Open Source Cranio

Tag: Al Pelowski

  • Cranio Sacral Therapist and Student Newsletter 29

    November 22 – 2007

    Questions and comments for this issue:

    + Cranio sacral therapy on FaceBook.
    + Working with energy.
    + Reframing.
    + Cerebral palsy and the blueprint
    + More on the arachnoid mater from Al Pelowski in South Africa.

    Hello John,
    If you were one of the many therapists that
    sent me your profiles to have them listed, then
    have a look here to see I got everything right.
    Right picture, right spelling, right on man! (or
    Woman!)
    http://www.open-source-cranio.com/therapists/listing.html

    Speaking of right on women, Rene from New
    Zealand let me know about a cranio sacral therapy
    group on Face book.  I’ve had a look and think it
    is a spiffing idea.  It’s great to be able to put
    faces to names and connect with fellow therapists
    across the world.

    Yes, it is a bit of a pain signing up and
    creating a profile but worth it, no?
    http://www.facebook.com/

    Now. . .
    . . . this newsletter is slightly different to
    others in that half the content is on my website.
    The reason for this is the inclusion of video and
    images.

    The first article is about how I use energy
    when I am working and includes a detailed diagram
    of energy flow.  There is also an amazing video
    illustrating how you can work with high levels of
    energy and not have it affect you.  Be a good egg
    and let me know what you think.
    You can read it here.

    The second article is about how to use
    reframing to help you when you hit a wall in
    practice or study.  In fact you can use reframing
    in all aspects of your life.  The article starts
    off with a great little video which illustrates
    the power of a reframe.
    You can read it here.

    I’ll wait while you go and have a look at them.

    Finished?

    Okay then, let’s get on with the mailbag.

    ***QUESTION***

    Hi John

    I would like to know a bit more about working with
    Cerebral Palsy. What is the best approach?  Is
    there any chance for the person to recover some of
    their functions or is it too much to ask to the
    body? I suppose it requires to go back to the blue
    print. Your comments about the blue print in the
    last newsletter were very interesting. My only
    problem is that I am a kinaesthetic kind of person
    and images don’t talk to me very much. Could you
    tell me how the blue print feels so I know that
    what I feel under my hands is the blueprint or
    something else. This would be very useful for me.
    Thank you.
    Odile, Brisbane.

    Odile Grisel

    Home

    MY COMMENTS:

    Hello Odile,
    Thank you for your email.

    I have had some good success with cerebral
    palsy and I’ve had some no-change-at-all’s.  When
    I think about what was common among the successes
    the main thing was that the people were young.
    Under 3yrs old.

    When treating cerebral palsy I generally find
    myself working with the nervous system.  From the
    hemisphere of the brain involved out to the
    periphery.  Following the nerves, working to
    enhance the integrity where it is diminished.

    I have heard some therapists say they find lots
    of limb unwinding very useful to unlock the
    central restrictions.  I haven’t found that myself
    but pass it on in case you find it useful.

    I never think of treatment in terms of, ‘Is
    this too much to ask of the body?’  At this stage
    I have seen so many apparent ‘miracles’ that I
    know the body is capable of anything.  So it is
    never a case of CAN this happen but more a case of
    IS it going to happen?

    It can often be a blueprint problem, which
    leads me to your second question about describing
    what the blueprint feels like without using
    images.

    I had to put my thinking cap on for that one.
    Here’s what I got.  To me, the blueprint feels
    very whispy and mist-like, but not moist. It feels
    like touching a smoke ring that pulses with
    flexion and extension and releases like solid
    tissue.

    Phew!  Okay I’m going to take my thinking cap
    off now because my head is hurting.

    ***FOLLOW ON COMMENT FROM AL PELOWSKI***

    Hallo John and thanks for the latest issue!
    Gets me going on my deck in early morning Joburg
    visualising teacups…

    I especially wanted to comment, to give a
    different slant on what you said about the spider
    web mother.

    So here goes.  Let me know what you think of this
    version.

    Starting with the nervous system’s generative
    membrane, the ependyma, all else follows.

    Leaving out the details..just remember that most
    membranes grow in a doubling process.  They grow
    with a potential space between.  The space is
    where canals and tissues form.

    The primitive ependyma lining the neural tube is
    doubled.  The inner layer keeps its name but the
    other layer becomes the pia between the two layers.
    Ependymal cells differentiate to form the brain &
    spinal cord.  The pia also doubles to form a
    potential space for blood–pia intima and  pia
    externa, it provides a capillary network for the
    brain.

    Some bits of pia are left in the ventricles bound
    up with the ependyma  and together form the
    choroid plexi the outer layer of pia, the ‘pia
    externa’ is doubled as well its outer layer
    becomes the arachnoid between are pulled out fine
    reticulin fibres–the spider web the arachnoid
    sprouts little cauliflower-like buds as it grows-
    granulations.

    The ependyma, pia and arachnoid grow out of each
    other and are referred  to as the ‘leptomeninges’
    in many texts.  They are epethelia–derived from
    the zygote wall they are closely related to the
    inner linings of organs and to the epidermis all
    epithelia share a wide variety of peptides and
    receptors.

    “As the inside, so the outside.”  Gut / brain /
    skin growing more slowly along with the rest of
    the body, the dura is not  epithelial, but
    connective tissue related to bone and blood.  it
    comes to form the fascial sac around the arachnoid
    mater.

    A whole different animal.   It doesn’t need to bath
    itself in CSF.  But it too is a doubled membrane
    and its potential space becomes canalised for
    venous blood.  The arachnoid graulations become
    surrounded by and incorporated into the inner
    layer of dura as it grows.

