My theme for 2012 is self-love through self-care.

Over the past few months, it’s become more and more clear to me that my tendency to push, to cram more in, to get more done, to learn more, to hurry up and get “there”, does not serve me. And yet, as a mom to a toddler, not cramming something in to every toddler-free moment can sometimes feel like a waste of precious time.

I started slowing down last year after taking a sweet, 5 day online course on self-care. We had daily 10-15 minute assignments. I was chugging right along, pleased with my progress until we were told to meditate. Just sit and meditate for 15 minutes. I procrastinated. I had so much to do, I was too busy to meditate. Nap time was totally unpredictable. I might only get 15 minutes of time and to “waste” that time meditating seemed ridiculous. I kept thinking “do you know how much you could get done in 15 minutes?!?” Didn’t sitting quietly at the table with my clients count as some kind of quasi meditation?

I finally did it, just so I could cross it off my To Do list. And then I was supposed to do it for the next 2 days, until the end of the course. I sighed, muttered, but I it. And something shifted by the 3rd day. I stopped wondering “is it over yet?!” and my brain stopped with the “and don’t forget, when you’re done you need to do _____”.

I soaked in the quiet. I felt calmer. I felt more peaceful about all of the things that weren’t going to get crossed off my To Do list. I could navigate unpredictable toddler naps with more flexibility.

As I continue to meditate, I feel nurtured and supported. I feel how helpful it is for my body, this slowing down and making time for me. Insights bubble to the surface during this time, new awareness, new noticings, new perspective.

I now have a mostly daily self-care routine that I practice. I take the time to nurture myself first as often as possible. Ideally this means I go to bed early enough that I wake up before my munchkin and have this time to myself. Sometimes this works and sometimes an unexpected cough wakes the munchkin at 6:15am and flexibility is needed.

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From this return to self-care, nurturing and creating space, grew the realization that one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves as CST practitioners, as people who hold space for others’ healing to surface and emerge, is the gift of filling our own well.

Having a full well is more than just avoiding burnout. It’s about being connected to a source, about being replenished and filled up. There’s a difference between merely keeping the ground damp and having a robust, full well, just like there’s a difference between having a pulse and being fully alive and thriving. I want a full well. I want to thrive.

I’m now on a journey to see just how much can I fill my well. What’s it like to be with my clients from a place of feeling really nurtured and supported and at ease? What has more freedom to surface and emerge as a result?

Over on Facebook, we talked about big work requiring big support – in essence a full well. People shared their sources of support and some great ideas came out of it.

• Prayer
• Go to the gym
• Healthy food
• Sleep
• Sun
• Swimming
• Walks
• Parties with friends
• Fiber arts (spinning, weaving, felting, knitting)
• Rebounding
• Being in the still quiet
• Water
• Great friends
• Time alone
• Naturopath
• Noticing miracles
• Receiving craniosacral/massage/bodywork
• T’ai chi
• Long soaks in the tub
• Setting boundaries
• Being kind to oneself
• Living authentically
• Continuing education

Having a full well isn’t about having more to give.

Having a full well is about deeply caring for yourself.

It’s about being able to engage more fully and more deeply, it’s about clarity, and boundaries that are healthy and established, it’s about knowing what you need and what no longer serves you, it’s about being conscious and mindful and curious. It’s about not knowing it all and being ok with that. It’s about honoring the mystery and honoring all of who you are. It’s about serving vs. fixing. It’s about trusting others to find their way and trusting yourself to find yours.

What is it like to interact with Life from this place?

How do you fill your well? Will you make time for the filling?

On the Anatomy Conversations’ Facebook page, a question was asked about how to avoid taking on other people’s “stuff” during a session. Some really wonderful, helpful suggestions were made and I want to add my thoughts here for you.  Here’s a story to get us started.

A couple was enjoying a beautiful day sailing the ocean with their 2 small children until one of the children fell overboard. Mom jumped overboard to help rescue the child. Dad also jumped overboard.

The remaining small child was left alone on the boat, sailing into the distance.

I read this story in the newspaper years ago. Since I don’t remember otherwise, I think it’s safe to assume it had a happy ending. However, the details of both parents jumping overboard stuck with me. The story has become a powerful metaphor for me about our work with clients and a reminder of what not to do.

You will inevitably be faced with taking on people’s “stuff” during your craniosacral career. Yes, there are things you can do to clear your energy, stay grounded and protect yourself, and it’s also critical that you remember your role in your client’s journey. It is not your job to “fix” your client.

