Upcoming Courses

I am currently looking at the calendar to set up dates for the Front and Back of the Head courses as well as the TMJ course.  I will hopefully have dates for 2013 set soon.

Embodying Embryology, A Continuum Movement Exploration

Last week end I attended a three day workshop titled: Embodying Embryology, A Continuum Movement Exploration.  It came at a great time as I have been studying embryology in greater detail.

It was taught by Cherionna Menzam-Sills.  She is a Contiuum instructor and also a Biodynamic craniosacral therapist and teacher.  For those of you who have started looking further into the cranial field she is married to Franklyn Sills, a noted instructor and author of Cranialsacral Biodynamics Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.  I should point out at this point that Continuum was developed by Emilie Conrad.

I first heard about Continuum in the book by Bonnie Gintis, Engaging the Movement of Life: Exploring Heath and Embodiment through Through Osteopathy and Continuum.  It stimulated my imagination and I wanted to find out a little bit more.  I recommend you visit some of the links to find out more for yourself.

It was a very interesting three days.  Actually difficult to explain.  Basically we are trying to get our bodies to move in a much more fluid way.  Instead of using our normal patterned movements we are listening to our bodies with "open attention" and moving how the tissues are wanting to at the time. When you work out in the gym, or do other patterned movements you start to densify your tissues.  This method works to reverse that densification.  You feel much lighter afterward. We used several sounds while sitting or laying on the ground then would allow our bodies to move.  It is similar feeling to a whole body unwinding.  I must say it was very meditative, relaxing and freeing.  The depth reached was surprising and beautiful.

Each day we would start out feeling our bodies and taking a baseline of how we were feeling.  I was definitely feeling much more fluid and mobile at the end of the days.  The last day I started with a bad headache but postponed taking any painkillers as a test to the techniques.  I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.  Neck, back and headache felt much better during and following the movements.  I will be continuing Continuum as a home practice along with my meditation practice.

Studying: Good for the soul

It has been a busy time. 

I did a guest appearance at a cranial study group.  These therapists all took my Advanced Cranial Therapy courses.  It was a great pleasure to see them studying and practicing their skills.

It was great to discuss the experiences they have had and to give support and direction where needed.  We talked about appropriate approaches for various situations such as assessing base strains in small children and the necessity of using a dynamic assessment versus a static assessment of the lesions.

Next we got to the table and did some fascial work with the horizontal diaphragms of the body.  It is fun to integrate feeling the cranial rhythmical impulse throughout the body and overlay that with feeling motility patterns of the diaphragms as a assessment tool.  Learning how to change your "filters" of your brain to tell your hands what you want to feel  is always an excellent skill to develop and fine tune.  It seemed everyone enjoyed feeling the connection of the bone and connective tissues. 

I also finished teaching another term at Utopia Academy.  It was a wonderful time for me again.  I must say it is a real pleasure teaching there, The students and administration are welcoming and gracious and everyone seems to get along smoothly.  Either the students are getting extremely bright or I'm a suberb instructor because they all caught on to the cranial concept rapidly.  It sure makes my job easy!

On a personal note, my study group is continuing into it's third year of study and mentor ship into Biodynamic Cranial.  Howard Jones has been meeting with us for about seven hours once a month.  It has been an eye-opening experience.  We are now diving into biodynamic embryology.  A subject that will probably take us a solid year to cover.  Anyone interested in this topic I highly recommend:

The Ontogenic Basis of Human Anatomy. A Biodynamic Approach to Development from Conception to Birth. By Erich Blechschmidt.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ontogenetic-Basis-Human-Anatomy/dp/155643507X#_

That's all for now.  I will talk soon about my plans to introduce a year long cranial course with mentor ship components.

Intro to Cranial Sacral Therapy

I was pleased to instruct at Utopia Academy in Vancouver this Spring.  What a wonderful group of students.  The environment was relaxed and professional both with the students and the staff.

The first day was getting everyone to palpate the cranial Sacral Rhythm (CSR) or the Cranial Rhythmical Impulse (CRI) as well as some of the anatomy and physiology of the cranial sacral system.

The next 5 days were spent exploring. We covered the fascial and membranous diaphragms in the body.  Namely the pelvic and  respiratory diaphragms; the thoracic inlet (or outlet depending on your point of view); at the level of the hyoid; the junction between the occiput and atlas (C1).  The tentorium cerebelli and falx cerebri inside the skull were also addressed.  We all built models of the intracranial membranes.  This was a great exercise to have the tentorium cerebelli and falx cerebri take three dimensional form.  It gives a real appreciation to the anatomy and function.