    The granulations (like the choroid) contain highly
    specialised cells which are involved in transport.
    some cells can move waste out of the CSF into the
    venous return.  Others will to abstracting
    material from the blood into the CSF.

    All this gets more interesting when you see how
    the 4th ventricle foramina form as the ependymal-
    pial separation occurs.  the whole thing is
    designed to link qualities of blood and CSF
    without haphazard mixing.

    The leptomeninges can only survive and function in
    the amniotic-CSF environment, inside and out.  The
    dura doesn’t mind blood at all and never comes
    into touch with CSF.

    Keep it up

    Al

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Thanks for that Al, you describe things real sweet.

    So that’s it for this issue.

    Cheerio for now.

    Till the next time.

    Your Mate,

    John D.

  • Al Pelowski – He was the best of us.

    Alan Pelowski Open Source Cranio

    Today I lost a dear friend and college.
    Al Pelowski died this morning in Johannesburg.

    If you know who Al was you will know the great hole his passing has left in the cranio sacral world, particularly in South Africa.

    Al was the main tutor in my cranio sacral training.
    That’s how I met him.  He was a fantastic teacher.

    His energetic passion and enthusiasm made anatomy and physiology, which I had difficulty with, come to life.  That is a rare gift that few teachers have.  As my training progressed I got to know Al the man.

    al2

    At times irreverent and provocative he was always warm and immensely personable.  But above all Al was one of life’s live-ers.

    He exuded a vitality that took it as read that I was a better man than I realised.  That is who he talked to, the better man he could see, and because of it I became that better man.   I suspect most people had that experience with him.

    He also had titanium confidence and would take on the most difficult of cases without batting an eyelid.  I traded on that confidence a lot in my fledgling days as a therapist.  Whenever I felt scared I knew that Al wouldn’t be and that somehow gave me courage.

    Over the years we stayed in touch.  I went to live in Australia and founded The Australian Institute of Cranio Sacral Therapy and he went to South Africa and founded the schools there.

    In time he came and delivered post graduate seminars to my students in Brisbane and I went to South Africa and I did the same for his students.

    Regardless of which country we were in the times I remember most were the evenings after the teaching was done.

    We would sit on a deck or a veranda and drink too much wine, smoke too many cigars, and have the best of times.

    Al’s legacy is huge.  The therapists he trained, the teachers he cultivated, the outreach programs he championed.  No one will ever know the full extent of the number of lives that were positively affected by his having lived.

    I spoke to Kitya in Cape Town today.  She told me that the news of Al’s death traveled through the local cranio community fast and in a very short space of time he was surrounded and ‘held’ by the therapists he had trained.

    They held him for a long time.

    I was struck by the beauty of the image of him being held in this way, cocooned in love, womb-like almost.

    Then something came back to me from a post-grad Al delivered in Brisbane years ago.  He was trying to get across the continual unfoldment that goes on in a life both physically and in every other way.

    He said, “It’s not a case of you are born, you live and you die.  It is more a case of you are born and you are born and you are born and you are born until your life is over.“

    Goodbye Al, you have gone right back into the mystery now.
    You are missed by many.
    You were my teacher, my mentor, and my college.
    I will miss these aspects of you but mostly I miss my friend.

  • Articles and eBooks

    Fairbairn’s Structural Theory.- Size 271KB

    Article on Fairbairn’s structural theory. It is a hefty read but very helpful in understanding
    how we relate to people as objects and how this affects us and our relationships.

    Baby Talk: Can you hear my silent scream? – Size 108KB

    Article by Al Pelowski, principal of South African Institute
    of Cranial Studies. A call in the middle of the night from an overwrought
    parent sets Al off to the hospital to help a new born baby who is having
    seizures every couple of minutes.

    Intelligence of Hands – Size 40KB

    Excerpt from and interview with John Upledger about experiments that
    give an insight into how cranio sacral therapists can ‘know without knowing,’
    how to place their hands on the right part of the body and then help the
    body release.

    Healing and the Natural World – Size 228 KB

    Wide ranging interview with osteopath Jim Jealous about everything
    from the nature of healing to the origins of osteopathy. It is particularly
    interesting considering cranio sacral therapy has its origins in osteopathy
    which, as he says has been alternative since 1874.

    Children and Divorce: How to guide your family through separation/divorce. – Size
    240 KB

    Article by Trish Banks, M.A. who specialises in psychosynthesis and
    reflective practice in childcare. This article is a practical blueprint
    for navigating the mine field of divorce and separation. The most common
    response I have heard about this article is, ‘This would have been great
    to know about when my marriage was falling apart.’ (The above link will
    bring you to the download page of Trish’s site. The text says you have
    been added to her mailing list but you haven’t and won’t be unless you
    want to.)

    The Search for Healing – Size 104 KB

    Article by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. who specialises in chronic and
    life-threatening illness. She is also medical director of the Commonwealth
    Cancer Help Program. She discuses the interaction between practitioner
    and patient.

    Life Imitating Heart – Size 176KB

    The story of Claire Sylvia, a heart and lung transplant patient. Her noticed
    that her personality changed after the operation. She started drinking
    beer, eating fast food and ogling girls – just like the dead boy who helped
    her live.

    Her story is an excellent example of tissue memory. The idea that memory
    is not stored in the brain alone but also in the cells of our bodies.

    The Effects of Early Relational Trauma on Right Brain Development, Affect Regulation, and Infant Mental Health – Size 1.6MB

    Big, (check the size before you download) Long and academically written
    paper by Allan N. Schore about the way babies bond with their parents
    and how that bonding process can be affected by trauma.

