So I haven’t updated since day one of my class, The Brain Speaks. Over the four days, I was getting up and leaving much earlier than I usually do; and when I got home I was pretty tired and still mentally and physically processing the work I received. So, I couldn’t get it together to write anything. Here’s a bit about the last three days.

Day two began with Q&A. In the advanced CranioSacral Therapy (CST) classes, we spend at least an hour every morning sharing our experiences and learnings from the previous day’s sessions. This sharing helps us to hear about other’s experiences so we can broaden our knowledge base of what could come up in a session and possibilities of how to support the client through those issues. It is very valuable discussion.

The lecture portion covered structures like the pituitary, thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, fornix, basil ganglia, cerebellum, cerebrum, pons, medulla, etc, etc. You get the idea. Brain parts.

After lunch we traded sessions. When I was the therapist I got to dialogue with my client’s tentorium, and foramen magnum. Pretty cool. She released a lot of tension in her cranium.

Day three, after Q&A, our main lecture was about the reticular alarm system (RAS) (or reticular formation) and the centrum. But the really great part of day three was during practice time. As the lead therapist, I had the privilege of speaking to many structures in my client’s body: the thalamus, the pons, the RAS, scar tissue, the centrum and even to elastin cells! It was a wild journey through the body and I am honored and in awe by the experience.

As the client, I also had several parts that spoke up during the session including: RAS, sphenoid, cranial membranes, the control center, my heart, and the centrum. The amazing thing about dialogue with the body is that when the session is going really well, it feels like I am in a hypnotic state. The words come out of my mouth before I have a chance to think about what I am saying. It’s like I am literally hearing the words as they come out – like someone else is talking t me. It was an amazing experience. I laughed and cried a lot during the 60+ minutes I was on the table. I was also pretty sore the next day from all the release my tissues went through. It was one of the deepest most intense and most freeing sessions I have ever had. God, I love this work!!!

Day four was a nice, integrating day. Again, we started with Q&A before getting into lecture. But the lecture wasn’t really a lecture this day. Don (a truly wonderful teacher) led us through a guided meditation of our bodies, specifically our central nervous system. It was an amazing tour of all the structures we had covered in the class. We also did a little palpation exercise through the different layers of tissues and fluids in the body.  Day four is typically a shorter day in CST classes. We usually go in at 8:00am and are out by 2:00pm, so the morning was a bit shorter.

After lunch we did some practice sessions. Because it was the last day and some had to catch flights, it was up to us how long we stayed to work on each other. I was fortunate to find a group that just wanted a little bit of structural work each to help integrate the work from the past three days.  One of the group members had some trouble getting a timely lunch. (He needed to leave by 1:50.) So, when he got back it was around 1:10. He stayed to work on us without receiving a session. It was very kind of him to do that. So, I and the other group member each had a nice 15 minute structural session. It was wonderful.

15 minutes may not sound like a lot. But, when you have two very skilled, highly trained therapists working on you at the same time, your body releases much faster than with just one therapist.  15 minutes allowed them to work my entire cranium as well as my pelvis, abdomen and upper chest (pelvic, respiratory, and thoracic diaphragms for those of you trained in CST).

It was an amazing weekend of learning and personal growth. I am looking forward to integrating all that I learned into my CranioSacral work in my practice. I’m sure I’ll be adding more info from the class in future posts. I’m still processing a lot of stuff.