Open Source Cranio

Tag: Chemotherapy

  • Cranio Sacral Therapist and Student Newsletter 31

    January 27 – 2008

    Questions and comments for this issue:

    + Follow on from Jean in Ireland.
    + Blueprint follow on from Gayle in Cape Town.
    + Shingles follow on from Donovan in Durban.
    + Can you treat people with active Cancer?
    + CST and people recovering from Stroke?
    + Shingles follow on from Eva in Australia.
    + Treatment for Focal Dystonia.

    Hello,

    Another brand spanking New Year fresh from its
    wrapping is off and running.  You know in olden
    days Kings were very careful about what they did
    on the first 12 days of each New Year.  They
    believed each day represented its equivalent month
    in the year.

    So if they wanted January to be peaceful they
    would spend the first day of the New Year in
    contemplation.  If they wanted August to be joyous
    they would have a party on the eight day of the
    New Year and so on.   They were careful to not
    have anything happen in those first 12 days that
    would affect them negatively in the coming year.

    Considering it is now the 27th I suppose I am a
    little late in telling you all this.  Depending on
    how wild and crazy your New Years Eve celebrations
    were, January may be finding you with a continually
    sore head and a feeling of remorse.

    I’ll type softly.

    For myself, the coming year will bring the
    expansion of my Open Source Cranio project.   This
    is about making cranio sacral training information
    available to people in developing countries
    through my websites.  For me this is a no brainer
    as cranio sacral therapy doesn’t require any
    technology to practice. Just a pair of hands.  But
    then you knew that already.

    The idea is that if someone in a remote village
    has internet access, which is not as unlikely as
    it sounds, they can begin to learn the basics and
    start practicing.

    Would you like to help? Register
    yourself as a mentor or contribute an article or
    suggestions or perspective that you think might
    help that person.  If you can’t think of anything
    else just let me know you want to help.

    Anyhu John, on with this, bursting at
    the seams, mailbag.

    ***FOLLOW ON FROM JEAN MCDONALD***

    Hi John,
    good on you for your description of
    cerebral palsy – can’t really add to that!

    Thanks for the listing. The practice is general
    and of course working with the children is
    particularly interesting.

    In the Novara Centre some multidisciplinary work
    is happening and this is working well. A boy of
    four at present is being cared for from an acute
    episode when starting big school- my colleague is
    a Kinesiology’s suggested we work together.
    Progress is apparent – from a craniofacial
    viewpoint second trimester showed as problematic
    and the child had suffered some bullying at
    playschool.

    Stillpoints are amazing for this child, he becomes
    so insightful of his own place in the
    difficulties. He has returned to his birth and re-
    entered many times over, a much calmer child!

    Little Jodie (the case study I sent you a while
    ago) is doing well. The treatment involves
    palpating the parietals and now that she is older
    some more on her cranial base which has
    dysfunction with the left side.  Drawing the
    sacrum to lengthen the dural tube is always
    necessary and the respiratory diaphragm with a
    tonic liver for the last number of months has been
    less so on the last visit.

    Jodie is receiving remedies for her vaccines and
    at present the polio one is being addressed. She
    is much more affectionate to Mum and to her little
    sister and initiates hugs and kisses with both,
    this is separate form the craniosacral treatments
    which would frequently end with a move to Mum’s
    knee.
    She has overcome her great difficulty with Music
    class – she tolerates it now if it is not in the
    big hall and can articulate that they don’t give
    her the guitar or whistle.
    Best wishes,
    Jean

    MY COMMENTS:

    Thanks for that Jean.  From the feedback I get
    from other therapists and students who subscribe
    to this newsletter, getting a glimpse into someone
    else’s practice is very helpful.

    ***BLUEPRINT FOLLOW ON FROM GAYLE IN CAPE TOWN***

    Hi John

    I don’t know if they were in your part of the
    world, but a few years back there were these 3D
    pictures around. They basically look like a whole
    lot of messy dots, and then when you relax your
    eyes, you suddenly see the picture.

    And you can always see that picture every time you
    look at it. The more of these 3D images you look
    at, the better you get at seeing the image.

    Ok so I know that was using an image- like
    description, but it might make sense to some
    people. The blueprint – to me at least- is as
    solid and as apparent as the image that you would
    see.

    If I had to compare “seeing the blueprint” with
    any other of the more common 5 senses, I would say
    that it is like your sense of smell. Perhaps the
    ‘whispy and mist-like’ can be described as an
    aroma. It is tangible, it is stronger from the
    direction of the source. It has an associated
    memory or emotion. It also has a “rabbit-hole”
    effect. The more you try to analyse the smell, the
    more you can describe the components that make up
    that scent.

    Hope I made some sort of sense? 🙂

    Gayle (Cape Town, SA)

    MY COMMENTS:

    Thanks for that Gayle.  It is always good to
    get another perspective on how different people
    relate to different structures.  I’m not a
    ‘smeller’ myself but I really like it when someone
    can involve their sense of smell in their
    palpation, it must add a whole other dimension.

    Try as I might, I could never do those ‘magic
    eye’ things.  In the end I decided that there was
    no image there really and it was all an elaborate
    conspiracy to make me look stupid.

    What?

    It might be . .

    ***SHINGLES FOLLOW ON FROM DONOVAN IN DURBAN VIA
    HIS WIFE – HE HAS HIS HANDS FULL AT THE BARBEQUE –
    GIVE HIM A BREAK***

    Dear John

    Thanks so much for your lovely newsletters (this
    is Dee, Donovan’s wife and mother of his adored
    2.5 year old daughter Naomi!!!!).