    Trauma-the Vortex of Violence – Size 192 KB

    Peter Lavine has written excellent books on the effects of trauma. This
    article is an excellent introduction to his work.

    The Science of Being Well – Size 284 KB

    The Science of Being Great – Size 420 KB

    The Science of Geting Rich. – Size 496KB

    Three powerful books written by Wallace D Wattles. The remarkable thing
    about these books is they were written in 1910.

  • Cranio Sacral Therapist and Student Newsletter 37

    January 4 -2009

    Questions and comments for this issue:

    + Bring someone international to your practice
    – from Nica in Berlin.
    + Follow on comment on Shunts from Malcolm Hiort,
    Director, Australian Craniofascial Therapy School
    + Follow on comment on Shunts from Al Pelowski in Durban.
    + Question about self doubt.
    + Question about unwinding from Nellian Bekker.
    + Question on Death and ReBirth from Ingrid Hoffman in Ireland.

    Hello,

    It may only be 5 days old but so far 2009 is shaping
    up to be a great year. I start back into my practice
    tomorrow after 10 glorious days of rest and excess.
    My batteries are charged and I’m ready to go.

    Here are the latest additions to Open Source Cranio. . . .

    I finally finished updating the list of cranio
    sacral therapy schools around the world.  I know
    it’s not exhaustive so if I haven’t listed your favorite
    school let me know and I will include it.
    Cranio sacral therapy schools

    Speaking of listings I am in the process of updating
    the therapists listings. I want to set them up so that
    you can access and update your own listing and I want
    to link the listings to some sort of google map so that
    it will be easier for people to find therapists near them.

    So if any of you are computer whizzes and would like
    to help please get in touch.

    You will notice that I have changed the design of
    the site.  Hopefully it is now easier to read and
    works better as a learning resource.
    Let me know what you think.

    Forum.
    Here are some of the topics being discussed on
    the Open Source Cranio Forum. . . .

    There is a nice post from Xavia in South Africa
    about a 4 year old girl who has Angleman’s syndrome.

    Another good post from Thespeni Calogero-Allen
    in South Affrica about a 2 year old releasing a burn trauma.

    There was a question about insurance from Sara.

    And a discussion about depression.

    Masterclass DVD Series.
    I have been busy preparing my DVD masterclass series.
    This will be about 8 hours of video taken from a post
    graduate seminar I did in Cape Town.  It’s looking
    like it will be an 8 or 9 DVD set. I will let you
    know more about it when it is closer to completion.

    Another cranio newsletter. . .
    James Nemec, a cranio sacral therapist from America
    has started a cranio sacral therapy newsletter.
    I think it is worth checking out as it’s always
    good to get different perspectives.
    http://www.craniocean.com/

    I came across this article about a girl with
    vacterl syndrome, it’s alright I didn’t know what
    it was either,  it’s a series of birth defects that
    affected a number of internal organs including her
    heart, esophagus and stomach, as well as caused
    irregularities with her spine and anus.

    She also had a severe scoliosis.  She is getting
    great results with cranio sacral therapy but her
    insurance company won’t cover it.  Local town did
    fund raising to help her continue with her treatment.
    Personally I find the cost of her treatment high
    but that could be just me.
    What do you think?

    And finally the other thing I have been up to is
    making goofy videos about learning to use my all
    -terrain roller skates, ominously called Doomwheels,
    in conjunction with my Kitewing, which is a cross
    between a hang-glider and a windsurfing sale.

    You can see my shenanigans, if that’s the sort
    of thing that interests you, here . .

    Anyhu, let’s get on with the mailbag.

    ***INVITATION FROM NICA IN BERLIN***

    Dear john,
    How are you doing?

    I am wondering if there would be any possibility,
    that I could spend a few weeks, working in another
    practice as an idea of exchanging experiences?

    Maybe there are people who would love to have –
    for a limited period, – another craniosacral-therapist
    from abroad in his/her place to be able to grow
    together,etc.?

    What are your thoughts?

    Lovely greetings out of berlin! Aswell to your wife!
    Nica

    Nica Berndt – Caccivio
    Berlin

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    nicaI met up with Nica and her husband in Berlin,
    when I was there last year.

    She would bring a lot to any practice
    or exchange program.

    ***FOLLOW ON COMMENT FROM MALCOLM HIORT***

    Hi John,
    Re Odile’s email/your reply:
    My experience of clients with shunts is that their
    cranial rhythms are compromised.
    Specifically, I notice that maximal expansion/flexion
    is never reached.
    The end-point of movement has a ‘rebound’ quality
    to it, without the ‘tapering’ effect normally palpated.
    I have felt this characteristic diminished amplitude
    throughout the body.

    Another consequence of a shunt is that inducing a
    still point cannot be achieved, at least in my
    experience.
    It seems that when CSF back-pressure begins to
    build within the ventricles, it is vented by the
    shunt.
    Again, this is a bodywide occurrence, no matter
    where the technique is applied.

    I would be interested to get any feedback on my
    remarks at info@craniofascial.com
    www.craniosacralart.com was interesting.

    cheers John, keep up the good work.

    Malcolm Hiort, Director,
    Australian Craniofascial Therapy School

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Thanks for that Malcolm.
    Shunts certainly compromise the fluid dynamics of the system.

    ***FOLLOW ON COMMENT FROM AL PELOWSKI***

    There’s a good description and pics of shunts in
    the Netter Collection of Medical Illustrations,
    V.1, the Nervous System, Part II -Neurologic and
    Neuromuscular Disorders.

