At the deepest level of our physiology, all living tissues and fluids expand and contract with the 'breath of life'. Through gentle touch, the skilled practitioner can interact with these subtle rhythms to address physical aches and pains, acute or chronic disease, emotional or psychological disturbances, or simply to promote enduring health and vitality. This new and important textbook demystifies the biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy and shows how and why it can be so effective at bringing about a natural realignment towards optimal health. The authors describe how to 'listen' and respond appropriately to each client's system, how to create a safe space for working with different kinds of trauma, and how to address specific states of imbalance to support deep-felt and lasting change. Throughout the book, experiential exercises encourage the reader to practice their newly-acquired skills, and refine their knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. A final chapter on practice development covers issues pertinent to practitioners trying to set up and maintain a successful practice. This intensely practical textbook will transform the practice of craniosacral therapists, and contains much that bodyworkers of all kinds will find useful.

This new and important textbook demystifies the biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy and shows how and why it can be so effective at bringing about a natural realignment towards optimal health. The authors describe how to respond appropriately to each client's system, and how to support deep-felt and lasting change in patients.

Body Intelligence offers a new understanding of how the body works and leads the reader to a greater sense of wellbeing and an enriched sense of self. The anatomy of the body is explored without the complexity of medical terminology. Instead, common descriptions are used along with a multitude of images, allowing the reader to visualize and work with different levels of the body. Experiential exercises, guided meditations and movements are provided throughout the book, helping the reader to develop improved levels of health and body intelligence that are natural and accessible all the time. As body intelligence increases through these exercises, physical changes occur and a new posture emerges, followed by positive mental and emotional shifts. The reader will begin to feel differently, move differently and think differently. This book will benefit everyone. People experiencing depression, fatigue, emotional issues, stress and anxiety and in fact any condition associated with living in a human body have the potential to be relieved of their symptoms with practice using this book as guidance.

This useful book discusses craniosacral therapy’s history and present situation as well as its spiritual implications and practical contributions in the world of healthcare. Gilchrist demonstrates how the subtle patterns of this practice become a dynamic force in the body, and how this influences overall functioning. What most sets the book apart is Gilchrist’s discussion of the relationship of the craniosacral system and biodynamic functions to the human energy system. Though dealing with a complicated topic, the book provides a grounded, progressive approach that is both specific and insightful.

Accumulations of life stresses—physical injuries, emotional and psychological stresses, birth traumas, and toxicity—can become imprinted in the tissues, acting like a videotape that is replayed whenever stimulated. Biodynamic craniosacral therapy aims to resolve the trapped forces that underlie and drive these trauma-based patterns of disease and suffering in body and mind. Wisdom in the Body teaches practitioners to develop the finely tuned skills of hands-on palpation and perception to sense the body’s subtle rhythms and patterns of inertia or congestion, with the goal of ending trauma and facilitating the expression of the breath of life. A comprehensive introduction to this practice, the book draws on the insights of pioneers like Drs. W. G. Sutherland and Franklyn Sills to explain the key principles about the body’s natural intention to heal and how this capability can be encouraged. A valuable resource for students, practitioners, and the lay reader, the book also includes a foreword by Dr. Franklyn Sills.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) is commonly seen as the spiritual approach to craniosacral therapy (CST); in fact, BCST as taught by Franklyn Sills, the pioneer in the field, is quite different from conventional CST. Biodynamic work is based on the development of perceptual skills where the practitioner learns to become sensitive to subtle respiratory motions called primary respiration and also to the power of spontaneous healing. Through the Breath of Life, which, Sills asserts, echoes the Holy Spirit in the Judeo-Christian tradition, bodhicitta in Buddhism, and the Tai Chi in Taoism, students of BCST learn to enter a state of presence oriented to the client’s inherent ability to heal. In Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics, Sills offers students and practitioners an in-depth, step-by-step guide to the development of perceptual and clinical skills with specific clinical exercises and explorations to help students and practitioners learn the essentials of a biodynamic approach. Individual chapters cover such topics as holism and biodynamics; mid-tide, Long Tide, Dynamic Stillness and stillpoint process; the motility of tissues and the central nervous system; transference and the shadow; shamanistic resonances; and more.

Harmonizing Your Craniosacral System: Self-Treatments fo Improving Your Health offers exercises developed to promote healing, body awareness, and relaxation. The book’s techniques are based on the principles of craniosacral therapy, a hands-on approach that works gently with the spine, skull, sacrum, and connective tissue in the body to release pain and tension. Simple to perform, the exercises can be done either sitting or lying down, and each can be completed separately or as a unit. The book is unique because it is the only one that features selftreatment for craniosacral therapy. The book begins with a description of the craniosacral system and its relationship to other body systems. Awareness and perception exercises cover breathing techniques and methods for sensing the parts of the body and its craniosacral rhythm. The quality of touch and exact finger and hand positions are discussed, and detailed instructions are provided for each self-treatment involving the sacrum, iliosacral joints, connective tissue, head, and facial bones. Illustrated with 105 full-color photographs and 9 black-andwhite anatomical drawings, the book concludes with helpful information about professional craniosacral therapy treatments, terms and definitions, and an alphabetized summary of self-treatments.

The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve. When published in 1981, The Mismeasure of Man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits. And yet the idea of innate limits—of biology as destiny—dies hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Bell Curve, whose arguments are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined by Stephen Jay Gould. In this edition Dr. Gould has written a substantial new introduction telling how and why he wrote the book and tracing the subsequent history of the controversy on innateness right through The Bell Curve. Further, he has added five essays on questions of The Bell Curve in particular and on race, racism, and biological determinism in general. These additions strengthen the book's claim to be, as Leo J. Kamin of Princeton University has said, "a major contribution toward deflating pseudo-biological 'explanations' of our present social woes."

Charles Ridley is known for having refined a version of biodynamic craniosacral work that is nonmedical and nonmechanical. In Stillness, he clarifies the three fundamental types of this work — biomechanical, functional, and biodynamic. He explains the requirements and pitfalls of each model, and how to discern the differences and similarities between them. He guides the practitioner experientially to explore what he is describing, and offers exercises drawn from his own practice to help therapists access directly the whole felt-body sense that connects each individual with the Breath of Life.

With its low-impact, nurturing approach to working with the spine, the skull, the diaphragm, and the fascia to release pain in the body, Craniosacral Therapy has become an increasingly popular healing method. Rhythm and Touch explains in detail how it works. Divided into two parts, the book follows a simple, step-by-step instructional model. Part one guides the practitioner in discovering the craniosacral rhythm and learning how to interpret and respond to its cues. Following the line of the spine from pelvis to neck and head, this section develops a protocol for a basic session. It details how to touch the body and support the inner healing process. Part two offers a thorough review of the brain’s protective and nourishing environment, the cranium. It introduces new means of assessing and easing restriction in the relationship of cranial bones. Moving outward from the cranium, this section describes the bones of the mouth and face, their interrelationship and motions, and how to assess and release the results of injury. The final chapter offers reflections and recommendations for using this vast array of knowledge effectively.