    I have to confess that I read your newsletters
    with great enjoyment, especially as I am handling
    the advertising and promotion of cranio here in SA
    and I eagerly absorb all information about the
    various conditions and problems it can treat, and
    as you are a guru in this therapy, I hope you
    don’t mind me sneaking a peak at the info you send
    to Donovan.

    Yes, Donovan has treated a woman who had shingles.
    She was brought to him by a student practitioner
    who was feeling overwhelmed and asked for his
    support.  The whole top half of her body was
    covered in the sores and she also had HIV AIDS.
    She believed she was cursed by the local
    witchdoctor and she was going to die if the
    shingles spread and joined at the midline of her
    body (she was told this by an “Inyanga”/aka
    Traditional Healer).

    Yes, we live in a very interesting culturally
    diverse country with many of our inhabitants being
    governed by very strong cultural beliefs.  He has
    asked me to tell you this on his behalf (he is
    braaining [barbequing] our meal and his hands are
    filthy) that during the 4 sessions he had with
    her, he worked on boosting her immune system and
    holding into, and working with these deep seated
    fears.  When this began shifting, her healing
    accelerated dramatically.  Unfortunately, she was
    very unreliable in keeping her appointments and
    only came for the 4 sessions – even though she was
    being sponsored to come.

    I trust that you were suitably rewarded by Santa
    for being a good boy this year, and I look forward
    to more of your newsletters in 2008.

    Warmest regards from Sunny South Africa and
    wishing you a fabulous 2008.

    Dee, Donovan, Naomi, Hamish and Angus (our 2
    scottish terriers)

    MY COMMENTS:

    Thanks for that Dee and Donovan.  It conjured
    up a very cute mental image of Donovan up to his
    armpits in barbeque sauce, roaring cranio sacral
    descriptions to Dee.

    ‘I said holding into her deep seated fears,
    not folding into her cheap pleated smears.  What
    does that mean anyway??’

    It sounds like you helped the woman in question
    a lot Donovan.  It was also another glimpse into
    the different sorts of issues that practitioners
    in different parts of the world are dealing with.

    ***QUESTION***

    Hi John,

    I look forward to putting my details on your site
    when I finish my course and get some more
    practical hours up!

    I am interested in your theories on treating
    cancer patients?  My Cranio teacher says it is a
    contraindication if any cancer active is in the
    body?

    I have tried looking it up in Cranio books but
    have not found any information, if you do treat
    cancer patients what are you treating them for,
    the cancer, the pain, the side effects?  I read
    somewhere (it may even have been on your site) of
    people having chemo being treated but it did not
    say why or how?

    Luv your work!

    Karen
    Australia

    MY COMMENTS:

    Hello Karen,
    The main thing to get about contraindications
    is they are for YOUR protection as much as the
    patient.

    The chances of you doing any harm to the
    patient are slim to nonexistent.  On the other
    hand, the chances of you giving yourself a major
    fright and setting you palpatory skills back years
    is very high.

    For example, let’s say you go against your
    teachers/mentors recommendation and start treating
    someone who is in the middle of dealing with
    cancer.
    And let’s say they have a major episode the day
    after you treat them and end up in hospital.

    Take a minute and think about how you would
    feel.  Can you imagine how difficult it would be
    to stay objective about your contribution to their
    being in hospital.  Can you imagine how hard it
    would be to avoid putting yourself through the
    wringer wondering if your intention was too heavy
    or too light, how you could have missed what was
    coming and so on.

    I am not saying don’t treat people with cancer
    or who are having chemotherapy.  I am saying that
    you need to nurture and protect your growing
    palpatory skill.  It is hard enough to develop
    without unnecessarily putting it in the way of
    potential body blows.

    To answer your question, I have treated people
    with most stages of cancer, benign, malignant,
    aggressive, in remission and I have treated people
    who are having chemotherapy and radiation
    treatment too.

    Here are some things to consider . .

    When someone has a life threatening condition
    you need to take a very long perspective on their
    situation.  We need to stand back from our
    conditioned response that the happy ending is
    where the patient ‘beats the big C’ and lives
    happily ever after.

    When working with people with life threatening
    illnesses, more than anything else you need
    humility and respect for their process.

    Bearing in mind that you don’t know what their
    process is about.

    I have found it helpful to adopt the
    perspective that the circumstances of a patient’s
    life are not random but are very significant to
    them.  This includes the way they will die.  I
    take it that the way they choose to die is as
    significant as the way they choose to be born.

    This makes it is easier for me to stand back
    and not try to ‘fix’ them.

    I have talked about this in other newsletters
    so won’t go on about it too much now.
    http://www.open-source-cranio.com/sacral-training/cancer/

    Treating someone who is having chemotherapy or
    radiation treatment can be very helpful for them.
    I have found it is similar to treating someone who
    has had a pin or plate put in their body to help
    with a compound fracture.

    Their body will be freaking out and trying to
    dispel the foreign object.  Treatment usually
    involves helping their body to integrate or make
    peace with the foreign object.

    With chemo or radiation treatment the person’s
    body will be freaking out in a similar way because
    it is in essence being poisoned or attacked.  Your
    job will be to help their body deal with the shock
    of attack.  To find some kind of equilibrium in
    the situation.

    Treating people with life threatening illness
    is not for the faint hearted.  It forces you to
    look at very fundamental questions about what you
    are really doing.  Once you embrace the inherent
    challenges it can be very rewarding.

