Holistic Companionship to the Dying

I wanted to tell you about a wonderful group of people called the Soul Midwives.

Established and trained by Felicity Warner, the Soul Midwives work with people that have recently been diagnosed with terminal illnesses or are in Hospices to support them on their journey to the end of their lives.

Much like the stages of birthing so there are stages of dying. Both of which are stressful and fearful if you don't know what to expect. But with an experienced midwife and a plan of action a lot of fear can be taken away and a sense of control over the inevitable established.

I spent a fascinating day at one of Felicity's workshops organised by Alternatives in London.

She explained about the four stages of dying and how a Soul Midwife can be there to support each of these stages. She also made us consider what sort of death we would like. This is not a normal topic of conversation and most people would shy away from it but she held the space wonderfully so we could consider that final of moments.

She gave us a list of questions to answer and suggested we pin the answers on the fridge so all the family would know what we want and to encourage a conversation that no one likes to have.

These are the questions. Have a go at answering them!

My Last Wishes

.This is where I would like to be

.This is who I would like to have with me

.This is who I would not like to have with me

.This is what soothes me when I am anxious or in pain

.This is the music that makes me feel calm and strong

.This is the poem or saying that gives me strength

.This is how I imagine the most perfect passing for myself

www.soulmidwives.co.uk

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Are you unsure about where you are going in life?

If you are having difficulties knowing what to do next or where to go in life, or you just want to know why you can't do something you know is right, then Craniosacral therapy may help.

Craniosacral therapy has techniques that help you answer these questions by establishing a dialogue (verbal or non verbal) between your non conscious and the therapist's non conscious. This enables your conscious mind to receive images or messages from your non conscious. The therapist facilitates this process by asking open ended questions and feeling the effect of the dialogue on your body's tissue to keep you on the appropriate train of thought.

So if you need to know why you have been held back doing something you would like to do, then the therapist can ask your body to show them where the resistance to this action is felt in the body. When that place has been located the therapist can then use Craniosacral techniques to clear that area of resistance. This is repeated to see if other areas in the body need to be cleared.

As an additional step, after all the areas have been cleared, the therapist can encourage your non conscious to outline to your conscious mind what the next steps should be to move forward with this action.

Our non conscious knows exactly what we need to do, whether it is how to heal ourselves or what we should be doing in life to be fully fulfilled. Using Craniosacral therapy helps us to make that connection between our mind and our non conscious so we can follow our own good advice.

Upledger CranioSacral Therapy and children with ASD.

I recently had the pleasure to participate in a richly informative workshop by Rachel Lowden from Autism Sussex about the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and what we as therapists need to do to prepare our clients for their visits and how to conduct sessions and make evaluations.

What was made very clear was the disconnect these children have between their minds and their bodies and the wide range of the extent of that disconnection.

Back in 1976 Dr John Upledger began studying the effect of CranioSacral Therapy (CST) on children from the Genessee County Center for Autistic Children in Flint, Michigan. What he found was that the meningeal membranes, especial the dura mater, were not growing at the same rate as the child's growth. This disparity in growth rates leads to restrictions in the normal growth of the brain and cranial vault that stresses their central nervous system.

By using non invasive techniques and bones that attach to the dural membrane the dural mater can be manually stretched to counteract this disparity in growth rates. The treatment needs to be on a regular  basis up until the child has fully grown.

CST is a deeply profound therapy that also helps the child to quieten the chatter in their mind and give them a few moments of respite from their tireless analysis of the world.

Thank you Rachel and Autism Sussex for giving me a greater understanding of what I need to do (and mostly not do) so that I can offer CST to children with ASD.

Here are some articles from the IAHE

http://iahe.com/images/pdf/3524_001.pdf
http://iahe.com/images/pdf/3549_001.pdf
http://iahe.com/images/pdf/2294_001.pdf
http://iahe.com/images/pdf/3263_001.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-0aYkPbono&feature=youtu.be

The Craniosacral Society AGM and workshop weekend

What better value for money than your membership fee subsidising a weekend of workshops in London! So that in mind and not one to miss a bargin I headed up to Covent Garden for the Craniosacral Society AGM and workshop weekend.

Situated in comfortable rooms near the Masonic centre members were invited to participate in hands on workshops and network work over numerous cups of tea and sandwiches.

The workshops covered using multihands in a treatment; working with the Significant Detector to feel which words were important for the client to work on; being more considered with our dialoguing techniques so we don't talk too much; and working directly with the Immune System, cells and all.

So after a weekend of working on colleagues and being worked on and communally investigating the vast and deep implications of the work that Dr John Upledger left for us, I feel furthered inspired to be present for anyone that can use this wonderful work.

Craniosacral Therapy in the water.

Last week four of my Craniosacral Therapy colleagues and I got together to give each other treatments in a hydrotherapy pool and what an amazing three dimensional session it was.

During a conventional therapy session on a couch the body is often inclined to move around as it unwinds restrictions in the fascia or replays an unresolved event in life such as the birthing process. Arms and legs move and the body may turn onto the side and sometimes slip (with full support by the therapist) onto the floor. But in water this movement takes on a whole new dimension.

You start by floating on your back in the water surrounded by the therapists who offer gentle support and intuitively place their hands on the parts of the body that need assistance. As the fascia begins to unwind,your arms and legs move freely in the water and the body can bend and stretch or roll over and back again fluidly and elegantly and without restriction.

You have the feeling of being weightless and with your ears under the water you loose a sense of the outside world as you slip into your process where time is suspended.  You have the ability to remain under water much longer than you ever imagined you could and your body's fascia unwinds like a dance in the water.