I know you know that, at least intellectually, but because it’s so important to you to do really good work, you can be vulnerable to taking on more than your fair share of responsibility and that’s when you jump overboard with your client.

There are clients who tug at your heart strings. There are situations that you wish you had a magic wand for, heartbreaking suffering you will witness that you wish no one had to endure.

The child shaken so hard as an infant she has permanent brain damage.

The 13 year old with an inoperable brain tumor who says she is ready to die.

The man who bangs his head to distract himself from the pain of his cluster headaches.

The ritual abuse survivor.

This when you most need to stay on the boat. Staying on board allows you to throw a lifesaver for your client to grab on to. Staying on board allows your client to find her way on her journey, however that may unfold. If you jump overboard, the boat goes sailing off into the distance and you cannot provide the help that is truly needed.

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When you come to the table believing that your client’s healing depends on you, you jump overboard.

The pressure you put on yourself to fix or heal a client creates a roadblock on your client’s healing journey.  Her body senses your agenda, however well intentioned.  Agendas are distracting. They take you out of the natural flow of a session. They create static in the conversation you’re having with the body. They get in the way of you being full present to the information you’re receiving and they interfere with your ability to respond to that information. It’s also oh-so-easy to get lost and sucked into the spiral of doubt and questioning when you’re chasing after the problem.

The good news is, every client you work with gives you the opportunity to practice not jumping overboard. The more you practice, the less likely you are to jump overboard when it is most tempting.

You are most vulnerable to jumping overboard in these 2 situations:

1. you doubt your abilities and are seeking reassurance of your own worth, your own value from your client’s results

You will have times of doubt, times of questioning your skills and second guessing what you’re feeling. It is not your client’s job to provide you with reassurance that you are a good, skilled craniosacral therapist (and therefore a worthy human being).

2. you lose trust that everything, even the messiest, most heartbreaking, senseless situation, is unfolding as it should even when you can see no good reason why

When you are depleted or have lost trust that your own life is unfolding as it should, you are most vulnerable to this. Boundaries blur and you become overly attached to a particular outcome. Yes, you want good things for your clients. You want them to have relief, to feel better and yet you really can’t control whether or not that happens. The best you can do is bring your best skills and most grounded, centered self to the table.

Remember, we are designed to move towards healing no matter what the situation. We are incredibly resourceful. (And yes, healing can, and does, include death). Trust that your client is capable of finding her way.

What else can you do to prevent man/woman overboard? Take good care of yourself, keep your own fuel tank replenished.

• get enough sleep
• eat well
• take time for yourself
• move
• know your stuff
• get support when your stuff is surfacing or being triggered
• get on the table and receive work

No, this isn’t about being perfect. Yes, you can still do good work if your sleep is interrupted or not enough or you happen to overindulge in chocolate chip cookies or you can’t remember the last time you had time to yourself or you’re in the midst of traveling the land of grief. However, the more depleted your resources are, the more vulnerable you are to jumping overboard and that isn’t good for anyone.

You’re the only one of you there is.

You are valuable.

Your work is needed.

Take good care of yourself.

Share in the comments below how you take care of yourself and avoid jumping overboard. Your input is invaluable and oh-so-helpful to your fellow therapists in the community here.

much love,

P.S. Know another therapist who needs to read this? Share the love and email, tweet, Facebook or Google+ it. The world needs more therapists on board

When I was 8, I decided I wanted to learn the violin. I started with the basics – how to hold the violin under my chin, how to tilt my head just so, how to hold the bow, how to relax my shoulders, how not to have a death grip on either the violin or the bow. Then I began to learn how to play. Where to put my fingers, how to move the bow across the strings so that a pleasant sound came through vs. the dreaded screech that sounded like fingernails down a chalkboard.

I believe Twinkle Twinkle was the first piece I learned. There were also scales and technique exercises to be practiced – over and over and over. As I advanced, the pieces grew in difficulty and so did the scales and techniques. I confess, I hated doing scales and techniques. They were so dull and boring although I was willing to do them because the pay off was all that technique allowed me the freedom to really enjoy playing the music I loved.

My violin teacher, a member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, invited me to sit in on their rehearsal of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. I was awestruck. The melody of that concerto captured me like none other. My mom agreed to buy me a copy of the sheet music and I spent hours and hours attempting to play it.  It was ridiculously difficult and I didn’t care, I loved it so much. (If you want to hear what I’m talking about you can watch Sarah Chang play it on YouTube.)

