by Dar Mikula
There are no prerequisites and you don’t need to be a massage therapist to benefit from the Biodynamic Cranial Touch work that’s being offered at FSM on Martin Luther King Day Weekend. Giorgia Milne, who will fly in from her West Coast home to re-introduce this work, maintains that the essence of the approach is a fundamental practice that can be applied to anything – whether you’re a bodyworker, a mom, or a corporate CEO.
“This work will help the participant drop into a place of recognizing the whole person,” Milne said. “Not just the wholeness of the body but the wholeness of one’s life: where you came from, where you’re going, and what you actually are.”
That statement may sum up Milne’s journey from leaving her profession as a Physician Assistant to becoming an international teacher of the BCT approach.
“My calling came at a time when I was practicing ‘white-coat’ medicine, feeling the heartbreak of its limitation, and asking how I could go on,” Milne said. “The response was palpably and audibly specific: ‘You will find the answer to your life’s dream through craniosacral work.’ At the time, I had never heard of craniosacral work before nor had I heard Osteopaths, sadly, referred to other than in a derogatory manner by medical doctors. Had I known then what they really are, in the traditional sense, I would have gone to Osteopathic training!”
Milne avows that the journey that phrase initiated continues to unfold to this day. She left her P.A. profession and ended up as a co-student in another teacher’s class with Hugh Milne. They lived and worked and traveled together for 11 years and she followed her own path during that time as well. Her main influences have been, amongst others, her former husband Hugh, Charles Ridley, James Jealous, and the writings of Dr. William Sutherland, Adah Sutherland, and Dr. Rollin Becker.
Milne says that in her work she honors the osteopathic lineage while also recognizing the BCT approach as fundamental to inherent human qualities of presence. She explained, “In this class there is not a lot of lecture or a bullet point list of techniques for an xyz problem that therapists take back to their office starting on Monday.” Rather, Milne said, “Participants can expect a lot of experiential exercises discovering their own ‘Inherent Treatment Plan’, the wisdom we all have that knows what the body needs and when and how.”
Parallel to that, Milne follows the “Inherent Teaching Plan” within the class, which begins to reveal itself when people connect with inner body-felt-sense awareness in the now, and then speak from that experience. “When participants start sharing their direct experience, the class begins to teach itself,” she said.
Milne says there is a distinction in the kind of approach she brings, which was articulated by Ridley. Her teaching stays true to that and at the same time, she honors all the different flavors of craniosacral that are out there. She never worked with Dr. John Upledger, for instance, but she esteems him as one of the first osteopaths who overtly taught the work to non-osteopaths. “None of us would be doing what we’re doing had Dr. Upledger not done what he did,” Milne said. “He got the work into many more hands.”
If you are interested in learning more, read the related article, “An Opportunity to Rest in the Heart of Stillness” by Giorgia Milne. Also highly recommended is the Charles Ridley book, Stillness: Biodynamic Cranial Practice and the Evolution of Consciousness.
For more information about the class or to register, please call Mary Reis at (352) 246-6280 or email her at maryreis@me.com.
