INTENTION OF THE FOUNDATION TRAINING

Our adult body is composed of 75% living water and only 25% solid material. Many manual therapy modalities focus on the 25% such as the musculoskeletal and myofascial systems. This 700 hour Biodynamic Foundation Training teaches the student to visualize, explore and palpate the slow rhythm in the living fluids of the body called Primary Respiration.  Students are further grounded in the felt sense of Dynamic Stillness as the guiding principle of embryonic growth and development.  In this way the student is invited to reconnect with his or her original, whole and complete fluid body as it was ignited through conception and as it remains in the adult.  The perfect fluid body is the pre-existing condition of our bodily existence and is the location of the most fundamental therapeutic forces of ordered movement and organized structure.

Consequently, when working with a client, the practitioner can witness, sense and hold the embryonic fluid body as it exists in the infant, child and adult without interference.  This draws forth the innate biodynamic healing processes in self and other. 

The following are seven goals of the Foundation and Advanced Trainings as I teach them:

1. To explore the movement within the stages of development of the body systems in human embryology as an expression of personal freedom and human potential in self and other.  A special focus is placed on the embryology of the heart and vascular system and its relationship to the brain.

2.  To cultivate a new perception of the whole human organism in self and other as being a three dimensional fluid body.  The fluid body, the original shape and form of the embryo, maintains its presence in the total fluid volume of the infant, child and adult. 

3.  To develop a felt sense of love and wholeness as the movement of Primary Respiration in the fluid body.  This generates the deepest healing potential in self and other.

4.  To become aware of “Dynamic Stillness” as an intimate connection between one’s self and the natural world.  This is the spiritual foundation of the training.

5.  To replace in self and other the intensity of one’s personal trauma story carried in the muscles, bones and brain with one’s origin story of conception, gestation and infancy.  The origin story is told through the active shaping of the fluid body as experienced by the client and heard by the practitioner’s hands, heart and mind. 

6.  To revision the therapeutic relationship as primarily a coupling of two hearts and two interactive cardiovascular systems.  Secondarily, the therapeutic relationship is revised as an expression of two interactive nervous systems also linked together via skillful and sustained physical contact by the practitioner.

7.  To regard the therapeutic relationship as a joint practice. The client is taught to participate in the perception of the fluid body and is equally responsible for his or her own healing.

COURSEWORK

Introduction

Tonight one of the nation’s foremost experts on Craniosacral Therapy will explain the underlying principles behind this gentle but powerful approach to healing through touch. Especially effective in harmonizing the nervous system, treating trauma and supporting the body’s ability to regenerate, the craniosacral approach posits that we are, in a sense, all perpetual embryos, even into our adulthood, and that our bodies are far more fluid and capable of repair than is commonly thought.

AN EVENING LECTURE
Thursday, July 24, 6–7:45pm
08SBM21P
Members: $18 / Nonmembers: $22

Primary Respiration
Level 1

This three-day training for healing and bodywork professionals seeks to impart the skills necessary to begin to work with "primary respiration," a therapeutic, tidal-like movement in the fluids of the body named by Dr. Sutherland, the founder of Cranial Osteopathy. Working with it requires a still heart and deep perception and listening skills. We will learn practices that will permit us to establish "presence" and "grounding" and to sense subtle movement in the fluids of the body.

We will also cover: appropriate therapist/client boundaries; the theory underlying the Biodynamic Craniosacral approach (the view of the body as a fluid structure of living water, and how it communicates its stresses, patterns of resistance and past traumas); the four stages of dynamic morphology based on the development of the human embryo; palpation of the "long tide" (Primary Respiration) by contact with the shoulder, pelvis, feet, sacrum, and spine; and how to decompress the structures around the heart and how this manual work relates to the psychospiritual dimensions of the human heart. The focus of this class will be on the development of the heart and the therapeutic implications of the Biodynamic approach to Craniosacral Therapy.

A THREE-DAY TRAINING
Friday–Sunday, July 25–27, 10am–6pm
08SBM22S Approved for CEUs
Members: $360 / Nonmembers: $390

Michael Shea, PhD, one of the nation’s pre-eminent somatic educators and therapists, has 30 years of experience in Craniosacral Therapy as well as long experience in Gestalt, Rolfing and several other mind-body modalities. The author of several books and numerous articl es on craniosacral work, he has taught somatic psychology at numerous schools and centers in North America and Europe and is a specialist in treating pediatric neurological problems. He is adjunct faculty at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, teaching in the pre- and perinatal psychology doctoral program.

Note: Admission to Level 2 is by approval of Michael Shea. Once you are admitted, you are responsible for the complete payment of the deposit.  An online application will be available shortly.


