families and small
groups. During the womb surround workshops with
adults and in family work, the participants get to learn to
function while being held in a resonant field. This seems
to naturally encourage each member to rally around the
health in their family system or social group. This is clas-
sic biodynamic craniopathy and Polarity Therapy, right
out of Dr. Sutherland. Right out of Randolph Stone. You
sit with your attention on the health in the system. The
difference here is that the osteopathic and Polarity Prin-
ciples are applied to small groups and families. Central
to my practice is to sit with my attention in my midline
and attend to the health in resonant fields of the small
groups or the relationships in family systems.
I apply this principle by paying attention to the
health in the energy of the relationships of the people.
This is so important for babies because the way we are
being with babies directly influences how the babies will
grow and function now and in the future. As practitio-
ners, by being in our own midline while supporting the
babys relationships with mother and other primary care-
givers, we directly influence the baby to grow and func-
tion from their own midline and in relationship to their
loved ones. Remember, a prenate in the womb and a
newborn baby are growing and functioning during the
time that they are dependent on their relationships with
their caregivers. If the parent, caregiver, or family-group
facilitator are in their own midline, attentive to the
Breath of Life, self-regulating in their nervous system,
and connected in their relationships with the baby and
others, the baby learns how to be that way and do those
things.
This is no little statement! It is a primary principle.
When a babys system is able to organize and grow in
this relationship to this kind of field, as the baby grows
into a child, teenager, and, finally, adult, they will have
full access to their full human potential. We have seen
this with the children that are now teenagers that we
worked with
in the early
years of
BEBA.
When I
worked with
families in
my chiro-
practic prac-
tice in the
1980s, babies
would show
their stories.
I found that I
If someone asks me, Do you do baby
work? I would say, No, I pay atten-
tion to relationships.
was facilitating how the babies and momsor how the
babies, dads, and momswere all connecting. That be-
came the organizing principle for how we started the
baby clinic. Prior to starting the BEBA clinic in 1993, I
was looking for someone who could speak the same lan-
guage and came across William Emerson. And interest-
ingly enough, and without my knowing it, William and
Franklyn were already good friends. The three of us be-
gan a collaboration, and I became a student of Williams.
In those years there was a lot of confusion in the pre-
and perinatal field about how to practice between appeal-
ing to the health in the familys relationship system and
where a person had to go emotionally to feel some heal-
ing. It is valuable if, after being taught to track them-
selves, a person can go into their emotions in a strong
way and while doing that be held in a way where they
of the baby, and his work with sequencing and early im-
prints is substantial.
Yes, and your work is so significant. It seemed to me
that none of this talk of the health in the system was in
the cathartic method when I studied it with William Em-
erson and Karlton Terry. You were the one that brought
that language in, it seems to me. Is that right?
I think that is accurate. I really brought the notion of
the midline, fluid tides, and the slow rhythms into the pre-
and perinatal world and to APPPAH [the Association for
Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health]. I did that
very intentionally. It seems that the rhythms that govern
healthy autonomic nervous system function are rooted in
the long tide. It is my observation that when we do not
slow our own tempo down and track in the fluid-tide
rhythms, clients are more apt to express emotionally and
move into the stress of the trauma memories rather than
moving at a tempo that supports integration of the trau-
matic history. Peter Levines influence has been very
helpful here. The key, I think, is for practitioners to at-
tend to their own midlines, track at the fluid-tide levels,
move at a tempo that supports integration, give attention
to the potency in the system, and be with the life force.
I want to add another piece to the journey here, and I
also really want to honor everybodys contribution.
When I was studying with William, in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, and he, Franklyn, and I were collaborating,
William raised the question, What is the babys experi-
ence of the conception journey, gestation, and birth? He
was looking at the birth process from the point of view of
the baby. What I had done by that timethis is one of
my private studiesis collect a series of nursing and
obstetrics books from the end of the nineteenth century,
through the twentieth century, into this century. So, I
have a library of obstetric books. I studied my nursing,
obstetrics, and midwifery library. It appears that about
every 10 years obstetric practices change. There seem to
be 10-year fads. In the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, a lot of at-
tention was given to pelvimetry. The obstetricians and
radiologists looked at what the mothers pelvic shape had
to do with cranial molding.
In the 1920s a group of
radiologistsCaldwell,
Moloy, and DEsopo
applied the existing knowl-
edge of pelvimetry to im-
ages obtained with the use
of X-ray. Medical artists
then drew very accurate
images of babies positions
as they moved through the
birth canal and co-related
babies birth presentation
and maternal pelvic
shapes. They even had
accurate images of cranial
* The amygdala is part of an emotional-regulation triad, of which the
cingulate gyrus and the frontal cortex form the other two parts. In this
triad, the amygdala functions to mediate whether or not the system
stays more connected to higher brain functions or reverts to primitive
survival and vegetal functions.
It is a primary principle: If the parent
is in their own midline, attentive to
the Breath of Life, self-regulating in
their nervous system, and connected
in their relationships with the baby
and others, the baby learns how to
be that way. When a babys system is
able to organize and grow in this rela-
tionship to this kind of field, as the
baby grows up, it will have full
access to its full human potential.
can reflect on themselveshave witness. But at the same
time, if their system is so strong at the emotional level,
the effect of the work is on the midbrain level in the
autonomic nervous system (ANS). It doesnt get down to
the lowest levels of the brainstem, or to the hindbrain,
amygdala, and vagal function level. It stays more toward
the midbrain, where emotions manifest.* The conse-
quence of this is that the system doesnt get a chance to
settle throughout. In order to get the level of ANS regula-
tion with deep settling, balance, and integration in the
system, the work must deeply affect the lower brain cen-
ters. This is a big concept and would take some time to
fill out. But in terms of the history of the work, I think I
am getting the chronology there for you.
Yes, the evolution is important because it helps us
understand what we are becoming. That is what this edi-
tion of the Cranial Wave is about.
William has contributed a tremendous amount. He is
a champion of viewing the process from the perspective
molding patterns. I must say that I deplore that 3000
pairs of moms and babies were X-rayed while they were
in labor. They did not know they were putting moms and
babies at risk for leukemia, nor did they observe the ef-
fects they were having on labor by doing the procedure.
Lastly, there was no attention given to the bonding and
attachments of mom and baby and the long-term effects
on the babies as they grew up to become adults. They did
not have a clue about the long-term effects that these
studies and birthing practices would have on the mental,
emotional, and physiological growth of the child into an
adult.
Without knowledge of these early medical research-
ers, William and Franklyn were looking at the phases of
birth not from the point of view of obstetrics but from the
point of view of what the baby was experiencing, espe-
cially how the baby came into the moms pelvishow
the baby came into the inlet through the mid-pelvis, the
outlet, to birth. In my recollection, William really wanted
to discover and articulate the patterns solely from what
people were showing during therapeutic experiences.
William and Franklyn were looking at these patterns by
taking into account only the gynecoid pelvic shape. They
did not take into account the other three basic pelvic
types of anthropoid, android, and platypelloid. As a re-
sult, when they were attempting to articulate the patterns,
many of the patterns were not making sense. They kept
having to explain these variations as exceptions. Since I
had gone through all those obstetrics books, as well as
early radiological studies, and had studied chiropractic, I
said, Look, there are different pelvic shapes. Each pel-
vic shape has an effect on the way the baby moves
through the pelvis, and that molds or shapes the babys
head and body. I have observed that the molding proc-
ess has profound effects on how, as biped creatures, we
roll over, crawl, sit, stand, walk, and run. The pattern of
molding imprints on us and affects how we repeat com-
mon movements throughout life, moment to moment,
day to day. Through repetition of the movement patterns,
they become our signature patterns. How we repeat our
individual molding patterns in our movements then
shapes and directly influences how our body grows and
how we move and feel today.
William at that time was looking at what he called
conjunct pathways and conjunct sites as the babys head
moved through his or her mothers pelvis. What that
means is that the places where the babys head makes
contact with moms pelvic structures create imprints at
specific sites or pathways on the fetal cranium. Williams
premise was that if you knew those sites and pathways,
and stimulated or stroked those places, you could acti-
vate the baby or an adult into his/her birth memories. Or
if you put the grown-up into the position of how they
were born, or a major birth position of how they were
stuck in the birth canal or stuck in moms pelvis, the per-
son would have access to that feeling level.
Looking at the different pelvic shapes did indeed
clear up the variances that William and Franklyn were
looking at. As a result, we were able to categorize and
correlate movement pattern, cranial molding patterns,
conjunct sites, and conjunct pathways for babies, chil-
dren and adults. Often we could even predict backwards
Birth mechanism according to pelvic type (from Scott et al. 1999, chap.7, fig. 4, Danforths Obstetrics and Gynecology. New York: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins).
the mothers pelvic shape just by observing the persons
cranial shape and key movement pattern during somatic
regressions or movement patterns that show up during
bodywork sessions. This really helps us to observe and
recognize movement patterns from babies, children, and
adults that come from birth imprints. With babies, this
knowledge leads to observation skills that allow us to see
when babies are showing their story after birth. This re-
search confirmed my early realization that I learned with
my children when they were babiesthat they were
showing their birth stories with their movement and
emotional expression.
In my subsequent work, I found that with babies,
children, and adults, while it was more than helpful to
understand the conjunct sites and pathways, it is not nec-
essary at all to use them to stimulate a person, especially
a baby, into a birth pattern. My earlier experience of my
own children and with how babies show how they were
born was reaffirmed. If I tended to my own midline,
tracked the slow rhythms of the long and mid-tides, es-
tablished harmonic resonance with the client or the group
of people present, and attended to the intention of the
person present, the baby, child, or adult would naturally
show us his or her own birth pattern or they would show
us an early imprint pattern that was in keeping with their
intention. This process inevitably leads to healing.
And yes, I believe that babies as well as adults dem-
onstrate intentionality. Intentionality with babies is a
whole discussion that would take too much time to go
into here. Just to say that deep within each of us, no mat-
ter our age, is the wisdom to seek higher and higher lev-
els of health. By holding presence in the ways Ive de-
scribed here, the deep, innate wisdom of the baby, child
or adult is appealed to and supported.
Paying attention to intentionality is another contribu-
tion that I made to the pre- and perinatal movement.
Rather than attempting to bring up early memories by
using some external means like continuous breathing or
by putting a person
into a position that
evoked early memo-
ries, I work by first
establishing a base-
line. I just used a key
osteopathic word
there, the word base-
line. For me the base-
line gives the starting
point for a session
and is intricately as-
sociated with the
health emanating
from the Breath of
Life. By establishing
a persons intention
for a session, the in-
tention becomes part
of the baseline. So
often clients would complete what appeared to be a very
dramatic session, but, in the end, unless we had a way to
measure where we started, there would be no way of
knowing how much we actually had completed. By hav-
ing a clear intention at the beginning of a session, it be-
came possible to check at the end of the session and have
a very clear perception of how much of the intention was
completed. This, then, contributed to formulating next
steps for the client.
In about 1990, I remember an experience I had with
one of the families I worked with after I closed my chiro-
practic practice. I wont go into the whole story, but it
was a family that arrived with three children from four
months old to five years old. Early in the session, the
mom handed me the baby, sat down on a couch, and
went to sleep. The two older children began playing with
toys, and the dad went into what appeared to be a sponta-
neous cathartic regression. I didnt have all the group
finesse that I facilitate with today. So, by myself, I was
facilitating this whole family without the form that I de-
veloped after that. When the session was over and the
family left, they felt they had had a meaningful experi-
ence, but I was a wreck. Subsequent to that session, I
immediately did two major things. First, I really gave a
lot of thought to what it takes to prepare a family before
they come in to do sessions. Second, I realized I needed
to do something substantial for myself that would put me
on a fast track so that I could sit with a family and do a
much better job of tracking myself and having access to
the felt sense of my own midline. For the 20 years before
that time, most of my practice was one-to-one or was
with a mom and baby. My practice was much less com-
plicated. In order to handle more people in a session, and
apply the cranial and Polarity principles, I needed to
open some neural pathways within myself so that I could
self-regulate and integrate my experience as a practitio-
ner while I facilitated a session with a family. I hypothe-
sized that if I got a small group of friends together with
the intention of exploring through process workshops
how very early imprints and ancestral imprints affect our
present-day lives, I could work with a small group of
adults in a much more contained way than what had hap-
pened with the family I described above. Moreover, be-
cause we were adults, we could debrief the sessions in
Paying attention to intentionality is
another contribution that I made to
the pre- and perinatal movement.
By having a clear intention at the
beginning of a session, it became
possible to check at the end of the
session and have a very clear percep-
tion of how much of the intention was
completed. This, then, contributed to
formulating next steps for the client.
ways that we were not able to with babies or children.
It turns out that my hypothesis was accurate. Doing
these small womb surround workshops rapidly helped
me become way more capable of being with babies and
families. What was a really awesome surprise was that
folks found those workshops so valuable that they
wanted to do more of them, and they started telling their
friends about them. This lead to the development of the
small-group (seven participants) womb surround process
workshops that I now conduct. Since that time I have led
well over 400 of those workshopsthat includes now
about 2100 individual sessions within this workshop
setting. During the early 1990s, I transitioned out of my
cranial, Polarity Therapy, chiropractic, eclectic practice
into working with families with babies and young chil-
dren and to doing the early version of the Womb Sur-
round Process Workshops. At the time, working with
babies and families with the intention of healing early
traumatic imprinting and supporting healthy bonding
and attachment was not valued by the community that I
lived in. If I had attempted to earn my living just with
families, I would never have been able to make it. But,
facilitating about two three- or four-day workshops a
month with adults who did value the growth work made
it possible for me to financially support my own family.
When a practitioner starts sitting with new babies
and has some level of empathy for the new baby, it
opens up their own history. The countertransference
because I wanted to see the work growand because I
have a deep need to have peers.
Conveniently, I have a background in education and
curriculum development. I used to be a choir director and
humanities teacher in the California public school sys-
tem. Okay, I said, if we are going to have a training,
we are going to need clear educational objectives. As a
result, I created a several-page taxonomy of skills that
represents a synthesis of decades of work. I knew what I
was going to teach, and it wasnt going to look like Po-
larity Therapy and it doesnt look like traditional Biody-
namic Craniosacral Therapy. The chiropractors had a lot
of trouble with me, so I let my license go. What I was
doing did not fit that scope of practice.
I discovered that it takes the same skills to facilitate
a womb surround with adults as it does to sit with a fam-
ily. And so I made my educational objective for my
training to give people a foundation in sitting with fami-
lies, womb surrounds, and adults. The training that I de-
veloped what Myrna Martin, and others in Europe
have based their trainings ondoesnt focus on one-on-
one relationships, i.e., practitioner-client. It focuses on
the relationships that happen in families, that happen
between adults, and that happen in small groups that in-
clude a practitioner and some assistants. We look at how
the Breath of Life manifests itself in these different
groupings and the effect early traumatic imprinting has
on individuals and relationships. So the training that I do
is the first training that really pays attention to the needs
of the small group and family relationships in this way. I
think that is a major contribution.
Then, somewhere around 2000, a midwife in the
Santa Barbara area, Mary Jackson, whom I had known
for more than 20 years, took a womb surround workshop.
She had attended 2500 or 3000 births, and I had done
about the same number of sessions with adults and fami-
lies. In addition, I had been to maybe a dozen births by
that time. We realized that we had discovered the same
basic principles and concepts about the needs of babies
and their families to birth, grow and heal from challeng-
ing beginnings in each of our different practices.
We discovered, sitting in the womb surround work-
shops, that we
are sitting in
Birth Time, we
are sitting in
long tide, we
are paying at-
tention to the
life force,
which a mid-
wife will come
to do if she
doesnt get too
constricted
around all that
she has to do
We discovered, sitting in the womb
surround workshops, that we are
sitting in Birth Time, we are sitting in
long tide, we are paying attention to
the life force.
issues that are activated in the practitioner in relation-
ship to their own early development are huge. My iden-
tification with what the babies were going through was
so acute and so strong that, in the beginning, I would do
a session and then it would take me half an hour, forty-
five minutesand sometimes longerof working with
myself before I could see the next client. I reasoned that
I had to find a way to get some practice and discover
how to do this so I could actually feel better at the end
of the day or a session. So, like I said, I got a group of
my friends together in Santa Barbara in the early 90s
and started doing these groups where we explored pre-
and perinatal influences. That inspiration led to the de-
velopment of the womb surround workshop form that I
use today. I have been refining that form since I first
began doing them in 1992.
In 1992, '93, '94, '95, I was teaching weekend work-
shops, teaching people what I was learning, and Mary
Louise and Christopher Muller said, Why dont you
just put a training together! So I put a training together.
In a profound way, I began training professionals
from an obstetrics point of view; if the midwife is able to
sit in present time and really have faith that the mothers
and babys bodies know what to do; and if she is able to
make space for the health in the system to show itself.
One thing sure: at a birth, a baby is going to be born.
Mary ended up studying craniosacral therapy with
Michael Shea and taking my training. After she gradu-
ated from my training, Mary and I began collaborating.
As a result, we have created a system for preparing fami-
lies for birth. Mary and I prepare all the families that be-
come part of her midwifery practice. We do a minimum
of two sessions, and sometimes more, with families. And
sometimes I get to go to the birth, sometimes not. We
created a support system not only for the families, but
also for the midwife and the midwifery team. So we cre-
ated layers of support systems so that the baby and mom
can cooperate to birth in the most optimal way possible.
The consequence of this new program is that at the time
of this writing, Mary has completed more than 120 births
with the families that have done the program we devel-
oped, with less than a 5 percent transfer rate to the hospi-
tal and only 3 caesarian sections for the mother who have
best job, one has to know about ones own history. By
this I mean making coherent sense out of ones own his-
tory and having some level of somatic integration with
ones history. As body-oriented therapists, working with
others certainly activates our own wounds and early
traumatic history. To do this work, we develop the skill
to be mindful or have awareness of subtle, and often not
so subtle, sensations in our body. We know that the
mind, emotions, and our body, all function and work
together. This is a somatic and psychological process.
The two are inseparable. Each of us needs solid support
and accurate reflection; we need solid training and super-
vision. In addition, our work requires that we have some
knowledge of our own history so that when it shows up
or is activated we can differentiate it from what is going
on in our client. This means that we must have skills
that allow us to know the difference between then and
now. And that we have the skills to be able to transform
our own activations, our countertransferences into useful
therapeutic behaviors that benefit not just our clients but
ourselves also. That is a major reason why I created the
Castellino Prenatal and Birth Training. This training is
Our work requires that we have some
knowledge of our own history so that
when it shows up or is activated we
can differentiate it from what is going
on in our client. This means that we
must have skills that allow us to know
the difference between then and now.
And that we have the skills to be able
to transform our own activations, our
countertransferences into useful
therapeutic behaviors that benefit not
just our clients but ourselves also.
As practitioners, so many of us have
the mistaken belief that we have to
do it all ourselves. So many of us are
affected by isolation wounds that set
so many of us up to avoidand some-
times not even knowwhen we need
support. So the PPN training is not just
to learn about how to work with early
trauma in others but to make sense of
and to develop the felt sense of open
possibilities and a relaxed perspective
about our own history. Working with
others takes not just knowing how to
give others support but, in a very deep
way, the knowing of how to receive
support for ourselves.
completed our program. The common transfer rate for
midwives is now about 15 to 45 percent, depending on
the region the midwife is practicing in. Prior to that Mary
reports that her transfer rate to the hospital was about 20
percent. In addition, Mary had a run of 63 births where
there were no transfers at all!
Now, why did that happen? The reason why that is
happening is because she, myself, and her midwifery
team are learning to sit in midline, attend to fluid tides,
stay out the way, attend to the life force, give attention to
what is going on in the relationships, give and receive
support, and have faith in the health of the system.
What a beautiful story. What I am trying to give the
cranial community through this publication is a sense of
where we are. What would you say to a new cranial
practitioner once they are set loose in the field?
Excellent question. First of all, in order to do ones
designed for a very wide range of practitioners, and espe-
cially those with backgrounds in Polarity Therapy and
Biodynamic and other forms of craniosacral therapy.
As practitioners, so many of us have the mistaken
belief that we have to do it all ourselves. So many of us
are affected by isolation wounds. We were separated
from our mothers at birth, kept in glass or plastic boxes
called isolates, left alone in cribs to cry it out, then later
as children sent to our rooms to get our acts together.
This was all done when what we really needed was skin-
to-skins welcoming contact with our mothers at birth,
human touch, compassion, and adults around us that per-
ceived that we were sentient beings from the beginning.
As children, we needed understanding, protection, guid-
ance, boundaries, and loving attention. Our common his-
tory of isolation sets so many of us up to avoidand some-
times not even knowwhen we need support. So the
training is not just to learn about how to work with early
trauma in others but to make sense of and to develop the
felt sense of open possibilities and a relaxed perspective
about our own history. Working with others takes not just
knowing how to give others support but, in a very deep
way, the knowing of how to receive support for ourselves.
In a way, part of the training is to learn how to turn
our own traumatic histories into a working asset so that
we are able to effectively sit with our clients, our own
families, and ourselves. We learn how to turn what
brought separation and isolation into compassionate lov-
ing connection with our selves and others.
So, what you are recommending is that once practi-
tioners go through the 10 modules of craniosacral train-
ing, they go on and take another training with you. Is
that optimal?
Yes, that is optimal.
And if they cant go and take a training with you or
someone else in pre- and perinatal issues, what would be
your recommendation?
Well, I dont take shortcuts. The life force, the way I
experience it, doesnt allow me to take shortcuts. Every
time I try and take a shortcut, I am short-changing myself
and the people I am working with, so I dont take short-
cuts. At least I try not to. I like to do things in as full a
way as I can.
So what do I recommend? I recommend exactly
what I have done myself. I put together a training that
replicated what I needed to do myself to be able to do
what I do. And even if someone did the cranial training
and is working one-on-one, it is going to take them five
to ten years to fully develop the cranial skills. Integrating
the pre- and perinatal layers can be done at the same
time, and it takes having really competent support to do
that. Now, someone says, That is way too much time,
but listen, Im 65! And I didnt start this work until I was
in my mid-twenties. So what does it take? Lets do what
it takes! And as we evolve, as we grow, we become more
efficient. I can teach someone way more efficiently than
10 years ago, and way more efficiently than it took me
to learn it.
I see things speeding up, Ray. I am seeing this inter-
disciplinary wave. There is you, Somatic Experiencing
(SE), neuroscience, attachment, all coming together. My
objective in this interview is to bring awareness and an
understanding of the integration between BCST and pre-
and perinatal.
Yes, what we are doing is interdisciplinary. The
work is very eclectic. Dr. Randolph Stones work, as
one example, is very eclectic. My work is very eclectic.
We are a present-day Renaissance movement. We are
integrating so much from so many different disciplines.
It is such a rich time.
You mentioned Somatic Experiencing. In 1995, I
went and studied with Peter Levine, and the Somatic
Experiencing work has a profound influence on what we
are all doing, and a profound influence on what I am
doing. Many SE Practitioners come through my womb
surround workshops and have taken my training. The
practitioners are integrating my work into their work.
Yes, absolutely it is interdisciplinary.
I am grateful to all the exquisite teachers from so
many different fields that Ive been privileged to study
and work withso many wonderful resources. With all
Janet Evergreen teaching in Quito, Ecuador.
Join the Primarywave

