As Craniosacral Therapists the baseline for our practice must be to provide a feeling of safety and containment for our clients; boundaries provide the structure for our work. Although being clear about boundaries is essential, are there times or situations when they need to be managed more intuitively? Through discussion and group exercises we will look at this subject in a safe and supportive environment.

The Myth of The Wounded Healer is a universal Archetype reverberating through the ages. It is at the heart of the mystery of healing. In this workshop we will look at how we recognise and work with woundedness in ourselves as well as others. As ever the day will be a mixture of meditation, guided discussion and table work.
The story underlines the need for acceptance of pure woundedness as a precondition for any healing that may follow - Melanie Reinhart; ‘Chiron & the Healing Journey’

Recently I read the phrase ‘Lucid Neutrality’ and saw it as a succinct and elegant way of what we aim to achieve in our work with clients. Come and join me for an in-person summer workshop to explore and debate this concept with fellow practitioners. As always there will be presentations, group discussion and plenty of hands-on work. Daska’s current workload means that she will be joining us as a participant rather than presenter on this workshop.

At its simplest, Transference is the ordinary human tendency to transfer feelings and action patterns from one significant person or relationship to another. Countertransference is the set of complementary feelings and responses that arise in the Therapist. While these are familiar concepts in Psychotherapy, what do they mean in the context of Craniosacral Therapy? How do we remain open and observant to these traits and meet our clients appropriately without losing clarity and perspective?

We will discuss the different archetypes that play a part in the healing traditions and how using a knowledge of these forms might lead us to a different way of thinking. Taking as our model the familiar archetype of the Wounded Healer and using the concepts of Rescuer, Victim and Persecutor from the Drama Triangle, we will look even more closely at the roles of both Therapist and Client in the therapeutic encounter.

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We believe that the key to a successful treatment  lies in the therapeutic relationship rather than any particular  technique. We will be exploring the therapeutic space from many different  perspectives. We will consider whether there are discrepancies between how we see ourselves, and how we are perceived by our clients' and whether it is our job to fulfil our client’s expectations?'  Throughout the day we will continue to look at new ways in which to relate to our clients and their problems, and focus on broadening our practitioner horizons.

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In this workshop we will be looking at the many ways that healing touch has been used throughout the ages. We will cover the various ways it is employed in therapeutic bodywork.  Touch is perceived differently by each of us and we will consider how to work sensitively and appropriately.  Topics covered will include working off the body, how intention affects the quality of touch and both the concept and practice of non-doing.  Additionally, we ask the question 'What do we mean by embodied presence and how does it affect our work as Complementary Therapists?'

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The first workshop in our 2019 - 2020 Post Graduate Series,  looks at the nuts and bolts of being a Complementary Therapist, moving from negotiating first sessions through to bringing a series of treatments to a close. We will be examining our expectations of what it means to be a practitioner and learning some very practical ways of looking after ourselves as Therapists both inside and outside sessions. However long you have been in practice, our experience is that you will still find something in this workshop to enhance the way you support yourself and your clients. As well as exercises performed in ones or twos, there will also be an opportunity for group supervision where participants can bring client material for discussion.

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“True compassion arises from a healthy sense of self, from an awareness of who we are that honours our own capacities and fears, our own feelings and integrity, along with those of others.” Jack Kornfield

At times, however, compassion can be misused and we can lose ourselves in the well intentioned but misplaced support of another, helping neither of us. Come and join us as we explore compassion within the Therapeutic Relationship. We will be using meditation, interactive exercises and discussion to look into the true meaning of compassion.

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Have you ever felt vulnerable as a practitioner?  Which situations have you been in that have made you feel powerless?  In this workshop we will look at what triggers vulnerability in a therapist and how our own feelings of inadequacy can be used creatively within the Therapeutic Relationship.

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Am I stuck in my practice, and how do I get unstuck? Does that mean that I see the same types of  people and their problems all the time and am I scared to take on certain other conditions? Or do I feel I have to stick to a protocol which has become meaningless. Can being stuck be a spur to moving forward, because it requires insight to recognise where we are getting caught up in a pattern? This workshop will look at how we can shake things up for ourselves, and use our time with clients more creatively.

