As the holistic shift deepens, the practitioner likewise deepens and widens his or her perceptual field. The client’s system may continue to settle through the holistic shift as Long Tide phenomena come to the forefront. Healing processes then emerge as a function of Long Tide interaction. While healing processes arising within mid-tide dynamics have a fluid-earthy quality to them, Long Tide processes manifest a more airy-fiery quality. The practitioner may sense the Long Tide, in its exhalation phase, moving from the horizon towards the midline of the client in a wind-like fashion. As this occurs, he or she may also sense what Sutherland called “ignition”, the spark of the Breath of Life igniting within the body’s fluids.

As Long Tide clarifies, the practitioner may also perceive spiral-like forces within the local field, radiance and a sense of being supported and suspended in the vastness of space. As long Tide manifests a healing intention, the practitioner may sense the Long Tide shifting through the client’s midline towards inertial fulcrums in an almost staccato-like fashion. The Long Tide is very powerful and this power may be directly perceived as the healing intention emerges from this level of action. Healing processes can occur very quickly and efficiently at this level of work. The main clinical intention manifests via orientation to, and resonance with, the forces at work. It is a humbling and beautiful clinical process to perceive.

An understanding of early experience is also part of the biodynamic paradigm. It is understood that sentience (awareness, the ability to know) is present from the first moments of life at conception and that the embryo, the fetus, and the birthing infant has the ability to respond to the relational and environmental conditions preset. The contingencies and conditions met from the first moments of life thus have the potential to generate form and protective responses, all of which must be centered by the potency of the Breath of Life in some way.

This process generates tensile patterns in both the fluid and tissue fields and becomes coupled with the organization of the ego system and its defensive processes. Commonly, life statements are also generated which can infuse the developing self-system and later strongly affect that person’s relational life. These might be about the nature of intimacy and relationship, of life itself, of getting needs met, about self-worth etc.

As a client settles into his or her session work, these early patterns and their organizing fulcrums may emerge as part of session work. The practitioner learns to hold all of this within compassionate awareness and inquiry. Appropriate cranial and verbal trauma skills, which help the practitioner appropriately respond to arising processes, are also taught as an integral part of session work.

Sometimes, when holding an adult system, it can feel as though you are holding a much smaller being, perhaps the inner fetus or birthing infant who is still calling out for attention and healing. Awareness of this territory helps the practitioner emphasize and appropriately respond to the arising process within a biodynamic context.

Within a craniosacral biodynamic context, the practitioner learns to settle into a relationship with Stillness. He or she discovers that Dynamic Stillness lies at the heart of every inertial issue, centering the unresolved inertial forces within the whole. It is not a question of resting in a dead or empty stillness. Becker called the Stillness “both dynamic and alive”, hence the term “Dynamic Stillness”. (Becker, 1997, 2000)

As the holistic shift deepens, the practitioner’s perceptual field is very wide and he or she is oriented to stillness and space. In this ambiance the client’s process may further deepen and directly orient to the Dynamic Stillness as a ground of emergence for all properties, ordering forces, and healing intentions.

Commonly it is like the practitioner has his or her feet in two worlds, the world of form and the world of stillness. Becker notes that a rhythmic balanced interchange may occur between the Stillness, the potency and the forces and forms being attended to. (Becker, 1997, 2000) The practitioner has a direct experience of this formative exchange in healing processes.

Alternately, the practitioner may deepen into the mystery of the Stillness itself. It is like accessing a state where linear time seems to be suspended as one enters a darkness of knowing totally in present time. When the practitioner emerges from this state, perhaps he or she discovers that many minutes have passed and also perceives many changes in the client’s system, forces and fulcrums being safely attended to in the Stillness itself. The healing process may continue at different levels of work as Long Tide and mid-tide phenomena emerge as part of the healing journey.

Working in relation to Dynamic Stillness demands a true humility and ability to enter and settle into one’s most essential being-state. Work occurs via resonance and a deepening appreciation of stillness.

Once the system can deepen into the holistic shift, it is very common for the fluid tide to clarify and levels of work to emerge within the fluid and physical bodies. In this territory it is common for the tidal potencies (the ordering forces manifesting within the fluid body) to generate a healing process of some kind. It is common for the practitioner to sense a shifting of potency within the fluids and for a particular issue and pattern to clarify within the mind-body system. Commonly a pattern organized around an inertial fulcrum clarifies. An inertial fulcrum is a locus of both inertial potency and unresolved conditional/experiential or traumatic forces within the body.