Over time, it became easier. All those hours of scales and techniques finally had a purpose! They served the art. They allowed me to develop the muscle memory so that my fingers knew exactly where to be to create a G flat. My bow arm knew how to create smooth, flowing phrases or crisp, choppy notes.

Over time it began to flow from my fingertips and I could play along for long stretches with the recording I had of the amazing Itzhak Perlman. Immersing myself in the music was magical.

There’s a common thread to most learning. The struggle to get the basics, to learn the fundamentals. In craniosacral therapy it’s about learning the hand positions, learning how to contact the tissues, how much pressure, how to feel the rhythm, the tides, the structure of the techniques. It’s challenging, it’s tiring, it’s exhilarating.

You most likely had to have your eyes closed to amplify the sensations under your hands. You probably couldn’t hold a conversation and keep track of what the body was doing. You spent a lot of time hoping you were doing it correctly.

And you practiced. A lot.

Slowly you found that you didn’t need to carry your notebook with you from position to position. You remembered the order of the techniques, you remembered what your index finger should be making contact with, what you should be feeling for. You could even get it all done in an hour. Remember when you wondered how in the world you’d ever manage to complete a treatment in an hour?!?

The sensations were easier to feel, you began to notice more. It didn’t take all of your concentration and focus to kind of, sort of, maybe feel the craniosacral rhythm.

As your hands made progress, you also began to deepen your understanding of the anatomy. How things fit together, what was under your hands superficially (the squama of the temporal bone), what was a layer deeper (the petrous ridge), another layer deeper (the temporal lobe), another layer (the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle) and yet another layer (the hippocampus and anteriorly the amygdala).

You began to sense patterns, to start to sense more of the pieces to the puzzle – how things fit together to create the symptoms your client was experiencing. You began to have conversations with the body. And the protocol, the protocol and techniques you struggled so hard to learn – just like the scales and techniques I studied in violin – faded into the background.

Now, the technique and the protocol are no longer the end all be all.

You’ve transitioned from a technician into an artisan.

An artisan as in an artist who is highly skilled in his/her craft. You’re known for your integrity and high quality of work that is created by your experienced hands. That’s who you are, that’s who you are becoming.

You’ve been willing to let go of the (necessary) “security blanket” of the techniques and let something deeper, more relevant evolve.

Your work has grown into a conversation. A deep listening for what the body wants to share with you, for how you can best help – because now you have the skills to improvise, to fine tune, to make hand positions up as needed.

You’re confident in your skills and your well of experience helps you be present with the body in the unknown. You no longer have to know everything, you’re no longer grasping to solve the puzzle. You can trust the body to help you help it and you can trust yourself to respond appropriately – to move between holding the space, sitting with the body in deep expansive silence, and being a more active participant when called for.

This is the art of craniosacral therapy. You’ve acquired the skills, the fundamental techniques. Some therapists stop there.  Not you. You wanted more than techniques. You wanted artistry.

The artisan route is far more challenging and at the same time is far more rewarding. 

It requires rigorous (never-ending) work on yourself – being with and accepting those uncomfortable places,  a (never-ending) diving in deep with the anatomy, immersing yourself in the all things related to craniosacral, healing and wellness, and being willing to return over and over again to your greatest teacher – your client on the table.

The technique is essential but the work is so much greater than the technique. It is alive, it is breathing, it is dynamic and unfolding. It is art.

On your path to craniosacral artisan, what has helped you make the transition from craniosacral technician? And if you’re still working on making the transition, what do you need to help you make the leap?

Share below in the comments with the rest of our amazing community or chime in over on Facebook!

much love,

PS  If you’d like to be in the know when I hold a local (Columbus, OH), live Small Group Mentoring Class, send me an email at lisa [at] anatomyconversations.com and I’ll add you to my list.

PSS  Know another therapist making the transition from craniosacral technician to craniosacral artisan? Share the love via email, Facebook, Twitter or Google+!

I don’t watch the news. It was only thanks to a friend’s email, that I realized there was an earthquake in Virginia the other day. Another friend’s Facebook post let me know that tremors were felt here in Columbus, OH afterwards. Apparently, I was deeply focused on something else at the time and missed it entirely.

I miss a lot of what most people considers relevant and important. But I still see the effects of it daily on my table.

People are stressed, tremendously stressed. There’s chaos all over the place – financial crisis, political turmoil, tragedies on a daily basis whether personal or global or the tremendous challenges someone in your extended circle is facing. It’s unavoidable, even if you’re living under a rock (and if you’re reading this, you’re not ). You can feel it in the air. You can see it in people wherever you go.