    ***QUESTION***

    Hi, John

    Your Q&A’s thus far have tremendously contributed
    to my knowledge as a cranio sacral practitioner.
    It is now my turn to ask a question.

    My mother is 76yrs old and has had a stroke due to
    her tissue (mechanical) valve being in for too
    long without replacing it. She had a clot in her
    frontal area, which was dissolved with medication.
    She is back to normal and does not have any after
    effects. How can I help her in a cranio way?

    All the best for the New Year.

    Regards,
    Shahnaaz
    Cape Town, South Africa

    MY COMMENTS:

    Hello Shahnaaz,
    I am glad you find my newsletters helpful.

    As you know, most strokes are caused by a blood
    clot forming in some part of the body and then
    travelling to the brain and causing a blockage to
    the blood supply and then permanent neurological
    damage to the effected area.

    Recovery from stroke is the transferring of
    function from the damaged area to another part of
    the brain.

    If someone comes to me for treatment and they
    are recovering from a stroke, the first thing I
    would do is check if they still had a tendency for
    clotting.  If I got a sense that they did, I would
    withdraw gently and not continue treatment.

    Not because I could cause another stroke but
    because of the effect it would have on me if they
    had a stroke while I was treating them or even the
    day after treatment.

    Also the family of the person involved may not
    understand that I couldn’t have caused a stroke
    and that could cause a lot of complications and
    ultimately interfere with me treating the other
    people I treat now and in the future.

    For me it’s not worth the risk.

    So if you feel that the clotting is over. .

    ‘How will I know?’

    If you are asking this question then you
    haven’t had enough experience yet and you need to
    get a second opinion from a more experienced
    practitioner.

    Assuming you are not asking that question I
    would focus on assisting the transfer of function
    process that will be going on in the brain from
    the area that was damaged to the new areas.

    Based on what you have written it sounds like
    your Mother has recovered well.   Has she asked
    you to treat her?

    If not, you have a very weak contract with her.
    By contract I mean the framework within which you
    work with a person.   It is set by what they ask
    you to help them with.

    So if someone asks you to help them with their
    painful knee then that is the contract.

    Regardless of whatever other issues you may
    feel in the persons system, if these issues don’t
    affect the knee problem directly then you will be
    going outside the bounds of the contract if you
    start trying to treat these issues.

    Just because you can feel it doesn’t mean you
    have been asked to ‘fix’ it.

    I have found the loosest contracts are nearly
    always with family members.  This happens because
    of the history between you and the fact that they
    knew you before you were a cranio sacral
    therapist.

    There is no tricky way around this. It’s not
    like you can go to your Mother and ask her, ‘Would
    you like me to help you recover from your stroke?’

    The strongest contracts come from a request
    that has originated from the person unassisted,
    un-enticed.

    What to do?

    If your Mother hasn’t asked you to help her
    then I suggest you wait until the next time she is
    talking about her health.  When she states a
    concern that you feel you may be able to help with
    then say it.

    ‘What?’

    “I could help with that Mum.”

    Then, and this is important, keep quiet.  If
    she doesn’t respond, leave it.  You don’t have a
    contract.   If you respect the fact that she
    hasn’t asked you it will make it easier for her to
    ask when she is ready.

    ***SHINGLES FOLLOW ON FROM EVA IN AUSTRALIA***

    Merry Christmas John!

    I have two responses to your newsletter below:

    I would be happy to be a mentor. I’m at Lisarow on
    the Central Coast, just north of Sydney,
    Australia. Contact phone no 0410234490.

    I have had shingles myself, or at least that is
    what it was diagnosed as when I was 25. Situated
    in a particular place between two ribs on the left
    side.  Had pain off and on during childhood, then
    a lot of pain and much longer periods during the 4
    years I worked in Nigeria, which was a very high
    stress time, emotionally.

    What sent it on high alert was that I got mould
    allergy and sneezed a couple hundred times a day
    for a few months, and that’s when it was
    diagnosed. It calmed down with nose spray to stop
    the sneezing, but was still very much there in the
    rib cage, just not rampant. I never have had any
    blisters from it, though. Since I started having
    and doing CranioSacral Therapy I haven’t had any
    relapses.

    I have also treated someone with an acute shingles
    outbreak on her arm. The lady had already been for
    treatment a few times for a lot of other problems
    a few months earlier. This time she came for
    treatment the shingles had come out in blisters on
    her arm just 2 days before the session. I treated
    her as usual but also did Photonic Therapy
    (acupuncture with a red light instead of needles)
    on the specific points for shingles as well as
    around the blisters.
    2 days later when she saw the doctor the sores
    were nearly gone. The doctor had never heard of
    such a rapid retreat of shingles without
    medication.

    Best regards,

    Eva Kuhl Bornefelt
    Central Coast, Australia.

    MY COMMENTS:

    Hello Eva,
    I will add you to the Mentor list.

    Thank you for sharing your personal experience
    of shingles.

    It sounds like you did a great job with the
    woman you were treating too.

    ***QUESTION***

    Hi John, Hope all goes well in the wider world
    beyond our shores. . .

    A quicky that may be a useful topic for the next
    newsletter. . .

    I’m currently treating a fellow who has presented
    with Focal Dystonia. Being a writer, and avid
    keyboardist, he is experiencing a gradual increase
    in tonic spasm mostly within carpal/wrist flexors.

    He is a man who lives life on his own terms, his
    own agenda, despite the fact he has a couple of
    very young children and a loving wife.  Driven,
    ambitious, capable.