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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
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We encourage you to share your experiences during Pri-
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those teachers, the people Ive personally learned the
most from are my own children and all the people, what-
ever their age, Ive been blessed to work with.
In your opinion, what are the top five things a pre-
and perinatal practitioner needs to do?
Well, you asked for five, Ill give you nine. I think
that each of these is equally important so, they can be in
any order. They are all important for me to be able to do
my work.
1. Have access to and receive effective support and
supervision.
2. Give consistent attention to your own midline.
3. Give attention to the self-regulation resources
within yourself.
4. Name what you are experiencing in ways that
support your clients and yourself.
5. Track the slow rhythms of the long and mid-
tides. Tune yourself to the awareness of these
slow tidal movements.
6. Pay attention not only to the patterns being per-
ceived within the person but also to the quality
of the energy between the people of the group or
family. Do this by sensing what is going on in
you.
7. Establish the intention and/or baseline of the
client or clients as part of the beginning of the
session.
8. Learn as much as you can about your own his-
tory and work to turn that history into a coherent
narrative or story. Make sense out of your own
life.
9. Trust the Breath of Life.
Thank you Kate for doing this interview with me.
Ive very much enjoyed the process of talking and pre-
paring the article with you and Linda. Thank you to all
the readers that have taken time to read this article.
LETTERS_________ _______________
Whether to Renew Membership
I considered this spring not to re-
new my membership because I like to be
involved actively and to reciprocate
within the communities that I engage in.
I practice massage and biodynamic cra-
niosacral therapies full-time, six days a
week, and cannot at this time get away
to a conference or help the board as a
volunteer. I do stay in touch with three local practitioners, and
receive almost monthly energy and acupuncture self-care. I
also have written for the Cranial Wave, including published
comments on association policy changes. I nominated Dave
Paxson for board membership, and I think he is doing an out-
standing job of pulling together a current and practical focus
for the community.
Two recent events, though, make me see clearly how im-
portant membership is within the association.
(1) Reordering my business cards, I discussed the RCST
designation with the business manager who handles our busi-
ness and promotion materials at Aveda, a multi-national com-
pany where I am independently contracted. Just hearing the
sound of our voices and hearing the energy behind the RCST
statement showed me how seriously I take myself, how seri-
ously the manager takes me, and how seriously the clients will
continue to regard me as I continue to offer our modality to
them. Our work is included in each of my massage sessions,
with client consent; and I also offer it independently at a
higher price for an hour-long session.
(2) I also called my foundation and advanced (CEU)
training teacher, Roger Gilchrist, and asked his opinion on
membership renewal. He said simply that it is professional to
be a member of an association, and that our modality is still
very young and needs our support. I wholeheartedly agree with
this, and in thinking that we in the USA and Canada are
"pioneers" of it in this generation. I now feel validated that I
can be the most supportive at this time by working in the field
as much as I do. I do not take it for granted. Each session is an
honor, and brings a revelation. Today, I worked with a police
officer. We talked about neutral touch. She took from the
session what she verbalized as "kind touch, planting little
seeds in the community." She said that our session gave her a
new way to look at her job, in her community. "This is as
deep as we could go today, " I told her. "And it is just the
beginning. " She scheduled another session in two weeks.
Ginger Ingalls, LMT, NCTMB, RCST

Washington, D.C.
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458-2267, www.abmp.com.
William R. Emerson, PhD is a
teacher, writer, lecturer, and pioneer
in the field of pre- and perinatal psy-
chology. Dr. Emerson's involvement
in pre- and perinatal psychology in-
cludes the recovery from and trans-
formation of problems stemming
from prenatal and birth traumas. He
is a pioneer of treatment methods for infants and chil-
dren, a renowned expert in treatment methods for adults,
and is recognized world-wide for his contributions. He
conducts treatment and training seminars throughout the
U.S. and Europe and is a frequent key note speaker at
psychology conferences. He has published dozens of arti-
cles and seven videos on psychology and birth. Dr. Emer-
son is a member of the American Psychological Associa-
tion, a former board member for the International Primal
Association, and president of the Association of Pre- and
Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH). He was
named an honorary fellow of the National Science Foun-
dation for his scholarly excellence and his therapeutic con-
tributions to the field of psychology.
I would like to first thank you, William. You have
had such a significant impact on the pre- and perinatal
world and on me personally. You have been pivotal.
You have contributed so much to the work of working
with babies and moms. I really want to thank you and
honor you for all the contributions you have made.
Id like to tell you about a current contribution, a
book entitled The Light and Dark Sides of Childbirth.
The subtitle is Healing Our Children, Healing Our-
selves. Its a book that looks critically and carefully at
the maternity care system. It provides data that doctors
need to hear that they dont normally get because these
data are in alternative journals. There are research stud-
ies that show that 30 percent of mothers have birth
trauma at least and up to 18 percent of mothers have
first-time PTSD after childbirth. Various researchers
find that between 30 percent and 90 percent of babies
are traumatized by childbirth, and the causes are often
determined to be multiple interventions, unnecessary
interventions. There is a huge power trip that is happen-
ing within medicine, where childbirth is medicalized.
Its a research-based book with lots of case studies and
poetry. I also incorporate solutions. The book will be
out this year.
That is what we have been wanting out here on the
frontiers: bridge-building with the medical world. It is
hard to show up and tell them things, and we need infor-
mation to back up what we are saying.
It includes others researchers, not just my own re-
search, which I have been doing for years. Its real excit-
ing. I share it with doctors, and they are actually taken
aback, and most of them are very appreciative. They say,
My god, I had no idea. Because the research is con-
vincing, and some of it is research involving physiologi-
cal measures. So we have a big new way into the medical
community with this book.
I am so glad! That is what we need. It is also what
we need for the Cranial Wave. This issue is about the
integration of the pre- and perinatal work and Biody-
namic Craniosacral Therapy. It is clear to me that your
relationships with Ray Castellino and Franklyn Sills
have been formative for our profession. When you reflect
back on your history and things that have led you to this
point, what do you see as the most important parts?
What are the high points for you?
It was significant when I went to Europe after I had
my first birth memory in the 1970s. That was very pro-
found. I spent two years after that memory working
things through. I had amazing results! My body was a lot
healthier. A lot of my psychological issues cleared up.
So, I went to England. I wanted to meet Dr. Frank Lake,
who was the pioneer of pre- and perinatal psychology in
Europe. He and I just instantly connected and started
teaching workshops together. I recommend that you ref-
erence him. He was like the Arthur Janov of the Euro-
pean community [Ed note: Janov is the American psy-
chologist who developed primal therapy.]. He was a
Christian, and a priesta ministerand he promoted
pre- and perinatal work in
Europe.
Also, I went to India to
study with Baba Muktan-
anda, who was my spiritual
teacher for decades. You
know, in India, it was won-
derful for me. If you can
imagine, in the 1970s when
I would talk about pre- and
perinatal work, people
thought I was nuts. No one
An Interview with William Emerson
Kate White, RCST