It’s showing up in their bodies, louder and louder – cluster headaches, migraines, TMJ disorder, neck spasms, sciatica, autoimmune disorders – and that’s only what I’ve seen most recently.

A client’s dentist was concerned that my client had killed a tooth due to the severity of her clenching.

Another client just sent his oldest off to college. There are 5 more to follow.

Another client is “lucky” to get 5 hours of (light and interrupted) sleep each night.

They’re all desperately seeking relief.

We offer relief.

We offer people the opportunity to take a breath, to unclench, to settle in and feel the deeper current that carries all of us through these turbulent times. We help people feel the support that is available to them when they’re able to connect to their body. We help them return to the dance.

“Except for the point, the still point,There would be no dance, and there is only the dance” T.S. Eliot

Chaos will not end anytime soon.  The more we can help people feel resilient and resourceful, the more we can help them find relief, the more they’ll be able to thrive in the midst of the chaos.  And the more they’ll be able to make a meaningful contribution to the world.  People desperately trying to survive are rarely in a position to offer their best gifts to the world, they’re too busy trying to keep their head above water.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman

We help people do what they need to do so they can come alive.  Or perhaps we help people come alive so they can do what they most want to do.  Either way, people are in desperate need of body focused work i.e. craniosacral therapy. They need help, they need results and the more developed your skills are, the more you can offer the relief they so desperately seek.

I urge you, I implore you – get good, really good, at craniosacral therapy if that’s your passion.

Don’t just dabble with a stillpoint here and there. Really commit to stepping fully into your role as a craniosacral facilitator.

To do that you’ll need a deep understanding of anatomy, you’ll need skilled hands, deep inner awareness, confidence in your skills and you’ll also need business savvy to create a thriving practice that supports you (I know a lot of you avoid this part of the equation, we’ll talk more about this in future conversations).

There are a variety of books, courses and other resources available to you.  And if you’re ready to immerse yourself in the “deep understanding of anatomy” part of the equation, get yourself on the announcement list for the new series of CranioSacral Anatomy Classes  I’m unveiling (no travel required for those of you who bemoan the fact that you’re too far away to take part in my Small Group Mentoring Class).

If you want to learn more and get first dibs on a virtual seat when registration opens next week, sign up here.  I know this class isn’t right for all of you and I want to be sure that I’m talking to the people who are really interested in mastering anatomy.  The last thing I want to do is clog up your inbox with something irrelevant to you. That’s why I’m asking you to take the time to sign up if you want to know more.

As always, thank you for doing the work that you do.  Thank you for helping people remember the dance, remember what makes them come alive. You are so needed.

much love,

PS Don’t forget that the equation also includes taking excellent care of yourself!

PPS Know another craniosacral therapist who’s ready to master anatomy? Please share this post with them – we need more highly skilled craniosacral people out there.  Share via email, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ – you know the routine

You’re working on Sally’s sacrum and you know you need to spend time on her neck, after all that’s why she came to see you – she can’t turn her head all the way to the right* – when is it ok for you to leave the sacrum and move on?

*and yes, working on the sacrum can indeed help the neck, but Sally may need the reassurance
of you actually touching her neck to feel like she got what she came for.

In this video I talk about transitions and graceful exits and compare our work to a cocktail party (I know, I know, sacrilege!):

• when is it ok to move your hands to another area
• what to do when you only have 5 minutes left and the body is deep in its work and you really, really have to move on (or complete the session)
• what happens when you move your hands prematurely
• and a special treat! with lots of colors!

Click here to view the embedded video.

For those of you who aren’t video watchers, here are the highlights:

• Imagine that you’re at a cocktail party catching up with your friend Beth – she shares, you respond, you share, she responds.  There’s a lull in the conversation, that’s when you know you can make a graceful exit and go catch up with your friend Frank or you could stay and continue your conversation with Beth at a deeper level.

• You would never turn your back on Beth and leave in the middle of her telling you about potty training her 3-year-old – that would be rude.

• How does this apply to working on the body? Imagine that you’re working on Sally’s sacrum – you noticed during your assessment that there’s a restriction at L5/S1 as well as the left sacroiliac joint. You settle into your hand position and the body starts to shift. You notice softening, heat, lengthening – all those signs that let you know the body is working to make changes. If you left in the middle of that, it would be akin to you leaving your conversation with Beth right as she’s in the middle of her potty training story. You wait until things have settled down and a change has come to some sort of completion/resolution. Then you can make your graceful exit and move on to another area.

