The Power of Touch (Part 3)

(Here's Part 3 of The Power of Touch, by Michael Shea series)



A Healing Relationship

The effectiveness of treatment depends on the client and practitioner forming a good working relationship. BCST practitioners undergo a minimum of 700 hours of training to develop their perceptual and clinical skills. During sessions, practitioners focus their attention on clients, working with them to co-create an optimal healing environment. They attend to clients' need for warmth, hydration, and comfortable body positioning during sessions.

In this day and age, it is difficult to fully relax. We are overstimulated an rarely feel fully safe because of it. Much of this patterning comes from the ways in which we were held and nurtured in childhood and before. BCST practitioners help heal early wounding by using a slow and respectful manner to negotiate a touch that feels right to the client, one that feels comfortable and nurturing. While working, practitioners cultivate a contemplative state of mind and this translates in the quality of their touch, allowing clients to deeply relax. Clients can learn to change their perception of their physical body and thus reduce their symptoms.

Practitioners begin a session by sensing the rhythm of Primary Respiration in themselves and establishing a sense of feeling grounding, present and peaceful. While orienting to their own slow Tide and resting in stillness, they then attune to the subtle motion f the Tide in the client's body. The practitioner allows his own clam nervous system to resonate with the client's and the client's mind and body becomes more coherent. When practitioners detect disturbances in the various fluid motions, they attempt to empathetically sense the underlying trauma patterns and bring about a therapeutic resolution via careful facilitation of the fluids back to normal motion.