was listening. So to have a connection with Dr. Frank
Lakewe actually ran workshops together, shared re-
search, concepts, and theory. Then from England, I went
to India.
In India, as part of their religious cultural practice,
they believe that prenates are conscious. Mothers in India
are given mantras. In the first trimester, they pronounce a
mantra called So. They chant Sooooooo. They medi-
tate with that. It stimulates pure existence. It means a
pure I with no object. I usually call it pure existence.
The reason they do this is that they are trying to mirror
For example, with cranial
work, youre dealing with the
fluid tides, with Breath of Life,
a certain vibration of energy
that is very deep and ex-
tremely valuable. There are
It is really important to do your
own work, to spend time in your
field of being so that you become
very familiar with it. Not going
there to do any work, but just
dropping in and being there.
When you are there, that is
contagious.
about 100 other levels of con-
sciousness.
Those were some of my
early experiences. Then I met
Franklyn and Ray, and that
was like heaven.
Ray very thoroughly went over his history and his
contribution, and because I am a big fan of yours, I know
a little bit about your story. What I would like to do is
skip ahead and talk about the last 10 years. Things have
really changed in the last 10 years. I got my cranial de-
gree 10 years ago, and I have really noticed the changes
in how it is being taught. For example, embryology is
now being merged with Biodynamic teaching. So I was
wondering if you would reflect on the last 10 years and
also on your passion for the integration of pre- and peri-
natal work and Biodynamic work.
There is a merging with cranial work and embryol-
ogy. As you may know, when you are holding a persons
system, not only the structural system is available to you
if you hold the system gently enoughthat is, if you
hold like you are holding clouds. If you make your fin-
gers like ether, and you hold from a distance and you
really surrender, what can happen is that the embryology
and the prehistory of the whole system can begin to tell
its story. This is the profound discovery that I made some
decades ago: Whatever embryological process is in criti-
cal development prenatally will be impacted by any
trauma that happens at the time.
I have this amazing story about my son. When he
was about five-and-a-half months old prenatally, my
wife was told that she had some kind of a virus that
could result in him dying when he was born. We just
reeled, and collapsed in sadness. So we took off to the
mountains for a week and went into woods and held him,
held each other. We were mourning him and praying. It
turned out that she didnt have that virus. The test was
negative even though the doctor was quite sure she had
that virus. When my son was born, he had congenital
cataractsone eye in particular. They had to do cataract
surgery and he would be blind in that eye. Well, he is
not. That is another story.
When I went back and did some research, embry-
ologically at five-and-a-half months there is a blood ves-
sel that feeds the retina that is suppose to slough off and
stop feeding the retina. But because of the trauma, that
blood vessel did not slough off. What I learned from that
was that whatever is happening during critical embryo-
logical processes impacts the development of that sys-
tem. Now, I have many case studies that confirm that.
Frank Lake (from the cover of
the 1989 book Frank Lake: the Man
and His Work by John Peters,
London: Darton, Longman & Todd)
the babys existence. In the second trimester, the mantra
changes to So ham, which means I am. It begins to
bring in awareness of ones own being. In the third tri-
mester, the mantra is Go ham, which means I am
and then fill in the object: girl, boy, or a person
who does well in crowded spaces. So I had that wonder-
ful experience of going to India.
I also have some wonderful pictures of my guru
talking with babies. He is talking to the babies, and the
babies are talking back. They are having these wild con-
versations, and the babies are talking back with wild ges-
tures. That emblazoned itself on me. I knew that prenates
were conscious because of my own experiences before I
went to England and before I was with Dr. Frank Lake.
But when I saw my guru relating to babies, he would
stop and look at me as if to say, Do you see? Are you
seeing this? I used to get so excited. He would tell me
what the babies were saying to him, and I would have
read the conversation exactly the same way. So Muktan-
anda and I were in that space that one could get in with
cranial work. That spaceI now call it as if I was hold-
ing his field. I was in my own field of being and extend-
ing it to include him, and he was doing that with me. We
were both communicating with the baby at the same
time. I heard everything the baby said, even though he
wasnt speaking words. You cant imagine what a great
teaching that was!
I had some great master, considered one of the great-
est gurus of our times. He was the real thing! I traveled
with him, taught for him, became one of his teachers. He
authorized me to awaken kundalini in people, and run
meditation centers for him. He has been a huge part of
my life. I learned a lot about communicating nonverbally
from him. I learned about altered states of consciousness.
It is very important when you are doing cranial work
that you be open to embryological aspects. You study
embryology so that you know it. Once you know embry-
ology, then that information is in the Intelligence of the
baby/client/adult, and it becomes available to you just
through intuition. You can actually do prenatal healing
just by getting information from that level of conscious-
ness. That is one level of working with trauma.
More directly, you can use biodynamic cranial work
in terms of obstetrics. We need to tell people who work
in obstetrics. There was an old structuralistViola Fry-
mann, D.O. She said years ago that whatever position the
head is in the longest during birth, it fixates and causes a
lot of problems. Well, she was right. I dont approach
birth as a structuralist. If you are present at birth as a
CST, if you can hold a babys field as they are being
born, you are having double the effect of a doula. Be-
come familiar with the research on doulas and how valu-
able they are for mothers. What we need to have are
baby doulas to hold the babys field while they are
being born, to be available to information from them on
that level of consciousness you can get embryologically
but also to be aware and hold that cranial and structural
system. That holding allows that system to normalize.
You can prevent a lot of problems from happening on a
structural level. You can prevent cranial lesion patterns
on an external level. You can help maintain the Breath of
Life through the process of presence and holding.
You know what is true about babies? If you hold
their system and regulate your system in response to
theirs, then you are helping them self-regulate. It is the
same with the mother. She does that by being with him,
stroking him, showing him things. You can actually do
that during birth. Its your allowing. Youre holding a
babys system during birth, and you differentiating your
system from the babys system, and you finding ways to
self-regulate the babys from yours prevents birth
trauma. In other words, you are differentiating the ex-
perience you are currently having while working on the
baby thats a result of your own birth trauma from the
babys experience. If you can recognize and self-regulate
your own trauma memory, then you will be able to help
the baby resolve and self-regulate its trauma. Heres how
you do it. You are holding a wide perceptual field. You
extend your energy even fartheryou go into the ether.
Differentiation is extremely healing of prenatal trauma
because of a lot trauma happens between mothers and
babies because there is a lack of differentiation. First of
all, you are differentiating your system. Literally, your
body is a vehicle that is palpating the babys system.
Then you allow your system to interact with the babys
system within your system, and you find a way to regu-
late your system consciously. The baby will pick up on
that and start to regulate their own system. You are also
tracking. There are other rhythms you can track. There
are deeper rhythms if you go further out. Many cranial
practitioners are too tied to the structural system in a cer-
tain way. You can certainly go to that and track what is
happening. Then the cranial system self-regulates. But
you can go a lot further.
Healers use the same thing with cancer. I use the
same thing when I work with a lady who has cancer in
Tucson. Every morning when I work with her, I get up,
drop into my field of being, check for anything new in
my system. Then I ask permission and extend my field to
include hers. I check whether I am holding the system
just right. What begins to happen, I begin to experience
her chemo, experience her response to it, experience her
cancer cells, her tumors. I am experiencing her value
system.
She is really into cranial work. She often just wants
me to hold her cranium, just track the Breath of Life. But
she really believes in the light being the healing system,
so I begin to feel her light in my system and pray that the
light gets more intense. Then I begin to feel it in her sys-
tem. So there is a whole way of extending biodynamically
beyond just the fluids or the cranial structural system.
The value of biodynamic cranial work is that the
rhythms are the most consistently reliable in the whole
The value of biodynamic cranial
work is that the rhythms are the
most consistently reliable in the
whole body. So if you are ever
insecure working with a person
holding their field, you can
always drop back to holding the
midline, the tides, use that as a
fulcrum. I am always inviting
people to drop into midline when
I am teaching them cranial work.
Viola Frymann teaching class in the 1970s.
body. That is what is so valuable about cranial work. The
heart rate is very reliable, but it has huge rate changes;
respiration rate changes; the cerebrospinal-fluid rate
changes. You have a very solid system. So if you are
ever insecure working with a person holding their field,
you can always drop back to holding the midline, the
tides, use that as a fulcrum. I am always inviting people
to drop into midline when I am teaching them cranial
work. The people I am teaching are baby doulas, doulas,
midwives. They can come back into tracking the potency
and the tides. Then I invite them to let go of even that
and extend their field more broadly.
What I am saying for cranial practitioners and the
Cranial Wave is that you dont know what you are sitting
on! You are sitting on an energetic healing volcano. I
dont think you have any idea where you are at! It is ex-
tremely powerful, what you are attuning yourself to. And
right next door are other levels of consciousness. There
are 106 levels of consciousness! You are tracking three
out of 106! And you are right next door to energy sys-
tems that are more potent than you can ever believe.
They are close in vibration to the Breath of Life.
stands from per-
sonal experience,
there is just some-
thing added to the
mix, and it does
not affect anything
in the practitio-
ners system, ex-
cept hopefully to
activate under-
standing and com-
passion. That is the
deepest state of
healing: When there is no dysregulation in the body of
the practitioner; when the power of love, compassion,
and understanding are present; and when the practitio-
ner clearly differentiates the input from the baby as
other, not self.
There is an exception. For the practitioner who
does not work from a spiritual base of compassion, who
does not have an active spiritual practice, who is chal-
lenged by a busy mind, it can happen that an identifica-
tion with the client and a resonant physiological so-
matic response without differentiation between self and
other can be healing, but there are dangers. This is a
special topic to be addressed under a different venue. I
just want to name it. An added piece is that it is very
valuable for the practitioner to have a spiritual practice
so that presence and compassion, facilitated by medita-
tion, are available to the baby and other clients without
the practitioner needing to have personal identification
with, or wounding similar to, the clients being treated.
If a practitioner's trauma is activated but is uncon-
sciousand then, of course, the practitioner isnt regu-
lating her/his system because the practitioner doesnt
know her/his system is dysregulated a number of
things may happen. I'll name just a couple. The practi-
tioner may "fall out of presence" because s/he is acti-
vated, and lose focus. The treatment loses focus, or
takes place on a level that is superficial to the wound-
ing that has occurred. Or worse, the practitioner
pathologizes the baby, client, or parents, and decides he
can't treat them, or tells them they need something
largely irrelevant to the trauma-healing process, like
Vitamin C or supplementshelpful but not to the deep-
est point. Worse, practitioners may implement or advise
procedures that are actuallyor symbolicallysimilar
to the agents that traumatized the client in the first place.
For example, a practitioner who was herself claustro-
phobic from birth and had not dealt with it, was treating
a child with cranial work. She referred the symptomatic
child to a behavioral psychologist, who set up a reward
system that controlled every aspect of the child's life
something the child did not needand that, by its con-
trolling nature, recapitulated the claustrophobia.
If you can recognize and self-
regulate your own trauma
memory, then you will be able
to help the baby resolve and
self-regulate its trauma. Differ-
entiation is extremely healing of
prenatal trauma because of a lot
trauma happens between moth-
ers and babies because there is a
lack of differentiation.
Can you say a bit more about the practitioner regu-
lating their own nervous system while working on a
baby?
If you hold the babys system and regulate your own
in response to the babys, that's healing, but that is a spe-
cial type of healing. It usually means that the practitio-
ners system has been activated by the baby's trauma,
and therefore the practitioner needs to do a bit of work
outside of session. But at a minimal level, if the practitio-
ner can self-regulate in response, that is very helpful to
babies. It provides a healing bond, and actually both
baby and practitioner know that the practitioner is differ-
entiated and has been activated.
Another type of healing that needs to occur, espe-
cially with severe trauma to the baby, is that something
else is added to the practitioner system, but the practi-
tioner system is not activated in any way. There's no
extra compassion because there is resonance, no extra
understanding because the practitioner deeply under-
You leave me wanting to hear more! It is good to
have readers hungry! So what are the top five things
every cranial practitioner should know, have in their
repertoire, or be?
1. The top thing is to have Right Understanding
spiritually. It is spiritual work. It works because
it is spiritual. It works because it involves sur-
render to a higher force.
2. It is really important to do your own work, to
spend time in your field of being so that you
become very familiar with it. Not going there to
do any work, but just dropping in and being
there. When you are there, that is contagious.
When you are with a clientif you are with a
baby or a cranial client, or you are a doulaif
you drop into your field of being, then that is
contagious. Shock and trauma are also conta-
gious, but it is more so with dropping into your
field of being. Be sure to practice what you
preach every day. Spend time being, not doing.
3. Spend time in stillness because dropping into
your field of being is one kind of intention.
Dropping into stillness is anothera neighbor,
a cousin. The Vedics and the ancients use that
word stillness often. They use it for a reason.
Stillness is a pathway to the other side where we
leave our bodies and our egos behindand our
souls, too. We are travelling at a whole other
level. Spend time everyday being still. Just sur-
rendering. Stillness is a window to a whole phe-
nomenological world. There is another world
there. Climb out of the spaceship and climb into
the cosmos!
4. Compassion, compassion.
5. Empathy and compassion!
Psychic communication and synchronicity become
an aspect of life. One of the things that you will find if
you do the first three things, you will find more synchro-
nicity. You will be thinking about a person and they will
call. You will be missing a person and they will write
you a card and they will mail it. When you get it, you
will see that it was written on the date you were thinking
of them. Youll start worrying about a person and think
they need some attention and, wow, a few months later
you find out they have cancer. If you contact them ahead
of time, you can do some preventive work. It is a psychic
level.
I will just tell you a quick story. I was in the ashram
with Muktananda, and I had this longing to look into my
teachers eyes. I am a psychologist, and I work with peo-
ple for years. I had this extreme desire to look in his
eyes. One morningand we are talking early morning
here. In the ashram, you get up at 3 a.m. That was really
hard, because you go to bed around 9 or 10 p.m. So one
morning, I work up at 2 a.m. and something told me to
get up. And I said to that something, Are you kidding! I
put my head under the
pillow and tried to get
back to sleep.
I had this strong
feeling to get up and go
for a walk. So I said,
Okay. I got up and went
for a walk around all
these beautiful tropical
gardens and came
around a building, and
there was Muktananda
at the back of the build-
ing. I was kind of
stunned. We didnt
Stillness is a window to a whole
phenomenological world. There
is another world there. Climb
out of the spaceship and climb
into the cosmos!
Baba Muktananda
have a friendship. We
didnt drink tea to-
gether or anything. He is my teacher. He walks two steps
towards me and I am wondering, What is going to hap-
pen here? He takes his glasses off. Oh wow, there are
those eyes. He motions for me to come closer, and I take
about a three-inch step. I am kind of scared of him. He
said, Hurry up! (in Indian; he speaks no English).
Come closer, come closer! It took me about a minute
to get right up close to his eyes. So then, he tells me,
Look at my eyes. So I looked into his eyes. At first I
was so touched, but not surprised that he knew. What
happens when you drop into your field of being and you
surrender, and then you let stillness be that window into
another world, synchronicity and wonderful things hap-
pen. So I looked into his eyes. His eyes became these
whirlpools of depth, and I kept going deeper and deeper
and deeper. I had dropped into his level of being. The
most amazing thing, there was nothing there. Nothing.
There was nothing.
Yes, sit and drop into your level of being and seek
stillness. Sitting and stillness. They go together like your
moms apple pie and ice cream!
Franklyn Sills has been a major influ-
ence in the worldwide development of
Craniosacral Biodynamics. He has
been teaching in the field for over 27
years and has influenced many of the
current trainers in the U.S. and Europe.
Franklyn has a long history of study
and clinical practice in psychotherapy
as well as in craniosacral therapy. His
original psychotherapeutic orientation was in humanistic
psychology, working with neo-Reichian and prenatal and
birth psychotherapy. He has studied and collaborated with
Dr. William Emerson, one of the major developers of pre-
and perinatal psychology. Franklyn was a Buddhist monk in
the Northern Burmese tradition, and also studied in the Zen
and Taoist traditions. He has helped to develop the inte-
grated paradigm of being and selfhood used in Core Proc-
ess psychotherapy trainings. His recent studies include the
neurophysiology of stress and trauma. His experience in the
cranial field has convinced him that the body must be in-
cluded in any form of therapy. His published books include
The Polarity Process, Craniosacral Biodynamics, and, most
recently, Being and Becoming: Psychodynamics, Buddhism
and the Origins of Selfhood. He is currently writing a new
text, Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics.
I have been tracking this story about how Biody-
namic Craniosacral Therapy is being integrated with
pre- and perinatal therapies: the historical perspective
and how it used today. You have been pivotal in the
creation of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy as prac-
ticed here in North America. I can see that your early
relationships with Ray Castellino and William Emerson
have been formative for the discipline. I was wondering,
where would you like to start?
I can tell you about my history around that! I met
Ray in 1975, when we were trying to figure out what Dr.
Stone [Randolph Stone, developer of Polarity Therapy]
was about. So it goes back a long time. Then I got very
interested in what Dr. Stone called the neuter essence
and sattvic work [neutral and very soft-touch work]
around the cranium and the core of the body. Then I
went to osteopathic college and also apprenticed with
some osteopaths. There was a cranial osteopath in the
office who was very into fluids and fluid tide and the
receptive state, or states, of being. In 1979 my wife,
Maura, had been studying with William Emerson. Wil-
liam was in England working with Frank Lake, and so he
got into pre- and perinatal work through the work of
Lake. Lake was the grandfather of perinatal psychology,
if you will. So, in 1979 we were in California and Maura
came back one night, and she was deeply sharing about
her experience. I went into a prenatal birth-place, and she
ended being my midwife for a few hours. So I thought,
There is something to this! I started studying with Wil-
liam Emerson then, in 1979. When we went back to Eng-
land in 1982, he came here and worked with us. I went to
osteopathic school around that time, too.
I assisted William, and influenced him regarding the
birth stages. At that time, he had many birth stages in
terms of the babys experience, and I helped him narrow
the stages down to four. This was different than obstet-
rics. And we talked about psychological correlates with
the birth stages. I got very involved with William and
cranial work. I had been teaching Polarity work for a
while when, in 1986, an osteopathic colleague, Claire
Dolby, suggested I organize a cranial training outside the
osteopathic profession. I think it was like the saying
Fools rush in where wise people fear to tread. It was
quite a mixed traininga mix of biomechanical with
aspects of biodynamics. We didnt have the term biody-
namics then, either. We thought we should be teaching
classic stuff and building other things in, offering other
stuff in postgraduate courses. It really wasnt working. In
1992, we had a meeting at Karuna [Institute, Franklyn
An Interview with Franklyn Sills
Kate White, RCST