• You could also stay and work with the next layer that the body is ready to shift. If L5/S1 got some nice changes and feels less compressed but the left SI is still a bit cranky, you might decide to hang out a bit longer to give the left SI time to do some work. It’s up to you and your evaluation of what needs to happen before the session comes to an end.

• Here are a couple tips for making a graceful exit when you really must move on i.e. your client’s neck is begging for some help or it’s time to wrap up the session.

1. Tell the body non-verbally “Look, I’ve only got 5 more minutes here before I have to move on to another area (or finish the session). So that means you have 5 minutes to get the work done that you need to get done with my hands here.”

2. Tell your client verbally “Just wanted to give you a heads up and let you know that I’ve got 5 more minutes in this area before I need to move on/complete our session. Feel free to tune into the area where I’m working and support your body in doing what it needs to do while my hands are here.”

Lastly, I shared about the Hoberman Sphere. I’ve really enjoyed using it to help explain the movement that occurs in response to the inflow and outflow of the cerebrospinal fluid in the cranium. It’s a really nice tangible way for people to grasp this concept.

Hoberman Sphere*

*I am an affiliate for Amazon and this link is my affiliate link, if you purchase through this link I receive a commission

In the comments below, share with the group how *you* recognize when it’s ok to leave an area and move on. What signs to you feel for? How do you make a graceful exit when you’re running short on time? Your input will be oh-so-helpful to your fellow therapists – thank you!

much love,

P.S. If you haven’t yet visited the community Facebook page, check it out – we had a really interesting discussion recently re: how to work with clients who’ve had dental trauma

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There’s a tendency in the craniosacral world to make ourselves small, to not want to admit that we play a valuable role in the interactions we have with out clients. We do it because we want to avoid coming across as too important, too full of ourselves, too influential, too…..  You know what I mean.

God forbid that a client thinks they feel better because of something we did.  Nope.  It’s all about them.  No one wants to be the obnoxious “healer” who conveys the message that a session is all about MEEE! Your healing is because of MY brilliance and MY knowledge!!  I, with all my amazing knowledge and skill, know exactly what’s best for you!

Here’s the thing, if you’re here, reading this, I can promise you that you aren’t that obnoxious “healer”. I don’t play with those kind of people and I’m not fond of being on the receiving end of that kind of work.  Neither are you.

However, in an effort to avoid coming across with our Ego center stage, the pendulum swings wayyy over to the opposite side and you’ll hear phrases like “I didn’t do anything, it was all you” or “I just listen” or “I just hold the space”.  I confess, phrases like that make my cranial rhythm thud and not in a good way.

There is no “just” about listening or holding space.

And News Flash, yes, you really do, do something!!

If you truly don’t do anything, stop taking people’s money.  People can go home and sit on their couch and have it be “all them”, they don’t need you.

But they do.

Yes craniosacral is about holding the space and listening. Those skills are essential.

And, that that’s not all we do. I’m here to remind you that by holding the space and listening, we are observing and assessing and comparing and gathering information and witnessing and……..we are responding.

Our clients need to know they can rest in our experience and skills. I’m not saying we’re perfect or know-it-all, but there’s a lot to be said for helping our clients feel like they’re in capable hands.  When you’re on the table, don’t you want to know you’re in the hands of someone who is skilled and confident in his or her skills?  Of course! 

Even if you haven’t achieved the level of skill or expertise that you think you should have, own what you do have.

Our clients need to know we can be at the table with them in their beauty and their mess. They need to be able to trust we have what it takes to travel with them along their healing journey.

As we grow our skills and are more confident in our expertise, we can have more sophisticated conversations with the body. We’re able to recognize and respond to the body’s call to play a more active role in its healing. After all, if the body could do everything on its own, there would be no need for us or any other kind of facilitator/helper.

And remember, sometimes the body gets stuck and sometimes it forgets that the diaphragm wasn’t always sucked up to its clavicles.

Sometimes it needs help to remember what’s possible. Sometimes it needs held just so to be able to line up a pattern and shift it.  Sometimes it needs the slack taken up in the tissues just enough to release.  Sometimes it needs a question to open up to possibility.  Sometimes it needs us to bring our attention to the left medial pterygoid of the sphenoid and sometimes it needs us to hold the very broadest container we possibly can.  And sometimes it needs to do its work hidden, away from our awareness, shrouded in the Mystery.

