What’s so special about BCST?

As a Chinese medical practitioner with an interest in the classical Chinese language, tradition, and culture, it would be only natural for me to "prefer" the millennia-old application of acupuncture to a little-known, recently developed modality with a name few people seem able to remember or even pronounce: "Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy". In practice however, I am more drawn to BCST than I am to the use of needles. Why?

There are many reasons.

One of these is the internal attunement to principles. While it may look like the practitioner is "just sitting there", they are in actuality aligning themselves with certain factors which enable the flow of health to return to human beings: groundedness, uprightness, stillness, neutrality; they are exploring a sense of space, openness, centredness and calm; they yield their habitual need to "do" and "achieve", and TRUST that good will be done; they are coming into relationship with the subtle, rhythmic motions of life. In this way, they depart - however briefly - the world of conditioned, erratic and chaotic activity, and deepen into a world of coherency and order. In this state, more primary forces come to the fore, bringing healing, and with it, often a deep sense of wonder.

Another reason is that in BCST, healing comes from within: it is not directed, forced or coerced. It arises from an engagement with the client's own Intelligence - that which permeates every cell and brings regeneration, renewal and meaning to one's body and being. This Intelligence is beyond anything the human mind can rationalise or diagnose: it operates upon a far wiser and more ancient design. What a privilege to learn to humbly stand aside and witness it, meet it, and learn from it.
And for the client, this empowers: they do not depend on an external prescription, "energy", or even a needle. They reclaim their power to heal, from within.

Learning and practicing cranio brings transformation: it necessitates inner work and catalyses change. Many years have I meditated diligently, explored spiritual systems, and journeyed in dark jungles - yet the simplicity of sitting with another person has been one of the most profound practices of all. To truly come into communion; to truly listen and meet someone heart to heart; to engage with their inner wisdom and put aside the desire to fix; to develop a deeper relationship with the energies of stability, centredness, uprightness, and space; to slip out of the pressing terrors of time into the timeless, and thereby help the client to do the same: these are some of the spiritual gifts of biodynamic cranio work.

Cranio work is profound. It holds a human being in their entirety: total body, psyche, soul and spirit. It sees obstructions, pains, and "disorders" within the context of this whole. It invites them to drop below the surface of apparent reality - where are the entanglements of traumas, illness and agitation - into the ocean of deep Truth within their being. And from this, both client and practitioner can return - with the blessings of regeneration and renewal.

Finally, it is effective: where all hope seems lost, solutions can be found. Bodily systems can be balanced, illnesses alleviated, and psychic sanity restored. All through the power of touch, and genuine human connection.

These are some of the reasons, and there are more.

It is not expected that the client will perceive all this. While on the table, they may simply feel relaxed or that something subtle has shifted. Years may pass without them ever really understanding what exactly it is that their practitioner is "doing".

And yet, for the practitioner, these realities can stir a deep calling within the soul: a desire - no, a need! - to continue deeper, to unravel it all more. To work biodynamically is not a job, it is a lifestyle, a path and a choice: and I am deeply grateful that it found me.