A Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy session starts with a few minutes chatting, mostly me listening to how the client is doing and what is going on in their life. The client then lies down fully clothed on the table, and when they are comfortable and ready I make contact. This is a non-invasive touch therapy, which involves me placing my hands under or on top of the client’s body. Typical contact spots include but are not limited to feet, knees, sacrum, spine, neck, umbilicus, arms, and head. Contact for the client should be comfortable and so communication is important. As I settle in and “listen” or palpate what is going on in the body, I may stay at the same spot the whole session or may move several times to different locations on the body. This is depending on the client’s spoken wishes and where I feel the body would most like to be held.
At times I will engage the client with body awareness exercises and/or some verbal dialogue. This has to do with using the brain to orient the whole body to awareness and safety, and engaging with a specific body area, moving through tension and/or pain in a focused way, bringing understanding and opening to the area.
As the client settles, different things may happen. The body may decide it wants to release tensions in a very specific area. As this therapy involves working with physical/emotional trauma, occasionally the client may shake, feel buzzy and or feel hot/cold as different parts of the nervous system and body tissues release shock and trauma. This is normal and the intention is to let the body’s pattern complete and release in the safety of present time. Or, the body may settle deeper into it’s fluids (bodies are a very large percentage water). In this state tensions release even easier and the body’s feedback loops are working with more ease. Or, the body may go into a state of deep relaxation where changes feel more ambiguous but the effects can be profound and long lasting.
Each person and situation is different, and as such amount of sessions vary. For some, a few sessions is all that is needed. For some, 10 or more sessions may be needed. Some use sessions to resource and as such schedule regular sessions.
How the client feels after therapy may include deep relaxation and more freedom of physical movement. Or, a person may feel sensitive if areas of deep feeling/emotion have been touched on. One may feel “home again”, more embodied, and settled into oneself. Or as time passes one may look back and realize that something has changed physically and/or how one feels about oneself and relates to the outside world.
During a session there may be a lot of silence if the client is deeply relaxed, or there may be a lot of feedback between client and myself as to what is being felt. At the end of the session the client is encouraged to spend a few minutes getting up. We then sit and chat a few minutes about the session and wrap up.