It’s a collaboration, a dance between conscious and unconscious, client and therapist, tangible and intangible.  And I hope, oh how I hope, that you recognize the value of the role that you play in this collaboration.  Don’t act like it doesn’t matter.  Don’t discredit your skills.  Don’t play small because you’re afraid of being too big or you think you’re not enough. Celebrate what you bring to the table.  Celebrate what you have to offer.  Own it.  Embody it.  Your clients are the better for it.

I’m curious to know, what’s the impact of this for you? Add your voice to the comments below!

much love,

PS Know a fellow therapist who’s under-valuing his or her contribution? Spread the love and share this post – email it, Tweet it or share on Facebook.

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I’ve been practicing noticing patterns lately, and increasing my awareness of them.  I’ll share more with you about just how I do that in a later post, but one of the things I love about patterns is they’re all over the place once you start looking for them – especially at the table. When a pattern reveals itself, it reminds me of the pieces of a kaleidoscope falling into place and the gorgeous pattern that then reveals itself.

With all this pattern noticing, I’ve also been thinking about you and what would be of help for you to know about patterns.

First off though, just what is a pattern? I pulled two relevant definitions from Webster.com

pat•tern noun \ˈpa-tərn\
4 : a natural or chance configuration
10 : a discernible coherent system based on the intended interrelationship of component parts

1. Everything is part of a pattern. Everything. There are patterns within patterns if you look closely enough (or broadly enough), just like a kaleidoscope.  There’s the image as a whole and there’s the smaller patterns that make up the larger pattern. You’ll see an example from the table of this pattern within a pattern later in the post.

2. Change part of the pattern and it has to shift/ripple out to everything because everything is all connected. One little turn of the kaleidoscope to the left or the right and all the individual pieces shift slightly.  When we work with the body, the beauty of this perspective is that it takes the pressure off of needing to be in just “The Right” spot. Instead you can pick a place to explore and see what happens to the body as a result.

3. Seeing the pattern/being aware of the pattern helps the body to shift something in the pattern (even 1 tiny little thing), which deconstructs the pattern and allows for it to reform into something different (and more functional/better suited to the present). Turn the kaleidoscope and what you were just looking at crumbles into chaos, turn the kaleidoscope a little further and the beauty of another pattern takes shape out of the chaos.

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When we work on a client, part of what we are doing is seeing, noticing and observing patterns.

A client presents with a pinched nerve in the neck – what is the pattern that the situation is a part of? And where does the body need support in order to shift the pattern (if it is ready)? And if the body isn’t ready, where does it need support in order to prepare to be ready?

What is the pattern at play, what individual pieces are coming together to create this outcome?  And what is ready & willing to shift?

I love being a detective and asking questions that help to surface the story behind the pattern. However, knowing the story is not necessary to shift the pattern – shifting can occur with or without the story. I confess though that there’s a puzzle-solving piece of my brain that totally, totally grooves on discovering the story behind the pattern.

Let’s explore a pattern at work.

• Imagine there’s a sudden appearance of a pinched nerve in the neck, after pulling a shirt over the head. Sharp, shooting pain down the arm resulting in numb fingers. There is no history of neck problems and nothing obvious leading up to this.

• Now imagine there’s been a long standing history of strep/tonsillitis – at least yearly, sometimes more frequently, over the past 20+ years.

And yes, we could explore this at an even deeper level to look at what created the conditions that led to the strep/tonsillitis pattern in the first place. Nutrition and structure and other variables, inevitably weave together.

Regardless of the specifics leading up to the strep/tonsillitis, keep in mind that inflammation reduces tissue mobility.

• Inflammation that occurs regularly sets up an ongoing pattern of reduced tissue mobility.
• Reduced tissue mobility is a restriction.
• Restrictions interfere with optimal mobility and therefore function and that creates conditions that are ripe for……you guessed it, pinched nerves.

And, oh-by-the-way severe sleep apnea was another pattern that was created from this configuration. Is it possible that recurrent inflammation could create changes in the architecture of the soft palate and throat contributing to obstructive sleep apnea? Absolutely.

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I love when the pieces to a pattern reveal themselves. What once seemed to have no connection now lights up and you can see the intricate connections that are present.

Play with bringing your awareness to patterns in your life. You can start anywhere, not just at the table – how you work, play, eat, drive, parent, interact with friends, colleagues, associates.