    Any resource/ideas/anecdotes . . . politically
    incorrect focal dysplasia jokes???

    PS Happy X-mas to you and yours.

    Greg Robson
    Brisbane.

    MY COMMENTS:

    Hello Greg,

    I don’t make jokes about conditions.

    I am far too wonderful and holy for that.

    From what you have written it sounds like your
    patient has focal dystonia only and not focal
    dysplasia, which is more on the epilepsy side of
    things.   Let me know if I got that wrong.

    The thing that stands out to me about focal
    dystonia is that it mainly occurs when the person
    is focused on a particular task.  Classic cases
    being the concert pianist or surgeon who only get
    the spasms when they are about to perform or
    operate.

    It always feels to me like the bodily version
    of stuttering.

    And in terms of root cause, this is where I
    would be looking.   What is going on for the
    person in relation to their expression or their
    work?

    Are they happy/frustrated in their work?
    Do they feel the work is a good vehicle of
    expression for them?
    Do they feel like they are bursting with
    expression and their work holds them back?
    Are they frustrated?

    Are the spasms symmetrical? If they are
    predominantly in his left hand/wrist it could be
    to do with receiving.  If on the other hand . . .

    ‘Hang on, that’s a joke!’

    No it’s not. I actually meant his other hand.
    His other hand is his right hand . .

    ‘Oh. . . ‘

    If his spasms are predominantly in his right
    hand it could be to do with expression or power or
    expressing his power.

    The medical model for what is going on
    mechanically describes the brain as being a bit
    like a cartoon character that has been given too
    many instructions to carry out at once.
    Eventually they shake their head vigorously, with
    an accompanying sound effect, which I can’t spell
    and shake the confusion away.

    I know you have probably looked this up Greg
    but bear with me while I explain it for the other
    readers who may not have.

    You know the way the left side of your brain
    controls the right side of your body and visa
    versa.

    Just nod.

    Well it gets more specific.  There is a sort of
    map called your somatosensory cortex that deals
    with each part individually.  So each finger, for
    example, has a specific region.

    This is different from you tomato-sensory
    cortex which is the part of your brain that helps
    you find tomatoes in the dark.

    ‘Really?’

    No, not really.  That was a joke.

    ‘But you said . . .’

    It wasn’t about a condition.

    ‘Oh . . ‘

    Can we get on?
    If you have ever watched a musician in full
    flight you will notice that their fingers move so
    fast they are almost a blur.

    The medical explanation for focal dystonia is
    that with repeated practice of the same movements,
    the brain gets confused and the regions of the
    somatosensory cortex for the fingers involved get
    kind of mashed up.  But unlike the cartoon
    character the brain is unable to shake the
    confusion away.

    While it is a good explanation I don’t think it is
    the full story.  To fill out the picture a little
    more let me include a little quote from an
    interview with John Upledger that adds another
    perspective to the smearing of the somatosensory
    cortex theory.

    Here’s Johnny . . .

    ‘I just wanna share a little study that I came
    across.
    In February 1988, ‘Brain Mind Bulletin’
    published in the abstract some work that was done
    at UC San Diego. They were trying to understand
    how somebody like a professional pianist or a
    professional violin player could move so fast,
    with the messages going up to the brain, decision
    made, and back down again. So they used
    electrodes, and they used an EEG.

    What they found was that the electrical
    impulses that control finger movement were not
    going up the arm! The decisions were being made
    right there in the hand! You could use electrical
    measurement of neuron impulse conduction as a
    reasonable indicator. So what that says is, you
    have decision making ability in your hands!’

    You can read the full article here
    http://www.open-source-cranio.com/resources/articles/Intelligence.pdf

    Now that’s jolly interesting isn’t it.

    So another way of looking at it might be that
    the people who don’t get focal dystonia could be
    more surrendered to the intelligence of the hands
    that John Upledger is talking about.  While people
    who do get focal dystonia could keep engaging
    their brain and so confuse it.

    This would lead me to ask the questions I
    always ask about anyone with any condition.

    Why did they get it?  Lots of people don’t.
    Why them and not someone else?
    What does it mean?

    While you are thinking about that here are some
    of the mechanical places you can look because
    regardless of the deeper issues everything prints
    out mechanically.

    As you know, nerve impulses are conducted by a
    mixture of chemical and electrical means.  The
    chemicals are conveyed in fluid and the electrical
    impulses are . . . well . . energy  . . . and
    guess what we work with fluids and energy!!

    Alright!!

    I would check the nerve supply from the brain
    to the area involved, in this case his hand.  I
    would also be taking a close look at the brain and
    in particular the cortex around the posterior
    aspect of the parietal lobes, around where they
    meet the occipital lobes.

    This is generally where the somatosensory
    cortex is considered to be located.  I would be
    checking the cerebro spinal fluid in this area and
    the meninges.  The lambdoid sutures might give you
    an indication for what is going on beneath.

    That’s it for this issue.  I know,
    hard to believe but don’t fret there will be more
    next month.

    Cheerio for now.

    Your Mate,

    John D.

  • Cranio Sacral Therapist and Student Newsletter 33

    April 5 – 2008

    Questions and comments for this issue:

    + Report from Al Pelowski about the role cranio is playing in the Boikarabelo Orphans Eco-Village Cranio Project in South Africa.
    + CST and orthodontic work?

    Hello,

    I was sent a very interesting video recently.
    It is of a talk given by neuroanatomist, Jill
    Bolte Tatlor.  In the video she describes her
    experience of having a stroke and how it changed
    the way she viewed the brain, how it works and who
    we are.