    In there you’ll see that shunts can be set to
    drain into the peritoneal space rather than the jugular v.

    Peritoneal drainage is often preferred in babes
    and kids because the longer tube allows for growth.

    But, either way, shunting tubes have to penetrate
    several layers of membrane, muscle and fascia.
    This can, and often does lead to chronic infections
    and irritation.

    Another problem is the silting up of the valve and
    the thin cannula–CSF is loaded with salts (electolytes)
    that can crystallise out of solution in the margins
    of turbulent flows and eddies in the apparatus.

    Shunting therefore can require frequent reinsertions
    + drugs (e.g. antibiotics and steroids)

    Some of the risk factors are covered in
    Toru Fukuhara et al, “Risk factors for Failure of
    Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy for Obstructive
    Hydrocephalus,” in the journal Neurosurgery, V.46,
    No. 5, May 2000, where you will also find
    some 40 references.

    It might also be useful to see*
    *CRANIOSYNOSTOSIS SYNDROMES by **J. Cary Moorhead,
    MD, in Grand Round Archives June 24, 1993.

    I’ve worked cranially with maybe a dozen babies
    and kids with shunts.
    It’s vital to know the history of it and to be
    aware that tubal irritation and immune suppression
    will distort and disempower the child’s responses.
    There are loads of cautions in this work, but no
    firm contraindications I can think of.
    Other practitioners seeing cases of craniosynostosis?
    Please get in touch.

    I believe it’s a mushrooming problem worldwide.

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Thanks for that Al.

    For those of you that don’t know, Craniosynostosis,
    is a condition where some or all of the sutures in the
    skull of an infant or child become fused.

    I have treated a few children with it in Australia.
    The cranium felt like it was made of marble.
    Hardly any movement.  In all cases it felt like
    a blueprint problem to me.  It felt like the
    developmental process of the system was accelerated.
    It felt like the sutures had met each other with such
    force that they fused in a solid way that no adult would.

    In all the children I saw, the condition had got to
    the point where they needed surgery to separate the
    sutures. My sense was that if I had seen them earlier
    we could have avoided the surgery.

    What have your experiences with Craniosynostosis
    been like?

    ***QUESTION***

    Thank you for creating such a helpful website!

    I am writing to you in relation to Trigeminal Neuralgia.

    I read your response to a fellow CS therapist
    and applied these principles to my treatment
    of a patient with this diagnosis.

    I have seen her for 6 sessions and she tells me
    that she experiences 1 or 2days relief from symptoms.
    Her response was to make a longer gap between sessions
    (3 weeks).

    I wish I had contacted you earlier for feedback
    as I am seeing her again tomorrow, but well……
    my query is about if no big results after 6 sessions
    are you being ineffective?

    I doubt my ability as a CS therapist…..frequently…
    …but have had some patients with great results
    from treatment.

    I will say to her tomorrow that it is best to
    make the sessions weekly for a few weeks and
    work from there, if she is willing to try this.

    It is difficult when working with self-doubt
    and a general lack of patients (slow pace of clients).

    I have been in practice for 2 years and studied
    at Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust in
    London with Ged Sumner and Michael Kern.

    Any feedback on my dilemma would be gratefully received.

    Thanks

    R.A.
    Gloucester, U.K.

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    To answer your query, ‘if there are no big
    results after 6 sessions are you being ineffective?’
    I would need to know how far apart the sessions were.
    If your patient was getting 1-2 days relief with
    sessions 3 weeks apart, then she would probably
    get better results if you saw her every week.

    The thing is, it would have saved you both some
    grief if you persuaded her to do that from the
    beginning.  Now you have both lost confidence
    in the process.

    I always encourage people to come every week
    at the beginning of the treatment program.
    I explain it in this way: –
    (Feel free to borrow it.)

    ‘Your system is in the habit of being restricted.
    When you come for treatment your system begins to
    release those restrictions and it starts to ‘remember’
    the way it was before it became restricted.
    Over the course of the week the habitual pattern
    of restriction starts to reassert itself.
    Because of this it is very important to come
    for treatment every week, particularly at the
    beginning of the your treatment program, to help
    your system get some momentum.’

    With regard to your self-doubt let me refer
    you to these previous letters.

    Do patients need to believe?

    Am I making it up?

    ***QUESTION***

    Hi John,

    I am not sure wether this would be a case for your
    fantastic Newsletter…….

    I have been working on this young man (17) since
    October 2006- originally came for sinusitis,
    which healed.

    He has never been in an accident, but had a fall
    at school which his parents were not told about??
    He scored the highest in 7 out of his 8 subjects
    in Grade 12 this year (German), and the matric
    exams is a joke for him. He wants to become a doctor.
    He was always sickly as a child.
    His mother was  in labour for 12 hours before he
    was born by emergency caesarian because his heart
    had stopped beating.

    He had bad scoliosis which is a lot better.
    The lesion in his lower thoracic Level T8, his scapula
    positions, kifosis and lordosis are some of the
    things that I am working on, as well as his
    ‘pinched’ face.  It does not matter where I touch him,
    he starts unwinding, pulling into all sorts of positions,
    and the body sometimes pulls straight up from the bed
    with only his head and feet touching, then he would flip,
    feet over his head, and then be relaxed and exhausted,
    leaving me half dead as well.

    His dad is also a client of mine.  I got the impression
    that they do not have a great relationship.
    He has a younger sister.

    Any insights from your side that can help both of us PLEASE?

    I know that you are the best!

    Enjoy your day!

