Journeys to CST…
Jonathan Gore DO CST-D MCSS and Caro O’Neill CST-D MCSS share what brought them to CST – and why they are still here!
From Osteopathy to CST
Jonathan Gore DO, CST MCSS, Osteopath and CranioSacral Therapist
(we call him Joe!)
Interviewed by Susie Carrdus
I trained at the British School of Osteopathy starting in 1982 – a 4-year course. It was hard work.
I got quite good at techniques, but I did my real learning after I left. Would I have been better suited to a more holistic approach? There’s been a lot of change since then in how Osteopathy courses are presented.
To start with, I worked as an associate at a practice in Suffolk, but decided to move back to London – I was missing the life there.
CranioSacral Therapy first came my way around ’93. I read Dr Upledger’s brown book, heard that the Upledger Institute was opening a UK branch.
At around this time, I went off to New Zealand to do locum work, where I found myself increasingly interested in what cranial work could achieve. As a result, I took the first CranioSacral course (CST1) in Vancouver, went back to work in Sussex where I started to integrate it, doing some 10-step work – but I wasn’t fully on board and Osteopathy was still my main modality.
Two years later I felt the need to go further with it, took CST2 in the States, and cemented it properly into my working practice. I completed the Core and Advanced Curriculums, together with the Immune Class, TIDI, and Conception/Pregnancy – doing the training in a mix of places, some in the UK and some in America.
I ran the two disciplines (Osteopathy and CST) in harness for some time, and Osteopathy is an excellent therapy – but I found that CST was altering my techniques.
When you first do it and are used to prescriptive techniques, it’s hard to go with ‘Treat what you find’, but a lot of my patients opted for CST, particularly wanting the SomatoEmotional Release side of it.
So I had to unlearn the osteopathic ‘fix-it’ attitude and let things happen, give the body time, develop a light touch. Bodies are quite remarkable self-correcting mechanisms.
If you asked me to summarise: CST has added to my own personal development in a way I wouldn’t have believed would or could happen. I’ve had the privilege of watching patients grow and change. They do the work, and their improvement gives me enormous job satisfaction.
And it’s not only the patients. With my friend and colleague Caro O’Neill we run a Study Group for Devon and Cornwall, one day every three months. We have a growing membership in the West Country of those who use the CST Core Curriculum – a mix of elementary and advanced practitioners. It’s been great to embed the Continuous Professional Development aspect into these study groups – and the spirit of the work is amazing.
Now I’m not only practising as a CSTherapist but also instructing it, which is a big shift: I’ve had to sharpen my ideas and techniques to be able to explain what I’m doing. The Upledger Institute UK and International is one big happy family. That’s the way it is for me.
Visit Joe Gore’s website at the Redruth Osteopathic Clinic.
From Massage Therapy to CST
Carolyn O’Neill CST-D MCSS, Massage and CranioSacral Therapist,
Interviewed by Susie Carrdus
After my A levels, I was fed up with studying and felt I had no sense of direction. A friend and I, having been working in London in boring jobs, went on holiday to the British Virgin Islands and I ended up staying there and living on boats in Tortola for five years.
Tortola was the real University of Life for me. I grew up, having been such a baby when I went. Plenty of sailing was involved – in fact I met my future husband in a bar in Tortola after he’d sailed from Ireland!
We re-met in Scotland – sailing again – where he was writing a book and I was working in a Recruitment Agency. We had both enjoyed living in the sun and rashly decided we should put all our worldly belongings into the back of the Citroen, leave rainy depressing Britain and head off to Mallorca.
Mallorca was where it all came together. We got married, bought a house, had space for a therapy treatment studio. My older sister is an Osteopath, and I was always interested in what she did, so there was the possibility that I’d do something similar.
I started with an Aromatherapy course, a scattered modular one, and had to come back to England for that. I practised on friends to begin with, and then met someone who’d done CranioSacral training. She did a biodynamic treatment on me and there was a resonance straight away. It was instinctively right for me.
I started the Upledger CST training on my own behalf. Being modular, it suited me, living in Mallorca. Some of the courses were in Ireland, some in Edinburgh.
I was finishing my training when I was pregnant, at the same time as having a child who didn’t sleep – yes, my own children led me into it, just as they’re supposed to! This probably explains my particular interest in the Paediatrics side of CST.
I went to Dr John Upledger’s Symposium in 1997 and was completely blown away by the energy of this big warm man – all the clichés! It was as if he had a giant hot water bottle inside him; he just glowed from the inside with life and generosity. He made the work completely simple and accessible: “So, just do that, then.”
We all sobbed when he died because his philosophy had changed and touched so many people’s lives – it affected and shaped my relationship with my children, my husband, my parents. His is a deep philosophy; there is the epitome of something in the core – our whole family has been caught up in the ripple.
The clinic I was working at in Mallorca was multidiscipline, and this resulted in a beautiful overlap: people came for massage and I’d ask them if I could add bits of other trainings. I’d start with diaphragm releases and the transition between modalities became entirely fluid, whole-body, integrating with the soft tissue.
My first modality, Aromatherapy, was ordered and straightforward and prescriptive – CST gave it a freedom. By now, my 10-step work was well in place via volunteers. I got established, did heaps of practice, practice, practice. I saw the response and almost wondered why I ever did anything else.
These days, I advertise remedial massage, which gets people in through the door. Where I live they’ve never heard about CST. It’s a question of educating, working locally. The only way is word of mouth. My website is broad, but word of mouth is what brings referrals, particularly with babies, or frozen shoulders, or sports injuries. Babies more than anything.
Perhaps 15% of people come now for soft treatment work, but I do cranial work on all, really – you can’t help it when you know it. For example, I might have a big burly builder come in and I’d say: “I’m going to try something different to get through this tough muscle” – flattering him! Then the CST work softens the tissue and complements a massage perfectly. CV4, tissue release, fluid exchange, direction of energy, joint mobilisation, energy cyst – I talk about tightness – it all adds in, works in, via the dural tube. CV4 really helps. Autonomics set in.
CST is all about listening to the tissue.
I feel it’s my daily motto: “Stop doing – just listen!” For me, the art is in the listening. I learnt it from advanced instructors like Stan Gerome and Sanno Visser, such fantastic listeners. I watched them listen – mirror – match – back and forth – working with the body movements.
Every day I’m hearing stuff in a new way. We have a brilliant Study Group – it has got bigger and bigger and bigger; everyone practising in their own way.
CST is about being there, while most other modalities are about doing something. It’s as different as night and day. Your role as a therapist is so different from any other therapy. It’s not in the slightest that we’re passive, but we are neutral.
You discover that it’s not a practice, it’s a philosophy. I love going to work. Every single case is different. I hear people’s stories verbally and then hear them again through the tissues. I love that. It’s as if we go exploring together, panning for gold. Sometimes the journey can be painful, sometimes enlightening and beautiful.
CST is sound from the ground up. It’s such a joy, such a find, I’m so lucky.
Read more about her on her website, Carolyn O’Neill CST-D, MCSS, The Art of Listening. www.carolynoneillcst.co.uk
Caro was Treasurer and a Director of the Cranio Sacral Society for three years.