We continues with decompressing the lumosacral junction and feeling the dural tube.  "It's really cool" when you feel the synchronicity of the sacrum and cranium. 

We got into the cranium next.  I was happy to observe the students differentiating between sutural and membranous lesions.  There was ample time to practice all the techniques and help give confidence in their abilities. 

The students got to witness first hand positive changes to a fellow classmate that was experiencing a condition that is proving difficult to diagnose.  It is always wonderful to see improvement to people that are close to use.  In this case it also demonstrated how something as gentle as Cranial Sacral Therapy can have profound results were other techniques have failed.

We had some extra time on the last day before exams and we covered some intraoral and extraoral work to do with treating the temporomandibular joints.  I always enjoy when a class would rather cover interesting work rather than taking off early on a Friday afternoon!  Great job to all!

I've been asked to return to teach again in the future.  It was such a good experience for me, and for all, I think, that I will teach at Utopia Academy again in the future.

Day 6

Day six is a wrap up day.  We go over questions that have come up for the students.  Then I provided frame work for all the skills they have acquired.  This is a type of flow chart versus a recipe type protocol.  My goal is to make a Therapist not a Technician. 

The majority of the day is spent treating each other.  We assess, document, treat, and re-assess. 

The wonderful thing is I am available throughout this process to ask questions and confirm assessment readings.  I am always pleased by this point in the workshop to witness everyones enhanced skills.  The palpation of landmarks and of the CRI is at a competent level and continuing to improve.  Confidence is building.  Their patients will be getting some excellent care.

Well done!  I fully enjoyed teaching this group.  It would seem I am always blessed with wonderful students in my courses.  Thank you.

Feedback on the course "Front of the Head"

Robert offers a unique blend of practical / theoretical and objective / subjective cranial therapeutic growth for the practitioner.  The environment and personality added to the great experience.

Robert is a very patient and articular teacher.  He clearly explains the material and encourages practise to let the skills evolve.  These courses are an invaluable wealth of practical tools that compliment my practice and I recommend them highly!

Robert was very patient and realistic with his expectations.  Very useful techniques that I can incorporate into my treatments right away and lots of room to study and grow!

Robert is an excellent and patient teacher.  The amount of information is vast and difficult to comprehend in such a short period of time but he was able to break it down into comprehensible pieces.

Thank you for your patients (infinite) and compassion.  You are an excellent teacher.  I loved all of the different ways you tried to teach us.  I especially liked your analogies, drawings, amazing excerpts from your e-mannual and your wonderful sense of humour.  Thank you for "dumming down" such a huge body of work that is so detailed and complicated.  It's so different from everything I have learned before.  I an so excited to keep learning and practicing.  You have no idea how beneficial this course and your teaching has been to me on so many different levels!

Great course!  Fun teaching style!



Day 4 and 5; Front of the Head

Day 4 and 5

Day four and five continued with our examination of the sphenoid bone.  We covered the lesser wing's landmarks and connections to other bones.  Then followed it up with practical applications by releasing these connections. 

Next the greater wing was discussed.  We looked at it's three surfaces: cerebral, lateral and orbital surfaces.  Also it's five boarders: zygomatic, frontal, posterior, squamosal and medial boarder.  These intimate classes allow me to take the real bones around for everyone to see.  The disarticulated bones really show the sutures in all their glory.  Plastic bones are helpful; but nothing beats the real thing. You need to see and appreciate the details in order to do precise cranial treatments. 

We also looked at the zygoma and palatine bones.  I think everyone was surprised at being able to palpate the CRI of the palatine bone in the mouth.

There was quite a bit of assessment skills learnt too, in the form of motion tests.  This is necessary to determine what and where we are going to treat.  Where are the restrictions? Are they in the coronal suture?  Can the greater wing of the sphenoid express its full motion without being inhibited?  Is the vomer synchronised properly to the sphenoid?  These lucky folks can answer these questions with confidence now. 

The corrections take into account the directions and orientation of the bones and their motion patterns.  This allows us to use variable treatment pressures as we know how to disengage one bone from another.  The students tested before and after a correction to satisfy themselves that the work performed did what it was intended to do.  It is always excellent when you can feel someones head "pump up" after freeing restrictions.