Becker stressed that the potency within the fluids acts to “center” and compensate for unresolved conditional forces found in the body. Conditional forces include experiential forces of many kinds – traumatic forces, toxins, pathogens etc. When these forces are encountered through trauma, accidents, falls, toxic environments etc., potency locally condenses and interacts with the conditional force to either resolve it or limit its effects on the system. Becker called this the “centering function” of potency. (Becker, 1997) This generates the inertial fulcrum and organizes fluid and tissue changes and related tension patterns both locally and throughout the body.

At the mid-tide level of work, the practitioner orients to the forces present within the fulcrum and waits for them to enter equilibrium, a state of balance between the universal ordering forces of potency and the conditional forces present. He or she then learns to orient to stillness, and to deepen through the state of balance until the inertial forces are resolved in some way, or a deepening to Long Tide or Dynamic Stillness occurs.

If this cannot emerge, students learn augmentation skills that help the state of balance to deepen and help in the resolution of the conditional forces present. These include an orientation to space within the inhalation phase of the mid-tide, to fluid tide skills such as the direction of tidal potency towards inertial areas and the augmentation of what is called lateral fluctuations of fluid in deeply inertial conditions. These are used with the express intention of deepening the state of balance, resolving the inertial forces present and/or deepening into Long Tide and Dynamic Stillness.

As the practitioner orients to primary respiration, it may take a number of sessions for the client’s system to access the holistic shift. This may be due to the presence of autonomic activation, shock states, dissociative states and a density of the presence of inertial forces in the system. If a client’s system cannot shift from the CRI level of rhythm to the deeper tides, the appropriate clinical response is to help resource the client and their system so that this shift can occur. In the Karuna curriculum this is approached in a number of ways. Students are taught to help clients’ access felt-resources. We find that the work of Dr. Peter Levine, a leading trauma expert, is very helpful in this area. In this approach, the student learns to orient the client to an inner, embodied sense of felt-O.K.-ness and wellbeing within the midst of whatever is present. Commonly, as the practitioner deepens into stillness and an orientation to primary respiration, the client’s system will, over a number of sessions, also deepen into these territories via being-to-being resonance.

We also teach students to help the system deepen via biodynamic-oriented stillpoint processes. This initially entails a deepening into their own inner state of stillness and an orientation to Long Tide and Dynamic Stillness relative to the client’s system. Other approaches to stillpoint may be appropriate given the clinical conditions present.
It is common for layers of traumatic nervous system activation to clear as the system begins to settle into the holistic shift. This is commonly sensed as an energetic streaming from the core to the periphery and from cephalad to caudad through the nervous system and body. Except for resourcing work as described here, and first aid-work, it is generally not helpful to engage the system at the CRI level as traumatic cycling may then be activated without resources being present, with a concurrent possibility of deepening the traumatic activation without its resolution.

The first step in the unfolding of the inherent treatment plan is the settling of the conjoined practitioner-client relational field. Once the relational field settles, and a state of basic trust is present, the practitioner maintains his or her orientation to primary respiration and waits for the holistic shift to emerge.

The holistic shift heralds the true initiation of the inherent treatment plan. It is a systemic process that manifests as a change in state within the person’s system within which the resources of primary respiration come to the forefront. It naturally arises as a starting point in session work. This is a theme that was present in cranial work from its roots in Sutherland and was clearly seen in the work of Becker. Becker encouraged practitioners to wait in a receptive and still state until “something happens.” In a transcript of Becker’s verbal teachings this “something” was described as a shift within the body from CRI levels of rhythm, historical patterning and seeming fragmentation to a sense of wholeness and fluidity. This is a sometimes dramatic shift in orientation from the conditional forces present, and their related patterns and pathologies, to the resources of primary respiration. Potency, fluid and tissues are then perceived to be a cohesive field of action and the system is truly sensed to be unified and whole. Conditional patterns and motions fade into the background and primary respiration at either at a mid-tide or Long Tide level, clarifies.

