By Mary Reis
The Biodynamic Cranial Approach (BCA), as taught by the Touch of Presence® School for Biodynamic Studies requires a major paradigm shift in our thinking and being — out of our thinking minds and into our sensing bodies. This is a unique approach to working in the Craniosacral Field as it is not oriented to anatomy, symptoms, & treatment. Instead, it is oriented to presence & wholeness, the interface of our sensing bodies and the healing & regenerative forces inherent within.
Many craniosacral schools focus on the anatomy, assessment, & techniques for reducing symptoms & healing the body. The trainings are extensive and extremely informative in an “outside-in” kind of way — you learn about & focus on the anatomy, practice techniques, and learn when and how to use them. In practice, the sessions are directed towards trying to eliminate symptoms and optimize the craniosacral system using clinical reasoning skills learned in the programs. All very good and useful.
The Touch of Presence® BCA courses however have a very different approach —an “inside-out” approach, focused on wholeness & feelingly orienting to presence. The BCA training is also a very extensive and “informative” training, but not by “taking in” outside information — the learning comes from following the principles — orienting inwardly and being present to what is. The embryonic forces that guide the growth and development of the embryo, continue working in us after birth and throughout life. And by learning to sit in our feeling bodies, we connect with these autonomous healing forces. We are “in-formed” by this feeling/sensing orientation — not by anatomy, techniques, or symptoms. This unique approach allows us to truly do as the founder of the work implored us to do — “Trust the Tide” to make the appropriate corrections.
So if that makes some sort of sense to you, bear with me as I attempt to say more… By feelingly orienting to “what is”, learning to sit in presence, we are essentially recovering the realm of sensation. For whatever reason, most of us lose touch with full bodied sensing, and in the process we lose access to another form of intelligence.
In his book, Radical Wholeness, Philip Shepherd describes Seselelame (“ses-al-a-lamé”) — the unique orientation of the West African Anlo-Ewe culture towards balance. A direct translation of the word “Seselelame” does not exist in the English language, but loosely translated it means “feel-feel-at-flesh-inside”.
“The word is actually a meta-sense that embraces categories that we (westerners) hold rigidly apart. It describes an inner realm in which all the world is felt. …It refers to what is perceived through the sensations of the body… Every sense is felt in the body’s resonance. They don’t just hear sounds or see sights, they feel them through their body…
“Awakening to the perceptions that reverberate in the cavern of the body, we are learning to attune to the whole of our intelligence rather than any partitioned part. As we increasingly honor the body’s sensations, we increasingly understand them to constitute a language of thought that is distinct from how the head knows.”
This is what we are doing in the Biodynamic Cranial Approach. We are reconnecting with sensations and the intelligence inherent in our fluids. We are fine-tuning our perception and re-learning our innate ability to “be still and know” based on presence. Our stillness and present-centered sensing-awareness, our ability to be with whatever arises, allows those inherent forces in the client to step forward and guide the session.
If this approach to working in the cranial field sounds interesting to you, I will be teaching the Touch of Presence® Biodynamic Cranial Approach Introduction May 2-4 at FSM. Go to my website to register: https://www.maryreis.com/upcoming-workshops. Scroll down to the BCA Intro Course and click “Reserve My Place”. I hope to see you there!
