How do you know that you have a body? I have learnt that is an endlessly tricky question. We can include more or less in sense of our body. Many people operate from fragmented and reduced body maps; they dissociate. This makes life really hard. For example in my experience is chronic pain clients always dissociate to some degree.

This workshop will explore the subjective feeling of having a body, particularly interoceptive pathways from fascia and how we can support that via cranial work The receptors in soft tissues (including organ walls) are foundational for our sense of self. Interestingly a significant proportion of these receptors â€˜respond to touch like the caress of a painters brushâ€™ - great news for the cranial paradigm.

The science emerging from researchers into connective tissues is fascinating. It provides many clues as to how information moves between cells, how the body holds and maintains stories and how change can be facilitated that affects the whole system. This workshop will review some of the highlights of recent developments in the understanding of fascia and their application to cranial work.

Body maps - using weight, outline, skin and inside (WOSI) as a framework for exploration.
Orienting to the parts that are hidden.
A more detailed look at the physiology of dissociation.
Interoception and proprioception. Primates have a unique fast pathway carrying interoceptive information from the body to the brain. It is fundamental to emotion and consciousness.
Understanding how the connective tissue matrix connects into the centre of cells via integrins. Changes in tension in the matrix change cell functioning.
Appreciating the fluid electrical nature of fascia.
Arrangements of fascia: the deep front line of Tom Myers, the unified bag of the diaphragm and transverse abdominalis, and sheets of interconnected fascia.
Skills to help feel connective tissues and whole body dynamics, the push and pull of life and following the dance of soft tissues.

Back

Fascia and embodiment