FRANKLYN SILLS ARTICLES

Phases of the Inherent Treatment Plan

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There are many ways to orient both to a biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy and to the arising of the inherent treatment plan. Although healing processes may take a multitude of forms, as the inherent treatment plan unfolds, a number of common phases emerge. Within a clinical context, the nature of this unfolding process is dependent upon certain practitioner skills.

The first and most basic skill to develop is the ability to allow one’s mind to still, to shift out of self-forms and ego states, and enter a state of presence, the being-state. From this state of inner stillness, the practitioner then learns orient to Source and the forces of creation that emerge from Source. In a craniosacral biodynamic context, the first step in this shift in orientation is to learn to sense the presence of primary respiration within and around oneself. From here, the task is then to sense primary respiration in relationship to the client’s midline, body and arising process, and to learn to negotiate a clear relational field and safe holding environment.

In developing these skills, students of a biodynamic approach learn to establish a wide perceptual field and to negotiate both the quality of their physical contact and the distance of their attention from the client’s system and midline. As the practitioners hold a respectful and appropriate listening field, the next step in the emergence of the inherent treatment plan is the settling of this relational field. Until basic trust is established, nothing of any depth can occur.

The practitioner may sense, as they deepen into a still state of presence, that the conjoined practitioner-client field (the relational field) seems to settle and deepen. This may manifest as qualities of settling, stillness and expansion. Most pointedly, the practitioner may perceive that his or her own field settles and a quality of mutuality or non-separateness emerges. By this I do not mean a merged state, but a state where there is both differentiation and a sense of direct knowing, being-to-being. The settling of the relational field is the first step in the unfoldment of the inherent treatment plan.

The next phase in the inherent treatment plan arises as the practitioner settles more deeply into his or her receptive being-state, while oriented to primary respiration in relationship to the client’s midline, body and local bio-field. Here a resonance occurs, being-to-being, where a shift to resources and primary respiration emerges. I call this the holistic shift, which is discussed below.

Once the holistic shift deepens, then healing processes naturally begin to emerge. These are not factors of practitioner analysis, but of decisions made by the potency of the Breath of Life. As the holistic shift deepens, healing processes may emerge from the mid-tide-fluid tide level of expression, or from the Long Tide, or more directly, from the Dynamic Stillness. Once conditional forces have been resolved, then a process of reorganization and realignment to natural forces and midlines also occurs.