The most important basic need of
the little one is for its love to be
received. The deepest woundings
occur when the babys love is not
received.
and Maura Sills teaching institute for Biodynamic Cra-
niosacral Therapy, psychotherapy, and mindfulness prac-
tice] where we acknowledged that we werent teaching
what we were practicing, which was much more in rela-
tionship to the deeper tides. We were teaching CRI
[cranial rhythmic impulse] work. This CRI is not a tide;
it is a variable rhythm generated by the forces at work in
the system. Its like the waves on top of the tides.
It took 10 years to shift the curriculum slowly each
cycle. We shifted to a two-year training, and the trainings
overlapped, and everyone had to bring their own under-
standing. We are run as a collegiate organization where
everyone co-teaches. So it is not about one teacher. I al-
ways try to encourage schools and training organizations
to develop a co-teaching approach. So it took ten years
for us to deepen into the intention, for us to learn a lan-
guage. There was no language at the time, so I had to
develop a lot of the language along the way.
I brought Dr. Beckers work into the craniosacral
field. He was known in the osteopathic profession but
not in craniosacral therapy. I used his idea of the inherent
treatment plan, and I expanded on that. Then I had to
coin terms like midtide and states of balance and develop
perceptual exercises to get to people aware of the tides
within themselves and in relationship to the clients mid-
line. I had to do a huge amount of work re-languaging
things and developing perceptual exercises in training
situations.
I came to learn through Michael Shea and gradu-
ated in 1999. Where were you in relationship to your
process then?
In 1999 we were still very much in transition. It was-
nt until 2002 that I started to feel comfortable with the
training course. It was around 2005 that everything was
layered in a way so that by the end of the training, a stu-
dent rests into primary respiration in themselves and in
relationship to the clients system. The student could
settle into stillness and deepen into the holistic shift,
which is another term I came up with. I like that term
better than the patient neutral. [Ed note: The holistic
shift is when the clients system quiets down. Then the
treatment begins.] They could deepen into the holistic
shift and see what level of the healing process emerges
and have a right relationship to
it. So we use the holistic shift
really as a gateway to the mys-
tery of the healing process and
the wide perceptual field.
Along the way, I developed a lot
of contemplative exercises
around sensing primary respira-
tion, exercises around sensing in
yourself, the tide, the long tide.
So it has been quite a journey.
Even in this current training we
we are layering the
work, even how we
are using the lan-
guage. I think every-
one in the field is
doing that. It is a very
vibrant, alive field. I
think different people
are finding their own
way in it. Around
1996 at Karuna Institute, we stopped teaching any bio-
mechanical processes. We stopped teaching the engage-
ment of the system outside primary respiration. I stopped
teaching motion-testing. I stopped teaching following
patterns to edges or functional technique. We just left
that stuff until we can get the students into a space where
they are very resonant with the pacing of primary respi-
ration and learn appropriate skills at the different levels
of unfoldment. Like when a person cant get out of the
CRI because of shock in the system or dissociation, how
do you resource a person, help them deepen into primary
respiration to help them clear some of the shock. Or,
what skills are appropriate once a person can move
through the holistic shift and get into the tides? If proc-
esses arise at midtide, how can a person deepen with that
in such a way so that the whole healing process deepens?
We teach certain augmentation skills of natural processes
in the midtide when they are appropriate or helpful,
largely in terms of primary respiration/long tide and dy-
namic stillness at work through resonance and holding
and entering a state of presence with the emergent proc-
ess. In terms of the pre- and perinatal territories, what I
find very powerful is that as you deepen with a clients
process over some sessions, what starts to emerge are the
deeper expressions of their conditions, the various condi-
tions and contingencies they have had to meet from the
very beginning of life. Being resonant with that is very
important because it allows the practitioner to have an
appropriate relationship to it all. It can be Right Relation-
ship, knowing that they are holding the embryo, the pre-
nate, and the birthing infant while they are holding an
adult (if it is an adult that they are holding).
There is something about holding those deeper proc-
esses with love and awareness that helps the whole heal-
ing occur, because most of the pain from those territories
was when we as little onesprenate, embryo, birthing
infant, young infantlost a sense of being received by
the other because of the conditions present. There is a
wonderful analyst named Ronald Fairbairnhe is not
alive anymorewho said that the most basic need of the
prenate and infant isnt to be loved. Because in his un-
derstanding, and certainly mine, they already know love
if they havent been traumatized. If they have not been
overwhelmed, their hearts are naturally open. The most
Potency works within space.
Randolph Stone
have made changes in how
important basic need of the
little one is for its love to be
received, for its love to be
seen as love and received.
The deepest woundings oc-
cur when its love is not re-
ceived. I find this to be true
in life, also. When you are
working with someone at the
table, these processes of loss
of connection, loss of being
One of the things I didnt learn as a biodynamic
practitioner about working with babies was working bio-
mechanically and functionally to relieve compressive
forces. I am wondering if you could clarify this for me?
It is about differentiation. If I am working with a
baby and there is occipital compression and some vagal
nerve involvementmaybe the baby is having colic or
respiratory difficulty, and I am holding the little poopsie
in my hands. Hopefully, we have developed a relation-
ship and a family field [see Castellino interview, p 5]. I
will settle with the little one and then sense an inhalation
phase, and in that phase I will feel a natural augmenta-
tion of space in the tissue field at its height. I will aug-
ment a little space in the tissue field, whether it is a su-
tural area, or an interosseus force, or at the occipital or
mastoid areathat is quite common. So I am not saying
not to do anything, but how I am teaching people to do it
is within the natural arising of space as the potency
manifests it. Rather than grabbing on to the tissue and
say, just disengaging the suture, what I am waiting for is
the forces to manifest it.
One of the places where I have gotten confused is
that there is lots of information out there from different
sourcesin books, etc. Exactly how is it that you help a
little one? What I am trying to do with this newsletter is
to bring a lot of things together. How did we get here
and where are we going?
My big learning of working with babies was proba-
bly 18 or 19 years ago, when I opened a free clinic in my
hometown. We were all cranial practitioners. There was
myself, an obstetrician who was trained by the Suther-
land Society and also trained by me. And we had another
cranial person. We had this wonderful family clinic. We
had a lot of teenage mothers come in who had been aban-
doned. We had young families. The intention was to gen-
erate a holding field for the whole family and form a re-
lationship to the little one with the knowledge that the
little being is a sentient being. It may not understand our
words, it may not have the language, but it will under-
stand our intentionality. One of the things that we tried to
do is to model that for the young parents so that they
would not speak over the baby or about the baby, but
speak with the baby. That was really wonderful. I had
been doing that for years but not in a clinic context. I had
been doing it on my ownnoticing the compressive pat-
terns from birth or even deeper, like umbilical shock
from the prenatal period from the mother, like whatever
was going on with her.
I always wait for the potency to
make the decisions. Sometimes I
will help that along in various
ways if the system is locked at a
certain level.
Ronald Fairbairn received, loss of love itself
start to emerge in the field. We are also holding that
wounded little one in our hands. The pre- and perinatal
work helps to create a field for holding that territory rela-
tionally. One thing that may be different between a Bio-
dynamic Craniosacral approach and a classic osteopathic
approach is that we are relational: We hold the relation-
ship, and we hold the relational wounding in the field. I
think that is important. So we also need relational skills
in those territories.
So you stopped teaching anything biomechanical
and functional?
Yes, we are purely biodynamic in terms of the tissues
and working in relationship with tissues. If you enter the
holistic shift and things deepen and a healing process
starts to emerge through the tidal potencies within the
fluid field, the tissue field, very commonly a form begins
to organize around an inertial fulcrum. The potency shifts
towards a fulcrum, the tissue field starts to organize ho-
listically around that. As you deepen with that particular
fulcrum, ideally the system then organizes a healing in-
tention as a whole and in relationship to that. Dr. Becker
used to say that its as though a new fulcrum is now or-
ganizing for healing purposes. The intention is to deepen
and widen until a state of balancea dynamic equilib-
riumemerges and to keep deepening with that. If the
system cant manifest a healing process at that level be-
cause of the level of shock or inertia or density of forces
in the fulcrum, then certain augmentation skills can be
helpful, like augmenting space or augmenting fluid tide
and tidal potencies. So skills taught are not about follow-
ing patterns to edges or the effects of those forces, or
about engaging the tissues in mechanical ways. Potency
works within space. A classic approach is to follow the
surge or potency of inhalation and, at the height of the
surge, augment spaceif there was a lot density there,
the potency can then shift more easily. Another classic
approach is to augment or amplify fluid drive towards a
fulcrum. Within the context of the midtide and the terri-
tory of the system not being able to deepen, these are the
kinds of skills I teach. They are not biomechanical skills,
they are very much in relationship to the biodynamics of
the system and are used only in this context.

Then, invariably, with
whatever compressive issues
are generating, there are al-
ways the emotional and psy-
chological issues for the baby.
There is a need for reassur-
ance, contact, containment
and reconnection with mom
sometimes. I find what really
helps with babies is a combi-
nation of our empathy and
offering space when it is help-
ful, especially through the midline. There is commonly a
lot of midline protection. If the system is overwhelmed
in birth process or even earlier, the potency will act to
protect the midline. That is one of the first things that
will happen. It tends to feel like the whole midline is
closing down. So I find offering space along the midline
for babies extremely helpful, especially along the phase
of inhalation. And offering space to the patterns, within
the pacing of the tidal potency, is really helpful.
For the craniosacral community, it still may be con-
fusing, although I am getting a better sense of where we
are by completing these interviews. Can you clarify even
further?
Well. This can be very political. People get very split
about it all. For me, that is very sad. For me, it is not
about what you are doing, it is more your mental set. If
you have a biomechanical mental set, finding things that
are wrong and making it right is your mindset. You tend
to look at effects of forces. It goes back to the old classic
A.T. Still: Find it, fix it, leave it alone. So there is a cer-
tain biomechanical mental set where you are orienting to
following patterns to edges, where you are orienting to-
ward decompressing. That is not necessarily bad if the
system is resourced enough. If the client can take up the
intention and youre not imposing something that is inap-
propriate. The edge I have is that sometimes the system
actually needs to maintain that fulcrum. If you do force it
to shift, then the whole system shifts. It is not just about
that fulcrum. I always wait for the potency to make the
decisions. Sometimes I will help that along in various
ways if the system is locked at a certain level. It can
take six to ten sessions. People can come in off the
street very inertial. It can initially be about shock,
really. And resources. I do a lot of felt resources: Peter
Levine resourcing work; stillpoint work; deepening;
orienting to long tide in myself, to their midline. Wait-
ing for their system to make that shift. That can take
five to ten sessions. Once they can make that shift then
things take off. Then, I find that a good 90 percent of
the time, I am in resonance with the forces, and 10 per-
cent of the time I am augmenting space or whatever.
Once the system can deepen into the holistic shift and
primary respiration, the Breath of Life takes over. Does
that make sense? It is a mental set. A biodynamic mental
set is one where you are oriented towards the organizing
forces that are generating the patterns. You dont need to
motion-test or analyze because, as the holistic shift deep-
ens, the appropriate sequencing of the healing process
will naturally emerge. I cannot analyze or motion-test for
that. Actually, that will get in the way. I havent had to
motion-test in years because what is happening is already
there. Just like you know some-
one is wearing a sweater that is
green. It is already there. Within
the resources of a person, a lot of
things can help. I am not against
doing things, either. I just find I
dont have to do things, like ad-
justments or whatever.
In terms of trying to help the
practitioner understand the influ-
ences of how the biodynamic is
being wedded with the pre- and perinatal work, in PPN
we include a lot of biodynamic language and vice versa.
Do you have anything more you want to say about that?
Its funny because for me it is one thing. As you
deepen into relationship with the person, the early orga-
nizing fulcrumwhich is of the psyche not just the
body, of the psycho-emotional form of our self-system,
the way we defend ourselves and the way we continue to
defend ourselves even if we dont have tothat will
naturally emerge as we are holding a persons system. I
find that I am holding the
embryo, the prenate, the
baby a lot of the time when
I am holding the adult.
Sometimes, I will help the
person on the table find that
prenate for themselves and
form the relationship to him
or her: In the end, we will
all have to parent ourselves.
If I have a client who
knows how crazy I am, I
may be holding a pattern of
the baby within them and I
I find what really helps with
babies is a combination of our
empathy and offering space
when it is helpful, especially
through the midline. There is
commonly a lot of midline pro-
tection. If the system is over-
whelmed in birth process or even
earlier, the potency will act to
protect the midline.
will say, Hello, little poopsie! Gee, your poopsie is
here.
I think that is what I wanted to know. I am curious
about your clinic. How long did you do that?
We did that for three or four years. One young
woman, she was 18. I remember this particular woman.
She came in with a newborn. They were having a hard
time bonding. She desperately wanted to bond. The baby
girl was turning away from her and crying a lot at night.
She came to us weekly for almost a half a year. It was
weekly, then every other week. We had dealt with mid-
line protection and occipital compression issues, but they
were not bonding and the baby was still crying at night.
Then, one extraordinary session, after six months, she
was holding her baby up and I was holding the babys
head and mom was looking at her. At times, I will talk
with the baby and ask mom to talk with baby. I felt the
infants system deepening, and then this huge expression
of anger came up and the baby formed little fists and
started pounding her mother. The mom started crying. I
said, You know, Mommy didnt want to hurt you. It
hurt Mommy, too. And you both really did the best you
could. The mommy said, I didnt want to hurt you. I
am so happy you are here. And the little one just
melted. Just looked at her and melted. The anger just
waved past.
You wrote about that in your book!
Oh, did I? It just came into my mind! You will be
happy to know I am rewriting all those books.
The Foundation course I teach is very relational in
nature. It is presence and relationship. It is about forming
a relationship to primary respiration and yourself in rela-
tionship with the other person. The first seminar is
largely about presence and relationship and coming into
relationship in some way with primary respiration. And
stillness. From there, the students practice.
In second seminar, it is about holistic shift, deepen-
ing and what is arising from there. The first seminar is
oriented to the fluid tide so we start from an embodied
place of the tidal potency. The second seminar, we start
to add the tissue field and the idea of embryological mo-
tility and how that manifests throughout life. We have
introduced the inherent treatment plan. The whole course
is about the inherent treatment plan now.
The first seminar is presence and relationship and
the relational field settling. I bring in the idea of the
holding field, the early holding field. I bring in some of
Frank Lakes workthe basic needs of being and well-
being for prenates and embryos and little ones. We look
at the nature of the holding field and how that plays out
our whole life. We look at it in a way that is present and
receptive. All that is brought in, in the first seminarthe
holding field, especially how those basic needs can be
activated in session work. The need to be acknowledged,
received, unconditional acceptance at the level of being,
for ones very being to be held and acknowledged. We
do some field work around the being-to-being field: gen-
erating unconditional acceptance from your heart center
in relationship to self and other. We do a lot of work on
the holding field. Within that, we orient to the underlying
health through primary respiration, fluid tide, and the
tidal potencies initially. I like to start from that embodied
place, with a relatively wide embodied perceptual field.
In the second seminar, we bring in the idea of the
holistic shift as part of the inherent treatment plan,
resonance at the level of being, and primary respiration
at that level, and we add the tissue field, fluid tide, tissue
motility. We look at the embryo and embryological
movement, things like that.
Third seminar, we start to look at once the holistic
shift deepens, how healing processes start to emerge,
how to perceptually orient. Where there is a huge mush,
how you start to differentiate. This means that, and this
means that. We look at midtide dynamics as the inherent
treatment plan deepens and how decisions are made at
the level of tidal potencies. We also begin to look at long
tide and the dynamic stillness, because the holistic shift
may keep deepening. Although we introduced perceptual
awareness of both midtide and long tide in seminar one,
in the third seminar, we emphasize the perceptual shift
from midtide to the long tide, especially within the deep-
ening of the state of balance.
I include the long tide and midtide in the term pri-
mary respiration. It is all the same. And so people natu-
rally allow their minds to shift as primary respiration
shifts. So you hold the wide perceptual field and start to
be aware that the long tide is starting to move through
the field. The healing processes are emerging at that
level. Or the tidal potencies engage a fulcrum and a pat-
tern of organization emerges and a state of balance is
manifest within a fulcrum. So we start to look at all the
ways that the inherent treatment plan manifests a healing
process at different levels. The third seminar mostly or-
ganizes around the midtide and Dr. Beckers three
stages, and in subsequent seminars we orient to the ways
that healing processes emerge from long tide and also
more directly from the dynamic stillness.
Fourth seminar is about augmentation skills if the
system cant deepen, if there is inertia within a fulcrum.
And we teach those augmentation skills in relationship to
the forces generating the inertia, not just the patterns or
compression that are the effect of those forces.
Each seminar, the first morning is always organized
around the inherent treatment plan and deepening it. For
instance, the perceptual exercises around long tide as a
starting point, or around the shifting of potencies in the
fluids, or deepening into dynamic stillness as a starting
point. So along the training, we build in perceptual
pieces so a person can orient to any level of healing proc-
ess as it emerges.
In second seminar, we introduce embryology, and
we keep that going. So in the fifth seminar, we introduce
birth and birth patterning. We look at things like classic
cranial base patterns, which we call cranial distortion
patterns, in relationship to birth and the prenatal period.
So we bring in patterns quite early in relationship to
forms and tension patterns that you may sense in a per-
sons system.
Wow, you have completely integrated everything!
Yeah, it is all one thing. Completely integrated from
embryology right through the birth process. Then every
pattern within the body is always referred back to the
prenatal process or the birth process. So it is always put
in those terms. By the end of the training, it is second
nature. It completely flows through the training as one
thing. The focus is cranial work. The understanding of
a way so that the students practice them in between the
seminars for a few months so that they will be in a posi-
tion to need the information they are about to get in the
next seminar. They are just frustrated enough to need the
next piece!
Sounds good. If there were five top skills you think a
professional craniosacral therapist should have, what
would they be?
1. The ability to be still and present.
2. The ability to form a safe holding environment
and negotiated relational field.
3. The ability to perceive and orient to primary
respiration and the unfolding of the inherent
treatment plan.
4. The understanding of the conditions in a per-
sons system, the holistic shift, and what
emerges from there.
5. The ability to be heart-centered and not take
anything personally.
6. To know when something is enough.
Is there anything new you want people to know
about your new work, Franklyn?
The most important thing is the direction we have
gone in terms of a purely biodynamic approach. It is not
doing nothing. It is like the Taoist wei/wu wei: doing/not
doing. You are doing in response to the emergent proper-
ties of the healing process. Doing always arises out of
resonance with what is emerging.
The most important thing is the
direction we have gone in terms
of a purely biodynamic approach.
You are doing in response to the
emergent properties of the heal-
ing process. Doing always arises
out of resonance with what is
emerging.