What patterns do you notice when you start to look for them? You’ll notice they start revealing themselves more and more to you, the more you pay attention. Share your insights in the comments below or over on Facebook and we can all learn from each other!

much love,

PS Share the love and help spread the word about this post – email it, Tweet it, or share it via Facebook.  Your fellow therapists will thank you!

Explaining CST can get tricky. I know some of you struggle with this and I want to give you some help.  In this video I share the phrases and examples I use to explain CST, but I wanted to do more than that.  I also give you the “behind the scenes” explanation so you understand the why behind what I say. This will help you craft your own personalized explanation that works best for you. Or, feel free to borrow mine!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s the standard phrase that I use most often:

CranioSacral Therapy is a light-touch, hands-on, technique that works to balance the structures that surround the brain and the spinal cord.

Reminders that I go over in the video:

1. Keep it simple and avoid using lingo

2. Use examples as much as possible – help your clients relate to and identify with your explanation (water balloon, hollowed out bowling ball, hat that’s too tight)

3. Use visual aids (skull, balloon)

4. Set expectations (not massage, use holds)

5. Ask questions so you can gauge how much someone wants to know and avoid overloading them with too much information

I would love to hear how you explain CST. What phrases work best for you? What descriptions do your clients relate to? Share in the comments and learn from each other! Afterall, a clear explanation helps your clients relate to and identify with the work more easily which helps you be more effective and get better results.

much love,

PS Know someone else who could also use some help with explaining CST? Pass this along to them via email and help spread the word on Twitter and Facebook.  Thank you!

I have a standing joke with one of my clients – I put my hands on her feet and ask “So, how’s your body doing?”  She replies, “I don’t know, you tell me.”  We laugh and then she updates me on what’s been going on.

What’s not so funny is I really did have a client tell me that once.  And I’m guessing more than one client has wanted to say it but didn’t feel comfortable admitting just how out of touch with her body she was.

It’s so common, this disconnection from the body, this not knowing, not paying attention to, how it is doing until it’s screaming.  A perfect example – I get a desperate phone call from a client with back pain wanting to know how soon I can get him in.  I ask him what happened and he replies “all I did was get a quart of milk out of the refrigerator and my back blew out!”

Now, you know and I know that things were going down hill with his back (and his body in general) way before he took the quart of milk out of the fridge.  But he’s busy going 100 miles an hour and trying to stay on top of life as we know it with a never-ending to-do list and what do you mean there’s information below my head that I should pay attention to?!

That’s one of the things we help people with –

learning how to pay attention to the information below their head and learning to cultivate a relationship with their body.

That’s just as important as a stillpoint or helping a sacrum move with greater ease and freedom.

We do bodywork.  If we don’t help our clients engage with their body, even in some small way, during a session, we are doing them a huge disservice.

This work is not about having a client show up and park her body on the table for an hour while she goes out for a drink and we whip out our magic wand and make it all better.  Nononono.

In the first place, if a client isn’t able to integrate the table work into her “regular” life, she’s missing out. Afterall, your time together is a single drop in the ocean of the rest of her life.  In the second place

if you’re carrying the burden that you’re the one with all the skill and knowledge and it’s up to you to make it all better – good grief that’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself!

I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t do my best table work under pressure.  I shut down, I stop being able to sense the patterns, I stop trusting what I’m feeling, doubt creeps in, etc., etc.

When I’m in partnership with my client, I feel a spaciousness.  My curiosity gets to come out and play. I’m so much better able to respond in the moment to what the body is showing me and I’m far more receptive to information – my antennae are fully extended and activated.

Bridging the Gap, photo by Glenn Euloth (Iguanasan) courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

So, how do you create this partnership and take the pressure off of yourself?  Engage with your client – ask questions.  More importantly, help your client engage with her body – what is she noticing, what is she aware of? Help her develop tools that create a bridge between her time on the table and her daily life.  Help her realize just how much power she has to help her body.

A client of mine has struggled quite a bit with jaw pain and crunching and just general jaw unhappiness. When doing mouthwork, I have her tune in and notice what feels different on the side I’ve just worked on.  Does it feel softer, heavier, lighter, more open?  How does it feel compared to the opposite side that’s still waiting to be worked on?

When she gets off the table, I ask her what she notices with her jaw now that she’s standing up.  Is there more space, are her teeth meeting differently when they touch, when she opens her jaw is there less crunch?  Questions about specifics can help a client orient and start to get a sense of what feels different rather than just the general “something feels different but I can’t quite describe what it is” (although even that is a great starting point).