Although the holistic shift is a natural process, it is more easily accessed within a safe relational field where practitioner interconnection and attunement is present. It then arises within the ambiance of the practitioner’s presence and orientation to health. The key factor here is that the practitioner initially attunes to primary respiration and not to the inertial forces, patterning and conditional effects present. In resonance with the practitioner’s state of presence and orientation, the system shifts from its suffering and conditions to primary respiration and resources. No clinical intervention is attempted until this occurs.
In your studies, you may have already noticed that when you first contact a client’s system, the history and patterning present are commonly the first things communicated. Sometimes a huge amount of information may be communicated in a relatively short time. You might sense inertia, density, autonomic activation, various strain patterns, compressions, tensile patterns of motion, shock etc. You may likewise sense a system-wide stasis that seems to dampen down any motion at all. These are conditional patterns of adaptation and compensation organized by the deeper forces at work within the system. You may also notice the faster rhythmic rate of the CRI, anywhere from 6-14 cycles a minute, is most prominent. As we have seen, the CRI is a realm of conditioned patterning, autonomic activity and unresolved inertial issues within the system. Initially, these patterns and states may be more obvious than primary respiration itself.

In clinical practice, it is important to remain receptive, to not pursue any of this, and to simply hold a wide and still listening field oriented to the underlying expression of primary respiration. After a while, perhaps ten minutes or so of listening, you may notice a stilling, settling and expansion and, as Becker noted, a sense that the system is expressing wholeness. The inhalation and exhalation phases of primary respiration will then clarify or amplify. It is from here that the inherent treatment plan will unfold and this is really the starting point for session work. You have to be patient and not follow or engage the conditioned patterns present until this shift in orientation occurs.

The holistic shift is not a point in time, but is a process. Once the holistic shift occurs, you may notice that it may take a few minutes for the system to settle into its resources and wholeness. It is important to allow this deepening to occur. As the system settles, you may notice that different kinds of qualities manifest. One person’s system may seem vibrant; another’s dense, yet another’s wisp-like. All of this adds to your knowledge of the nature of that person’s system and its changes over time. Once the holistic shift deepens, healing processes may arise from the mid-tide level via the action of tidal potencies within the fluids, or through the more primary Long Tide expressions of field phenomena, or more directly from the Dynamic Stillness itself.

The Holistic Shift and the Three Bodies
In the holistic shift, all three bodies – the physical body, the fluid body and the tidal body – enter equilibrium and are sensed to be a unified field manifesting wholeness. As this occurs, you may sense that the fluid and physical bodies are literally suspended within the tidal body of the Long Tide. Think of each of the three bodies as having different degrees of density while being mutually suspended in space. The tidal body is the least dense and widest in its field of action, the fluid body denser and the physical body is the densest.

As the holistic shift emerges, it may seem like the physical body is suspended within the fluid body, the fluid body within the tidal body, and all three bodies are suspended around the midline in the vastness of the universe. As this sense of being suspended in space arises, the physical and fluid bodies enter coherency and wholeness is perceived. As this sense of wholeness deepens, primary respiration comes to the forefront. The physical body, which may have initially been sensed as having individual parts expressing seeming fragmentation, is now perceived to be a coherent and unified whole suspended in a wider fluidic field of action. As we shall see, as the holistic shift deepens, healing decisions emerge from different levels of primary respiration and stillness, and are not practitioner generated, but are effects of the healing decisions made by the Breath of Life itself.

All healing work is essentially relational in nature. This is an expression of a deep truth: all of life is relational. We exist in interdependence. We seek relationship from the earliest moments of life and our lives unfold and take shape relative to the nature of the relationships we encounter and create.

From our earliest pre- and perinatal experiences, we are relationally dependent upon empathetic others to meet our most basic human needs and our sense of being and wellbeing is dependent upon these needs being met throughout life. In the field of psychotherapy and psychodynamics it is understood that a child’s developing sense of being emerges within the context of a good-enough holding environment. The term holding environment comes from the psychoanalytical work of Donald Winnicott and points to the nature and quality of the maternal/paternal relational field present in early childhood. (Winnicott, 1965)

In this concept, primary caregivers ideally offer an empathetic, attuned, resonant and appropriately responsive field within which the little one can learn about itself and others, and can rest in an open and undefended being-state without having to enlist defensive processes too early in their development. Winnicott was careful to stress that this field must be held in a good enough way. Life is basically polarized; sometimes we get our needs met, sometimes not. It is the nature of the intention held in the field that is of paramount importance. The holding field protects the little one from impingements, anything that takes him or her away from simply being. This allows, over time, a deeper sense of coherency and continuity of being to arise as the hub of the developing self-system. In a more ongoing fashion, we all seek this kind of field in intimate relationships, and in life in general.