Day five ended with us again getting in the mouth to treat the sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG).  This ganglion can be crowded, especially in a extension of the sphenoid and create a variety of symptoms.  It may be involved in pathology of the lacrimal glands, sinus infection, nasal mucus membranes, irritation of the nasopharynx and palate.  It is always a good idea to check the SPG in cases of TMJ problems also. 

Tomorrow bring this six day workshop to a close.  I look forward to telling you more then.

End of Day 3

Here I am in action.  This will put a face to the person writing the words.  We have now finished Day 3.

Day 2 and 3 are mainly concerned with getting to know base strains.  Namely what is happening at the sphenobasilar junction (SBJ).  There can be a multitude of dysfunctions that can occur:
Flexion / Extension
Superior / Inferior Vertical Strain
Torsions
Sidebending Rotation
Lateral Strain
Compression

I think the students really enjoyed having different methods to assess these lesions.  In particular the "Static" method which uses the position of the maxilla and temporal bones to tell us what is happening at the SBJ.  Palpation of these bones positions tells us so much, without even feeling the Cranial Rhythmical Impulse (CRI).

We also assessed using the CRI and the "Challenge" Test.  This further confirms our assessment of the SBJ.  Having multiple tests to confirm each other gives confidence, especially when learning to feel the CRI.  You don't have that feeling of "I don't feel anything" panic.

Here is a 4 handed decompression of the SBJ.  No he didn't grow and extra hand.  It is two therapists working together.

It was very convenient for a few people who actually had base strains.  After cleaning them up you could see the light come back into their eyes and colouring return to their faces.  Needless to say they were much sharper and happier too!

The end of day 3, we are now treating the ethmoid bone.  Time to "glove up."  You can see a tissue as well, this is to prevent slipping off the hard palate.  Everyone's ethmoid was Rock'n in the Free World after performing these releases.


Looking forward to the final three days of the "Front of the Head"  in two weeks time.

End of Day 1

It was a wonderful day. Six great people taking part in this course.  Here we are practising the "Bowl Balance" synchronizing the cranium and sacrum to the respiratory diaphragm. 

It was a fun day with lots of laughter, some at my expense!

Day 2 we start in on learning the cranial "base" lesions.  We learn two ways to confirm the position of the base: 1) statically, 2) dynamically.  This way we can confirm our findings, or easily have someone else confirm the findings.  The static method is extremely objective and many people like this method as it makes it much easier to determine what the skull is doing.

Once we learn to feel what the head is doing there is a very easy schematic charting system to document your findings.

Base stains here we come!

Front of the Head day 1

Looking forward to teaching tomorrow.  The workshop is the Advanced Cranial "Front of the Head".  It is a six day course of Cranial Sacral Therapy.

We will be starting the course talking about the Cranial Rhythmical Impulse (CRI) especially the quality.  After a little theoretical we will move onto the practical aspects and palpate the CRI at the "expansion pivots" at the front and back of the head.

We will be exploring the CRI in the extremities as well in order to learn an important principle in Advanced Cranial: the "Challenge" Test or "Nudge" Test as it is often called.  This test is vital in assuring that the corrections you are making to the system are of a positive nature.  This Challenge Test is only taught by Dynamic Therapies Advanced Cranial.  It is what gives profound confidence to therapists learning this technique. 

We will use the CRI and the Challenge Test to assess joints in the extremities and to place the "joints on track".  Meaning that the CRI will now be consistent across the joint and not diminished in some form.  This is wonderful for helping joint problems.

Next comes two techniques that to my knowledge no other instructor teaches.  Two light easy methods of correcting facet restrictions in the spine.  These can be performed with the person standing, sitting or in a prone position.  For those of you familiar with Muscle Energy Technique (MET) you are aware of the far reaching influence of correcting joint dysfunctions in the spine.  The nice thing with these two methods is that the person does not have to always have to bend forward or arch backward in order to test and treat.  It is great for acute conditions or people that are highly sensitive.  Using these two techniques we will correct "CRI Blocks in the spine".

One of the things I'm looking forward to is when we do the "Bowl Balance".  This synchronizes the cranium-sacrum-respiratory diaphragm.  This is often the point were students get really excited as they feel a head get "pumped up!"