As a therapist, refining biodynamic touch and perception skills, requires
an awareness of his/her own midline expression of health
To achieve this requires the practitioner to be grounded by the subtle felt-sense of his or her body sensations.
Such awareness lets the body of the client be 'heard' so it can gently unfold without containment from the practitioners subtle intentions
Therapists are generally caught up in conditioning like the rest of society and that leads us to narrow the health possibilities for our clients. By understanding the fact that our habitual use of intention (doing) derives from our patterns of accumulated experience provides us with great insight. This insight is to ’sense’ the potency beyond the limitations of our reactive tendencies (vasana's) and impressions (samskara's) and illuminate the nature of the unknown, so we can treat more effectively and avoid inner tension/burnout.
Access platforms:
That said, an appropriate initial attention/focus is required to act as a platform to catalyse our felt-sense and keep the mind relevantly occupied. The peculiarity of this "launch pad" is that it's nature and application enhance body awareness whilst relinquishing surreptitious intention. So, the reliance upon the platform dissolves as the treatment unfolds, like the evaporation of a bridge behind us as we walk over it.
Therefore, the type of platform used to enhance relational touch is an important consideration due to its preparatory effect for letting go of intention. Another way of looking at it is to consider the chosen platform/technique as a relevant attention leading to an expression of ‘engaged non-doing’ (END).
So, the right priming focus leads to the actual therapy but is not the essence of the therapy. Therapeutically engaged non-doing (TEND) is the essence of this therapy…and perhaps all therapies which help promote the expression of health.
Pranayama:
Here is an example, from the field of Yoga Therapy. It illustrates the pre-requisite specificity of the platform-technique needed to enable and enhance biodynamic inquiry. It might also convey how we could unsuspectingly mix up the technique for being the essence of the treatment:
The word Pranayama derives from two Sanskrit words, prana and ayama. Whilst yama means intention based control, ayama means no intention based control. This can be confusing as many teachers and authors prefer to interpret Pranayama as intentionally controlling the breath (Clarke, 2011; Yin Yoga). So, the platform technique in this case would be 'breath optimisation practice' to free up the expression of physiology leading to a natural effortless breathing pattern and help establish the awareness of the subtle inner physiologic expression (‘prana’; or the felt-sense of arising & passing) free from effort based control.
"Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river"
Lao Tzu
Breath-work:
Breath-work is the intentional control of the breath to gradually become more and more familiar to the breath which is natural and is not needing any control (pranayama, aka, kevala kumbhaka). When learning this aspect of the training the therapist will notice how conditioned the breath actually is, both the clients and our own.
Certain breathing techniques help to re-balance the CO2 and O2 ratio the blood and tissues in addition to optimising pH and nitrous oxide levels for restoring the body’s physiology. Moreover, a physiologic environment is achieved which has the potential for promoting stem cell migration (embryonic potency) helping to rejuvenate the body (and mind).
Needless to say these breath-work techniques are invaluable incorporations for enhancing the potential of our clients physiology, as well as our own.
Patterns of experience:
So, a practitioner of this therapy allows the process of a treatment to unfold without manipulation or acting as a conduit for an external or internal force. In this manner, the practitioner is interested in encouraging the body towards intrinsic tissue and fluid re-organisation. As a result the physiologic patterns of experience and emotional layering find balance creating stillness, space and holistic momentum towards optimising health. This means the therapy also creates a safe space for intense and/or convoluted experiences to emerge and resolve smoothly without being overwhelming or re-stimulating.
Anatomy and Physiology:
Cranioga places emphasis on understanding the feel of different tissues making up the body. This means that a student learning this work becomes very familiar with anatomy and physiology at both the image and felt-sense level of perception. Felt-sense anatomy is living anatomy. The depth of this understanding continues when a student continues to the two year Body Intelligence Diploma course associated with Cranioga trainings.