    It was obviously a powerful experience for her
    and at times she is quite emotional.  You can see
    it here. http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
    I am very interested to know what you think of it.

    I also want to let you know about an update
    over at the Wellness Detective Agency, about money and going broke doing
    what you love.  It’s not like there are any cranio
    sacral therapists going broke . . . but I thought
    you might be interested.
    http://www.wellness-da.com/detective/do-what-you-love-and-go-broke/

    If you’re not subscribed to the Updates already
    you can subscribe on that page too.  Audio updates
    are in the works and should be out within the next
    week.

    And finally, I was heartened to see that Dr.
    Darlene Ertha gave a talk last month to The
    American Holistic Nurses Association.  The title
    of her talk was,  ‘Exploring Nature’s Blueprint:
    Fractals, Pathways, Meridians, and the Collective
    Unconscious.  Bringing It All Together In Hands-On
    Healing.’

    Quite a lot to fit on a poster, I know.  In her
    talk she described how cranio sacral therapy,
    among others, made use of universal patterns to
    alleviate intractable pain and heal body, mind,
    and spirit.

    Now that we’re feeling all warm and fuzzy,
    let’s get on with the mailbag.

    *** BOIKARABELO ORPHANS ECO-VILLAGE ***

    Hello John,
    An idea for linking the Boikarabelo Orphans Eco-
    Village Cranio Project
    http://www.boikarabelo.org/

    The Boikarabelo orphans village is located about
    100km NW of Joburg in the Magaliesburg.  I was
    wondering if it might be a good test site for your
    idea of getting cranio into the world’s villages.
    Just thinking really…

    There are 90+ children in a surrounding
    ‘informal village’ of some 1000 people (refugees,
    the displaced and isolated).  All of them are
    orphaned or abandoned, most are severely
    truamatised (e.g., nearly all the girls have been
    raped; maybe half the kids are or were
    malnourished; many are burdened with HIV and other
    opportunists; and most carry unresolved alarm or
    shock survival behaviours–ADHD, anorexia,
    learning disorders, autisms–compounded by
    toxicity from vaccinations and pollution).

    We are fortunate to have 3 student practitioners
    living there, and cranio is a crucial part of a
    therapeutic mix including homeopathy, nutrition &
    chelation, counselling and lots of patience &
    love.

    Today, Sunday 30 March, there were 8 of us
    practitioners working, and we saw about 30 of the
    kids, most of whom have had several sessions and
    settle into it quickly.  Quite a few end up in
    deep sleep so we leave them on the table at one
    end and bring on the next at the other end.  The
    kids literally queue up for treatment, even if
    they are not scheduled for it.

    Being held cranially is a big hit out there,
    thanks to the regular sessions they get with our
    resident practitioners.  When a child is lost in
    shock or fighting all the time in alarm we find
    that cranio holding works best to re-establish a
    secure bond and thus initiate their healing,
    gradually bringing in the other modalities.

    Some time ago a visiting woman from Europe went
    away inspired and then sent the community 20 new
    desktop computers.  They are ready to be linked
    into a server and used in the school they run on
    the premises.

    In SA far more people live in ‘informal
    settlements’ on the fringe of cities than in
    traditional countryside villages.  The challenge
    here as well as in Africa as a whole is to make
    entirely new homes/communities for millions of
    kids with nowhere else to grow.

    The Malawi Children’s Village (with which I am
    also involved) is one way this is being
    approached, and Boikarabelo is another.  I plan to
    visit Malawi in the dry, July perhaps.  I’ll
    report on MCV after that visit.

    Boikarabelo does have more problems but also
    more going for it than almost any other village I
    can think of in all Africa.  So much goes on
    there, births, deaths, new arrivals all the time,
    crisis after crisis as you can imagine.  But
    despite all the challenges, the aim is not only to
    provide a basic home and identity for the kids,
    but to give them the very best in life skills and
    turn the situation into an educational advantage..

    I could go on..and on..what do you think?

    Al.

    MY COMMENTS:

    What do I think?

    I think you’re a bloody legend!

    I think the therapists working with you are
    bloody legends!

    I think the people who run the place are bloody
    legends!

    If ever somewhere needed more cranio sacral
    therapists it would be there.  It’s the sort of
    place my Open Source Cranio idea is all about.
    Getting cranio sacral training information to
    where it is desperately needed.

    ***QUESTION***

    Hi John,

    Thanks for your reply to my letter regarding
    cancer in the New Years Newsletter.
    As to what to call you how about the “enlightened
    one”?
    Your reply to my question made me laugh but if I
    had received it a few weeks earlier I would have
    cried, can I remind you of your words

    “the chances of you giving yourself a major
    fright and setting you palpatory skills back years
    is very high.

    For example, let’s say you go against your
    teachers/mentors recommendation and start treating
    someone who is in the middle of dealing with
    cancer.
    And let’s say they have a major episode the day
    after you treat them and end up in hospital.

    Take a minute and think about how you would
    feel.  Can you imagine how difficult it would be
    to stay objective about your contribution to their
    being in hospital.  Can you imagine how hard it
    would be to avoid putting yourself through the
    wringer wondering if your intention was too heavy
    or too light, how you could have missed what was
    coming and so on.”