    Nellian Bekker
    Cape Town

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Hello Nellian,
    I think you need to reassert your authority
    in the situation.  From what you are describing
    it sounds like his system is like a bucking bronco
    and you are trying to hang on.   It is an easy
    enough mistake to make in unwinding as we can
    become so focused on following the persons
    system we can cross the line into being pulled
    along by it.

    The trick is to stop it before it becomes a
    problem.  You do this at the beginning of the
    unwinding.  Right at the point where you have
    done the articulation and you have taken up a
    contact in readiness to begin the unwinding.
    When you are at that point, do the following…

    WAIT.

    Don’t don anything.  Don’t allow the persons
    system to move you. Simply hold it and . . .

    Wait.

    If you don’t wait you will just get pulled
    along and it’s very hard to effect any substantial
    releases that way.

    Waiting conveys your authority in the situation
    because the communication from your system to
    theirs, while you are holding and waiting is,
    ‘I choose to follow.’

    In that choice lies your authority and once
    you establish it the persons system will feel
    much more secure with you and reveal very
    delicate restrictions because it knows you
    can support it through them.

    Specifically regarding your patient,
    if he continually goes into vigorous unwinding
    and you get the feeling that it isn’t productive
    then I suggest you direct the energy of his
    unwinding back into his system.  Basically
    this requires you to hold his system and not
    let it move around too much while at the
    same time using your intention to direct
    what releases that are occurring back into
    his system.  This has an implosive rather
    than an explosive quality.

    Because his system is used to moving
    around a lot it may be difficult in the
    beginning but if you persevere you will
    find that you will get to deeper levels
    of release.

    ***QUESTION***

    Death and Rebirth:

    Dear John

    Winter will soon bring our energies inwards
    and with the Winter Solstice approaching,
    here in the North, I find that many of my
    clients are suffering with melancholy and
    soul loss.

    How can CST help?

    Ingrid Hoffman.
    Rathfeigh Tara Ireland

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Hello Ingrid,

    Don’t get me started on the winters in
    Ireland.  They are SOOO depressing.
    Getting up in the morning in darkness,
    going to work in darkness, coming home
    in darkness and in between, grayness
    – if you’re lucky!
    If you’re not lucky it will be raining
    gray sheets of liquid concrete.

    No wonder the pagans used to throw a
    big party at the winter solstice.
    Can you blame them?
    Even though they knew they were in for
    another couple of months of depressing
    weather, just the knowledge that the
    days were getting a little longer,
    even if it was only by a couple of
    minutes each day, was cause enough
    for celebration.

    Having said all that I have found
    that while the weather can get a person
    down, it won’t cause depression.

    Now before you start quoting me all
    the statistics on SAD’s,  [Seasonally
    Affected Depression] I’m not saying
    it doesn’t exist or that it isn’t
    linked to the weather.  What I am
    saying is that I haven’t found the
    weather to be the root cause.

    When I used to live in Australia
    I treated just as many people for
    depression and they were up to their
    armpits in sunshine.

    The sense of being a ‘lost soul’
    is something that goes deeper and
    will surface regardless of the
    environment.

    It is where a person feels like
    their life has lost its meaning.
    Where the joy has gone and they
    are ‘off track’. Day to day feels
    like just going through the motions
    and nothing has any real meaning.

    They feel their life doesn’t represent
    them at all. It is often described to
    me as waking up one morning and realizing
    that they are not living the life they
    thought they would or know they should.
    If you’re feeling like that and the
    weather is awful it will amplify the
    feeling for sure but as I said it’s
    not the cause.

    Cranio sacral work is particularly good
    at helping with this kind of lost soul
    feeling because it works with the deeper
    disharmonies that lead to this kind of
    condition.

    So that’s it for this issue.

    Let me wish you all the very best for 2009.

    Till the next time.

    Your Mate,

    John D.

  • Teaching family members

    + Teaching family members basic techniques? – October 06

    Hey John, thanks yet again for the e-newsletter. As always, and I
    don’t know how you do it, you’ve included material that prompts
    me to write. Usually I’m too preoccupied with matters here in SA
    to respond. But here is one SA real world question / comment.

    Quite often in my practice I see a baby and parent(s) or grandparent
    or carer just once or twice. This is because of my hectic schedule
    and because we often don’t have practitioners nearby to follow-up,
    or because people can’t afford it.

    Most of these families come into teaching clinics in courses where
    there is no cost. They may come from distant places, but only the once.
    However, I usually find that mum or dad or somebody in the family
    can easily learn to hold their baby in constructive ways, especially
    during tantrums.

    They get a demo and a paper by Aletha Solter to explain this. It is
    also possible to show how to massage the scalp (e.g. with shampooing),
    how to stroke the spine and conception channels. Parents will usually
    respond to recommendations for dietary (chelation) and feeding /
    weaning problems. I have many parents / carers working very
    creatively with their babies, some even coming forward for training
    in CST, with others coming regularly (with their babies) to learn
    more in our local evening empowerment workshops.

    This situation isn’t ideal, but in the far flung communities in SA it’s
    often all we’ve got. Sometimes I worry about this. One would always
    prefer to be in a position to follow-up with the baby and family as a
    whole, however long it takes.

    However, I find that the whole family conflict situation often resolves
    with up-skilling and empowerment of the parents. It helps to break
    the chain of disassociative and inconsistent behaviour that the baby
    is adapting to within the family.

    Any feedback welcome!

    Al Pelowski in Joburg

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Being able to do follow up is ideal, Al. I’ll talk more about the
    IDEAL a little later.

