Cranioga 4 day Post Grad
Touching into the conception, gestation and passing of time
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Overview
This four day seminar is specifically designed for
established yoga therapist/teachers and biodynamic craniosacral therapist (bcst) practitioners.
It is primarily a practice orientated and experiential based seminar but will also incorporate portions of preparatory theory, by way of presentations and discussion.
- Yoga teachers will find this understanding and
approach very useful for developing a receptive touch to help students insightfully adjust postures and end of class hands on contact with students in shavasana.
The seminar will also help yoga teachers to develop
their hatha yoga practice and gently expand into the understanding and practice of raja yoga.- Yoga therapists will find this very beneficial for
developing their skills to treat various conditions at the causative base rather than only treating the symptoms.
In addition to this the therapist ability to sensitively
attune and encourage their clients expression of health will take a big leap.
- Bcst practitioners will relish the opportunity to deepen into the understanding of biodynamic craniosacral therapy and develop skills which help their own ability to resource in the fluid field and tap, more tangibly, into the felt-sense of potency.
Relevant intention:
The mornings and afternoons will first help establish each participant to build their attention to the present moment by helping them to prime their presence with relevant toning, embodying and restorative asana practice. These postures
are tailored to enhance the felt-sense awareness of each individuals tissues, fluid body and pranamaya kosha.
In addition to this somatic neurogenic release techniques and breathwork (pran-nigraha) sessions will be relevantly incorporated.
The prerequisite embodiment practice will expand into a discussion on the contemporary relevance of yama and niyama and the benefit this understanding/discipline affords the subtle felt-sense awareness of both ourselves and others in a student/client scenario.
Such personal discipline and understanding tends to develop into an effortless communion with the lore of nature, which then acts as a dynamo for deepening into the subtler awareness of oneself, nature, consciousness and the vitality of passing (samyama).
Witnessing (self inquiry):
The mornings and afternoons will expand on the initial attention priming sessions by exploring, both theoretically and practically, the embodied non-doing attunement to natures rhythms (the natural lore of pran-ayama), one pointed attention (pratyahara), stillness/space (dhyana) and conscious insight (samadhi).
Such witnessing starts with present moment awareness of specific area’s of sensation within oneself. This will help to develop the initial insight of body sensations/expressions being born and at some point passing away.
As this insight develops local awareness
of subtle elemental vibrations (sparsha tanmatra) will act as an ignition to help
each participant open the awareness of these vibrations in a more expanded manner to include more of the body - and
eventually the whole body.
When the whole body is felt expressing in this subtle way then treating another proves to be much more effective.
Awareness of other tanmatra will be guided as relevant. From here each participant will establish the felt-sense within and around themselves and, at some point, with others in the group.
This will begin with partner based proprioceptive
neuromuscular facilitated (PNF) asana and develop to embodied non-doing (END) contact, with different partners, on treatment tables - at this point the felt-sense awareness of each participant usually develops exponentially.
All days will incorporate embodied non-doing practice:
Via practical partnered contact sessions exploring somatic transference and counter-transference, stillness, space, synchronising with natures rhythms and the felt-sense of tension patterns (samskara's) passing.
Yoga literally refers “yoking” the mind to our source (original nature) by being aware of the conception (arising) and passing vibration of each moment (potency).
So, the nature of each moment is a vibration of phenomena arising and passing. It happens so fast that we generally don’t notice it. Instead the majority of people objectify perceived impressions which eventually form identified
mental tendencies.
Then, over time, these impressions and tendencies
separate sensations from thoughts resulting in the mind seeming to be separate from the body. This is the making of
the cause of phenomenal world (maya) and unsatisfactoriness (the sustained repetition of patterns arising).
By not validating the existence of maya, by contacting another with embodied non-doing touch, a practitioner may enable their student/clients system to return to the moment to moment felt-sense of tension patterns being
born and passing away. This is the potential vibratory tone of each moment.
Fluid felt-sense:
By sensing the subtler expressions, as a whole body felt-sense, the rhythms of nature start to reveal themselves both within and outside the body. From a yogic understanding this is equivalent to being in touch with the flow state (pranamaya kosha),
nadi’s, chakra’s and the auric field. From a bcst perspective this is attuning to the fluid field, or, amniotic space.
The auric field felt-sense expression is extremely helpful when contacting a yoga student to help adjust their posture or tactilely guide the regulation of their breath.
A practitioner who is attuned to the fluid field acts as a reference for the body intelligence of their student/client and potentially helps a student/clients system to
synchronise with the mid-time rhythm of nature.
Potency attunement:
Attunement to the fluid field helps the birth and death vibration (potency) of the present moment to be adequately nurtured.
By encouraging the student/clients felt-sense of this birth and death vibration is a game changer for their body’s ability to express health (body intelligence).
In the latter years of his life Dr William Sutherland, the founder of cranial osteopathy, described the exquisitely subtle expression of “the fluid within the fluids”. This is the expression which yoga practitioners will know as the field of consciousness
(vijnanamaya kosha).
Bcst practitioners refer to this expression as potency (localised potency = prana; expansive potency = vijnana).