There are few places in the UK where it is possible to provide an aquatic Craniosacral multihands treatment but I am hoping that will change in the near future.

It is available in the States and in the Grand Bahamas the Upledger Institute offer a Dolphin assisted clinic.

For more information visit http://www.upledgerclinic.com/therapies.html

That adds a whole other dimension to a Craniosacral session!

That wriggly child.

Why are some children unable to sit still?

They wriggle in their chair; sit on one leg; then lean forward off their bottoms onto the table. Anything but sitting still in a chair.

This could be partly due to some primitive reflexes that have not been integrated into the nervous system.

When a baby is in the womb and in the early months of life it had certain primitive reflexes that it uses to protect itself. These reflexes then become integrated as the nervous system develops in a specific sequence.

For instance the Spinal Galant Reflex.

You can see this at work if you stoke the lower back of a baby on one side of the spine. The reflex is to twist away from that side and raise the hip. Stimulation down both sides of the spine at the lower back activates a related reflex that elicits urination.

The Spinal Galant Reflex is normally integrated between 3-9 months.

However if is not integrated by then it can be stimulated at any time.

Light pressure from a child's belt or waistline or from leaning against the back of a chair may activate the reflex causing the child to wriggle and constantly change body position. The constant irritation affects concentration and short term memory.

In addition the bladder voiding reflex may lead to poor bladder control and prolonged bedwetting as the   bedsheets stimulate the reflex.

Upledger Craniosacral therapy has techniques that may help balance the body and reduce the effect of the reflex.

Saying thank you can help you.

I am sure most of us were brought up to say "please" and "thank you"but did you know that saying thank you can help you feel better?

If you take a moment before you go to sleep to remember your day and say thank you for all the good things that have happened both big and small you will feel different.

For some of us the act of remembering the good things puts the day into a more positive perspective and you can close your eyes with a lighter heart. For others the act of saying thank you may shed awareness on some of the events or stream of events during the day. It may also be a moment for others to remember to slow down and consider themselves for a few seconds and that is almost as good as a hug.

So why not try it tonight. Say thank you for all that has happened in your day.

Be happy.

Craniosacral Therapy and a visit to the dentist.

You are sitting in the dentist's chair after having had an x-ray. Your hands are a bit sweaty with anxiety about what is to come and what you have experienced on previous visits. Your jaw is wide open for a bit too long so it starts to ache and you are trying to swallow and move your tongue without getting in the dentist's way. Then the injection in your gum to numb, the sound of the drill starts and your teeth are pushed and pulled and plugged and sanded. Then finally you can rinse out your mouth and go home numb mouthed and trembling.

The good side is the pain has gone and your teeth look great which gives you that extra bit of self confidence.

But what of the residue of that treatment? There is the general anxiety which hopefully has dispersed but what of the trauma experienced by the teeth and gum and jaw? This is where Craniosacral Therapy CST can be very helpful.

We have techniques that can identify any emotional residue in the teeth, gum and jaw and facilitate its release. We can rebalance and realign the TMJ, the maxilla and the muscles holding the jaw. Then we can help relax the mastoids, the cranial base and the neck to remove any residual strain. And then finally we can check on the Reticular Alarm System RAS to ensure complete relaxation.

So at the end of the day a visit to the dentist is only a positive experience thanks to CST.

Pain relief.

Pain can be all consuming and the worst must be pain in the head.

I have just been suffering from an abscess in my jaw. Before I could get to see a dentist I was experiencing waves of pain that had me in tears and reminded me of birthing contractions! The abscess was stimulating my trigeminal cranial nerve, sending snakes of pain along my maxilla, down to my mandible and up the side of the eye. There was also pain down my neck and my shoulder was tense and tight. This was probably due to the spinal accessory cranial nerve being stimulated. The trigeminal nerve is connected to the reticular alarm system so when the pain came I had to get up and walk it out.

When talking to friends about the pain I realised that quite a few had been through the same experience and they winced at the memory.

So what can you do when you are suffering with so much pain?

There are some amazing drugs that you can take that give you periods of relief to catch your breath or time to sleep but if you want to be able to do something for yourself as well, particularly when the drugs are wearing off but you can't take another dose just yet, then try this.

Direction of Energy Technique.

The idea behind this is that you send energy through the body's tissue and bone to help release the tightness of the pain at a particular area. This doesn't necessarily get rid of the pain for good unless that area was the root of the problem but it gives you moments to recover. So for my abscess I was able to reduce the pain and the amount of drugs I needed but the pain didn't stop until the dentist had drained the abscess.

The technique is very simple. You place your first and second fingers in a V shape around the area of pain and then using your other hands place a finger perpendicular opposite the area of pain. In the case of my abscess this was quite easy as I could put my finger in my mouth behind the gum and with the other hand I could make a V on my cheek. You may find that being perpendicular from the pain takes you on the other side of the body but that is fine.

Then with your hands in place you can start sending energy from your finger through the body and out between the V. Continue to do this until the pain has reduced or stopped.

Sending energy is something you can visualise and can be different for each of us. If you have done energy healing or Reiki you will know how it feels. Otherwise you can imagine it in any form you like but the essence of the energy is your love, compassion and empathy for your body and what it is going through at that moment. I suppose you could call the energy, self love, and where that self love comes from depends on what you believe.

I would suggest you start by practising on a ache so that you are comfortable with the technique when the pain hits you.

Enjoy loving yourself.