BY EMBODYING OUR BODIES SAFELY AND IN A PACED MANNER, WE DIMINISH PAIN, DIMINISH ANXIETY, AND OVERCOME TRAUMA.
BCST FOR PAIN RESOLUTION
Based on pain science, simply put: pain is an output, an alarm signal from our brain to tell us that something needs attention and spot-lighting it. Pain is meant to be a friend, it’s meant to protect us. If we didn’t feel pain we’d keep hurting yourselves.
And yes, pain is real! You can’t imagine pain. It is a tangible, physical sensation perceived by our brain. And here's an intriguing fact: Pain cannot be measured by what can be seen on imaging or scan reports. There’s no equation that says the deeper the injury the more the pain or the smaller the injury the lesser the pain.
Now, how we respond to pain is unique to each of us. Our brain custom-makes our own unique sensation, quality, volume and intensity of pain based on all of our past life’s experiences. Two people with the same injury and circumstance can feel pain very very differently. And knowing this is essential in treating pain, especially chronic pain.
Our brain is essentially and constantly interested in this most important question: ‘Am I safe?’ If your brain is influenced by past memories of danger or threat or trigger, it’s not going to be able to resolve, thereby keeping the pain alive. Danger is bad news that travels fast in our 3D nervous system, sensitizing it and thereby creating a false-alarm which is constantly on high alert.
Finally, some good news: The science of neuroplasticity tells us that the same nerves that can amplify danger can also unlearn pain. Nerves learn to rewire and desensitize with signals of safety. In BCST we help our clients desensitize, regulate and balance the nervous system helping them overcome pain, reduce inflammation and lower the volume of the perceived threat keeps the body on high alert.
BCST TO OVERCOME TRAUMA
Trauma can be defined as anything that overwhelms our nervous system and resources. We can be overwhelmed by one big event or an accumulation of smaller events. To face trauma our nervous system has 3 survival mechanisms: fight/flight and freeze. Meaning, you would gather all the energy and resources to fight the perceived threat, run away from the perceived threat or go into a state of freeze. If the outcome of either of the responses is positive, you are able to get back to homeostasis or balance in the body easily.
But if the outcome of the response doesn’t go favorably, the body stays stuck in that threat way longer than it has passed. This could be months or years. And this state of being stuck stays physiologically in all the body systems - almost like an emotional scar. Time passes, but the body remembers and so when many months or years later a similar situation resurfaces, the response or reaction both physically and emotionally is the same like when it happened for the first time.
When we are overwhelmed, we rely on very primitive responses that are hard-wired into our physiology. The body makes decisions more quickly than our conscious thought. Our thinking and understanding lag behind what is going on in our bodies.
Trauma makes one feel isolated, unsafe and disconnected/dissociated from their body. In trauma, one loses touch with the stories our body is trying to tell us. Losing a sense of our body, being and feeling unstable, unclear and non-perceptive. Dissociation is particularly connected to the experience of feeling helpless.
Having clients reconnect with their body, sensations, with the natural world in present-time gradually and safely is a clinical priority. Not much healing can occur if the person is not embodied. BCST helps clients their system orient to safety in the present time and down regulates the fight-flight or freeze response. Patterns of our experiences get imprinted in our bodies and bringing awareness and choice to our habitual responses and our deepest imprints is a huge part of BCST.
BCST TO OVERCOME ANXIETY
Anxiety is no joke. Your heart races, breathing gets shallow, your stomach feels like it’s churning, your body trembles, the mind is racing and you can’t speak because your throat is constricted. You want to run away.
While this is how the body may feel and respond to a situation, but going a little deeper - the nervous system and the primitive parts of the brain are stuck trying to protect you. Here, the tiniest stimuli from inside the body or outside
from the environment can trigger this defense mechanism making it an almost default, ever-present in the background of day-to-day living. Thankfully, our nervous system is highly plastic, meaning it is moldable and adaptable and we can overcome anxiety by learning to feel the exact opposite feelings and sensations to anxiety.
While everything feels out of control and racing past you when you’re anxious, what the body and the nervous needs is something that can slow things down. The red alarm button, which is meant to go off for life and death situations, goes off at every tiny trigger, meaning the threat is constant. And one of the ways to switch off the alarm, bring back safety is a light touch and the presence of another. And in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy we use a gentle and safe touch and an empathic presence to help turn off this alarm. It slows things down in the body and mind. With the help of the therapist, the client is grounded, made to orient to present-time awareness with various tools and techniques to facilitate and support the journey back to health and safety. The therapist helps the client to de-link the sensation and felt sense from the memory and over time, the client is able to overcome anxiety.