Level 2: Birth Ignition—
The Autonomic Nervous System
Thursday–Sunday, September 17–21, 2008
Note: Admission to Level 2 is by approval of Michael Shea. Once you are admitted, you are responsible for the complete payment for modules 2 and 10. (For payment details, please see Initial Registration Fee.) 

This level of the training focuses on exploring the function of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and its development immediately after birth.  Baby’s brains grow in relationship with a caregiver. It is called the attachment process. The neural regulation of emotions, stress, and trauma are learned by the infant in relationship with the caregiver. At the same time, the fluid body and soma (the nine physiological systems of the body) of the infant are undergoing profound changes. Resolution of early relationship stress and the imprinting that occurs during that time will be demonstrated in the adult therapeutic relationship through autonomic attunement and neuro-affective touch. When the ANS is in a chronic adaptive state, Primary Respiration and the fluid body becomes muted in the soma resulting in the possibility of long term health problems. Students will learn how to self-regulate their own and the client’s ANS while staying oriented to Primary Respiration and stillness.  Infant brain development will be covered in detail.

Learning Goals:

• Explain the principles of “neuro affective” touch and emotional regulation.

• Palpate embryonic stillness in and around the midline of the fluid body.

• Practice a new model for the client-therapist relationship as linked cardiovascular systems in the second week of embryological development.

Level 3: Heart Ignition—Embryonic Development of the Blood and Heart
Saturday– Wednesday, December 6–10, 2008

This level of training helps students deepen to the biodynamic skills of coupled (joint) cardiovascular systems and hearts. When a client and therapist are in a therapeutic relationship, not only their brains begin to resonate together, but also their cardiovascular systems. This class will focus on revisioning the therapeutic relationship as a linking of two embryonic circulatory systems. The hands and arms of the practitioner represent the connecting stalk and umbilical cord of the embryo connecting its central body to its placenta. Palpation will be taught with Primary Respiration to sense the metabolic exchange happening between the client and therapist within the blood and heart in the tidal body and fluid body as a spiral. The reciprocal tension potency (RTP) and the longitudinal fluctuation of the three dimensional fluid body will be introduced.

Learning Goals:

• Analyze the four types of circulatory systems as models of the therapeutic relationship.

• Describe and experience the four basic developmental movements of the embryonic heart tube.

• Continue and improve the therapeutic skill of witnessing.

Level 4: Conception Ignition—The Midline of Stillness
Wednesday–Sunday, March 11–15, 2009

This level of training will focus on the most distinguishing features of biodynamic practice called the midline and the fulcrum present at conception. Detailed embryology of the formation of the midline will be taught. This includes the primitive streak, notochord and its relationship to the developing brain and central nervous system. A second midline is further distinguished in biodynamic practice known as the horizontal or feminine midline.  This midline is related to the connecting stalk of the embryo, the umbilical cord and connection to the natural world. Specific skills will be taught to come into relationship with both the vertical and horizontal midlines via the dynamic stillness that forms their core. This level of training will introduce the principle of how the fluid body holds one’s origin story through active shaping processes, gradients of viscosity and thermal regulation. This relates to the ignition of embodiment in the third week of embryonic development. Students will also continue to learn to rebalance the client from an overactive autonomic nervous system by contacting the occiput and temporal bones.

• Experience the significance of the primitive streak in the development of the brain and heart.

• Palpate the biotensegrity of the fluid body as surface, gradient and three-dimensionality.

• Recognize and work with side effects from biodynamic treatments.

Level 5: Birth Ignition—The Heart and Brain Before and After Birth
Wednesday–Sunday, June 3–7, 2009

This level of training will focus on the relationship of the developing heart to the developing brain including the arch arteries in the neck. The heart and brain are invited to arise by the superior portion of the gut tube called the pharynx. Specific skills for the fluid body will be taught to balance the space above and below the foramen magnum as a single continuum of the heart-brain complex. An introduction to the development of the cranial base will be presented along with palpation skills to contact its formation through the metabolic fields (active shaping movements of the fluid body. This includes teachings on the third ventricle called a biodynamic CV3 (clearing the third ventricle). Detailed information will be taught on connecting the embryonic period of cardiovascular development with its perinatal development. In addition the relationship of the first breath of an infant and Primary Respiration will be practiced. This is a deepening of the study of “birth ignition.”

• Introduction to the movement of embryonic metabolic fields as specific shapes in the fluid body.

• Perform the skills of balancing the temporal bones and sphenoid bone as an expression of their embryological development.

• Analyze the relationship of embryonic development to infant heart brain development.

