While Craniosacral Therapy is primarily a hands-on practice, it is important for practitioners to be able to talk with their clients first to welcome them to the session, take a history, and help the client to be comfortable, but also to recognise and helpfully meet unresolved trauma that may arise in the client during session work. Old trauma may arise as transference, where a client perceives or responds to the therapist/therapy as if to a past person or event in their lives. It may also arise as the potential for healing and resolution present within the safe relational field established with the practitioner.
This course expands on the foundational concepts and practices introduced in the course, Honing Your Verbal Skills: Support for Craniosacral Therapists, which is a pre-requisite for this course. If you have not yet taken the Honing Your Verbal Skills course, you can view the video recordings and do the practices in your own time with a friend or colleague. Please do this before applying for this course. You can access the Honing Your Verbal Skills course here.
Skills we practice in this course are based on those included in the professional foundation training in Craniosacral Biodynamics at Karuna Institute, influenced by modern trauma therapies.
Each 2-hour class will include a settling meditation, presentation of relevant theoretical concepts and specific skills to support clients in hyper- or hypo-aroused states. There will be a demonstration of how to work with a client in this state followed by practice time with a partner in breakout rooms. Time will be given for questions and discussion related to the practices explored.
Class 1 will review hyper-arousal and useful verbal skills in supporting clients in this state.
-
Orienting to resource
-
Slowing down
-
Mindful body-based enquiry
-
Supporting contained discharge
-
Demonstration with a student
-
Practice with a partner
Class 2 will review hypo-arousal and useful verbal skills helpful in enhancing a sense of relational safety, presence and tone for clients in or tending toward hypo-arousal states.
-
Orienting to here and now
-
Orienting to resource
-
Practicing shuttling attention
-
Engaging muscles to increase tone and presence
-
Demonstration with a student
-
Practice with a partner
Class 3 will explore further hypo-arousal skills.
-
Supporting completion of unresolved defensive need
-
Mindful exploration of dissociative states
-
Demonstration with a student
-
Practice with a partner
Class 4 will continue the exploration of hypo-arousal skills with extra time for questions and discussion.
-
Exploring the orientation response
-
Demonstration with a student
-
Practice with a partner
-
Q & A Discussion and Completions
Included in the course:
- 8 hours of live class on Zoom (or recorded if you are doing this after September 20th, 2020)
- Lifetime access to the video recordings of the live classes after the class has aired
- Handouts with relevant concepts and practice explorations we will engage with in class
- Certificate of attendance available upon completing a short final quiz
