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Clinical
Biodynamic Craniosacral Work introduces us to four qualities of body: Neutral (Tissue), Fluid Tide (Fluid), Long Tide (Potency), and Dynamic Stillness (the non-physical dimension). Do these four universal expressions of embodiment represent something that everyone can enjoy? Or are they evolutionary steps that require a leap of consciousness? To both of these seemingly opposite questions…
Biodynamics abounds in paradox. Perhaps the most counterintuitive element of our work is that we don’t seek a shift in our clients. At least, we don’t seek a shift in the moment, while we’re in session. (I’ve written a previous blog about overarching intentions, which I distinguish from efferent activity.) Seeking for something to shift…
The empath is a channel of non-ordinary perception, in which your own body’s signals reliably reflect what’s happening in your client’s body. I first learned about this channel from Hugh Milne. For years, I looked to the empath channel as a primary source of information about my client’s experience. My right leg tingled or ached;…
We say we aren’t the ones conducting the treatment. We defer to a therapeutic agency more potent than our own will. Yet our education teaches us to follow the narrative arc of a session and to discern its features. “Is this a Neutral or a Stillpoint?” “Is this the Fluid Tide or the Long Tide?”…
Are you convinced that your body is an isolated object, separate from everything else? Do you experience that your isolated brain is carried around passively by the workhorse of your body? Actually, we exist in a network. Our bodies, our minds, and awareness itself are an interconnected web. Like mushrooms within their mycelium, our bodies…
One of the most confusing elements of biodynamic training is the emphasis on non-doing. Does this mean that our clients visit us in a professional setting, seek good care, pay us money…and yet we do not seek a favorable outcome to their clinical issue? Absolutely not! Let’s explore what it means not to have an…
“That was so relaxing,” or “That felt good, but I can’t put into words what happened. It was just very quiet.” Are your biodynamic clients prone to vagueness? Awareness of what has shifted helps my clients appreciate and maintain the changes they have achieved in the session. In this post I explore two ways that I help…
Lucky for us, Biodynamics doesn’t rely on the practitioner having it all together. Instead, the work depends on the quality of our Neutral. Neutral simply means we are receptive to health. In a Neutral, we are free to shift in response to Primary Respiration. Being in Neutral is not an indication that we have achieved…
Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous I don’t know. (Polish poet Wisława Szymborska) The Biodynamic paradigm expresses our essential clinical inability to be certain. The paradox is that the more we lean into uncertainty, the more successful our work becomes. The Biodynamic practitioner acknowledges that our mind doesn’t know with certainty what is…
Uncertainty is the very condition to impel us to unfold our powers. (Psychologist Erich Fromm) Our willingness to not-know (whether we are a healer, client, or human being) is what permits the most potent healing to unfold. Being comfortable with the unknown, dancing with chaos, is a recipe for health. We implement the Not-Knowing-Plan through…