    It looks like you’re faced with the dilemma John Upledger was
    faced with when he realised he couldn’t treat everyone. It prompted
    him to develop his ShareCare program, which is the second worst
    idea he has had in a long line of good ones.

    What was his first?

    Well, calling what we do cranio sacral therapy, of course. He could
    have picked a hundred different names. Quirky, fun, easily pronounced,
    easily remembered names. Like Voltron or Gobon or Praxas or Flow…..

    What I wouldn’t give to be able to say I am a Flow therapist, when
    asked what I do for a living at a dinner party.

    But oh no, I have to say I’m a cranio sacral therapist and they have
    to ask me if I was at the Tour De France and then I have to correct
    them and say, ‘That’s cranio SACRAL, not cranio CYCLE.’

    So we’re stuck with it and for the sake of public recognition we
    shouldn’t change it or add to it or fiddle with it at all.

    No matter how much we feel that what we are doing is different
    or visionary or resonant or balanced or biodynamic or whatever . .

    All this re-labelling is confusing adolescent assertions of individuality
    and just leaves Joe and Mary Blogs scratching their heads wondering,
    ‘What the?’

    Okay, back to shades of ShareCare.

    While imparting new information and different perspectives is
    definitely part of our job, it’s important to acknowledge the limits
    of just how much skill you can impart to parents or family members.

    The sorts of things you have described sound good and practical.
    Massaging the scalp, stroking the spine and conception channels.
    All good.

    The temptation is to think you can build on this by teaching family
    members to do simple techniques which I’m strongly against,
    if you hadn’t noticed, and here’s why.

    What has become second nature to you in terms of holding, following,
    supporting and so on has taken you years to achieve.

    And while the process of gaining mastery in CST is one of realising
    how little needs to be done, it’s important to remember that it’s a
    very informed and focused ‘little’ that we do.
    Its simplicity is deceptively complex.

    When you think about how long it has taken you to gain the level
    of skill with a particular technique and all the subtle nuances that
    only reveal themselves through time and practice, it doesn’t make
    sense that you can show someone a technique and think that they
    will be able to do any long lasting good with it.

    Sure, everyone will feel good about it.

    The family member will feel good when you’re showing them the
    technique because it will feel like they’re being empowered.

    You will feel good when you’re showing them the techniques because
    it will assuage the aching knowledge that you can’t treat the person
    yourself long term.

    The person will feel good every time the family member does the
    technique. They will feel good for about ten minutes or maybe
    twenty but the chances of it helping long term are slim.

    It takes a long time to learn how to do this well for a reason.

    It’s not easy to master.

    The whole SharCare idea is like giving a one-day workshop for the
    friends and families of virtuoso violinists. At the workshop they learn
    how to play a couple of notes on the fiddle.

    They can use these ‘new skills’ on the nights that the virtuoso is a
    bit tired and needs someone to fill in the for them at certain times
    throughout the performance. The family member can play the notes
    the virtuoso is too shagged to play.

    Ridiculous, right? But it gets worse.

    Giving friends and family of patients the idea that they can learn a
    few techniques that will help their loved ones, generates the idea
    that what we do, can be learned in 10 minutes.

    It’s shooting yourself in the foot with both barrels and then
    bludgeoning yourself with the gun..

    I don’t think you are about to launch your own South African
    ShareCare program Al, but I do understand the pressure that
    the kinds of situations you have described can generate.

    Considering what you have to deal with and the constraints you
    have to work within, the fact that you give these families ANYTHING
    to help their situation is nothing short of a bloody miracle!

    And you’re not alone in that, your students and graduates are doing
    remarkable things too. The outreach work you all do. The education
    programs you have set up. It’s brilliant. You are all doing excellent
    work in VERY difficult situations.

    What I’ve talked about above is the IDEAL, what you have to work
    with in South Africa is far from ideal and in that, anything you can
    do is great.

    I commend all the people involved in cranial work in South Africa
    and you in particular Al.

  • Working with shunts.

    + How do you work with people with shunts? – September 08

    Hi John,

    Your newsletter’s archive is fantastic.  Very easy to use
    (much better than mine). Thanks.
    My question today is about treating people with a shunt
    in the head. Do you(or anyone else) has experience with that?
    Is there a risk of having the shunt come out of place
    (and causing big problems to the person) when working
    on the person? I was wondering because of the movements of
    the bones and membranes in the head (things coming back
    in place).
    Any comments will be much appreciated.
    Odile. Brisbane.

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Hello Odile,
    I’m glad you find the newsletter archive useful.
    I’m hoping the ‘search’ function makes it easier for
    people to find what they are looking for across the
    whole site.

    I have treated quite a few people with shunts.
    I’ll just explain what they are for any of the other
    readers who don’t know.

    A shunt is tube that is fitted surgically to relieve
    cerebrospinal fluid pressure. There is a one way valve
    in the shunt that stops the cerebrospinal fluid coming
    back up the tube.  They are usually fitted in people
    who have prolonged or extreme hydrocephalus.

    The types of shunts I have treated have fallen into
    two categories.  Cranio shunts and spinal shunts.
    Spinal shunts go from the drural tube and drain into
    the stomach. Cranial shunts drain from the cranium into
    the heart.

    From my experience they are pretty robust arrangements
    and I have never got the feeling that they would dislodge
    with treatment. The main thing I have felt when treating
    people with shunts is how the fluid dynamics of their
    cerebrospinal fluid is screwed up. Their cranio sacral
    rhythm is usually confused.

    Most of my work has been firstly dealing with the
    underlying cause of the hydrocephalus and then helping
    the person’s system come to terms with the foreignness
    of the shunt.

