Open Source Cranio

Tag: Reframing

  • 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.

  • Reframing

    Reframing is a technique that has developed out of Neuro Linguistic
    Programming or NLP for short. It is based on the principle that a different
    perspective can unleash a lot of power.  Have a look at this video to get
    an idea of how a different perspective can make a huge difference.
    You’ll get the different perspective at the end of the clip.

    It is easy for us to get stuck in a particular perspective or frame through which
    we see things. This frame becomes the only way we see a particular thing, the
    world, ourselves etc. If the particular frame is limiting this can be a problem
    because there may be no solution to the problem in the frame I hold.

    A locked and limiting frame has the effect of drying up our fluidity and
    causing us to get stuck. To break out of this we need to ‘try out’ different
    frames. This has the effect of looking at the problem for lots of different
    angles but more importantly it releases our creative energies and allows
    us to be more fluid and responsive.

    Here are some common examples in cranial work of frames of perspective
    that are locked.

    Cause = Effect Statements: “This X leads to this Y”
    “If a patient’s symptoms get worse after treatment, they will blame me..”

    Complex Equivalence Statements: “This X means this Y”
    “The fact that the patient’s symptoms got worse means I did something wrong.”

    Identification; “This X means this Y about ME”‘
    “The fact that the patient’s symptoms got worse means I am a bad therapist.”

    External Behavior = Internal State
    “If a patient’s symptoms get worse, it means I am a bad therapist, which makes me feel bad.”
    Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, saw the musical.

    Before you begin reframing it’s important to find both the External Behavior
    and the Internal State.

    For example, a statement like, “Patients think I am a bad therapist”, is an
    expression of an internal state.

    To find the coresponding external you could ask yourself, “What causes to
    patients to think I am a bad therapist?”

    The answer might be “Because their symptoms get worse after I treat them.”

    Now you have an external behavior (Their symptoms get worse after I treat them.)
    and an Internal State (Patients think I’m a bad therapist).

    “Patients think I am a bad therapist because their symptoms get worse after I treat them.”

    Now you can begin reframing: Here are some ways to see the situation differently.

    Reframing the external behaviour:
    “A change in a patient’s symptoms after my treatment is a great indication of my
    treatment having an impact on their system.”

    Reframe The Internal State:
    “It’s not that patients thinks I am incompetent, it is that they don’t understand the
    process of healing.”

    Counter Example:
    “Can I think of a time when a patients symptoms have got worse and they didn’t
    think it was my fault? Or can I think of a time that a patient understood the
    significance of their symptoms getting worse and were encouraged by it?”

    Outcome Framing:
    “What’s going to happen to my success level if I keep thinking this way?
    What will my life be like in ten years, or twenty?”

    Allness Framing:
    “Do I think that every single patient whose symptoms get worse after seeing
    me will think I am incompetent as a therapist?”

    Reflexively Apply to Self or Listener:
    “In other words, I should probably conclude I am an incompetent therapist
    because a patient of mine symptom’s get worse after I treated them.”
    “Are you trying to tell me that if one of my patient’s symptoms get worse
    after I treat them that I am an incompetent therapist?”

    Specific focus:
    “How does this happen specifically?”
    “What happens first?”
    “What happens right after that?”
    “How does the exact sequence go for a patient to go from trusting me to not
    thinking I am competent because their symptoms get worse without me
    having any say in the matter or influence whatsoever?”

    You can use reframing with any difficulty you might be having with your
    cranio sacral practice.