We also talk about what she can do at home to help her create a bridge between the table and her “real” life.  She decides to set a timer when she’s working at her computer.  When the timer goes off, it reminds her to check in with her jaw and notice if she’s holding tension and/or clenching.  She spends a little time putting her fingers over her TMJ and gently, ever so gently, reminds her joint that it can have more space and she returns to her work mindful that her teeth are not touching.  This simple routine is incredibly helpful for her jaw.

See how this all weaves together to help her cultivate her body awareness and her own healing?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments  – what’s your favorite way to engage with your clients? How do you help them start to connect to their body on the table and off? Let’s help each other out by sharing ideas and experiences.  Thanks to all of you who read – whether you comment or not.  It’s good to know you’re out there doing the work.

much love,

PS Your help in getting the word out about this post is greatly appreciated – send your fellow therapist an email or share on Twitter or Facebook.  Thanks!

PPS I’ll be sharing more about this in upcoming posts and am working up something special for you to play with in the next few weeks.  If you’re on my list, you’ll be the first to know.  If you’re not on it yet, sign up so you don’t miss out!

Over and over again the body reminds me of the importance of honoring what is vs. imposing change on it.  A client of mine gave me permission to share a piece of her journey with you.   I wanted to give you a front row seat at my table – my mentorees tell me that’s an invaluable experience for them.

I checked in at the feet of my client Kay* and immediately her diaphragm got my attention.  Her body, from the diaphragm up, felt like it was unable to settle into the support of her pelvis and legs. Her diaphragm felt held and on guard – like it was the gatekeeper, not letting much pass through.

The obvious goal was to get the diaphragm to relax, unclench, ease up. It was easy to think that there was no need for it to be tense, to have its guard up.

And yet.

As I connected with her diaphragm and began to get a sense of how I could best support it, the qualities of the pattern felt really old and very protective.  This was a well-established pattern.  I felt like I had met up with a brick wall.  To try and impose any agenda on it, even one as helpful as trying to get it to relax, felt disrespectful. Who was I to say the brick wall shouldn’t be there?

As my conversation with Kay’s body continued, my sense was that her diaphragm, with help from her adrenals, had clenched and locked down in order to help the body get through what it was dealing with at the time.  I also felt that the structures weren’t ready or interested in letting go of the pattern, even though it was old.  They weren’t ready to relinquish the role of gatekeeper yet.  At the same time, it didn’t feel like the body needed to share details about what circumstances had created the pattern.

It felt really, really important to accept the diaphragm and adrenals just as they were. They had done a great job of helping Kay and she had gotten through the stress of that time. She was alive, she was still breathing. That’s the main priority for the body – how do I get out of this situation alive?

As I shared with Kay what I was noticing and feeling, she suggested that perhaps instead of trying to get them to relax, she could express gratitude to them. Yes!  It is so incredibly important to respect and honor the role that the tissues have played.

There is ALWAYS a good reason for why patterns exist.

It may not be clear to us, it may not make sense to us but the body knows. To think that we know better than the body, however well intentioned, is really disrespectful. And it’s such an easy trap to fall into!

We feel a pattern and think of how much better the body would be able to function if it would only let go of the pattern. We mean well, we really do.

Think about this – remember the last time someone told you you shouldn’t be feeling the way you do? Maybe you were upset about something, you’re buttons were totally pushed, you were all in a twist and a “helpful” friend makes tells you to just let it go and move on. Let it go?!? Are you out of your ever lovin’ mind?!? Ever notice how the suggestion of “just let it go” makes you cling all the more self-righteously and tenaciously to your upset? Of course!

It’s one of the great challenges, ironies, lessons, you name it – that if we can be with what is, truly be with it just as it is, there is a softening, a shifting, an easing up that can start to unfold.

And so it was with Kay. As she sent gratitude to her diaphragm and adrenals, as I supported the diaphragm and adrenals right where they were, slowly, slowly there was a slight shifting. Some space between the adrenals and the diaphragm began to emerge. The diaphragm began to consider being supported by the pelvis. The pattern that was, was no longer written in stone.

It will be a process, but I believe over time what will emerge for Kay will be far more supportive of where she is now vs. a reflection of when she was in survival mode.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments or via email – let me know: do you have any questions about this experience or do you want me to expand on any parts of it?  Also, what’s been your experience with a client’s body giving you limits?  I’d love to hear about that, what signals do you notice, how do you recognize it?  We all perceive things so differently and learning from each other is really valuable.

much love,

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*story used with permission, name changed to protect privacy