This post is about biodynamic craniosacral therapy (BCST): what a session might be like. I’ve been seriously immersed in studying, training, and practicing this since early 2013— and I’m still learning.

Practicing it brings me much joy. It was a sudden passion: I learned of it and three days later, I was in a four-day training.

I imagine growing old doing this. I love that it’s a form of bodywork I’ll be able to do into my 80s, if God is willing.

Here’s how a session goes: You set up an appointment with me and come to my downtown office (and outcalls may be possible – contact to inquire). We greet each other in the waiting room, and I show you to my studio.

I like to know a little about what’s going on in your life, and I may take a few notes. I explain that I will gently put my hands on your body while you lie on your back. You remain clothed for your session (minus shoes, belt, and anything constricting).  You can choose to lie under the covers and to have the table warmer on, as you wish. I offer bolsters or pillows to help you feel comfortable.

Unless silence is preferred, I play a recording of ocean waves softly in the background to help you relax and also to help mask distracting outside sounds. I may occasionally check in with what you’re experiencing, and you may want to relate things to me during the session, or wait until after.

Other than that, we’re mostly silent.

I take a few moments to make sure I am connected to earth and heaven, centered in my being with an open heart before I put my hands on you.

You may want to take the first few breaths with longer exhalations to shift into a state of relaxation, but after that, please breathe normally.

You are free to experience what you experience.

If you are running on a sleep deficit, you may fall asleep. You may surf the edge of consciousness during the session. It’s been said that this is the most healing state.

You may tune into what’s happening in your body, using our time together to deepen your somatic awareness. Can you trace your breath? Can you feel how much of your body is being moved by your breath? Can you feel your heart beating in your chest?

You might become particularly aware of internal tensions releasing, tensions you may not have been aware of until now. You might tune into how your body relaxes and moves more deeply into a surrendered state. You may experience twitching, sighs, shudders, jumps, or not as you unwind.

You might feel awed by just noticing the simple process of surrendering to gravity.

You may sense a painful area in your body. Nonjudgmentally sense how the pain changes, in place, intensity, quality, with curiosity.

You might become aware of your skin. You might feel your body seeming to feel more permeable.

It may just feel pleasant and nurturing to you.

You might become aware of how fluid your body is, and you may feel subtle tides and currents moving slowly within, shifting, pausing, and reorganizing.

You may become aware of body areas that feel empty, stagnant, or disconnected. You may feel an area shift toward more flow and aliveness.

You may feel a settling into your own center, a deepening of your being.

You may feel that a healing force is at work within you, with its own agenda for healing, that is working with issues recent or ancient, on its own, beyond your control or my control.

It may feel a bit awkward to be so still and silent with a stranger — and that does pass. I may not know you very well, or you me, and yet together we are being mostly still and silent, lightly connected. I am here for you, being present with you, witnessing you, accepting you. It’s an intimate and calm professional relationship.

My agenda is to be supportive of your being’s healing processes, allowing that to happen without intruding on it or imposing my will.

These are some possibilities based on my own experience and what I’ve heard from clients.

I may touch your feet, ankles, shoulders, head, neck, and/or sternum. I may touch your wrist and ankle or shoulder and knee. I may slide my hand under your buttock to touch the side of your sacrum. I use my intuition about where to touch. I may ask you where you are feeling distress and move my hand near that area. I may use several contacts during a session, but I don’t change frequently. You may also tell me where you would like me to place my hand.

These sessions are perfect for palliative care, for hospice patients, for the very ill, and for those willing to explore the healing energy aspect of bodywork.

I am grateful to have you on my table.