    Well I can tell you how I felt !!, my Aunt had
    been given the all clear following Non hodgkinson
    and all the horror that the treatments entailed,
    bald and full of life she stayed with us for a
    week over xmas on the day she was leaving I asked
    if she would like to try some cranio (are you
    wincing?) her system did not react and as I had
    not practiced for some weeks thought it was me so
    pushed the intention a bit harder but all she got
    was a nice still point and a vision of a being in
    a crater looking at the blue sky (that made me
    wince!). She phoned me 3 days later to say she had
    not been out of bed since she got home she could
    not stay awake (but she felt good) I told her to
    go to the Drs asap! she had no white cells and was
    very close to dying.

    So how did I feel! all of the above! my teacher
    was on holidays but when I finally contacted her
    she believed the cranio probably brought it to the
    surface alot faster. My Aunt is doing alot better
    they think she is one of the rare ones that get a
    reaction to some injection they give post Chemo,
    but they also discovered her heart and lungs are
    stuffed from the Chemo! I offered her Cranio and
    we both laughed (but I don’t think either of us
    will go there!)

    I have been going through all your archives a
    couple at a time as it makes my head hurt! so many
    questions!

    So I will start with; I read about your case
    study, the girl you helped with facial disorders,
    my 18yr old son has a protruding lower Jaw they
    have done one lot of orthodontic work and are now
    waiting until he stops growing to operate on the
    lower jaw to pull it back ( a nasty sounding
    operation) and then a couple more years of braces
    to correct the bite. Do you believe that cranio
    could stop the jaw coming forward anymore and even
    better bring it back slightly? and my daughter 15
    has had two years of braces but because she had to
    a have a baby tooth removed that had no adult
    tooth to replace it they expect she will have
    braces for two more years! Do you believe cranio
    can really help in these situations, I have read
    in some of the Cranio books to seek out a
    orthodontist that works with Cranio but I don’t
    think there is such a person in Australia? I asked
    my orthodontist and he was very “polite” “what
    the?!!!”

    Many thanks
    God opps John
    Karen
    Australian

    MY COMMENTS:

    Hello Karen,
    Thanks for sharing your experience about your
    Aunt.  It must have been awful for you.  Our
    palpatory skill is a wonderful but fragile thing.

    I’ve had a few emails from different people
    asking about orthodontic work and cranio sacral
    therapy and since both your questions are about
    that too, I’ll kill the few birds, humanely of
    course, with one stone and answer them all
    together.

    Can cranio sacral therapy really help in these
    situations?

    Hell, yes.

    Let’s start with the basics. Teeth are
    basically bone and contrary to common perception,
    bones ain’t bone china.  Bone is plastic and wet
    and it grows and most importantly responds to the
    pressure it is placed under and adapts.

    Wolf’s law and all that, don’t you know.

    What’s Wolf’s law?

    Wolf’s law states that the son of two wolves is
    equal to the son of the bears on the other two
    hides. . . or . . something . . like . .that.

    It basically means that bone will adapt to the
    loads it is placed under.

    That is how they can dig up someone from a
    thousand years ago and from a careful study of the
    shape of the bones of their forearm, work out that
    the person used to be a charioteer.

    The fact they were buried in a chariot helped
    but it was the bones, Jim, the bones.

    So just because our teeth are sitting in bone
    and our bite is essentially made of bone that
    doesn’t mean that it is fixed for all eternity.

    When you think about, that’s what Orthodontists
    are kind of banking on.

    From our perspective, you could think of braces
    as being like a form of direct technique, carried
    out over a numbers months or years.

    When I think of our ‘bite’, and this is
    probably because I used to be a carpenter, I
    always think of the mandible as being like a door
    and the temporo mandibular joints as being like
    the hinges of the door, with the temporals and the
    maxillae making up the doorframe.

    Thinking of it like this helps keep all the
    different parts in their rightful place.

    The mandible is roughly solid.  Yes, I know it
    used to be in two parts and in some ways still
    behaves as if it is but compared to everything
    else involved that still ARE in separate parts, it
    helps to think of it as solid. . . like a door.

    So if a person’s bite is off it is probably not
    the mandible itself but the temporals or the
    maxillae.

    Because if the doorframe is not straight the
    door will keep banging on the frame and never
    close properly.

    Now let’s look at the two examples you gave.

    You write that your son’s lower jaw is
    protruding.  The first thing I would ask myself is
    why is it doing that? Is the mandible sticking out
    or is the face pushed in? or is a bit of both.

    I would palpate his whole face and try and get
    a sense of what the overall pattern was.

    Once you do that you can begin to look at the
    hinges and the doorframe.   For example: There
    could be a pattern where his temporals are
    torsioned anteriorly and inferiorly in a kind of
    temporal nose dive and this in turn could have the
    knock-on effect of pushing his mandible
    anteriorly.

    Or both his maxillae could be driven
    posteriorly.

    If it is in the temporals I would treat it with
    indirect technique.

    If it is his maxillae I would treat it with a
    combination of indirect and then direct technique.
    Indirect to follow into the pattern and help it
    release then direct because the influence of the
    cranial rhythm is weaker in the maxillae and they
    can need a little help getting where they want to
    go.

    If the maxillae are driven posteriorly you will
    need to assess the palatines and help them release
    too if the pattern goes back that far.  You will
    also need to look at how the sphenoid is affected
    by this pattern, particularly the pterygoid
    plates.

    With your daughter, it sounds like they are
    trying to even out the gap left by the extraction.

    Again, I would palpate her whole face and try
    and get a sense of an underlying pattern that
    might have caused the situation.

    If nothing major presents itself, it may be a
    case that her body doesn’t register the situation
    in her mouth as being a problem.  This would make
    you work a lot more difficult and require a lot
    more direct technique.

