Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy
The Definitive Guide

A Synopsis of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy’s History

Although it may seem like BCST is fairly modern, it, in fact, traces its origins to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Let’s take a look at the fascinating history of BCST. 

William Garner Sutherland, an osteopath, is eventually credited with discovering all types of craniosacral therapy (1873-1954). In 1899, when he was a senior at the American School of Osteopathy, he developed a fascination for the skull’s bones. The nature of these bones seemed to suggest that they were intended for movement, despite the fact that he had been told that these bones fuse in adulthood.

The temporal bone caught his eye as he studied a disarticulated skull in an exhibit at the school. He had the notion that his brain was “beveled like a fish’s gills for primary respiration.” Sutherland then began his lifelong quest to discover whether the living skull expresses motion and whether this motion is significant from a physiological standpoint.

Sutherland, an osteopath, started using biomechanical terminology to explain the small inside motions and pulsations he experienced. He developed a number of approaches to relieve what was seen as resistance in the cranial structures using motion testing to investigate patterns.

But in 1945, he underwent a remarkable event that altered the way he thought about his method of healing work and the words he employed. He was summoned to the dying patient’s bed who was in excruciating pain. A level of quiet emerged as the man gently left this existence as Sutherland held the man’s system. Sutherland had a personal encounter with what he later came to refer to as the “Breath of Life.“

From a largely biomechanical approach, Sutherland’s terminology and body of work now emphasized primary respiration as a comprehensive and integrated experience. He advanced past the use of motion testing, biomechanical terminology, and the application of procedures to a strategy that makes no use of external force.

The life force (unerring potency) from inside is trusted to start and complete healing procedures. Analysis and motion testing cannot eventually reveal what must occur. 

Instead, it is a result of the system’s “Intelligence,” as described by Sutherland, and the purposes of the Breath of Life. This method of operation connects one with the mystery of existence itself at its core.

The work of Sutherland has been continued by other practitioners in the osteopathic profession. In the 1970s, Dr. John Upledger started teaching a technique he named CranioSacral Therapy outside of the osteopathic community. This work was presented by Dr. Upledger in a specific format and structure. In the development of a distinct craniosacral profession and practice outside of the osteopathic paradigm, his efforts have been crucial. The Upledger Institute teaches his work all over the world.

Between 1975 and 1979, Dr. Randolph Stone’s work was researched by Franklyn Sills and a number of other interested students. Sills was enthralled by the fundamental energy and neuter essence that Stone described. 

He learned that Sutherland had a significant impact on Stone in this setting. The Biodynamic Craniosacral group still has a great affinity for Polarity Therapy.

Sills relocated to England in 1982 and helped found the Karuna Institute in Devon. He completed his osteopathic studies during this time and served an apprenticeship in a busy London clinic. 

Franklyn’s approach was heavily influenced by a cranial osteopath who worked at the office. Franklyn was advised to become open, to focus on what was referred to as the fluid tide and the tidal potency, and to wait for the potency of the Breath of Life to manifest its curative purposes.

Franklyn was persuaded to start instructing cranial work outside of the osteopathic field by Claire Dolby DO in 1986. He had already created a two-year training course based on Randolph Stone DO’s research. In 1986, with Claire’s assistance, Sills taught the inaugural cranial training at the Karuna Institute. People acquired biomechanical terminology and techniques as part of a hybrid biomechanical and biodynamic training and were then urged to delve further into the more formative forces of primary respiration.

It quickly became apparent that the teaching staff’s objective to introduce pupils to the more fundamental organizing principles of the human system was not served by this hybrid method. Everyone in attendance at a 1992 gathering of tutors at Karuna concurred that they wanted to start teaching what they had already mastered.

Direct orientation to the universal and conditional forces of life is the distinguishing feature of a biodynamic craniosacral approach. When using this method, the practitioner:

• settles into a state of calm and openness
• distinctly bargains a connection with the customer and their system
• the direction of primary respiration
• waits for the client’s system to change so that this formative ordering force takes over
• creates a framework within which the Breath of Life and the basic respiration it produces make decisions.

It is the practitioner’s responsibility to raise appreciation of the existence of both fundamental respiration and the conditioned forces and patterns stored within the system over a period of years, deepen perceptual acuity, and develop connection abilities.

In 1992, Franklyn and the Karuna team were the only ones advocating a less biomechanical approach in the craniosacral community. Before Craniosacral Biodynamics, or a completely biodynamic training methodology was established at Karuna, it required a good ten years of development.

It was a painful and humbling process of trial and error for the Karuna staff, where a clearer layering of theoretical, perceptual, and practical training was continuously established and re-evaluated by the team. Every new training year brought about changes to the curriculum.

Franklyn also helped others become familiar with what Rollin Becker termed the intrinsic treatment plan by introducing their work to the larger craniosacral community. Dr. Becker’s term “biodynamic potency,” which described the ordering forces present within the human system, is where Franklyn got the idea for the name “biodynamics.”

In order to help students and practitioners become more aware of primary respiration and the various stages of mid-tide, Long Tide, and Dynamic Stillness, Franklyn and colleagues in the community of biodynamic craniosacral therapy devised perceptual exercises and meditative practices. 

They assisted practitioners in learning how to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with their patients and their recovery process.

Franklyn included the dynamics of the interaction between the practitioner and the client as well as the healing of interpersonal and personal wounds, a major part of training and session work. The words “negotiated relational field,” “holistic shift,” and “mid-tide” were also created by Franklyn to help clarify some of the perceptual areas that emerge throughout session work. 

Franklyn and his associates provided training at this time in Switzerland, the United States, Spain, Australia, and Germany, and the biodynamic method of craniosacral therapy has since been widely accepted.

Graduates of Franklyn’s initial US training started teaching in 1995 in the US. As Franklyn continued to visit and lecture in the US, the American instructors created their own programs. Additional teams from abroad also came and are still coming to teach in the US.

As more students graduated, the necessity for some kind of ongoing assistance for graduates soon became clear. In order to fill this gap, the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America was established in 1998.

Deborah Bochinski, Anna Chitty, John Chitty, Roger Gilchrist, Elizabeth Hammond, Kathleen Morrow, Christopher Muller, Mary Louise Muller, Sharon Porter, Peggy Reynolds, and Scott Zamurut, all of whom were former students and colleagues in the United States, contributed to Franklyn’s USA foundation courses, developed the work in their own ways, and are currently engaged in teaching both there and abroad.

The Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association presently accredits a large number of teachers in North America as biodynamic educators. This work has become a vital and expanding field of practice that has expanded around the globe.