What Do I Do Next?

Students of Craniosacral Biodynamics often ask the question in various ways: How do I know what to do next? Or where to go? Or which inertial fulcrum to address?

One of challenges of learning and practicing Craniosacral Biodynamics is that it is not about me as practitioner making these decisions. And we aren’t focused on doing. This is counter to everything we generally learn growing up and functioning in our modern world.

As little children we learn to become increasingly independent at doing whatever needs doing in our lives. We learn to eat without being fed, to dress and wash ourselves on our own, and to cross the street, get to school, go to work, etc. without assistance. Each accomplishment boosts our sense of ourselves a bit more. We can feel increasingly secure in our abilities to negotiate the world. Those who are differently-abled due to illness, accidents, trauma, conditions they were born with, or more mysterious causes, often face stigma, judgment or a sense of being a burden because they are less independent than the general standard.

What are we, who are we if we let go of doing?

Trust the Tide: Resting in Not Knowing

Craniosacral Biodynamics can take us into new territories of not knowing. This is not about analysis or doing but about direct perception of what is emerging. Can we be with what arises without having to do something about it?

How many of us feel good about ourselves when one of clients gets better? This is natural and it is wonderful to celebrate with and take delight in a client’s release from some aspect of suffering that led them to us. If we measure our value based on this kind of result, however, we are treading on shaky ground.

In Craniosacral Biodynamics the work is less about the practitioner making decisions than it is about being able to settle, support the client in settling under their usual activations, and so facilitating the Breath of Life in doing its work. We “trust the tide” as Sutherland instructed. We listen deeply.

If many inertial fulcrums are presenting, it is not up to me to decide which one to work with. Many sites of inertia are common. As the client is able to settle into a calm, safe relational field, the inherent treatment plan will start to unfold.

The first step is the settling of our relational field. Does the client feel safe with me? If their nervous system remains in an activated state, this suggests to me that they still need help to settle. I can remind them of what is resourcing or supportive for them. I can widen my field of perception, carefully negotiating my contact and energetic space with the client to make sure they don’t feel threatened on some level. I can orient to the field of dynamic stillness within which we are suspended, thus supporting the client’s system in also deepening under the activation. One gateway to this stillness is the pause at the end of an inhalation or exhalation of mid-tide, if there is a sense of tide.

 

If there is no clear sense of primary respiration or wholeness, we have not yet deepened into holistic shift territory. I can’t expect the inherent treatment plan to unfold further until this happens. If there is a sense of waves bouncing around on the surface, of nervous system pulsations, activation, or tension, I focus on facilitating deeper settling. Once the holistic shift presents, with a sense of wholeness, suspension of fields within fields (physical within fluid within tidal field of long tide, all suspended within dynamic stillness), and a sense of primary respiration coming to the fore, then I deepen and widen further to listen to how the potency chooses to work.

 

As things settle deeper, one of the many inertial fulcrums present begins to clarify as the potency chooses to address that one. I still don’t do anything as this presents, except continue to deepen and widen and appreciate the Intelligence with a capital I in action. As the chosen fulcrum clarifies further, I may have a sense of being directed to meet it more directly by placing my hands in closer proximity to the area where the fulcrum is.

Energy at Work

It is important to remember that we are working with energetic forces here. We are not intending to make changes to the tissues, although this often occurs as the inertial forces are resolved. Our job is to be present with the forces, thus augmenting their healing process.

We can sense the inertial forces causing tissue contraction as they come into balance with the biodynamic or universal forces represented by potency. Initially they dance with each other. We may detect a sense of push and pull, a tug of war, pulsations, or fluctuations as each struggles with the other.

As the system settles eventually the inertial fulcrum also settles. The inertial forces and the potency working to contain them come into a state of balance. Within the state of balance we may sense a shift in potency from protective density to emergent healing process. Then we might sense inertial forces being discharged as pulsations, heat, buzzing, etc. This is often accompanied by a sense of softening and spreading of the tissues as the inertial forces are no longer acting on them.

Once an inertial fulcrum is resolved, the organizational function of potency comes to the forefront. The whole system can then reorganize, no longer having to orient to the inertial fulcrum that is no longer active.

Less Doing is More

While this unfolding process may be very clear at a fluid tide level, it may also emerge within dynamic stillness or at a long tide level. What I want to emphasize here is that, if things are not unfolding, it is not an indication that we need to do more! It is that we need to settle more. This will support the client’s system in settling through resonance with our own. We may also need to facilitate further settling of our relational field so things can deepen.

It is important to understand that Craniosacral Biodynamics is a highly relational practice. Some students are so focused on not doing that they disappear into non-relational states of blissful dissociation. The client is then on their own with disembodied hands on their body! This does not support deep healing and may even be activating.

Our work is a beautiful balance of being deeply settled and quiet while also profoundly present with our clients. It is in this field of aware presence that we can witness and support the inherent treatment plan in action.