    Assuming that your daughter’s braces are not
    fixed, you can work on the teeth individually.
    You can take each tooth and ‘unwind’ it.  That in
    itself may begin to even out the gaps.

    And finally, as a general note about working
    with the mouth, the bite and teeth, it’s important
    to rely on the fact that our body is NOT
    predisposed to have a banging, jarring,
    disharmonious bite. It wants to bite right.

    All you have to do is help it. Having said that
    I have found as a general rule that while bone is
    responsive it can take a while for it to grow in
    new directions and by a while I mean 2 to 4
    months.

    So that’s it for this issue.

    Cheerio for now.

    Till the next time.

    Your Mate,

    John D.

  • Cancer

    + Cranio sacral therapy and Cancer -October 05

    Hi John,
    I have a friend who has had a mastectomy and partial
    lymphadenectomy and is currently receiving chemotherapy
    for active cancer in her neck. I was thinking that some
    CST would be helpful to assist her immune system (not
    to mention emotional state) but am concerned whether it
    would simultaneously stimulate the cancer which is
    quite an aggressive type.

    Let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter, I
    can provide more info if you need in order to advise me

    cheers Kylie

    —————–
    Kylie  Tobler.
    B.App Sc. (Occupational Therapy), Dip. CST
    Sydney.

    >>>MY COMMENTS:

    Your question goes right to the heart of what we do.
    My answer, in typical cranio fashion, is not clear cut.

    Maybe . .

    Maybe her system will use your treatment to grow the
    cancer more aggressively.

    Maybe her system will use your treatment to get rid
    of the cancer completely.

    By ‘system’ I mean everything. Mind, Body, Spirit,
    the lot and anything else we don’t know about.

    You see, all the warm and fluffy talk about us
    cranio sacral therapists not ‘doing’ anything but
    simply supporting the patient’s system isn’t
    hypothetical.

    It’s actually true.

    And if you know that and you are treating people
    well, which means not imposing your idea of what needs
    to happen on their systems, then you really have to
    face the fact that you’re not in control of what’s
    happening. .

    . . or going to happen.

    That concept is easy enough to accept when you are
    dealing with something simple that isn’t resolving.

    Everything feels ripe in the person’s system for an
    old pattern of restriction to release but it just
    won’t.

    It makes you sort of scratch your head and think,
    ‘Well that’s odd.  I can’t see any reason why it’s not
    releasing.’

    Then you remember, ‘Ah that’s right, I’m not running
    the show here.  There must be a reason that makes sense
    to this persons system and it just hasn’t informed me
    of it yet.’

    But . .

    When the person is manifesting life threatening
    symptoms the stakes are much higher.  It’s very easy to
    slip back into the mechanistic view of health and WANT
    a particular outcome.  In this case more life for the
    patient.

    But wait, it gets more complicated . .

    Being able to tell the difference between a patient
    who is thinking of finishing their life and one who is
    not, is difficult.

    Often what comes out of the person’s mouth is very
    different from what their system says.

    In one case the person says, ‘I am going to beat
    this.’  While their system says, ‘I can no longer live
    with this discord in me.  I am finishing my life.’

    In another case the person says, ‘I can’t bear this
    pain any longer.  I just want to die.’  While their
    system says, ‘I am fully engaged in my life and I want
    this discord in me to come into harmony.’

    Also. .

    In practice I’ve seen that there’s a different
    therapeutic dynamic between a patient and I, depending
    on whether their situation is life threatening or not.

    When a person comes to me for help and I put my
    hands on them, the unspoken communication from me to
    their system is always the same.

    What are you trying to do?
    How can I be of assistance?

    (Anyone NOT asking yourself those questions, go to
    the top of the class and bitch-slap the teacher.  Then
    get yourself a better teacher.)

    If the patient’s unspoken response is, ‘I am fully
    engaged in my life and I want this discord in me to
    come into harmony.’

    Then . . it’s on . .

    The dynamic between us is a bit like an Aikido
    expert trying to rodeo ride a Tasmanian Devil.
    (think Bugs Bunny)

    I’m the Aikido expert.

    No, not really – just for this analogy.

    The restriction is protected by many defences that
    come to the fore as the drive for harmony lets me in.

    I do my best to stay focused in spite of the
    barrage.

    I funnel all the energy they project in defence,
    back into their system, to assist the release.

    There is a back and forth struggle as I stay with
    them through the process of release and healing.

    All going well there is a sense of liberation at the
    end.  For both of us.

    If, on the other hand, the unspoken response to my
    question is, ‘I can no longer live with this discord in
    me.  I am finishing my life.’ then I am dealing with a
    totally different situation and the dynamic is very
    different.

    No back and forth, no struggle.

    Why?

    I’ll have to get a bit cosmic here to explain, so if
    you have any deeply held religious beliefs, you should
    maybe stop reading now as you might find what I’m going
    to say offends you . .

    Life threatening conditions are created at the core
    of the person. To effectively work with them requires
    deep respect for the origin of the choice.

    We are multi layered, multi faceted beings.  The
    part of us that makes this choice is not in our
    awareness.

    The choice to conclude our life is made in the same
    place as the choice to begin our life.

    The reasons for both choices are extremely personal
    and by their nature, not in our awareness.

    Put aside for a minute, any information you might
    have come upon from clairvoyants and channelers etc.

    Now consider these questions.

    Why were you born?
    Why did you choose the gender you did?
    Why did you choose the family you did?
    Why did you choose the country you did?
    And so on . .

    Don’t know?

    Me neither.