    This is similar to any kind of work where there is a
    foreign object in a person’s body be it a pin or a screw
    or a pacemaker.

    ***FOLLOW ON COMMENT FROM MALCOLM HIORT***

    Hi John,
    Re Odile’s email/your reply:
    My experience of clients with shunts is that their
    cranial rhythms are compromised.
    Specifically, I notice that maximal expansion/flexion
    is never reached.
    The end-point of movement has a ‘rebound’ quality
    to it, without the ‘tapering’ effect normally palpated.
    I have felt this characteristic diminished amplitude
    throughout the body.

    Another consequence of a shunt is that inducing a
    still point cannot be achieved, at least in my
    experience.
    It seems that when CSF back-pressure begins to
    build within the ventricles, it is vented by the
    shunt.
    Again, this is a bodywide occurrence, no matter
    where the technique is applied.

    I would be interested to get any feedback on my
    remarks at info@craniofascial.com
    www.craniosacralart.com was interesting.

    cheers John, keep up the good work.

    Malcolm Hiort, Director,
    Australian Craniofascial Therapy School

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Thanks for that Malcolm.
    Shunts certainly compromise the fluid dynamics of the system.

    ***FOLLOW ON COMMENT FROM AL PELOWSKI***

    There’s a good description and pics of shunts in
    the Netter Collection of Medical Illustrations,
    V.1, the Nervous System, Part II -Neurologic and
    Neuromuscular Disorders.

    In there you’ll see that shunts can be set to
    drain into the peritoneal space rather than the jugular v.

    Peritoneal drainage is often preferred in babes
    and kids because the longer tube allows for growth.

    But, either way, shunting tubes have to penetrate
    several layers of membrane, muscle and fascia.
    This can, and often does lead to chronic infections
    and irritation.

    Another problem is the silting up of the valve and
    the thin cannula–CSF is loaded with salts (electolytes)
    that can crystallise out of solution in the margins
    of turbulent flows and eddies in the apparatus.

    Shunting therefore can require frequent reinsertions
    + drugs (e.g. antibiotics and steroids)

    Some of the risk factors are covered in
    Toru Fukuhara et al, “Risk factors for Failure of
    Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy for Obstructive
    Hydrocephalus,” in the journal Neurosurgery, V.46,
    No. 5, May 2000, where you will also find
    some 40 references.

    It might also be useful to see*
    *CRANIOSYNOSTOSIS SYNDROMES by **J. Cary Moorhead,
    MD, in Grand Round Archives June 24, 1993.

    I’ve worked cranially with maybe a dozen babies
    and kids with shunts.
    It’s vital to know the history of it and to be
    aware that tubal irritation and immune suppression
    will distort and disempower the child’s responses.
    There are loads of cautions in this work, but no
    firm contraindications I can think of.
    Other practitioners seeing cases of craniosynostosis?
    Please get in touch.

    I believe it’s a mushrooming problem worldwide.

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Thanks for that Al.

    For those of you that don’t know, Craniosynostosis,
    is a condition where some or all of the sutures in the
    skull of an infant or child become fused.

    I have treated a few children with it in Australia.
    The cranium felt like it was made of marble.
    Hardly any movement.  In all cases it felt like
    a blueprint problem to me.  It felt like the
    developmental process of the system was accelerated.
    It felt like the sutures had met each other with such
    force that they fused in a solid way that no adult would.

    In all the children I saw, the condition had got to
    the point where they needed surgery to separate the
    sutures. My sense was that if I had seen them earlier
    we could have avoided the surgery.

  • Cape Town Report – November 04

    I was invited to teach a Post Graduate Seminar to Cranio Sacral Therapists in Cape Town. The seminar was titled, ‘Expanding the Base.’ and I’m finally getting around to writing something about my trip.
    In short, it was a great success.

    The teaching side of it went particularly well, the participants got a chance to go beyond the limits of what they thought was possible. We explored the boundaries, we questioned our perception of reality, we reframed many of what are considered difficult aspects cranio sacral work, we looked into why people get sick, why they get better and how we can support the process better.
    We definitely expanded the base.

    I had a great time and judging from the smiling faces and hugs at the end of the seminar, I think the people attending had a good time too.

    And sure look at them, don’t they look delighted.

    With a little help I managed to video the whole thing so it will be available on DVD in the future.

    The seminar was held in a conference centre that was once a convent. Still run by the nuns it reminded me of places I have taught at in Australia and Ireland. I think it was the scones that tipped me off. They were the same in all three countries and I’m guessing in all convents around the world. Munching on one at tea break I realised that McDonalds didn’t invent franchising after all.

    Cape Town was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. It’s a city of converging oceans, colourful people and bloody big mountains. It felt like around every corner was a different pocket of the world; some parts reminded me of the Gold Coast, here in Queensland, others the Mediterranean. There were city high rises and small terraces, a bit like Paddington in Sydney. Shantytowns next to security guarded housing compounds. And all of it adding up to what I am beginning to register as the very distinctive flavour of Africa.

    The last post grad I taught in South Africa was in Johannesburg in 2002. I found Cape Town very different in a positive way. The Jo-burgers bristled a little whenever I commented on this but I found the atmosphere so much easier in Cape Town. Kitya, the coordinator of the Cape Town CST school, told me that the crime rate is generally about the same in the two cities but I found Cape Town a lot freer of the intense paranoia that made Johannesburg feel like one long held breath, for me at least.