Craniosacral biodynamics is an eminently relational form of work within which we hold the whole of a person in our perceptual field. This includes their mind-body processes, emotional states, early wounding and the potential for healing at the deepest levels of self and ego. In this endeavor, we learn to establish an attuned and receptive relational field as the starting point for all of the work we do. In particular, the biodynamic practitioner naturally generates such a holding field as she establishes a still, oriented and heart-centered receptive listening field. Indeed, as we negotiate our contact with a client, and settle into a true being-to-being state, this archetypal space naturally arises and is the first step to the generation of sacred space. We call this kind of holding environment a relational field.

The relational field is a pivotal concept in craniosacral biodynamics. It is a conjoined field of interaction whose heart is the receptive state of the practitioner. In this intentionally created holistic listening field, the client’s system is met with respect and spaciousness in a negotiated manner. Nothing can occur until this field settles. Generating a clear relational field in a biodynamic context is the first step in orienting the client to the Health that is always centering their personal suffering. This relationship is a gateway to the deeper forces and intentions that center the human experience as a whole. It is about a space that invokes a relationship to something deeper than personal suffering, something that may be called the divine.

In craniosacral biodynamics, we learn to generate a holding field rooted in presence and being. From this ground, we hold the client in a wide and soft perceptual field oriented to inherent Health via an awareness of primary respiration within both our own system and the client’s. This then deepens into an appreciation of the Stillness from which being emerges and the universal Source that supports all life. As this clarifies, genuine interconnection is sensed that is not an expression of either the practitioner or client’s conditioned experience. Empathy is a function of this connection. It is a natural outflow of compassion in the presence of suffering, being-to-being. It is this that allows the practitioner to appropriately respond to the actual state of the client and to unconditionally accept their presence. The first step in any healing process is the settling of the relational field into a state of basic trust. This is directly sensed as a mind-body settling within and between both practitioner and client.

In a biodynamic approach, the practitioner’s orientation is to both the inherent health, manifesting as Stillness and primary respiration, and the forces of experience, the conditional or inertial forces present, not just to the resultant tissue and fluid changes. The body physiology, organized by biodynamic potency, is continually trying to contain and compensate for the presence of these conditional forces. It is only when the forces that generate the disturbances within the system are processed that there can be a return to normal function and motility. Becker maintained that when these forces are dissipated and resolved, he could only perceive the action of the normal biodynamic potencies at work. This is one of the great keys for understanding how the body heals itself within the biodynamic context. Becker also shared that when he treated clients, his attention was placed within the potency of that client. He wrote,

My attention, as a physician using diagnostic touch, is on the potency within this client because I know that within the potency is power and many other attributes around which the disease state or the traumatic condition within the client is manifesting itself. I know that if a change takes place within this potency a whole new pattern will manifest itself, usually towards health for the client. (Becker, 1997)

This is so important to appreciate. Becker is sharing a clinical perspective that is firmly rooted in an awareness of the action of primary respiration and its potency. He states that within potency lies power. At the heart of an inertial site is potency that has the power to hold the added forces in check and organize them in the best possible way within the body physiology. This potency is a manifestation of the most basic ordering forces within the human system. He also states that it is his awareness of a change in the potency that is the key indicator of clinical effect and healing process. Placing attention within the dynamics of potency allows the practitioner a more direct access to the forces that generate the disease state. It is only when the practitioner perceives a return to a more natural expression of potency, and the natural motility and fluidity generated by it, that a return to wellness is considered to have occurred.

The most important thing to emphasize is that the practitioner’s awareness can be oriented to these forces and their interplay, not just to the results of their action such as resistance or motion patterns. His or her attention is with the organizing factors of both health and disease, not just the results and effects of their presence. The ability to orient to these inherent forces is a perceptual skill that must be developed by all practitioners. It is the potencies involved that have the power to manifest the disease state and also the power to heal it.

There are many ways to orient both to a biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy and to the arising of the inherent treatment plan. Although healing processes may take a multitude of forms, as the inherent treatment plan unfolds, a number of common phases emerge. Within a clinical context, the nature of this unfolding process is dependent upon certain practitioner skills.