Being
CS rhythms
Negative cognitions

Mid-tide
Positive insights

Long tide
Positive insight dissolves
tracelessly into pure nature of mind
pristine awareness of being

Janet Evergreen
Poem representing the pearl of insight from a three-month
silent retreat.
embryology and the birth process and their patterns flow
right through the whole training.
We dont teach about birth or cranial patterns until
the fifth seminar. The students are aware that patterns are
there organizing around a fulcrum, though. In the fifth
seminar, we start talking about the classic patternslike
side-bendingbut we dont teach motion-testing; we
teach about the felt sense of the pattern. We use water
balloons. We hold the bones and move them. As you
deepen and the pattern emerges, you can sense the pat-
tern, its organizing fulcrum, and also the little baby that
is manifesting that pattern in the adult that is there.
The cranial skills are taught in a layered pattern.
What we try and do, especially the first five seminars, is
layer the perceptual skills and the practical skills in such
Myrna Martin, RCST has been a
nurse and family therapist for 40
years, integrating body-focused ther-
apy, object relations theory, and at-
tachment theory. She was a student
of, and then teaching assistant for,
pre- and perinatal therapists William
Emerson and Ray Castellino, RCST

and now teaches prenatal, birth, and
attachment trainings that integrate embryology, attach-
ment theory, neuroscience, Biodynamic approaches, Heart-
Math, and trauma resolution. She is a master of working
with small groups of adults doing prenatal and birth proc-
ess work (womb surround workshops) and specializes in
working with families with newborns and children under
age five. Myrna will be presenting Holding the Whole:
Baby, Mother, Father" at the BCTA Conference in Septem-
ber.
How did you come to pre- and perinatal work and
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy?
I came to the work through personal experience:
miscarrying a twin and then the surviving twin being
born prematurely. Although I was an experienced mother
with two older children, I had no knowledge of prenatal
and birth trauma and how this dysregulates the babys
nervous system. I was looking for ways to help settle my
newborn son and not finding the help I needed. I re-
solved to learn about what was happening for my son
and find healing ways, once he was old enough for me to
start travelling to seek this knowledge. I did know then
that the most important thing for my child was my con-
sistent presence and attention.
When my son was eight years old, I felt he was big
enough for me to go away to study with William Emer-
son. I had been introduced to William Emerson through
my integrative body psychotherapy community. I com-
pleted a masters degree in family therapy while doing
my own research and reading widely in the pre- and peri-
natal field. I met Ray Castellino and decided I would go
to a birth process workshop. When I had a profound ex-
perience of feeling totally safe while working deeply
with my own implantation, I decided to start the training
he was offering the following Monday!
The model Ray was developing was a strong con-
tainer for doing early work. This container, or holding
field, allowed me to feel very safe. Safer than I had felt
anywhere else in my study of pre- and perinatal work.
That is really necessary. He required that participants
take a five-day introduction to Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapy, and I registered to do this with Chris and Mary
Louise Mueller. During my first trade at the training, I
dropped into experiencing the awe of the Breath of Life
moving through me in a fountain spray. I thought, This is
where I belong. This is my domain.
How do you see pre- and perinatal work integrating
with Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy?
In my experience, how pre- and perinatal work and
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy integrate best is, most
importantly, in the practitioners quality of being with
his/her coherent selfholding quiet presence in them-
selves and in the field they are creating with their clients.
Craniosacral therapy offers a large window of support to
us as practitionersthe ability to hold a great depth of
being while supporting someone else in their pre- and
perinatal work. Also, understanding embryology and
then understanding attachment and the influences on the
growing embryo and fetus are important. The key, for
me, is to settle deeply within myself when working with
others, no matter how young or old that person may be.
What are the most important things about pre- and
perinatal therapy a cranial practitioner needs to know
and understand?
In my experience, two things are essential to sit with
people, be they newborns, or adult who have dropped
into very young places. First, doing your own pre- and
perinatal work helps a CS practitioner to truly understand
his/her own embryology, later prenatal period, birth, and
attachment at an experiential levelsomatically, spiritu-
ally. This dramatically helps develop the capacity of be-
ing with the health of ones own system. It allows us to
An Interview with Myrna Martin
Kate White, RCST

Doing your own pre- and peri-
natal work dramatically helps
develop the capacity of being
with the health of ones own
system. It allows us to be clear
and settled enough that it invites
the health of another persons
system to come forward.
be clear and settled enough that it invites the health of
another persons system to come forward. If the practi-
tioner is comfortable with and knowledgeable about
themselves at these levels, then they are more able to
support another person here.
Second, in pre- and perinatal work we touch the
emotional levels of these early experiences. In the small-
group womb-surround model [see Castellino interview,
p 5], we develop a safe container where we, as adults,
can experience these layers in a titrated way. Touching
in and experiencing those deep levels is essential for
healing early trauma. We cant skip over that if we want
deep healing, in my personal and professional experi-
ence. All four levels of experience need to be explored
and healed: energetic, somatic, emotional, and mental.
Pre- and perinatal events occur in relationship and so
need to be healed in relationship. The conception, prena-
tal, birth, and attachment patterns we lay down in this
very early period of our life are what we work with to
experience and come into settling with in my trainings.
When we are working with babies and young chil-
dren as Biodynamic CS practitioners, we are working
with the relationships in the family. The resonant field of
the family is expressed within the child. The child has
grown his/her body in the context of that field, and this
field is also manifesting during the birth and nursing
process. When there are significant perturbations in this
field, they will be held in the babys body and the baby
will grow his/her body and psyche in an adapted way as
a result. That makes developing the skills to work with
the dyad of the mother-child or the triad of mother-father-
child extremely important. Craniosacral practitioners can
support parents to differentiate their own pre- and perina-
tal history from their babys history, which will be a tre-
mendous support for the baby.
As humans, we continue to come under the influence
of our early imprinting. Doing pre- and perinatal work
gives practitioners the skill to work in a positive way
with their own activations, both for their own benefit and
that of their clients. For CS practitioners, the activation
present, especially at the embryonic level, in the field of
the client will sometimes cause their own activation to
arise. Being able to settle with our own activation and at
the same time hold the potential of the potency and
health in the early embryological time is crucial.
Within a 10-module craniosacral training, we touch
on these issues, but there is so much material to be
learned and experi-
enced that it is not pos-
sible to work with these
issues in depth or with
all their layers. In an
advanced training like
the pre- and perinatal
training and its accom-
panying process work-
shops, there is the space
to work with our own
pre- and perinatal is-
sues. Once we do this,
we are more prepared to work with our clients as these
issues arise, and to work with them nonverbally and ver-
bally, and to work with babies and young children and
their families. The pre- and perinatal training also pro-
vides the time to learn about the new developments in
neurobiology and in trauma resolution.
Many CS practitioners are exceptionally skilled at
the energetic, somatic, and perceptual levels; verbal
skills can be more challenging. Having the education and
practice opportunities with verbal skills to support their
clients at this level, and in the mental realm, without get-
ting lost in the story, is a valuable advanced skill taught
in my pre- and perinatal training.
Myrna, can you tell us more about the importance of
knowing the new neurobiological advances and what, in
your opinion, they are?
The continuing advances in western scientific re-
search in neurobiology are supporting us in what we al-
ready know in the craniosacral and pre- and perinatal
fields: that the brain and nervous system are constantly
evolving in response to our experience. We can grow
new neural connections and therefore new patterns of
relationship with
ourselves and with
others. We can
change our stress-
coping mecha-
nisms to ones that
fully express the
health in our sys-
tems, and we can
support ourselves
to heal at the car-
diovascular, im-
mune, and neuro-
endocrine levels
even if we are into
our fifties, sixties,
seventies, or older.
Through practices
that increase our
ability to be self-
reflective in each
Pre- and perinatal events occur in
relationship and so need to be
healed in relationship. The reso-
nant field of the family is ex-
pressed within the child. The
child has grown his/her body in
the context of that field.
moment and not follow our unconscious old patterns we
can gradually change our physiology and our emotional/
belief system landscape. Pre- and perinatal work exposes
the unconscious landscape of that very early time so that
we can actively identify the imprints and work with them
consciously. More and more, we are discovering effec-
tive practices for changing and regrowing our brains and
nervous systems. I spend considerable time working at
this level with my clients and my trainees.
Could you summarize the top five skills you think a
BCST practitioner needs to have?
I think that the most important skill is to be gentle
and compassionate with ourselvesour little ones
and remember that this human life is a process of self-
understanding that keeps going on till our last breath. So
we have great space to be imperfect!
Then, more specifically:
1. To be in our coherent, settled self when we are
with our clients, and in our life.
2. When we are not in that being state, to be able to
identify that and know how to resource our-
selves to return to that coherent self, or to use
our own activation in a way that is helpful for
our client.
3. To know our own historyat a somatic, emo-
tional, mental, and spiritual levelso that we
can actively work with the old patterns that will
arise.
4. To truly understand that we grow ourselves in
the field of our families, and that even as adults
that field is with us. Thus, when we are working
with clientsbe they babies or adultswe are
working in that field. It is embodied in us. It is
part of the resonant field that we are co-creating
with our clients in the moment, as well as the
larger, more expansive field we can also per-
ceive.
5. The skill of helping ourselves and all of our cli-
ents, no matter how old, differentiate from our
history and express the full potential that we all
hold.
BCTA Changes and Progress;
Linda Kurtz Retires as President

Linda Kurtz, BCTA President 2007
2009, retired from the board at the end
of her three-year term last May. Edwin
Nothnagel is the new President, and
Marilyn Angell has taken over Edwins
former position as Secretary. Dave Pax-
Organize a Wave Issue!
Would you like to see another Cranial Wave
issue around a specific topic? How about organizing
an issue, like Kate White has done with this one? I
will work with you to make it happen.
You can write articles, find Biodynamic thera-
pists to write about specific topics, conduct inter-
views, etc. Contact me, your editor, Linda Kurtz, at
[email protected].
Linda Kurtz
son remains in his position as Treasurer
and is head of the Website Development
Committee. Michael Brightwood, from California, joined
the board in May 2009 and has taken over Edwins posi-
tion answering email inquiries to the Board and Associa-
tion and sending out mass emails to members. Linda re-
mains active in the Association as Editor of the Cranial
Wave, Co-Chair of the Professional Consultation Com-
mittee, answering the BCTA phone, and as a resource for
the Board. In her dual role as Board President and Editor
of the Cranial Wave, Linda was easily able to transmit
organizational news to the membership. Under current
structure, the Board must direct organizational news for
publication to the Editor.
Linda joined the BCTA board in 2006, during a time
of organizational turmoil, though she didnt know that
until she attended her first board meeting! Part of the
turmoil was the inevitable result of a new organization
birthing itself. She became President of the Association
in 2007, after the then-Presidents sudden resignation.
The Association was in both a financial and existential
crisis. During 20072008, the Association reorganized to
achieve ongoing financial solvency. Equally importantly,
under her leadership the Board initiated dialogue with
the Foundation teachers over the Boards role in Founda-
tion trainings and the teachers role in the organization.
Teacher-Board relations had been strained for many
years, for a variety of reasons. Prior to the start of the
2008 Breath of Life Conference, the Board and the
teachers attending the conference met to get to know
each other and to begin talking about the issues before
them. A great deal of good will was created at this meet-
ing, and the foundation for a change in some policies.
The current board and teachers have finalized some of
those policies and begun work on others.
Cherionna Menzam wears many
hats. She is licensed, registered, or
certified as an occupational therapist
(OTR/L), massage therapist (LMT),
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist
(RCST
), Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapy teacher, and Continuum
Movement teacher as well as in Body-
Mind psychotherapy and Authentic
Movement. She is trained and experienced as a dance/
movement therapist and has a PhD in pre- and perinatal
psychology. As a therapist she has facilitated personal
growth and healing in private practice and hospital set-
tings, conducted seminars and workshops across the U.S.
and Canada, taught developing therapists in graduate pro-
grams for somatic psychology and prenatal and birth psy-
chology, trained practitioners in Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapy, helped pregnant parents and new babies to tran-
sition through birth, and taught dance and movement
classes. She is part of a new generation of teachers inte-
grating Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and pre- and
perinatal psychology. Cherionna will be presenting a work-
shop on Continuum and BCST the day after the BCTA Breath
of Life Conference in September.
Can you tell me a little bit of your history? I know
you have done a lot. I would love to know the sequence
of work that you have done and how you are integrating
pre- and perinatal work with Biodynamic work.
When I lived in Vancouver, I was doing various
kinds of bodywork and massage with a psychotherapy
aspect to it. I had clients spontaneously birthing them-
selves off of the massage table. I didnt have training in
that. I had a couple of clients who were men who were
much bigger than I wasabout six feet and overwho
would just start pushing into my hands. I would guide
them through my hands and onto the floor, which
shouldnt have been possible. My work then included
craniosacral therapy. I was trained in Upledger work. I
was also working with pregnant women at the time, and
getting curious about that. Then I moved to Boulder to
go graduate school in 1993 to get a masters degree in
somatic psychology with an emphasis on dance move-
ment therapy.
Whenever we work with the body and movement,
we naturally are working with very early preverbaland
often prenatal and perinatalexperience that is recorded
in the body. Our body is very involved at that period of
life. So I very quickly began to learn about pre- and peri-
natal psychology as part of my somatic psychology train-
ing. I had several brilliant teachers at the Naropa Insti-
tute. Christine Caldwell, who founded the somatic
psychology program there, was one of my mentors.
One of the things I learned from her is that our move-
ment sequences can be interrupted by various experi-
ences that we have had. In therapy, those sequences can
be completed so that whatever trauma is there can get
resolved. She very much held that in a pre- and perina-
tal perspective.
I think it was my first year at Naropa that William
Emerson came there and taught a workshop. I lapped it
up! I ended up studying fairly intensively with William
for six years. I also learned a lot more in the somatic psy-
chology program that is very relevant. Part of it was that
I had another wonderful teacher there, Susan Aposhyan,
who works with Body-Mind Centering (BMC). She has
applied that to psychotherapy. In BMC, we work with
early developmental movement patterns. Bonnie Bain-
bridge Cohen, who developed BMC, found ways for
adults and older children to resurrect our early movement
patterns so that we can fill in gaps we might have had.
The way I think about it now is that we can access the
resource of those early movements. So that is something
I have incorporated into my work.
Also in BMC we look at different systems in the
body. The organs, for example can be associated with
different emotional states. Moving from our different
body systems can also be resourcing. For example, we
can use our bones to help us ground and feel more solid.
That is also something that influences the way I work.
I look to see that, as Susan Aposhyan says, all the cli-
ents peopleall the different body systemsare talk-
ing to each other and are involved. That resonates for me
with the Biodynamic Therapy view of holding the whole.
An Interview with Cherionna Menzam
Kate White, RCST