    If you don’t know the answer to these questions for
    your own life, how are you going to know them for
    someone else’s?

    . . and knowing that, helps you be HUMBLE and
    RESPECTFUL when working with someone dealing with these
    core issues.

    I can’t over emphasis this point.

    Deep, for real, humility and respect are an
    important key you are going to need if you really want
    to be of assistance.

    . . because, here’s the thing, the decision to
    finish a life is NOT IRREVOCABLE.

    It can change.

    Cancer is very dynamic.  Once it gets going it can
    grow very fast.

    . . . and it can un-grow very fast too.

    When you approach the person with humility, respect
    and NO AGENDA, a remarkable thing happens.  You are
    allowed deeper access to the core of the person.

    No kidding.

    Here’s why.

    There’s a phenomenon in quantum physics called the
    ‘Copenhagen Interpretation’.  It says that the presence
    of the observer influences the experiment.

    But only in Copenhagen!

    No, not really.

    The significant aspect of this phenomenon is
    presence.  Your presence makes a huge difference.
    Think about it.
    Your presence has been allowed into the part of the
    person that is making the life/death choice.

    A problem shared is a problem halved.

    Just being with the person at this level is of
    tremendous assistance to them.  A friendly companion on
    a difficult stretch of the road makes the journey
    easier.

    As you walk along together, them talking, you
    listening, they start to tell you about why they are
    finishing their life.  As they do this, more and more
    harmony comes into their system because of the effect
    of your respectful presence.

    Sometimes, as they tell you about why they are
    finishing their life, it becomes apparent to them that
    they’ve missed something, a piece of information or a
    perspective they hadn’t looked at.

    Suddenly they stop.

    You are at a fork in the road that wasn’t there a
    moment ago.  They smile at you and say, ‘I’m feeling
    somewhat Tasmanian, let’s go down this way.’

    and . . . it’s on.

    Other times they keep on the same road and their
    passage is made easier by your presence.

    Life for its own sake is not necessarily GOOD.
    Death in and of itself is not necessarily BAD.  The
    QUALITY of both, our life and our death are what
    counts.

    Often the road you travel with a person dealing with
    this issue has many forks and they change their mind a
    lot.

    The main assistance we can give is easing the
    process, brokering as much harmony in their system as
    possible.

    Make no mistake it’s very demanding.

    If you do decide to treat your friend, here are some
    things to look out for from a palpatory perspective.
    Bear in mind that palpation is a very personal affair
    and how I pick it up may not be the way you pick it up.

    What does it feel like?

    In the initial, PRE pre cancerous cell stage, it
    feels like an intensely bright point of light,
    incandescent.

    As the cancer becomes more materialised it becomes
    brighter and starts to grow legs like a spider.

    In time as it becomes ‘aggressive’ these legs
    connect up with other points of light and the whole
    thing becomes more solid.

    Eventually the center of this mass of white hot
    light becomes fleshy as the tumour proper forms.

    If the person changes their mind about finishing
    their life and the cancer starts to return to normal
    tissue it will go from the white hot quality to a sort
    of turgid yellow.

    This eventually turns into normal tissue.

    An exception to this pattern is prostate cancer,
    which feels like a white cocoon being spun around the
    prostate.  It is made up of threads and not spidery.

    Benign tumours don’t have this intense light quality
    and just sort of sit there like cellular couch
    potatoes, slowly getting bigger.  If they are a
    problem, it’s usually because they are pressing on
    delicate surrounding structures.

    Knowing what cancer feels like at its different
    stages of growth and decline is very useful in being
    able to pick up secondary or satellite growths.

    Here’s why . .

    If someone is intent on finishing their life and
    they have received surgery, chemotherapy and radiation,
    at the main site of the cancer, it often works.  The
    tumour is removed or shrinks and any new cancerous
    cells are killed too.

    But if the person is intent on finishing their life,
    their system will grow satellite cancer cells somewhere
    else and being able to feel this is very useful.

    As if all that weren’t enough . . .

    Knowing what cancer ‘feels’ like can be terrible
    knowledge because it puts you in the very difficult
    position of choosing what to say to the person.

    CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION!

    As a general rule.

    Keep your mouth SHUT!

    . . .and wait.

    Remember what I said, physically it can change very
    fast.  Here today, gone tomorrow.

    Literally.

    The life threatening symptoms are being created by a
    core part of the person.  That part uses speech and
    words VERY INFREQUENTLY and then only as a last resort.

    FOLLOW ITS EXAMPLE.

    Obviously if you’re asked a direct question, answer
    it but watch out for a tendency to answer questions
    that haven’t been asked.

    If you wait, the person will probably tell you what
    you are feeling anyway and this is much more powerful
    for them.

    Chemotherapy and Radiation therapy?

    These treatments are effective at killing cells,
    particularly cancer cells but they are very hard on the
    body.

    Chemotherapy feels like a very sophisticated
    cocktail of poison.  Which in a way, it is.

    Radiation therapy is like a very bad case of
    sunburn, repeated daily for 5 to 10 weeks.

    Both generate a, ‘What the?’ reaction in the body.
    You can be most helpful in negotiating with the
    person’s system to not see these treatments as so much
    of a threat but as an aid to recovery.  That’s if you
    are getting the feeling that they want to recover.

    If not, you can only do the best you can in a
    difficult situation.  Try not to turn away internally
    from their pain.  Try and continue to be with them on
    this painful stretch of the road.  Remain respectful of
    their process.

    So, Kylie,
    Cancer – Did I mention it was demanding?