The first and most basic skill to develop is the ability to allow one’s mind to still, to shift out of self-forms and ego states, and enter a state of presence, the being-state. From this state of inner stillness, the practitioner then learns orient to Source and the forces of creation that emerge from Source. In a craniosacral biodynamic context, the first step in this shift in orientation is to learn to sense the presence of primary respiration within and around oneself. From here, the task is then to sense primary respiration in relationship to the client’s midline, body and arising process, and to learn to negotiate a clear relational field and safe holding environment.

In developing these skills, students of a biodynamic approach learn to establish a wide perceptual field and to negotiate both the quality of their physical contact and the distance of their attention from the client’s system and midline. As the practitioners hold a respectful and appropriate listening field, the next step in the emergence of the inherent treatment plan is the settling of this relational field. Until basic trust is established, nothing of any depth can occur.

The practitioner may sense, as they deepen into a still state of presence, that the conjoined practitioner-client field (the relational field) seems to settle and deepen. This may manifest as qualities of settling, stillness and expansion. Most pointedly, the practitioner may perceive that his or her own field settles and a quality of mutuality or non-separateness emerges. By this I do not mean a merged state, but a state where there is both differentiation and a sense of direct knowing, being-to-being. The settling of the relational field is the first step in the unfoldment of the inherent treatment plan.

The next phase in the inherent treatment plan arises as the practitioner settles more deeply into his or her receptive being-state, while oriented to primary respiration in relationship to the client’s midline, body and local bio-field. Here a resonance occurs, being-to-being, where a shift to resources and primary respiration emerges. I call this the holistic shift, which is discussed below.

Once the holistic shift deepens, then healing processes naturally begin to emerge. These are not factors of practitioner analysis, but of decisions made by the potency of the Breath of Life. As the holistic shift deepens, healing processes may emerge from the mid-tide-fluid tide level of expression, or from the Long Tide, or more directly, from the Dynamic Stillness. Once conditional forces have been resolved, then a process of reorganization and realignment to natural forces and midlines also occurs.

One of the great strengths of craniosacral biodynamics is its orientation to Health. There is an understanding in the field that the underlying health of the human system is a principle that is with us from the moment of conception, is never lost and always at work. In this understanding, the potential for healing, and the knowledge of what needs to occur, is already enfolded within the conditions and suffering present. Becker called this territory the arising of the inherent treatment plan. (Becker, 1997, 2000)

The inherent treatment plan orients us to the knowledge that the arising and sequencing of what has to happen within any given healing process is a function of primary respiration, not of practitioner analysis, and will unfold in its own way. The practitioner does not have to analyze or diagnose to learn what needs to happen, nor do they have to decide what to do, or how to intervene. They do, however, have to develop an inner state of stillness, orientation and listening that opens a perceptual doorway to this intrinsic process.

I once heard Becker, on a recorded tape, say, “Trust the Tide and get out of the way!” That certainly sums it up. As one listens to the human system with a wide and still perceptual field, needing and expecting nothing, and learns to orient to primary respiration and the stillness from which it arises, something begins to emerge.

A clarification of intention begins to happen. It is not my intention, or your intention as practitioner; it is the healing and centering intention of the Breath of Life. Clinical method is then a matter of the practitioners’ orientation and their ability to attune and resonate to the intentions of primary respiration and the nature of the arising process. Work then centers on supporting the healing process in any way that is clinically appropriate and does not get in the way of the inherent forces acting to resolve the issue. This process is humbling, and a great gratitude to the Intelligence inherent within all conditions, the Health that is never lost, will surely arise.

Common Factors and Stages in the Inherent Treatment Plan

1. The practitioner:
   • Enters a state of presence, a being-state
   • Orients to primary respiration in his or her own system
   • Orients to primary respiration relative to the client’s system
   • Establishes and negotiates a safe relational field in a wide field of awareness (wide perceptual field)
   • Has the ability to sense primary respiration oriented to the client’s midline and system in a wide perceptual field
   • Has the ability to deepen into Dynamic Stillness and orient to healing processes that emerge from its depths
2. The settling of the relational field.
3. The settling and shift of orientation of the client’s system from conditional patterns and nervous system activation to wholeness and primary respiration - the holistic shift.
4. The emergence of healing intentions, forces and processes from levels of mid-tide, Long Tide, or Dynamic Stillness.
5. The clarification and resolution of inertial and traumatic forces and patterns within the context of primary respiration.
6. Commonly finishing with a phase of re-orientation of the system to natural midlines and reorganization of the fluid and tissue fields to natural fulcrums.