We are incredibly resilient
beings. We have survived
everything we went through
before, during, and after birth.
And one of the best things any
kind of practitioner can do is to
hold thatthat potential, that
resilience of the client; their
strength, their health.
To me that includes the idea of holding the different sys-
tems in each of us.
As part of my coursework at Naropa, I was in an-
other class with Christine Caldwell called Birth and
Death in Body-Centered Psychotherapy. I was sitting in
that class when I realized that I needed to go on to get a
doctoral degree in pre- and perinatal psychology. That
was quite shocking to me. I hadn't been planning on go-
ing back to graduate school at all before going to Naropa
for my MA. Then, I ended up going to the Union Insti-
tute (now called the Union Institute and University),
which was the only place at the time to get a degree in
pre- and perinatal psychology because there werent any
programs in that field. I had to create my own. It was
really inspiring, healing, and a lot of work. While I was
finishing my PhD, I started the Biodynamic training in
2000. I studied with John and Anna Chitty in Boulder,
Colorado. I am now teaching that work.
To me, Biodynamics is very pre- and perinatal work.
As part of my PhD, I studied embryology. Since I was
designing my program myself, I did it in a way that made
sense to me. I could not imagine doing pre- and perinatal
therapy without a full understanding of embryology, be-
cause our experience prenatally is, to me, happening so
much on a cellular level. Our body is forming and as part
of that, we are having experience. At that time in life, we
dont have the same kind of language skills, the thinking
skills, the cognitive skills that we have later to process
and remember things with, but our bodies are forming
rapidly and taking in whatever is happening. I felt it was
important to understand how that happens. To under-
stand it more fully, I created a course for myself in
embryology. I gathered some people that I had studied
Body-Mind Centering with and, from that perspective,
we found ways to explore embryology together through
movement. I dont know if you have ever looked at em-
bryology textbooks, but they are written in medicalese
rather than English! I studied the books and tried to put
that information into a form I could understand. I then
presented the material to the group, and we explored it
together through movement. That turned into workshops
I called Embodying Embryology, which I am actually
doing again now with Continuum Movement. I also
taught it as a course at the Santa Barbara Graduate Insti-
tute. To me, that is perfect background for Biodynamics
because we work with so much with embryological
forces.
Can you tell me more about that, that integration of
the pre- and perinatal with Biodynamics?
Around the time I moved to Santa Barbara, I began
working intensively with Ray Castellino. I worked with
him for four years. I took his training, assisted him in
numerous process workshops and in his clinic with
babies and children. I felt I learned a lot from him about
resourcing. That has really affected how I look at and
practice Biodynamics. First of all, what I see in the field
of pre- and perinatal therapies in general is a tendency to
orient to the trauma of that time. What I have been learn-
ing over the years as I have learned more and more about
What I see in the field of pre- and
perinatal therapies in general is a
tendency to orient to the trauma
of that time. What I have been
learning over the years as I have
learned more and more about
resource is the value of looking
at that time as a time of great
potential.
As we are forming in the womb,
we start out with the same quali-
ties that we look for in Biody-
namics. We start with stillness,
with fluid, with potency. As we
start to form, the first thing that
happens is that we form a mid-
line. When were orienting on
that level as practitioners, one
way to look at this is that we are
enhancing the accessibility of the
resource.
resource is the value of looking at that time as a time of
great potential. That is what we do in Biodynamics.
We orient to the health and the potency. When we are
working with these early embryological forces, we are
working with a great potential. So, when I work with
embodying embryology with Continuum, I see it as ac-
cessing the potential of our early formation. When I am
working with someone or teaching nowalso when I am
teachingto me it is very much about embryology. I feel
it is very important to acknowledge that when we are
working with embryological forces, what was incomplete
or unresolved from that time can come up.
We also have a great opportunity to access the uni-
versal forces. As we are forming in the womb, we start
out with the same qualities that we look for in Biody-
namics. We start with stillness, with fluid, with potency.
As we start to form, the first thing that happens is that we
form a midline. This is something we orient to in Biody-
namics. When were orienting on that level, one way to
look at this is that we are enhancing the accessibility of
the resource. Were orienting to the universal forces that
are prior to whatever history might be there. When we do
that, I go back to Christine Caldwells words: those in-
complete sequences have the opportunity to complete in
a relatively easy way where they can be easily integrated.
It reminds me of something you said before when I
asked to interview you. You said pre- and perinatal work
is everywhere. Can you speak a little more about that?
First of all, I think about my dissertation, which was
on prenatal and birth themes in dance and movement.
When I was working on that, my committee would ask
me these really irritating questions like, What do you
mean by movement? I thought everyone knew what
movement was. And it really made me think. I realized
that movement is everything. Movement is everywhere.
There is a bigger kind of movement, like dance or walk-
ing or athletics or driving or whatever. And then there
are less obvious movementsthings that you might not
consider to be movementsthat are smaller, like you
and I sitting here talking. Our eyes are moving. Our
mouths are moving. You are writing. Then there are
more subtle movements, like our hearts beating. Breath-
ing. Then there are even more subtle movements, like
primary respiration, which is happening all the time
throughout life.
heart forming, or of birth with every breath. It is as if
we have the opportunity to revisit the prenatal formation
or embryological forces with every breath of primary
respiration. Primary respiration is there wherever life is.
It is everywhere.
What in your opinion are the five top things a Biody-
namic Craniosacral Therapist should know and under-
stand?
1. I think it is really important for every practitio-
ner to be aware that we are aware, sentient be-
ings from the very beginning. That is important
not only when working with babies but with
people of any age, because we all were babies.
We all have history, shapes, fulcrums from our
pre- and perinatal experience. It is important for
the practitioner just to be acknowledging that
that is there, to be appreciating that history is
part of us.
One thing I learned in my study of pre- and
perinatal psychology that I dont hear people
talk about is that our pre- and perinatal material
is, by definition, shadow material. It is uncon-
scious. We are not aware of it as a culture. When
we are having experience we are not aware of, it
can have a very strong hold on us. Just by hav-
ing a practitioner have an awareness that a client
may be coming in with pre- and perinatal history
in their system can help to bring that out of
shadow so that it can start to resolve.
2. I think it is also important that when we are do-
ing any kind of bodywork that involves a person
lying on a table, any kind of work where the
client is lying down, that we are aware that lying
downbeing horizontalis a regressive posi-
tion. Having a practitioner attending also resem-
bles the early experience of infancy, when we
are tended to by mom or another caregiver. We
as practitioners hold the client within a neutral
Our pre- and perinatal material
is, by definition, shadow mate-
rial. It is unconscious. We are
not aware of it as a culture.
When we are having experience
we are not aware of, it can have
a very strong hold on us.
What I looked at in my dissertation was what move-
ment was happening prenatally and at the time of birth.
That is expressed in at least two different ways. There
are imprints from that time that can affect how our
movement happens on any level throughout life. Those
are the conditions of our histories. Then there are the
universal forces moving through us. We have primary
respiration. It is there from conception on. Franklyn Sills
talks about the ignition that happens at conception, at
four weeks when the body folds and the heart forms and
starts beating, and also at birth when we expand out. A
smaller ignition is also happening with each breath of
primary respiration. So if you think about it, you can
understand that as the ignition of conception, or of the
receptive field, like the loving, welcoming,
accepting environment a baby is designed to be
born into. We are meant to come into the world
being held in that way. When babies come in,
they are relatively helplessthey cant hold
themselves up, they are in that horizontal posi-
tion. It is important for practitioners to be aware
of that, to honor that and appreciate that. Clients
are in a vulnerable position, as they were as little
ones, and they may find themselves slipping into
early psychological material. They may find it
difficult to differentiate between what happened
back then and what is happening now. It can be
helpful to be talking to the person and helping
them to stay in present time.
2. I think here I want to go back to what I was
talking about earlier: the importance of orient-
ing to the health. I think if I could offer one
thing to any kind of practitioner, it would be
about the value of orienting to the health in the
system. Usually when our clients come for
whatever kind of work, they have a problem
and they come because they are orienting to the
problem. They need us to listen and be recep-
tive to whatever their story is about the prob-
lem. And, at least as much as that, they need us
to be holding something much larger and
deeper than that. To me, that is a great offering
of Biodynamics.
So again, often in pre- and perinatal thera-
pies, the major orientation is to the problem.
And often when people are coming for pre- and
perinatal kinds of therapy, people are coming to
me because they know I have that in my back-
ground. Even if they are coming for cranial
sessions, they may come because they have
some prenatal or birth issue. That is their orien-
tation. They are really focused on that problem.
If I go right in there with them, then we are
both stuck in that place. It is much harder to get
out of it. It is likely to be much more painful
than if I hold that within the larger field of what
they are capable of and the potential of the
forces that were available at that time and are
still available now.
4. In relation to that, Ill say that we are incredibly
resilient beings. We have survived everything
we went through before, during, and after birth.
And one of the best things any kind of practi-
tioner can do is to hold thatthat potential, that
resilience of the client; their strength, their
health. And not be locked into whatever ful-
crum they are coming in with. Hold them as
being much more than that. Again, being much
more present-centered. The client has already
survived whatever it was.
5. If you think about how little ones are meant to
be held, they are meant to be held with respect
and appreciation. They are representatives of the
mystery. They know exactly how to form, how
to grow. When we hold our clients, one of the
greatest gifts we can offer them is to hold them
in the same way, the same way we would hold a
little one in the womb, or growing in life or
growing through birth.
If you think about little ones in the womb,
no one tells them how to grow. They know ex-
actly what to do. It is the same thing with the
inherent treatment plan; we appreciate that it
knows what to do. One of the greatest things
we as practitioners can do is to put our own
egos and our own needs to be the great practi-
tioner in the background and really appreciate
the brilliancy of the beings we are with. And
hold them the way we would hold a little one
in the womb, knowing that their system knows
exactly what it needs to do. Whatever kind of
practice the practitioner is doingeven in prac-
tices where there is more doingthat still
applies. I can do deep-tissue bodywork with an
appreciation for the forces in that persons body
rather than coming from a place of me needing
to do something to fix a person. Our job is to
hold that, to honor that, appreciate that, and al-
low it. We can resonate with that brilliance, that
Intelligence with a capital I. And so augment
it and support it.

Adelyn Botto, RCST
began her
practice in massage therapy and
myofascial release in 1993 and em-
barked on the study and practice of
craniosacral therapy in 1994. She
completed her Biodynamic Cranio-
sacral Therapy Foundation Training
in 2003, studying with Michael
Shea, Ph.D. She was a massage
therapy instructor from 20052007 and a teaching assis-
tant for a Biodynamic Craniosacral therapy training in
Vancouver, BC in 2006. Adelyns passion is the study of
affective neuroscience, somatic psychology, dance/
movement, and sculpture. Adelyn feels that the purpose
and direction of her work is to model a first-person per-
spective of the soma to clients and to teach them of their
nervous systems innate wisdom and the techniques they
can use to self-regulate and self-heal. She celebrates her
inner universe through various dance forms, yoga, and
bodywork. Adelyn is currently creating an interdisciplinary
bachelors degree in Applied Somatic Arts at St. Edwards
University in Austin.

The following piece was written after a session with
a newborn that took place the week after taking the
workshop developed by John Chitty, RCST
, BCST,
RPP on working with the social nervous system. Chittys
seminar, the Triune Autonomic Nervous System,
is based on Dr. Stephen Porgess polyvagal theory,
which states that the mammalian nervous system is tri-
partite, made up of the familiar sympathetic and para-
sympathetic systems as well as a social (or ventral
vagal) nervous system. The social nervous system is the
part of the nervous system an infant mammal uses to
relate to its mother and other caregivers and evolved so
that infant and mother would bond via feelings of love,
thus ensuring that the infant would be taken care of
throughout (and therefore survive) its extended depend-
ency. In addition to bonding mother and child, the social
nervous system moderates the sympathetic responses
that naturally arise in reaction to various stimuli, acting
as a brake on what could be socially rupturing behav-
ior, such as fighting or screaming.
A human infant turns first to its social nervous sys-
tem when relating to others. Social responses from the
environment help an infant feel safe and calm itself. If
the infants social community (mom, primary caregiv-
ers, hospital staff, etc.) are not meeting its needs, the
infants autonomic nervous system shifts from the social
to the evolutionarily more primitive sympathetic (fight
or-flight) responses. If these are not effective, the baby
drops another level, turning to the evolutionarily most
primitive (parasympathetic, or freeze) responses. When
an infants needs are repeatedly not met, these sympa-
thetic and/or parasympathetic response states become
habitual. Thus, it is important to re-regulate a babys
nervous system when it has become habituated to re-
sponding at a sympathetic or parasympathetic level.
The nerves involved in the social nervous system
are cranial nerves 5, 7, 9, 10, and 11. For example, the
facial nerve (CN 7) is involved in smiling and cooing,
social nervous system behaviors that are designed to
elicit feelings of love. There are several portals for ac-
cessing the social nervous system in therapeutic work,
including palpation of the cranial nerves along the face
and jugular foramen (cranial nerves 5, 7, 9, 10, and
11), touch, creating rapport with the client, and guided
visualization of positive social memories. The amygdala
is a key brain area for this stress-response sequence
because it seems to record how well previous responses
worked and compare current experiences to determine
which of the three autonomic response categories
would work best given past experience.
John Chittys material on the triune autonomic
nervous system may be found at ww.energyschool.com/
CSES_Home/Resources.html. Porgess original mate-
rials, as well as commentary on them, can be found by
googling Porges, polyvagal.

Today I had the honor and pleasure of working
with a small human creature of five weeks. The mother
had phoned me last Wednesday to see if I did cranio-
sacral therapy with babies. I have had a bit of training
in pediatric CST, but not much experience. I had hoped
to interview the mom on the phone the evening before-
hand, but when that didn't work out, I realized that that
was for the best. I wanted Mom to be able to tell her
baby's story with Baby present, so we could honor and
acknowledge it to Baby, and verbalize it for her. As
soon as I explained to Mom the implications of traumas
that occur to an infant when they are preverbal, she
A Baby Story
Adelyn Botto, RCST

started dialoguing with Baby about her story, telling it
to me and acknowledging it to Baby. Mom had decided
to take Pitocin to induce labor, but then the contractions
were so strong that she decided to take a mild pain re-
liever. However, she had a reaction to it, which caused
her to be too sedated to push. When Baby did start to
crown, Mom was informed that she had to wait because
the doctor would not be there for 15 minutes.
So Baby was trying to get out and was not allowed,
and the Pitocin and the pain reliever added some mixed
messages to the process! I started interjecting here and
there with, "Oh, that must have been confusing not be-
ing able to get out of Mom when you were ready, hav-
ing to wait for the doctor." Mom was great. She caught
on quickly and would tell the story as it happened, then
speak for Baby as to what her side of it must have been,
and then went into reassuring dialogue about how glad
she was that Baby did come into the world. I loved just
being there to empower Mom with knowledge and see
her applying it so effectively. I was privileged to see a
healthy mom-baby/caretaker-infant relationship in action!
Another piece to the story was that Baby could not
properly suck, due to an abnormal growth of the little
string-like thing at the base of the tongue (frenulum
linguae), so at three weeks it was snipped. After that,
both Mom and Baby got a yeast infection and tried a
mild medication, then a natural one, which got rid of
the infection but caused a reaction for Baby. Thus,
more trauma for Baby (and stress for Mom). At this
point, after acknowledging Baby's experience, I vali-
dated Mom and commended her for sticking with it.
She had gone through a lot, too, especially with trying
to breastfeed. Many moms give up very easily with
feeding complications. Then Mom looked at Baby and
said, We did it together! Baby's arms went flying as if
to cheer, and both were smiling and gurgling away.
Talk about bonding!
So, here is the topper. Since the workshop on the
triune nervous system, one piece that stuck with me
was John Chitty demonstrating the motion of the neck
that we could expect to see babies recapitulate, the lift-
ing and turning to one side as the baby turns on its side
to get its shoulders through the birth canal. I had stud-
ied the birth pathway before, but his demo made me
really embody it! In fact, I have been doing it every
day since, and have completely released my neck at
the occiput on my compressed birth-side lie. But thats
another story!
Mom had reported that Baby was having great trou-
ble and discomfort turning her head to the right. This
was making it difficult for her to feed on both breasts.
Amazingly, Mom had already figured out that it was
the side that Baby was on when she turned (birth-side
lie) and was trying to get out when they wouldn't let her
(had to wait for the doc to get there). I told her about
giving resistance to the feet and I held Baby's head at
the crown, and together we encouraged Baby as she
pushed. Believe me, she was all about pushing! After a
few cycles of this, I suggested she let the work sit with
Baby's nervous system and to try repositioning her. She
put her on her shoulder and for the first time since birth,
Baby turned her head to the right with ease! She had a
look of surprise on her face and kept turning her head
that direction as if to try out the new sensation of free-
dom in her neck. At one point she even turned from left
to right and back a couple of times.
We hung out a little bit more, me mostly telling
Mom that she was already doing a great job of being
attentive to what Baby's needs were to heal her experi-
ence. I also told her about the social nervous system
and the fact that its nerves are in charge of sucking and
swallowing. I pointed out that perhaps there is a corre-
lation between Babys social world experiences thus far
and her difficulty in learning to suck. Next week we are
going to hear Baby's story about how her social world
seemed to fail her basic needs to survive (being born
and feeding) and honor her amygdala and cranial nerves
5, 7, 9, 10, and 11!
Janet Evergreen, MA, NCMTB has taught body-
oriented healing arts for over 25 years, witnessing our hu-
man enfoldment from pre-birth to birth, life to death, and
rebirth. As an independent learner, she appreciates men-
torship, being taken under a spiritual teachers wing, train-
ing intensively in all the stages of life for several years and
then beginning again. Janet was studying Biodynamic Cra-
niosacral Therapy before it was called that, being mentored
as a layperson by several biodynamic osteopaths of exqui-
site caliber. She supplemented her training with academic
degrees and advanced trainingsincluding CranioSacral
Therapy and Visceral Manipulation (Upledger Institute), an
MA in Conflict Transformation (Mediation) from Eastern
Mennonite University, training in peace building with youth
(Help Increase the Peace Program), Zapchen Somatics, and
Continuum Movementand also with her own personal
healing supported by psychotherapy (Eye Movement De-
sensitization Repatterning [EMDR] and Developmental
Needs Meeting Strategy [DNMS]), Neurofeedback, and Ti-
betan Buddhist meditation retreats. She has a special place
in her heart for children and is the spiritual director for a
unique alternative school in the barrios of Quito, Ecuador,
INEPE, based on Paulo Freire's popular education and peda-
gogy of freedom. Janet is currently on three-year sabbatical
to study, reflect, meditate, and write poetry. She lives with
her husband in Charlottesville, VA. For more information,
visit www.janetevergreen.org.

