Prior to COVID, practitioners generally kept quiet about doing remote work with others. It was mysterious to me and seemed to be reserved for 'special' people. Now, those of us who practice remotely know that anyone can do this work. The meta-physics is built into each and every one of us, and many of us know it is the meta-physics of all being and being-ness itself. We realize remote work simply is an extension of our biodynamic training that itself only needed drawing out through introduction and our patience in practicing it.

As we stumble back into some semblance of active life - work transition, school hybrid, maybe a timed museum visit or a cautious meal at an outdoor café - can we orient to the health in the shared body of our world?

When a person, a system, walks in the door as a BCST client, we aim to provide a wide, supportive, healing space. We cannot see everything, but we work with the conditions we see and keep in mind the unknown.

We are all holding such heartbreak but also hope for deep change with these ongoing racial issues which plague the very basic human rights we hold dear. We want to help turn this time of heartsick, pain and outrage into an opportunity for healing and true transformation at the deepest level of possibility for a true shift in consciousness.

There are so many things that I want to say. But, as I’ve found out earlier this year, I am neurodivergent, and in times of collective grief, my knack for expressing things in words is markedly less present—and other, non-verbal forms of communication and creativity have come to the forefront.

I am noticing with hindsight my reactions over these weeks were directly related to my response to my nervous system.

So where were you when the corona virus took you into its vortex of confusion? What should we do or not do?

Shadow leaks into our lives, unconsciously affecting our perceptions, thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, relationships, bodies and personalities. Pre-and perinatal experience, rarely acknowledged or reflected during childhood, generally retreats into the unconscious, seldom coming into words and conscious thoughts. It is almost by definition shadow material.

A Conversation Between Katherine Ukleja and Dominique Degranges

In the Biodynamic Craniosacral field we look at early conception, implantation and fetal development as imprints which help us understand and discover early forces and energies that begin to form our human experience. In this blog we will hear from two leading experts in the field of pre-natal territory by way of a conversation about this fascinating area about the beginnings of human form.

Trauma held in the body/mind field creates a regioning that has two possible potentia. The first is density and inertia held in the body, enfolding the remnants of trauma in the physical tissue and non-physical fields until it can be resolved; the second is the way in which the trauma and the subtlety of its resultant, subconscious habit-field –our thoughts/concepts, projections and accompanying actions– direct its affects in and as our experience of perceptivity and perceiving.

Dr. William Garner Sutherland (1873-1954) was one of the first graduates of Dr. A.T. Still’s School of Osteopathy in 1900. In osteopathic college, the anatomical texts of the day reported bones of the cranium were fused by the time one reached adulthood. In school he disarticulated a temporal bone from a skull, noticed its beveled edges and was struck with the thought, “beveled like the gills of a fish indicating primary respiration.” This was a transformational insight and he dedicated the rest of his life to exploring this discovery. 

Dr. Andrew Taylor Still (1828-1917) “discovered” the secrets of hands on healing when devastating personal tragedy convinced him that administering medicine was not the cure for disease. He believed there must be a better way to cure the sick and embarked on a lifelong quest to understand the complexities of health and disease, life and death.

What does it mean to sit with somebody and in particular to sit with someone who is suffering? How do we hold space for someone else in pain and support ourselves in the process? This is one of the key components in our work.

Birth is a big event in everybodyʼs life, whether you are the parent or the baby. We generally donʼt cognitively remember our own birth even though to borrow an expression from Babette Rothschild, “the body remembers”.

The polyvagal system mediates social engagement through its neural pathways to the face, jaw, throat, and viscera. When there is a failure in human relationship, or a rupture in connection, we are encountering the roots of shame.

We human beings are wired for connection and safety. This wiring is a primitive survival mechanism built into our neurobiology. As we engage in connecting with one another in this New Year, understanding of The Polyvagal Theory and Social Engagement System is an integral part of how we relate to one another, how we self and co-regulate and how healing can manifest in our bodies and in relationship.