With the body at rest, we can see and hear and move without obstruction to the farthest places and the deepest feelings. ~Anonymous
BCST is a gentle, hands-on form of therapy, arising from the osteopathic tradition, promoting physical and emotional health and well-being. Through light touch, the therapist listens for the intrinsic health or life force at the core of each person. A typical session lasts 50 minutes, fully clothed on a massage table, while the therapist makes gentle, steady contact primarily at the feet, head, and sacrum and sometimes at the organs and joints. All touch is carefully and respectfully negotiated.
Clients typically enter a relaxed and resourced state during sessions, and often experience a reduction of pain and distress, and a growing sense of embodied wholeness. Clients often report after a session that they have returned to themselves in some essential way, or have received some kind of intuitive clarity or resolution for a question or problem they came in with.
BCST can be used to address physical and emotional conditions such as joint pain, inflammation, headaches, chronic tension, anxiety, insomnia.
BCST is an especially effective form of trauma therapy as it helps the nervous system to clear and discharge in a quiet, subtle way, and facilitates a gradual process of reconnecting to presence in the body in a safe, paced manner.
As an experienced psychoanalyst, I am skilled at containing strong emotional and traumatic layers that might arise during a session so that clients do not feel overwhelmed, but instead have the opportunity to resource and gently resolve stuck patterns.
Pregnancy and Labor
BCST is a safe and effective form of therapy for pregnant women. The pregnant mother receives emotional support and holding, an opportunity to deepen her bond with her baby in utero. BCST can also assist with digestive issues; headaches; pelvic and back strain; and can facilitate increased embodiment and potency in order to support labor. Sometimes, the pregnant mother’s own birth history arises and is processed so that she can become more clearly differentiated and available for her baby’s birth.
Newborns and children
Newborns receive support from BCST in processing imprints from birth, especially when interventions such as Pitocin, forceps, or C-section have been employed during labor; this therapeutic clearing can in turn support the attachment process.
BCST engages physiological issues that can affect feeding, digestion, colic and sleeping, as well as right/left issues of integration. The baby is not separate from the family field so my orientation is to support the whole family system, however it presents itself.
Please take some time to fill out this optional Birth History Form (PDF) prior to your first appointment.