I was invited to the Downtown Family Healthcare
Center of Charlottesville, Virginia to meet with Greg
Gelburd, DO, Jackie Curtis, FNP (family nurse practitio-
ner), and Catherine Buck, CNM (certified nurse mid-
wife) to assist in their evaluation and treatment of babies.
The clinic had notified their parents of the opportunity
for a biodynamic craniosacral therapy well-baby check-
up, and three families had signed up. The staff knew me
as the baby expert because of my years of training and
working successfully with infants and children and told
the families that I was there to support the staff in refin-
ing their skills in evaluating babies through deep listen-
ing and gentle touch.
At the center, the baby is welcomed as an intelligent,
wise being and asked verbally and intuitively if there is
anything that they need or wish to expressphysically,
emotionally, or spirituallyfor themselves, their family,
or all of us By following the cues of the babies and fami-
lies, we listen to the inherent health and a treatment
emerges. For over 20 years, the staff and I have had the
privilege of working together and sharing our expertise
back and forth. Dr. Greg, Jackie, and Catherine have
highly trained hands and good intuition. We also have all
been parents. We enjoy a good relationship built on
knowing each other not only professionally but as family
friends. This contributed to the ease and power of our
sessions together that day.
I purposely didnt ask the staff for much background
information. I tell them that Im there to listen and follow
the baby. The baby knows what needs to happen. Babies
remind me to approach life with awe. Just holding a little
one and feeling the complexity and perfection of the hu-
man system sometimes overwhelms me, so, as I get
ready to work, I take a deep breath, come into alignment,
and open my field. I make a prayer and lean into Wis-
dom Company.
I was introduced to the first set of parents and their
twin sons (names are changed to protect privacy), Baby
Bob and Baby Steve. Ohhh.
I started with Bob, just holding him close against my
body, listening with my hands on the sacrum and oc-
ciput. He began to curve to his right, curve and curve,
and I just followed. Then he stopped. His cranial rhythm
stopped, too, and he was in a stillpoint. It seemed to feel
so comfortable and familiar to him that I thought, Hes
been here before.
His mother said, Thats the same position he was
in the womb, squished up to make room for his brother.
Then what? I asked his body with my hands. From
their curve, his little legs went straight out over his belly
and his left hip became even more pronounced.
Yup, Mom said, he came out butt first.
I had Jackie,
the nurse practi-
tioner, and Dr.
Greg put their
hands on Bob.
We gave the lit-
tle guy lots of
support to move
with ease. We
gave some extra
attention to his
hips. The left hip
may need some
follow-up, I
thought. I asked
the parents to
watch for asym-
metry as he grew
and to bring him
Craniosacral Therapy with Four Babies
Janet Evergreen
Janet Evergreen working with baby.
back if he needed
another session.
Bob went to sleep
on the table as we finished, relaxed, breathing evenly,
his tides expressing greater amplitude.
It was Steves turn. He had just nursed and was com-
fortable in his moms arms. He lasted a few moments in
my arms before he went into distress, crying. I continued
tracking his tides and tuned in.
Tuning in sounds simple, but it represents my life
skills. It requires practice and experience gained only by
putting in the hours and years. For me, it is a process of
holding sacred space by being aware of my own three
tides, by resting in awareness of Tibetan Buddhisms
Wisdom Company and the enlightened beings who assist
us, and by mindfully and gently allowing whatever needs
to happen to happen. I listen with my hands as an exten-
sion of my heart and prayers.
The primary restriction was in Steves chest. His
breath was in his belly only, irregular and shallow. He
was in a stillpoint that seemed habituated. This, I real-
ized, was the issue. His story was beamed to me as intui-
tive vision. It was about separation from brother Bob,
who was born first, and then separation from Mom when
the babies needed immediate medical attention. Okay, I
get it, I said to him. Lets treat you in Moms arms.
Were not going to overwhelm you. Mom had tears run-
ning down her face.
I asked her what she wanted Steve to know.
She said, I need to let go of my guilt.
Yeah. Do you know how? I asked quietly.
Talking about our feelings.
Yes. Tell Steve, I said, being purposely brief and
vague so that Mom could find her own way. I didnt
need to know more.
Her tears gently fell on his chest, which was now
releasing heat, the contraction in his tissue softening as
his tissue widened and spread. I looked around. Dad was
holding and rocking Bob. It felt important to include eve-
ryone, so as a trained mediator, I distilled the essence of
the familys words, feelings, and tears as best I could in
my mind into a statement of shared common ground. I
then offered an open-ended question to Dad, which he
might choose to answer or not.
Dad, this sounds like a family agreement. Are you
in agreement, too, that from now on, feelings like guilt
and sadness can be expressed?
Yes, he says. Yes.
Dr Greg, who delivered their babies, and whom they
trust, began to talk about how people can have the feel-
ing of being together even when apart. We tell them to
acknowledge that their energy can be and is united
around their family, always.
Dad, I ask, do you feel your energy with your
family even when you are at work?
Yes! he says emphatically. The yes enlivens his
energetic connection to his family.
Bringing the previous conversation in, I ask, Can
you feel your energy as love, without getting stuck in
guilt?
Yes. His shining eyes show surprise that he has
been acknowledged. He look into his wifes eyes, which
are no longer filled with pain, which are now open and
clear depths of understanding. Their connection is loving.
I feel another ohhh. It is a sacred moment, and un-
spoken prayer emerges for me from the shared field: In
this room all of us, we wish this for ourselves and all
beings, that we all feel this love and connection. Then
there is the feeling that we all could take a nap and just
drink it in.
All in the room are nodding their heads, and the box
of tissues is passed around. Nobody has dry eyes. Steve
has let go, arms at ease. He is breathing effortlessly, in-
cluding his chest in his breath. We comment on how
beautiful, how perfect these precious ones are. Already
they are teaching us.
Bobs experience was so physical, Steves so emo-
tional. Twins and yet their experiences are different al-
ready. Since both were considered healthy, these restric-
tions would have gone untreated except that their parents
volunteered to share with us. Bob would have been com-
pensating in his hips; Steve might have been more vul-
nerable to respiratory illness. The treatment of both chil-
dren and support for the parents took 30 minutes.

There is another mom and dad, and their baby
daughter, Chelsea. Dr Greg and I put hands on, listening.
I sit in a chair with my legs together and out in front.
Chelsea, balanced on my legs, with her head at the top,
rotates calmly, gradually turning her head toward my
feet, following her birth spiral. Dr. Greg kneels on the
floor and comes in underneath, slowly parting my legs,
to give Chelsea better support. She becomes restless,
agitated, yet doesnt push away, still gives our hands her
weight. She is telling us something, and when I tune in
with curiosity, I feel inside myself an attention to time.
Like, Hurry up! I look up at Mom and Dad.
So what was happening during the birth? Was
someone in a hurry? Like maybe the doctor had to be
somewhere?
No, it wasnt the doctor, Dad said. It was Mom
that was yelling.
Mom sheepishly nods her head. I said, Get that
baby out of me now! It was really intense, and I just
wanted it over.
Chelsea is listening to every word, and her tissue
responds by spreading and melting. Ive brought her
closer to my head so that
her body can be cozy on
my chest. Her crown in my
lap, she continues to head
towards the doctor kneeling
at my feet. Dr. Greg is
using my legs to guide and
support her heads rotation.
I look at Mom and Dad.
This is a family teaching
moment. The silence is deep and I sense a unified field
of the Long Tide holding us all, infusing something wor-
thy of naming. I search inside: What are the words to
keep this integration of past and present effortless and
simple?
So, Dad, as Chelsea grows, what do you want her to
know about intensity and time? From your life, what
helps?
Dad says, Slow down. I tell myself to slow down;
I know how to embody and resonate this possibility into
the field. Then, using as simple and as appreciative lan-
guage as I can, I mirror what I have heard, saying, Its
safe to slow down.
Moms tears start to well up. She says, Thats my
issue. I get anxious about time. Not just at the birth. I get
anxious about it all the time.
Mom, would you accept some support for this
now? I ask.
The nurse midwife places a hand behind Moms
heart. Mom nods yes and continues telling us her story,
including that at her own birth the doctors were afraid
she and/or her mother might die. We talk about how our
stories stay with us and affect us. Chelsea has her own
story, I think, and even in this moment we could redo it.
Mom and Dad, what do you want your daughter to
know and carry with her? We murmur their soft affir-
mations to Chelsea as she continues to spiral and un-
wind: Its safe to take your time. You and Mom are
safe.
Mom acknowledges that she needs help redoing her
story. The staff tells her she can schedule time with them
in the future. In the meantime, she says, I can remem-
ber that no one is dying. When I feel anxious, I can re-
member that my husband supports me and that we can all
slow down and enjoy this beautiful girl.

When the staff and I open the door to our last ses-
sion, we meet baby Saul and his mom. Saul looks like a
very wise old man, with a bit of a scowl on his forehead.
He is nestled down in his car seat and is beginning to
sweat in the warmth of the cushions. I take him out and
notice that his CRI is compromised, his diaphragms a bit
rigid. His eyes maintain contact with mine. I feel that he
is sizing me up and asking for freedom from a profound
suffering. I wonder if Mom is up to the deep honesty this
look commands.
She doesnt miss a beat. As Saul and I gaze into one
anothers eyes, the story unfolds. Mom tells me that there
were medical complications during the pregnancy and
that she battled depression while facing the fact of rais-
ing her son as a single mom. She didnt know how she
could do it, but then she found her strength within: She
wanted this baby.
Saul takes it all in, his tissue warming, spreading. I
feel myself sigh in my own body.
Through my hands I convey: Dont hold the grief in
your body. Its O.K. now. It was so difficult and over-
whelming. I hear you, I feel your pain, and you have sup-
port. Sam responds. From being upright, snuggled
against my chest, his body inverts as if turning inside the
womb to prepare for birth, and he is spiraling, his whole
body unwinding tension, his head down, leading the
movement.
We whisper to him, You are wanted and loved. He
breathes more deeply and his body softens.
Later that day, I see Saul and his mom in the parking
lot. Mom says, Saul has been singing ever since his
treatment. I lean over for a look. Sure enough, Saul,
who I now realize did not make one sound the entire 30
minutes of my contact with him, is now joyfully hum-
ming and making happy baby sounds.
The joy is contagious: Mom is sparkling, and I have
a lighter step as I walk to my car.
PRACTITIONER FEATURE
Janet Evergreen
Kate White, RCST

Janet Evergreen has been a
craniosacral therapist for over 25
years. When I moved to Charlottes-
ville over a year ago, I was able to
witness her practice before she re-
tired into a three-year sabbatical.
Like many true healers, she has
taken the bodhisattva vow and lives
a deeply spiritual life in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
About the integration of Biodynamic work and the pre-
and perinatal world, she says: Settling myself to touch
and be present to the beginning of life is a doorway to
endless cycles of birth, death, birth, and a profound, pre-
cious gift to open, pure awareness. Clearing patterns of
stress or overwhelm so the little one and their family can
settle, bond, and claim their gifts is essential. To me, the
education of and caring for our children is the foundation
for sustainable world peace.
The roots of Janets knowledge about the body are
found in her extended family, where multiple generations
practice dance, movement, and yoga as a celebration of
life. Janets awareness of her path toward becoming a
therapist began with a near-death experience due to a
skiing accident at the age of 16. Beyond pain, she was
held in vast, spacious light and received a lasting, vivid
message: You will be healed. You will heal. It was
then that she began an intensive yoga practice that helped
her manage the chronic pain that resulted from the acci-
dent. She went on to complete high school, college, and
several advanced degrees through both formal and highly
independent, creative educational processes.
Janet met her husband through work and study on a
kibbutz in Israel. Their union shares a deep commitment
to children and spans their wide differences in personal
and spiritual growth. Relationship plays a significant role
in Janets work and informs her approach to practice and
teaching. Their daughter was born prematurely when
Janet was 20 years old, and this exposed Janet to the re-
alities of neonatal intensive care. She then opened her
home in West Virginia to emergency foster care and
adopted two brothers. She often brought children to the
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine for treat-
ment and eventually spent six years there attending study
groups and being mentored in cranial osteopathy by the
doctors. The combination of life experience and mentor-
ing with the doctors at the school formed the foundation
of her biodynamic craniosacral practice.
Janet moved to Charlottesville over 20 years ago,
where she established a private practice. She graduated
from the Virginia School of Massage and studied with
the Upledger Institute, including taking classes with John
Upledger and John-Pierre Barral. During this time, the
biomechanical craniosacral therapy movement was just
beginning in this country. Janet has completed the pro-
grams in CranioSacral Therapy and Visceral Manipula-
tion. She has also studied Zero Balancing and holistic
counseling and has a masters degree in conflict transfor-
mation and trauma healing.
Along the path, she immersed herself in the Sunray
Meditation Society, where the Native American and Ti-
betan Buddhist teachings meet. She had the good fortune
of meeting her heart teacher, Khenchen Konchog Gyalt-
shen of the Drigung Kagyu lineage, at the society.
Through Sunrays PeaceKeeper training, she has studied
and taught healing with sound, movement, breath, and
ceremony. Other somatic approaches, such as Continuum
and Zapchen, have been equally vital. Her commitment
to teaching self-healing through diverse therapies, educa-
tion, and practice has been significant.
Janets primary education in craniosacral therapy
was through mentoring by osteopaths familiar with the
work of Drs. William Sutherland, Robert Fulford, and
James Jealous before Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy
was articulated in its beautiful unfolding by Franklyn
Sills and others. In the past 10 years, one of her greatest
delights has been the availability of books and other re-
sources written or developed by other passionate biody-
namic practitioners.
Of her life and practice, Janet says:
My background in dance and yoga gave me a hun-
ger to explore the edge between wellness, move-
ment, and our body-mind connection. I have been a
full-time student of life and the healing arts. I am
committed to the transformation of suffering of all
beings. Three things bring me to the work and sup-
port my ideas for practice and teaching:
1. The love of children: We all need to be
touched and held.
PRACTITIONER FEATURE
Sarah Gayle Shoenbaum
Kate White, RCST

Sarah Gayle Shoenbaum, MA,
OTR began her studies at the Univer-
sity of Michigan, where she received
an undergraduate degree in psychol-
ogy with a minor in dance. After
graduation, she went on to New York
University, where she studied occu-
pational therapy. She is certified in
neurodevelopmental treatment for babies, which gives a
framework for looking at the components of movement
and provides guidelines for facilitation of normal move-
ment. In addition, she has completed all of the course-
work for certification in sensory integration. She also
uses therapeutic music, based on the work of the French
otolaryngologist Alfred Tomatis, to support auditory
processing and affect regulation.
Sarah began her study of craniosacral therapy with
the Upledger Institute and then went on to complete the
Foundation and pediatric biodynamic trainings with Mi-
chael Shea. In 2009, she completed a prenatal, birth, and
attachment professional training with Myrna Martin,
RCST and is about to finish the second year of Somatic
Experiencing. She has also taken many seminars of Con-
tinuum with Emily Conrad. She resides in Pleasantville,
New York, where she has a private practice at her home
and at a sensory gym. She says:
I am in awe of the relationship between the mother
and her child and how powerful it is in shaping who a
child is. Even a tight-fisted hand that I would have previ-
ously looked at on simply a physical level can be pro-
foundly affected by addressing the relationship between
the mother and the child. As the child can reach out to
the mother with an unencumbered heart, the hand opens.
So many things lead into who we are.
Sarah conducts her integrated private practice at her
home office, in peoples homes, or at a sensory integra-
tion clinic. She specializes in children from newborn to
age five, and adults. She sees a lot of genetic disorders,
speech delays, cerebral palsy, and autism among her pe-
diatric population. In the first part of her session, she
enhances the nervous system through (1) supporting
2. Meditation: The observation of the mind, how it
unfolds, and the grace of silence and listening;
with an awareness of wisdom presence.
3. The gift of open-ended questions.
She anticipates returning from her three-year sab-
batical to teach meditation, mentor and support study
groups, and to teach biodynamic craniosacral therapy in
fall 2011.
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 pro-
tected by copyright law. It is required to be used
with the RCST designation; thus, RCST
. Pref-
erably the trademark symbol will be super-
scripted; 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 Ther-
apy, 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),
RCST
s may use testimonials from clients regard-