Level 6: Somatic Ignition—Working with the Extremities
Wednesday–Sunday, September 9–13, 2009

This level of training focuses on the development of the upper extremities and the heart plus the lower extremities and the abdomen. Somatic ignition will be covered in detail as it relates to the influence of the autonomic nervous system in shaping of the fluid body. The contemporary client frequently carries shock and trauma from their pre and perinatal history. This level will detail how the fluid body responds to shock and trauma with stillness. Specific skills will be taught within a biodynamic context to contain and transform a clients’ trauma story via the biodynamic process of somatic ignition. The specific skill called the first breath introduced earlier in the training will be deepened as a way of integrating Primary Respiration with diaphragmatic breathing. The intention is to normalize dissociation and relate the client to the natural world. This is the next part in the sequence of birth ignition introduced in the preceding level. The client- therapist relationship will be reframed in the developmental context of both the embryo – placenta metabolism and the infant – mother physiology.

• Palpate the embryological development of the extremities.

• Completion of the analysis and experience of the metabolic fields of the embryo.

• Understand the relationship of normal dissociation to the Dynamic Stillness in the fluid body.\

Level 7: Heart Ignition—Working with the Face and the Heart
Wednesday–Sunday, December 2–6, 2009

This level of training will focus on what is called the cranio-facial-cardiac module in embryology. Detailed information and skills will be taught about coming into relationship with the fluid fields of the head, neck and the face. Differentiation of the neurocranium, chondrocranium and viscerocranium will be taught. The face derives from the endoderm and is the top end of the foregut. It organizes the growth of the brain and heart. Specific palpation skills will be taught to evaluate and treat the fluid body of the face and foregut by learning the significance of the pharyngeal arches of the embryo. This will then be brought together with the late stages of the development of the cardiovascular system to finish the details of heart ignition. Of special interest will be the cranial nerves and the relationship of the vagus nerve to the heart in both embryonic development as well as during infancy and childhood. The role of projection and transference in the therapeutic relationship will be reframed in a pre and perinatal psychology context.

• Learn the embryological development of the face.

• Continue demonstrating the developmental movements of the heart tube in relationship.

• Understand the development of the cranial nerves in emotional development.

• Learn the embryological development of the viscera.

• Palpate the developmental movements of the gut.

• Evaluate infants and children in a biodynamic context.

Level 9: Conception Ignition—Working with the Floor of the Pelvis
Wednesday–Sunday, June 9–13, 2010

This level will complete the embryological development of the hindgut of the lower abdomen and pelvic floor started in earlier modules.  Specific palpation will be taught for the bladder, prostate and uterus. The cells that form the organs in the floor of the pelvis and the blood originate outside the body in the yoke sac of the embryo. This imagery suggests a shamanic type of healing process related to conception ignition. The biodynamic therapeutic relationship will be reframed in the context of shamanism as a retrieval of the body from outside. This requires an intimate personal relationship with dynamic stillness found in the natural world and Primary Respiration moving from outside to in the body. The origin story found in the fluid body is facilitated through the creation of sacred space by the practitioner. Sacred space is defined as having a functioning connection to the natural world. The fluid body will be covered in more detail regarding how it initiates the embodiment of the core structures in the embryo through a specific shape called the longitudinal fluctuation.

• Perform palpation on the hindgut derivatives and pelvic floor.

• Describe the shamanic context of biodynamic practice beyond the function of witnessing.

• Demonstrate how Primary Respiration is a catalyst for heat distribution in the fluid body.

Level 10: Review, Completion, Birth and Graduation
Wednesday–Sunday, September 15–19, 2010

This level of training will be a complete review of the essential principles of the whole training. The 30-50 hand positions taught in the previous nine modules will be partially reviewed day by day. The entire embryological model will be covered in a series of summary lectures. The teaching team will share their expertise on practice building, communicating the nature of the work to lay people and sharing practice management skills. Emphasis will be placed on post-graduate supervision and mentoring. Finally, the students will design a graduation ceremony for the final day of class.

Learning Goals:

• Review of clinical applications and therapeutic skills.  
• Review the entire embryological model.  
• Understand the need for post-graduate supervision and continuing education.
• Graduation 

REGISTRATION AND FEES
DEPOSIT: $1600 (Due September 1)
08SBM49D  Approved for CEUs
EARLY BIRD RATE: $1,450 (due August 17)

Full Payment: $5,075 in addition to deposit (due November 6, 2008)
08SBM49A  Approved for CEUs

Payment Plan: $5460
08SBM49A  Approved for CEUs

What is Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy?-Read the following article
What Does "Biodynamic" Mean? by Michael Shea

In addition to the deposit, there are seven payments of $780, due on 11/3/08, 2/2/09, 4/27/09, 8/3/09, 10/26/09, 1/25/10 and 3/3/10. Automatic credit card payments only. There is a $75 late payment.