    I so enjoyed catching up with my friend Al Pelowski again. He is the principal of both cranio sacral schools in Cape Town and Johannesburg. I hadn’t seen him in two and a half years but by the second glass of wine we had pretty much picked up where we’d left off. He is doing great teaching work there and beginning to set up lots of very good out reach programs in the community, including educational seminars on the facts, all the facts, of vaccination.

    That’s us doing the self portrait thing at the early morning airport after the late night supping before.

    I’m always made to feel made so welcome in South Africa and the people are so great. I look forward to returning soon.

    .

  • Sciatica

    + Which technique should I use? – September 05

    + Comment from Al Pelowski, principal tutor with The South
    African Institute of Cranial Studies. on sciatica- October 05


    Hi John,
    Found your web site very useful and your URL easy to remember.
    I use it as my virtual business card. I have been treating a man in
    his late fifties with sciatica. I have had some success but feel I
    could achieve more.

    Can you recommend any techniques that you have found
    particularly useful for sciatica?
    Thanks
    J.P.
    Brisbane.

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Glad you like the site.
    I’m going to answer your question in two parts. Let me start by
    saying no one technique is ‘the’ technique for ANYTHING.

    Techniques are ways we get a handle on the bigger picture.
    And the biggest picture is what you need to be available for.
    I am putting it like that because describing it as ‘looking’ for
    the biggest picture is way too active, eager, inefficient and INTURSIVE.
    You need to ask yourself, what is really going on here?
    Why has this person got these particular symptoms?
    Why are the symptoms in this configuration?
    What’s the root cause of this situation?

    Symptoms generally manifest physically, meaning they show up
    in the person’s body.  But that doesn’t mean the CAUSE of those
    symptoms is exclusively physical.

    Often EMOTIONAL issues will express themselves as physical symptoms.
    It doesn’t just stop there, often the root cause of what is going
    on has a physical component, caused by an emotional component
    but the root cause is not emotional it is something DEEPER.

    That may sound spooky or kooky to you depending on your slant
    but I have seen it time and again, where the root cause was deeper
    than physical and emotional issues.

    How can that be?

    Let’s go through it one layer at a time.
    Physical problems.
    These problems are characterised by very physical causes and
    descriptions,  ‘The tentorium cerebelli is pulled inferiorly here,
    causing pressure there . . .etc’.
    Regardless of the source of a pattern of a restriction, it will show
    up physically.  Becoming accurate in identifying the extent and
    complexity of physical restrictions takes a lot of practice and is
    a prerequisite for working with the deeper causes.

    Emotional issues/causes.
    Restrictions in the emotional aspect of the person can have causes
    like, a person may need to leave a partner or job or it may be an old
    emotional abuse.
    Emotional restrictions are more difficult to identify accurately
    because it’s very easy to start theorising about the person’s problems
    instead of simply receiving the information from the person’s body in
    the same way you do with physical patterns.

    Core problems
    These relate to how the person sees themselves in their lives, their
    relationship with themselves, with God, with their idea of God.
    A feeling that they’re off track.
    And no, you don’t need to know what their track is.
    Core problems can feel like fundamental disharmonies within the
    person.  They are the hardest to perceive because they are so deep
    in the person.
    Your ability to see and work with these core issues comes with lots
    of practice and humility.
    Their revelation occurs in the dynamic between you and the person
    and what you have to offer each other.

    Are you with me?

    It generally works its way through the layers something like this.
    A disharmony in a person’s core will affect them emotionally and
    in turn affect them physically.
    For example someone might think they are fundamentally bad.
    This could manifest emotionally as anxiety and paranoia, which
    could manifest physically as headaches and chronic fatigue.
    The skill comes in being able to assess where the root cause of
    the problem is.

    Before you go charging off into the great mystery, let me add this.
    It can be as easy to go the other way and start looking for deep
    emotional and core issues as the root cause of a purely physical
    problem.

    ‘I just twisted my knee Mate!’

    Now the second part of my answer is purely physical.
    There are lots of different ways of creating sciatica.
    It’s a pain, which means there have to be nerves involved.
    The pain generally is in the lower back and travels down one
    leg or the other, sometimes both.

    Have a look at, [in books and with your hands] the lumbar plexus,
    the sacral plexus.  How are the nerves on both sides of the spinal
    column as they leave the vertebral foramina?

    Scan the nerves up as far as the thoraco-lumbar junction.
    Remember tight membranes can pull vertebrae together and pinch nerves.
    Consider how long the person has been getting the pain?
    Getting a sense of when and how the pattern of restriction was formed.
    So, look particularly at the dural tube.
    How are the membranes running?
    Most particularly how is the cerebro spinal fluid moving?
    Find ways to help it come into a harmonious flow.
    It’s all about flow.

    Top

    ***COMMENT FROM AL PELOWSKI***
    – On additional physical causes of sciatica.

    John,
    Some of the rootlets of the sciatic nerve pass through the psoas
    muscle – a noted emotional contractor- – slightly bent over posture,
    unable to fully extend hips without pain, affected leg externally rotated.
    Another sciatica tip: usually on right side, I-C Valve, Caecum.

    Yet other possibilities: Leg length differences, real bony differences,
    or more likely due to rotations in the leg from protecting an old sprained
    ankle or twisted knee — most commonly external rotation in the foot
    where there has been damage to the ankle lateral colateral ligaments
    — resulting in compression of the S-I joint and thus irritation of the epineuria.
    “from the ankle joint to the knee joint…etc” Remember the tune?

    Yo. Ta for newsletter. Much food for reflection
    A

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Thanks Al. All very useful places to look for the mechanics of
    the physical manifestation of sciatica.