Franklyn Sills and Michael Shea ( excerpt)
Biodynamic craniosacral therapy is a mindfulness-based mind-body therapy, grounded in practitioner presence, attunement and negotiated contact. In mindfulness we enter a state of present-time awareness. In it, we attend to the present perceptual moment, free of any judgment or evaluation. Mindfulness practice begins by noticing the events of our body, mental-emotional life and the world around us. This is what we normally do at the beginning of a biodynamic session. As practitioners we start by moving our attention gently taking in the whole of the three bodies of soma, fluid and tidal rather than focusing on one thing. In this way mindfulness is like a seed that needs to be watered but first we need to put it in the ground. In this endeavor, we gradually learn to suspend our awareness and attention all around us and out through nature. As we do this, the seed is watered, presence manifests and grows, and multiple perceptual layers are encountered.
Mindfulness is cultivated (framing the picture of wholeness) by simply watching events of the present moment. Mindfulness of breath and sensation are classic starting points in the cultivation of a wider state of receptive awareness and stillness. Our breathing and heart rate are perfect places to carefully and deliberately begin in the cultivation of mindfulness. Carefully means we do not judge or interpret any perception or even our periodic inability to pay attention to the present moment during a session. Even the interpretive language handed down to us in the lineage of osteopathy may be doing a disservice to the client. Doing so may cause a reaction or side effect in the client. Gradually we learn to perceive stillness and Primary Respiration, which become the objects of our mindfulness practice. They guide us to discriminate what is important in the client’s psyche and soma, mind and body. Since stillness and Primary Respiration are subtle, the present moment of our own breathing and heartbeat can orient us and help us differentiate and discriminate what is emerging and unfolding within a client’s healing process.
