Dr. Michael Shea on “Deep Healing for the Embryo, Infant and Adult”

Do you need to slow down?

Dr. Michael Shea believes we are moving at such a fast pace that it’s affecting our health.

Stress, constant movement, pervasive technology and everyday modern life put increasing demands on our minds, bodies and spirits. As a result, you may lack energy and experience fluctuating moods, body pain, frequent illness or even the onset of disease.

Conventional western medicine excels at healing acute conditions. However, many people today are experiencing chronic physical and psychological symptoms, some of which cannot be diagnosed by medical doctors. For this reason, gentle healing therapy is gaining popularity in our stressed out society as people seek natural ways to heal the mind and body.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) is a revolutionary natural healing therapy.

Dr. Michael Shea, author, teacher and practitioner of BCST, resides in Juno Beach, FL, where he is shifting people’s lives and health through this unique way of healing.

We asked Dr. Shea to introduce us to BCST and how it is changing people’s lives.

The Rhythm of Life and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy

BCST came about 100 years ago when osteopath, Dr. William Sutherland, noticed subtle rhythms in the body that could be manipulated to bring about healing.

These “subtle rhythms” correspond to the rhythm of life. All life is movement and this movement is expressed in the functioning of the human body. In a fast paced world, we sometimes move faster than the rhythm of life, throwing us off and creating an imbalance in health.

For example, many of us have heard about circadian rhythms, especially if you have trouble sleeping.

Bright lights, computers and long working hours can upset more than your sleep. It can disconnect you from your natural “rhythm of life,” creating symptoms of stress and illness.

Circadian rhythms refer to your biological clock, so to speak. They are the sleep/wake cycle and the activities that occur in a 24-hour period. Modern advances, like electricity, computers, etc., allow us to disconnect from the day/night and sleep/wake cycles that have existed with the cycles of the Earth’s rotation.

So when we move at a different pace then our bodies are “wired” to do, we may feel the affects in our health.

In fact, we may even disconnect from experiences of trauma and other symptoms physically and psychologically.

While your body is a self-healing organism, it can seem foreign to slow down and give it what it needs to heal. Illness and other symptoms are your body’s way of telling you it’s time to rest and reflect.

Biodynamic Cranial Sacral Therapy reminds your body to do this, allowing the space for mind and body to heal.

BCST is based on 3 key principles:

1. Your body’s natural “life force” – BCST practitioners refer to this as the “Breath of Life” (also known as Primary Respiration) because these rhythms express themselves much in the same way as breathing or respiration.

2. Your body’s natural order – The human body is 70% fluids. Your body’s fluids (especially cerebrospinal fluid) create an order or blueprint for health in mind and body. When your body’s fluids naturally express the Breath of Life, they influence your tissues and cells to work in harmony, allowing health and well-being to flow naturally.

3. Your body’s “inertial patterning” – how we deal with stress, trauma and physical and emotional injury determines how our bodies are patterned, conditioned and shaped. If any stress or trauma is overwhelming, it gets trapped in sites of your body as “sites of inertia” until you are able to process or release it.

Repetitive Patterns in Life

If you have experienced unwanted patterns that continue to repeat in your life, BCST could be the answer for you.

Whether trauma from birth, emotional or physical pain or chronic stress, BCST can help release those unresolved experiences that sometimes act like videotapes replaying in your mind whenever they are triggered.

How Does Biodynamic Cranial Sacral Therapy Work?

The emphasis in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is to help resolve the trapped forces that underlie and govern patterns of disease and disharmony in your body and mind.

This involves the practitioner “listening through the hands” to the body’s subtle rhythms and any patterns of inertia where trauma or stress has gotten stuck.

Here’s what a typical session looks like:

1. Dr. Shea typically begins new sessions with in-depth questions about your birth process:
   • Conception
   • Gestation
   • Time of labor and delivery
   • Medical interventions
   • And other specifics from conception to birth
     

     All of these things influence your fluid body. And sometimes, painful events that occurred from conception to birth can affect the vitality of your body decades later.

2. After preliminary questions, he follows with a guided visualization to help you get in touch with your body so you can feel and “see” the breathing, moving fluids circulate throughout.
3. Then, he cultivates a quiet and meditative state in order to calm his own nervous system. Using his hands, he senses the wave-like motion of Primary Respiration (or Breath of Life) in his client for a few minutes.
4. Moving his attention back and forth between his own nervous system and the fluid movement of his client’s body, he calms both until he feels a “still point.”
   • You can think of a still point as harmony and ease. If your fluid body was once blocked at a certain point, then a still point demonstrates that the block is gone.
5. Once he reaches a still point, he moves on to another part of the body and performs the same calming routine to reach other still points. Eventually, your whole fluid body will be “breathing” slowly and rhythmically.

Dr. Shea describes the result of the process like this: “Within that slow movement and stillness there is a resolution of held trauma and stress. The nervous system is allowed to decompress and to settle.”

Many people who undergo treatment with BCST report a new relationship to their own bodies and symptoms, experiencing a greater stillness and willingness to slow down.

Dr. Shea uses BCST to treat babies who fail to thrive, children with developmental delays, adults who come for self-exploration, and those with moderate to severe trauma and its accompanying symptoms.

He emphasizes that this is not a treatment focused on muscles and bones. The changes can be subtle or miraculous, but they nearly always impact the lives of his clients for the better.