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Over the course of our Craniosacral careers we have probably all felt confused. Because of its enigmatic nature, CST may produce more confusion than other therapies. We will be working in small groups to examine the questions that commonly arise and practice being able to sit with unknowing.

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This workshop explores what separation means and looks at how and why we separate from clients. Endings are as important as beginnings, and we want to make any transition as smooth as possible. When therefore is the right time to finish a course of treatments and how do you bring things to an elegant resolution? What happens afterwards? Do you keep in touch and how do you do that? What happens if it is the client who wants to stop coming for treatment? How do we deal with the feelings that naturally arise from the loss of a client?

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Making a connection is a term that is often used to describe what happens in a relationship between two people, but what exactly does connection mean in the context of CST? Other questions we will be discussing during this day are: How do we each as  therapists connect with a client, and what is it that deepens the connection we have with them? Is it possible to treat someone if we don't feel a connection? What does it feel like when we truly connect with a client, and what difference does this make to the way the session goes? Are there times when we need to disconnect to allow more space for processing?

Return of our popular workshop . Asking the right questions in the right way is crucial and can help to uncover deeper layers within the client.  As therapists we often find ourselves at a loss when confronted with our client's pain. They may have puzzling and confusing symptoms, and we can become as lost as they are in a maze of physical and emotional complaints. It can be extremely difficult for either of us to delve under the surface of many years of coping, armouring and outright denial. It is at this point that asking the right question may be the key to moving things forward. So what is this magical question that we can ask our clients to facilitate healing?  When and how do we ask it?

Are there times when we collude with clients, and how might this manifest? How might we hinder the therapeutic relationship or suppress the healing process by allowing a clients’ agenda to prevent them from moving forward? How much do we want to please our clients, and might they want to please us as well? This workshop looks at all aspects of these questions in order to help us spot collusion more readily.

Sometimes we find ourselves with uncomfortable feelings towards a client, and wonder if we can work together at all.  Occasionally a client will resist getting well. What does resistance feel like?  How might we work with it in a session, how does it inform us, and how do we decide whether to push forward or hold back?

Meeting our clients where they are is an art that grows with practice. It is crucial to the work we do, but can our expectations of each other sometimes be too high? What happens when we feel we aren't relating successfully to a client and what can we do to create a more balanced relationship?

What personal gifts do we bring to our work as Therapists and what are the pitfalls we face? Can we look at ourselves objectively and find some answers? In this workshop we explore our strengths and shadows as practitioners, and how they might affect our work with clients. Can we continue to grow as therapists if we only listen to our clients’ stories and fail to listen to our own?

The Role of the Therapist

Craniosacral Therapy uses stillness and deep, spacious listening to facilitate change. Listening to ourselves is also a fundamental part of the process. In the workshop we will explore the role of the therapist/ teacher through the use of led discussion and hands on practical work and examine what strengths we bring and what challenges we might face.

What are your limitations as a practitioner?

 Can we accept the fact that we don’t know, either as therapists or as clients?  Our work demands acceptance not only of our strengths but also of our limitations and it may mean that we have to be content at times with an uncomfortable or unexpected version of ourselves. The therapist that we saw ourselves becoming at the beginning of our career, may have to mutate into someone more humble, who is content to be doing the best they can. Accepting that we can't change everybody's symptoms or lives for the better is hard, but necessary. 

The Healing Dialogue

Asking the right questions in the right way is crucial and can help to uncover deeper layers within the client.  As therapists we often find ourselves at a loss when confronted with our client’s pain. They may have puzzling and confusing symptoms, and we can become as lost as they are in a maze of physical and emotional complaints.

When we encounter a client who really touches us it can be so difficult to sit back without offering advice or opinions.  In our work as therapists it is our job to help our clients take responsibility for themselves.  We don’t offer our clients a quick fix or an instant cure, but more importantly a chance to gain a greater understanding of themselves from a different perspective; an opportunity to see where they have come from, and where they might go from here.