The felt-sense of this bodymind expression requires that the yogi has a level of practice and intimate familiarity with stillness (dhyana) as well as
being able to open to the field of space.
Similarly, the Bcst practitioner best gets the sense of potency when he or she has a familiarity with the wider perceptual fields and natures rhythm of the long-tide and/or dynamic stillness
(neither perception, nor not perception).
When the felt-sense of potency has been established in oneself (as a practitioner) it will be much easier to encourage it’s expression in another. It is also when the birth and death of each moment can be acknowledged by the practitioner and, at some point, the student/client.
Once this “knowing” deepens then dynamic stillness (anandamaya kosha for yogi’s) reveals itself to the practitioner and potentially the student/client.
Helping to promote this felt-sense expression, in another persons system, is where their body gets a chance to open a fresh way of perceiving itself and where holistic shifts in health expression commonly occur.
Space, stillness and perceptual fields:
Understanding space and the skill of accomodating
appropriate perceptual fields is a quintessential skill for yoga teachers/therapists and Bcst practitioners to develop and one which runs hand in hand with the aforementioned attunement skills.
Although some consider this a space of no-mind others consider it the unveiling of universal consciousness (Krishna vijnana).
Either way it is not a dissociation based survival
strategy, nor is it a state of formless absorption (arupa dhyana) state. Rather, the perceptual field of space, in the true biodynamic understanding of this term, interface with the moment to moment birth and death (arising/passing), vibration of nature (wide perceptual field of potency), and the fluid field of subtle memory.
Insight obtained from the subtle felt-sense of experiential patterns arising and passing open the practitioner to an undercurrent of vibration (rupa dhyana). This is the key aspect which unites raja yoga and biodynamic craniosacral therapy practitioners. Subtle form birth and death is so key to understand.
Once this understanding develops, out of practice, then touching, treating, adjusting and even communicating in general sets up a relational field which tangibly helps to optimise the body/mind/spirit health of another.
From here the insight of moment to moment conception and dissolving of impressions and tendencies can be sensed as a vibration. The dissolving component is ‘perceived’ as a mere passing of that which has arisen, in order for fresh unhindered arising to express…and this happens faster than the blink of an eye.
On day 2 the seminar will focus on understanding how the birth of a pattern evokes desire or aversion. Then, on day 3, how the identification to patterns cause a fear of death.
Conception & birth and attachment:
This aspect of the seminar will cover the biodynamic principles of embryologic development, with its various conception (brahma) ignitions and subsequent fetal gestation, with the laying down of various in-uterine postures/expressions/emotions, which can still be exhibiting in us as adults.
It will also delve into the benefits and drawbacks of various forms of developmental attachment and how will can still be affected by the unfinished attachment processes as adults.
The seminar will also go into the understanding and felt-sense of how impressions (samskara's) and tendencies (vasana's) start to establish themselves, in addition to themes of sustained illusion (vishnu maya) and psychic knots (granthi's).
Death with its association to fear:
This aspect of the seminar will explore the various ideas different cultures have regarding death and how some can cause fear and cognitive dissonance, whereas others can provide useful insight. We will expand the theory and felt-sense of passing and
how insight of passing (shiva) can be the one thing which transforms the way practitioners perceive and connect via touch with another. The potency provided by the insight of passing is transformational for students/clients and
especially practitioners.
Perhaps the most insightful aspect of this approach is when the six senses no longer hinder/distort consciousness and another way of perceiving and connecting unfolds.
Somatic transference and counter-transference patterns:
This is an invaluable aspect to understand in any bodywork practice and will be explained and covered in depth during the seminar.
The flow of feeling safe
Cranioga is a safe and effective approach to help maintain your health, as a yoga or Bcst practitioner, whilst contacting/adjusting/treating students or clients. This approach combines specifically tailored yoga therapy assessment/treatment and biodynamic craniosacral principles/treatments to provide optimal autonomic homeostasis (ida-pingala balance).
Emphasis on non-doing
As therapists we are often caught up in our conditioning and that leads us to narrow the health possibilities for the student/client. By understanding the fact that our habitual
use of intention (doing) derives from our patterns ofaccumulated experience provides us with sensitive insight.
This insight enables us to sense the potency beyond the limitations of our tendencies (vasana's) and reactions (samskara's) and illuminate the nature of the unknown, so we can treat more effectively and avoid inner tension/burnout.
Beyond this seminar:
By attending two Cranioga four day retreats (and
successfully completing required home study), the student will have met the requirements for the foundation Body Intelligence (BI) seminar (seminar 1) and may join the BI biodynamic Craniosacral therapy diploma course at seminar 2, anywhere the course is running in the world.
More information on the reputable two year BI training diploma in biodynamic craniosacral therapy (BCST) can be found by visiting: www.bodyintelligence.com
Finally the hours attending these seminars can go towards continuing professional development with the International Association of Yoga Therapist (IAYT) for those affiliated Yoga Therapists, and also continuing professional development points for registered BCST practitioners with the Pacific Association of Craniosacral Therapists (PACT).
