I have been doing hands-on structural work for twenty-five years now, first as a Rolfer and currently as an osteopathic physician. This journey would not be complete without acknowledging three people who guided me along the way. The first is my brother Michael Shea, who introduced me to Rolfing®; then, Peter Melchior, who was my mentor par excellence for Rolfing: and finally Keith Swan. D.O., who showed me the power of osteopathic treatments. I thank these three as well as many unnamed others who have been a part of my education.

Like most Rolfing students, I was drawn to Rolfing because of the effects I experienced from the basic Ten Series and the post-ten advanced work. I felt better and moved easier, especially when combined with the Rolfing movement work. After having become a Rolfer, I practiced in Boulder for nine years. It was during this time that several events happened that stimulated my interest in osteopathy.

First were the treatments I received from Dr. Keith Swan, which served as a milestone in my development. About two minutes into the cranial session, it felt like the right side of my head moved away from the left side of my head. There was a core depth twist that rotated 90 degrees extending from the torso into my right leg. A lot of change waiting to happen with such a light touch. I thought, what’s that all about?

Second was the experience I had as a Rolfer. I would pause, leaving my hands on a client wondering what my next move was. Then there would suddenly be a systemic, non-autonomic unwinding that would run its course in about one minute. These events had a mind of their own in their reordering of structure. But their sudden appearance out of the blue was a complete mystery. I had no reference point to compare them to.

Finally, there were the osteopathic treatments my eight-day old son received, which lasted approximately twenty minutes. At completion of each treatment, his appearance was very different. He was bigger, longer, and broader. He looked much more balanced and happier. Again, the mystery.

One thing led to another in the late 1980s and I ultimately enrolled in the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1990. The weekly osteopathic courses were very basic biomechanical-model techniques. They were used in treating spinal and soft-tissue complaints. Most of it I already had learned from my Rolfing education. Advanced studies included forty-hour cranial courses, which did not differ significantly from the Upledger courses that I took while I was Rolfing.

My learning curve with cranial work took off dramatically with my studies with James Jealous, D.O. and his biodynamic model of cranial work. This started about 2002. At first I took the tenets of this type of treatment approach on faith because, frankly, I couldn’t feel most of the things they were talking about and could barely conceptualize it. Active reception, midline, Breath of Life, fluid body, Primary Respiration, ignition, the void, dynamic stillness, etc. However, with treating lots of people, each one of these things showed up in my practice. As it turned out, the metaphors were actually quite descriptive and accurate of the phenomena that they are named for. These things are always present both within our bodies and in the general environment outside of us. It seems to be just a matter of slowing our minds enough to perceive them and their effects on our systems. Biodynamics is sometimes referred to as a right-brained cranial work.

Currently, the biodynamic model is my primary treatment modality. I start and finish each session in this mode. The middle of each session can either be a pure cranial treatment or I can use spinal manipulation, medical acupuncture, myofascial release, etc. I always, however, finish the session with systemic and structural reads from the cranial biodynamic model. That is my bias.

A short note on this type of cranial work. The head, or cranium, is overemphasized in cranial sacral work. Since the phenomena that one is tracking in the system is everywhere in that system, any part of the body can be used as an entry point. As a matter of fact, half of the time most of the significant changes that take place come from the extremities, usually the upper extremities. The second item of note in doing this type of work is relaxing the emphasis on sensing inside the body boundaries from the skin in. There is an awful lot of information that is available for use in the treatment outside the skin boundary layer of the client and in the treatment room itself. If that seems odd, consider the following biodynamic koan, “Feel the thing that passes through your hands and the patient’s body and is undiminished.” That comes from Elliot Blackman, D.O. and is a description of Primary Respiration and the level of sensitivity that one needs to get to in order for any of this type of work to make sense.

Rolfing and osteopathic work have a lot in common. There is a lot of overlap in the way they affect structure. At the same time, the treatment emphasis is somewhat different so they have a different effect on the muscle-skeletal system. Their effectiveness usually depends on the time a practitioner has been practicing and one’s individual sensitivities or talents that have been developed over the years. Also, the particular needs of a client or patient may vary on any given day. A particular modality that works this week may be completely useless the following week.

The human organism is daily saturated with stimulus unless one lives in isolation in a cave. Look around – it’s a crazy, almost insane culture, in which we live and work. For most patients the first five to ten minutes of each session is just settling their system down. The sympathetic overload and deregulation exacts an increasing price on all the tissues of the body. And, this is before any considerations are given to injuries, abuse, embryologic and developmental issue, just to name a few. It ain’t easy being human. We are all a work in progress.

One of the interesting overlaps I have noticed between osteopathic treatment I give and Rolfing® methodology is that many times when I am in the midst of doing an osteopathic session, I notice third-, eighth-, and ninth-hour session themes and ideals show up. This is quite remarkable. I don’t have any profound explanation why this is so, other than, I presume, these hours or templates in the structure are important. Thank you, Ida Rolf, for pointing this out to us!

In the biodynamic model that I use daily, I key mostly off of what is called the fluid body. This is a nebulous but distinct bioplasma field that permeates the body. It took me years to feel it with any certainty and even longer to get a sense of how to affect it. Using it has given me the best clinical results I have had of any tool I have used in my twenty-five years of experience. Having said that, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Often, the fluid body can be lesioned by trauma and too much intrusion. It locks the structure and nervous system into a stuck place that can’t regulate properly. Until released, very little change can be had regardless of the approach. Once restored, all the mother modalities get much more mileage for one’s effort.

The perceptual doors that the fluid body allows me to view are startlingly different from the mechanical model I am familiar with. It’s like viewing the December 16, 2007 image on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071216.html). On that particular day, there was a holographic picture with its two-dimensional color and dots. In viewing the picture, you have to wait and let your visual perception relax and shift. You will see a totally different picture emerge in 3D.

In the case of biodynamics, the landscape is also alive, aware, and responsive. The advanced training for this work is essentially “wait more and do less”. The body intelligence is millions of years old. Once you connect with it at this level, it’s best to get out of its way and just witness. The various non-autonomic connections that are highlighted are mind-boggling and almost counterintuitive. The endpoint of treatment produces a relaxation response in the various tissues of the body allowing more access towards a more balanced structure. As a quote from William James says, “Our normal waking consciousness is but one type of consciousness, while all about it, parted by the flimsiest of screens, there lie other consciousnesses. We may spend our entire life without knowing of their existence, but apply the requisite stimulus and they are in their fullness. Whatever of their meaning, they prohibit our premature closing or our account of reality.”

Requisite stimulus, indeed. The exploration of structural work continues. I have found out some of the answers. However, more questions have arisen as a result. Working with embryologic fields and complexes is one area of study. The discursive mind and psyche and their permeable interaction with structure is another. Essentially, it’s a study without end. Time to roll up my sleeves and get to work again.Somatic Explorations[:]