ing the clients experiences with Biodynamic Cra-
niosacral Therapy as a modality. However, practi-
tioners 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 Biody-
namic 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.
mother-infant attachment, (2) sensory integration, and /or
(3) Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. The second part
of the session consists of play therapy that allows for the
expression of a functional skillfor example, feeding,
puzzles, beads, handwriting, playing on equipment,
mother-child interaction, and fantasy play. Of Biody-
namic Craniosacral Therapy, she says: "As children drop
into their body they are able to express more of their true
self. Even in the middle of the session, as the three-
dimensionality of the body is accessed, a child is able to
access more of their language and play. Its like what
Jesus said: When two or more are gathered in my name,
there is love. It is being with someone and listening to
the fluid story with no judgments.
Of the future, Sarah says, I just started mother-
infant groups called Eat, Sleep, Love. Supporting infants
and mothers is the most revolutionary thing that we can
do. It is most challenging because you can have all of
this information but the bottom line is how do you sup-
port the mother to be with the child resting in her reser-
voir of love?
Some Resources on the Web Around
Embryology and Birth
www.birthpsychology.com APPPAH (Association
for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health) website,
for exploring the many mental and emotional dimen-
sions of pregnancy and birth.
www.bionalogy.com Created by Richard Dryden,
who has a beautifully written book on embryology
(Before Birth 1978), the website is, in the authors
words, dedicated to students and practitioners of nurs-
ing and midwifery. The aim is to make use of meta-
phors, models, and analogies as a way of understanding
biological themes linked with health care.
hwww.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-labor-and-
birth_3658872.bc Great videos of natural birth, epi-
dural birth, and more. Also a really good animation that
shows the baby pushing with its feet.
www.doulapattiramos.com Incredible photos of baby
being born, placenta, cord.
polomedicina.cab.unipd.it/immed/kilian-atlas
Hermann Kilians Geburtshulflicher Atlas (1835-1844),
anatomical drawings and illustrations of birth instru-
ments by the German gynecologist.
brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/museum/esim.asp?c=500156
Beautiful photographs of 18
th
century wax and terra
cotta models of all stages and sorts of pregnancy and
birth, with excellent commentary, in the Istituto e
Museo di Storia della Scienza in Italy. Many of the
models can be found elsewhere on the web as well.
Google birth under Videos for a plethora of home-
birth videos.
I. Background Training in the Primary Period.
a. License to touch.
b. 700-hour Foundation training or equivalent in
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy.
c. Training in the dynamic morphology of the hu-
man embryo.
d. Training in fetal-placental development and
theories of pregnancy.
e. The psychoemotional aspects of pregnancy.
f. The psychoemotional aspects of birth.
g. Knowledge and understanding of attachment,
intersubjectivity, and bonding in the mother-
infant relationship.
h. Knowledge of systems theory in relationship to
families with infants and children.
i. Newborn anatomy and physiology.
j. Affective neuroscience.
k. Traumatology.
l. Required reading and DVDs. See IX and X be-
low.
II. Practitioner Self-development.
a. Awareness of ones primary period.
b. Clarity and forgiveness regarding ones relation-
ship with family of origin.
c. Regular supervision.
d. Regular body work.
e. Regular psychotherapy as needed.
f. Regular spiritual practice.
g. Continuing educational development.
III. Assessment of the Primary Dyad.
a. Mother support is critical.
b. Maternal state of mind must be known.
c. Assessment of infant-caregiver contact (eye con-
tact, skin-to-skin, voice, etc.).
d. Capacity of caregiver to settle infant after
arousal.
e. History of stress during pregnancy (especially
death and illnesses or previous miscarriages).
f. Birth history of infant.
g. Sibling position and sibling histories.
h. Therapeutic office set-up (toys, such as snakes,
dolls; a tunnel; etc.).
i. Relating to the primary dyad as a system, rather
than the infant as the identified patient.
j. Assessment of parental need for treatment prior
to practitioner working with their children.
IV. Assessment during pregnancy.
a. Maximize stress reduction during all phases of
pregnancy.
b. Preconception and fertility-related issues.
c. Fetal placental development.
d. Knowledge of theories of pregnancy.
e. First trimester issues and skills.
f. Second trimester issues and skills.
g. Third trimester issues and skills.
V. Labor and Delivery
a. Ability to orient to stillness.
b. Ability to synchronize with Primary Respiration.
c. Ability to support doula and midwife.
d. Knowledge of the four stages of labor and deliv-
ery.
e. Knowledge of the effects of caesarian section on
the mother and baby.
f. Knowledge of the effects of vacuum extraction
and forceps on the mother and baby.
g. Knowledge of the effects of labor-induction
drugs and anesthesia in general on the mother
and baby.
h. Knowledge of the effects of premature cutting of
the umbilical cord.
i. Time between delivery and attachment to the
mothers breast.
j. Assessment of mothers state of mind during the
first year after giving birth.
VI. Assessment of the Child (coming into relationship).
a. Establish emotional contact.
b. Simple explanation of what the practitioner does
and why the child is there.
c. Negotiate permission.
Standards of Practice for Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapy with Infants and Children
Michael J. Shea
Michael Shea, PhD is one of the pre-
eminent educators and authors in the
fields of somatic psychology, myofas-
cial release, and Biodynamic Cranio-
sacral Therapy. He received his mas-
ter's degree in Buddhist Psychology at
Naropa University and a doctorate in
Somatic Psychology at The Union In-
stitute. For many years he has also
apprenticed with a medicine man on the Navajo reserva-
tion in Arizona. Dr. Shea was certified in 1986 as a Full
Instructor of CranioSacral Therapy by the Upledger Insti-
tute and was an advanced Rolfer for 20 years. He is cur-
rently adjunct faculty and teaches human embryology in
the pre- and perinatal psychology doctoral programs at
the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute in California. He is a
student of the Dalai Lama and his teaching style is
grounded in his spiritual practice of developing compas-
sion with the use of manual therapy. His clinical focus is
on treating infants and children with neurological prob-
lems and developmental delays. He was on the founding
board of BCTA/NA and is a founding member of the Inter-
national Affiliation of Biodynamic Trainings.
d. Work while the infant is being held by the
mother-person.
e. Attempt to have a hand on the mother whenever
possible and appropriate as she holds her child.
f. Learn the infants cues, especially when the
child uses his or her hands or arms to push the
practitioners hands away.
g. Timing and frequency of bowel movements.
h. Timing and frequency of breastfeeding or bottle-
feeding.
VII. Biodynamic Approaches with Infants and Children
a. Discover the availability of Primary Respiration,
Stillness, and a pause.
b. Orient to ones self and the space three-
dimensionally.
c. Synchronize with a slow tempo in self and other.
d. Practice attunement between the natural world,
the soma of the practitioner, and the mother-
child dyad.
e. Wait for ignition points, especially secondary
respiration.
f. Clarify the existence of an external stillpoint and
the possibility of an internal stillpoint.
g. Maintain centered attention in the heart by sens-
ing the movement and activity of the heart as it
connects through to the hands.
h. Access the felt sense of love both in yourself
and the mother-child dyad through the felt sense
of heat and warmth radiating from the core of
the body.
i. Be cheerful and playful rather than therapeutic
and clinical.
j. Practice with gamma touch, which is awareness
of the back of the hands, arms, and soma.
VIII. Functional assessment of the child.
a. Negotiate the contact boundary for touch.
b. Notice signs of distress from contact.
c. Visual apprehension of cues from the autonomic
nervous system.
d. Visual apprehension of reflexive movements.
e. The suck-swallow-breathe reflex.
1. Mouth, face, neck, tongue.
2. Cranial base.
3. Ribs and shoulder girdle.
4. Diaphragm.
f. Consideration of first-breath dynamics.
g. Consideration of first-gaze dynamics.
h. Reflux and colic.
i. Evaluation of caesarian section effects.
1. Surgical shock (planned or emergency).
2. Anesthesia shock.
3. Umbilical shock (premature cutting of the
cord).
4. Separation shock (shock of separation from
mother).
j. Effects of vacuum extraction.
1. Location of device on the head.
2. Number of failed attempts at placement of
device.
3. Evaluation of hiatal hernia and viscera.
k. Effects of forceps.
l. Pulmonary circulation, heart and lungs.
m. Spinal and sacral mobility.
n. Birth CV-4.
o. Umbilical shock in general.
p. Viscera especially liver, stomach, small intes-
tine, and large intestine.
q. Orthopedic considerations.
1. Torticollis.
2. Feet, legs, pelvis.
r. Cranial molding.
IX. Required and recommended reading.
a. Wendy McCarty.
1. Welcoming Consciousness: Supporting Ba-
bies Wholeness from the Beginning of Life.
b. Alan Schore.
1. Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self.
2. The effects of a secure attachment relation-
ship on right brain development, affect
regulation and infant mental health from
Infant Mental Health Journal, Vol. 22, Nos.
12, pp. 766.
3. The effects of early relational trauma on
right brain development, affect regulation,
and infant mental health from Infant Mental
Health Journal, Vol. 22, Nos. 102, pp. 201
269.
c. Daniel Siegel.
1. The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiol-
ogy of Interpersonal Experience.
2. The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attune-
ment in the Cultivation of Well-Being.
3. Parenting from the Inside Out: How a
Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You
Raise Children Who Thrive.
d. Michael Shea.
1. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Volume 1.
2. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Volume 2.
e. Michele Odent.
1. The Scientification of Love.
f. Thomas Verny.
1. Tomorrow's Baby: The Art and Science of
Parenting From Conception Through In-
fancy.
g. Peter Nathanielsz.
1. Life in the Womb: The Origin of Health and
Disease
h. Carrie Conte and Debby Takikawa.
1. Calms: A Guide to Soothing Your Baby.
i. Ed Tronick.
1. The Neurobehavioral and Social-Emotional
Development of Infants and Children.
j. Daniel Stern.
1. The Present Moment: In Psychotherapy and
Continued on page 42
May 89, 2010, The Fluid Body: Diving into the Primordial
with Continuum Movement, Cherionna Menzam, Nelson, BC.
Revive, rejuvenate, rest, and rebirth within a nurturing fluid field.
Experience the gentle breaths, sounds, movement, and subtle
awareness of Continuum to deepen into your fluid body and essen-
tial Health. $120 ($65 Saturday only). To register: Heather Hut-
chinson: [email protected],250-229-5280. More info:
www.cherionna.com.

June 26, 2010, Continuum Movement: Living Skills for Chal-
lenging Times, Cherionna Menzam, Victoria, BC. Continuum
uses breaths, sounds, gentle movements, and subtle awareness to
facilitate deepening into an embryological state of fluidity and
stillness, similar to that experienced with Biodynamics. This class
introduces you to a practice that can support your Biodynamic
skills, as well as your health, resilience, and creativity. $75 ($65 if
received by June 12). To register: Christine Knussmann 250-388-
7988, [email protected]. More info: www.cherionna.com.

July 710, 2010, Restoring Resilience in the Nervous System,
Mary Louise Muller, Christopher Muller, Debra Bochinski.
An intro level class also taken by many graduates to deepen their
relationship with biodynamic work. Three tides, stillness, and the
relationship field. ANS, Social Engagement Nervous System,
Stress Response, Nociception, resonance, and coherency. Begins a
full foundation training. $605 regular price, $555 early price three
weeks in advance. Registration up to day of class. Size limited to
20. To register: [email protected]. More info:
www.lifeshapes.org.

July 2124, 2010, Natural Facial Rejuvenation, Mary Louise
Muller, Susan Lange. Intro-level class. Blending acupressure and
listening touch, learn to help yourself and your clients look and
feel better. Listening touch comes from biodynamic craniosacral
roots. $847 regular price, $547 early price three weeks in advance.
Registration up to day of class. Size limited to 20. To register:
[email protected]. More info: www.lifeshapes.org.

September 1516, 2010, The Fabric of Wholeness: Immersion
with the Field, Carol Agneessens, Santa Cruz, CA. Transforma-
tion is the dynamic movement from identification with content to
becoming the context. Through sensation based exploration and
session exchange, participants we will experience immersion with
spacious timelessness as a key for sustaining change. $195. More
info: Carol Agneessens, www.biodynamicschool.com.

October 510, 2010, Blessing of Insecurity, Julia Marie Gillett,
RCST
, Lake Elsinore, CA. BCST Advanced Skills offered in a

residential retreat format which includes all meals and lodging.
NCBTMB approved training. $1070. Reg deadline Aug 24, 2010.
Size limited to 20. To register: [email protected], 970-
318-0074. More info www.JourneyInStillness.com.

October 1822, 2010, The Neuroembryology of Relationship,
Carol Agneessens, Noord, Netherlands. We will cultivate trans-
parency in Biodynamic touch as a portal to sensing the formative
movement of these embryonic neuro-functions. The ectoderm is
simultaneously surface (the membrane of our skin) and deep
within our bodies. It is the perceptual bridge between our inner
and outer world. 875 Euros. More info: Carol Agneessens,
www.biodynamicschool.com.

November 1720, 2010, The Breath of Life- Biodynamic Cra-
niosacral Foundations and Practices, Mary Louise Muller,
Christopher Muller and Debra Bochinski. Intro level class also
taken by many graduates to deepen their relationship with biody-
namic work. Three tides, stillness and the relationship field. His-
tory of craniosacral work, potency, embryology and the midline,
the Inherent Treatment Plan, resonance and coherency. Begins a
full foundation training. $605 regular price, $555 early price three
weeks in advance. Registration up to day of class. Size limited to
20. To register: [email protected]. More info:
www.lifeshapes.org.

February 1115, 2011, The Interrelational Pathways of Mind:
Heart, Viscera, and Brain, Carol Agneessens, Noord, Nether-
lands. 875 Euros. More info: Carol Agneessens,

March 1519, 2011, Ignition, Life Force, and the Alchemy of
Transubstantiation, Carol Agneessens, Santa Cruz, CA. As we
deepen into a feeling sense of the multi-dimensionality of biody-
namic perception, an understanding of transubstantiation follows.
At these moments, ignition and its heating potency transform the
density of both body and belief. More info: Carol Agneessens,

Spring 2011 (Fri Sun, exact date TBA), Transference, the
Shadow and Biodynamics, Cherionna Menzam, Nelson, BC,
Canada. The Breath of Life supports whatever is present, includ-
ing our unconscious intentions, patterns, and beliefs. Learn to
recognize and navigate these challenging waters arising in Biody-
namic sessions. Cost TBA. To register: [email protected],
250-352-1655. More info: www.kuteniinstitute.com,
www.cherionna.com.

Fall 2011 (Fri Sun, exact date TBA). Not Just Glue: Revisit-
ing the Nervous System with a Spotlight on Glial Cells,
Cherionna Menzam, Nelson, BC. Join the paradigm shift in neu-
roscience as the focus shifts from neurons to the other 90% of the
COURSE LISTINGS___________________________
RCST members now have the opportunity to list BCST and
BCST-related courses in the newsletter. We are offering this free
service so that our members have the opportunity to see all of
the offerings out there and to plan their schedules and budgets
well in advance. We are offering this on a trial basis. The editor
has the discretion to determine what constitutes a BCST-related
course and to list or not list any submissions. Please contact
[email protected] for information on how to format your
listings. Due to the time involved in formatting numerous listings,
listings that are not properly formatted may, at the editors dis-
cretion, not be run.
Advanced and Related Courses
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. Cost TBA. To register:
[email protected], 250-352-1655. More info:
www.kuteniinstitute.com, www.cherionna.com.

September 24, 68, 2011 (6 days), Origins of Perception: Dy-
namic Gestures of the Embryo, Carol Agneessens, Noord,
Netherlands. 1050 Euros. More info: Carol Agneessens,
Introductory BCST Courses
July 13-18, 2010 (1st of 10 seminars), Biodynamic Craniosac-
ral Therapy, 2-year practitioner training, Body Intelligence,
Minneapolis, MN. This in-depth comprehensive training honors
the classical roots of CST along with the recent developments in
the field. Emphasis is placed on the development of palpatory,
perceptual and treatment skills, which students will learn and inte-
grate step by step. More information, cost, payment options and
registration: www.bodyintelligence.com, Holly 612-558-4646.

September 9-13, 2010 The Breath of Life: An Introduction to
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Cherionna Menzam, Nel-
son, BC. An introduction to essential practitioner settling and
relational skills and Biodynamic concepts, with hands-on experi-
ence. This seminar is designed to help you decide if the full 10-
module foundation training starting November 4 is for you, as well
as offering skills you can apply in any practice or relationship in
your life. $650. Class size limited to 20. To register:
[email protected], 250-352-1655. More info:
www.kuteniinstitute.com, www.cherionna.com.

October 1115, 2010, Introduction to Biodynamic Craniosac-
ral Therapy, Carol Agneessens, Noord, Netherlands. The basic
concepts of a Biodynamic Craniosacral approach will be intro-
duced through somatic explorations, perceptual exercises, biody-
namic theory and session exchange. 875 Euros. More info: Carol
Agneessens, www.biodynamicschool.com.

November 1013, 2010, Introduction to Biodynamic Cranio-
sacral Therapy, Carol Agneessens, Palo Alto, CA. . The basic
concepts of a Biodynamic Craniosacral approach will be intro-
duced through somatic explorations, perceptual exercises, biody-
namic theory and session exchange. More info: Carol Agneessens,
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 Ther-
apy with your fellow members.
Please send your contributions to the editor, Linda
Kurtz, at [email protected].
Everyday Life
k. Monta Z. Briant
1. Baby Sign Language Basics: Early Commu-
nication for Hearing Babies and Toddlers.
X. Required and recommended viewing (DVDs).
a. Debby Takikawa
1. What Babies Want: An Exploration of the
Consciousness of Infants.
b. National Geographic.
1. In the Womb.
2. The Biology of Prenatal Development.
c. Nova.
1. The Miracle of Life.
d. Nils Bergman, M.D.
1. Kangaroo Mother Care I: Rediscover the
Natural Way to Care for Your Newborn
Baby and Kangaroo Mother Care II: Re-
storing the Original Paradigm for Infant
Care & Breastfeeding.
e. Fabien Raes
1. Waterbirth in the 21
st
Century: Aquanatal
Experience in Ostend.
f. Orgasmic Birth: The Best Kept Secret.
g. Alieta Belle and Jenny Blyth
1. The Big Stretch: Insights about Birth.
h. Leboyer
1. Birth without Violence.
Continued from page 40

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Edwin Nothnagel, President
[email protected]
919-349-3914
Dave Paxson, Treasurer
[email protected], 843-347-1609
Marilyn Angell, Secretary
Michael Brightwood
[email protected],619-295-2372
Nicole Brown, Student Representative
nicstar@@yahoo.com

TEACHER LIAISONS TO BOARD
Kathleen Morrow
Mary Louise Muller
Margaret Rosenau
[email protected],303-507-3583
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE
Michael Brightwood
619-295-2372 or 734-904-0546
[email protected]

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 authoriza-
tion to publish, to the editor, Linda Kurtz, at [email protected].
Editing, use, and placement of all material will be at the sole
discretion of the Cranial Wave. We reserve 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.
Cover photo courtesy of pdphoto.org
Spring 2010 edition printed May 2010

Editor: Linda Kurtz, RCST
Guest Editor: Kate White, RCST
Design & Layout: Linda Kurtz, RCST
Proofreaders: Janet Evergreen, Dave Paxson, RCST
Disclaimer
The information contained in this newsletter is provided only as general
information and is not intended to represent that Biodynamic Craniosacral Ther-
apy 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 out-
come of an individual using Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy for any particular
issue. While all documents are posted in good faith, the accuracy, validity, effec-
tiveness, 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.

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Spring 2010

is a Biodynamic Craniosacral and mas-

in prenatal, birth, and

. The need appear with RCST

s may use testimonials from clients regard-

, Lake Elsinore, CA. BCST Advanced Skills offered in a

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