Michael Shea’s three volumes on Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapy represent no less than a Proustian achievement in behalf of
the therapeutic and pediatric community. The meaning and movement
of the moment of conception, and of the early development of a human
being are, for Shea, bound to a taste of consciousness that has soaked
itself so deeply into the layers of Proust’s petit-madeleine cake as to
invite a realm of remembrance where the past remains barely
embodied, or barely attached to this earthly dimension, and yet is
perceivable and palpable in the living present as a sense of the
movement and possibility of health and wholeness in the adult body.
For just as Proust recovered precious childhood memories embedded in
the sensory world of taste, so Shea, by uncoupling the human embryo
from its false identity as a Neo-Darwinian utilitarian object, guides us
to discover deep resources within ourselves where we can bear witness
to, and feel, our embryonic nature as a force of healing.
Shea declares that “embryology is the new anatomy,” and proceeds
to reveal the dynamic morphology of the human embryo in a rich
language that describes a creation story as much as a contemporary
therapeutic modality. In an imaginative writing style that evokes the
work of Edward Edinger or James Hillman, Shea skillfully guides the
direction of our thought processes to fold into the deep oceanic realm
of the subject being presented, in this case, the developing human
embryo. In volume one, we are led through a poetic and beautifully
illustrated creation story that begins, if one can even speak of
beginnings in this context, with the egg that we came from, nestled
amongst countless others in the dark, inside our own mother when she
was a six-week old embryo. Soon we encounter the dynamics of
conception and the compression of the zygote, from which we are
finally released in the expansive movement of implantation. From
there we feel the warmth of our first blood circulating around the
periphery, which in turn leads us inward to our center in the heart
within our primordial body which holds the sacred shape of a mandala.
Finally we are unfolded and moved toward the upright gesture in
preparation for our birth. Shea means us to understand these forces in
the behavior of the embryo as the spiritual process of a sentient being
seeking embodiment.
The three books reveal a compelling theory and a set of principles
based on the importance of an understanding of human embryonic
58 Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health
development as a perceptual foundation for successful therapeutic
work with infants, children and adults. Shea also contributes to the
idea that behavior is not entirely gene dependent, and that prenatal
and postnatal environmental factors play a decisive role. He has
painstakingly incorporated many elements from the growing body of
research in developmental biology and physiology that points to the
developmental origins of health and disease. His keen understanding
and concise presentation of the complexities of Allan Schore's work in
affective neuroscience, particularly evidenced in volume two deserves
to be applauded. One of the most powerful themes, and one that
becomes symbolically relevant, describes the early two-dimensional
embryo having no “inside” and therefore no choice but to risk
projecting the primordia of its organ function out onto the rapidly
expanding dimension of its proportionally huge peripheral body, until
it can “gastrulate,” literally grow an inner–space in order to reclaim
the projected function on the inside of its new body as 3-dimensional
organs. The early embryo will not survive if it cannot establish this
vital connection between inside and outside. Symbolically, and as a
growth gesture, the embryo begins a process whereby the tension
between the forces of autonomy and relatedness must find their
balance point and mid-line. This process is recapitulated throughout
life and especially involves the projection of psychological function out
to a peripheral dimension that is able to hold, model, or mirror an
inner psychic structure that is trying to emerge into consciousness
within the developing or evolving self. Shea explains that, “Projection
is a biological and metabolic necessity in the human organism.” This is
a perpetual movement in the evolution of a human being. We learn
that “What begins as a metabolic process in the embryo continues as a
physiological process in the newborn.” The preverbal infant projects its
needs into the mother in order to have those needs met and projected
back by a mature brain which can act as a regulatory model of self and
world for the developing infant. This early physiological process of
projection becomes psychological later on in life. Shea explains that “A
developmental need is also a psychological need.” So when those early
projected needs are not met and accurately reflected back, the infant
develops preverbal wounding that shows up in negative or adaptive
projection later on in life. Throughout the three volumes Shea offers
perceptual exercises and concepts to support a therapeutic
relationship that mirrors a secure attachment and a sacred, almost
ritual, space where the preverbal wounding can be brought to its safe
resolution and integration in the present. He is clearly advocating a
level of self-awareness essential to any healing process, which begins
with the self-regulation of the therapist.
Although these books primarily describe the fundamentals of an
evolving therapeutic modality known as Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapy, an underlying theme addresses an urgent need for our
culture to slow its hectic and anxious pace and to reorient to a midline
of stillness, a sort of sacred space in and around the body, which allows
our consciousness to be reconnected to the natural world in a slow
movement out into space and coming back to embodiment that is as
natural as breathing. In the craniosacral field this movement is known
as Primary Respiration. Primary Respiration is understood as a
creative force that cannot become distorted or imprinted, and whose
earliest encounter with biology occurs within the fluid environment of
the embryo as the expression of a deep oceanic stillness. In this sense
the embryo holds a perennial wisdom of health and wholeness within
its fluid -body as a potency that can be palpated and perceived in the
adult. Shea describes the therapist during a session feeling as if his or
her hands are cradling the client’s embryology rather than the client’s
adult anatomical form.
Shea draws heavily on depth psychology, mythology, and even
shamanism in an attempt to communicate that the wisdom of earlier
cultures was based on a kind of embryology, in which healing was only
possible through a symbolic reconnection to the moment of one’s own
conception, and the alignment of that moment with the birth of the
universe. Shea’s work promotes a reevaluation of the human embryo
as a powerful locus of healing and as an antidote to the historic
withdrawal from nature and from the divine in ourselves. I imagine
that those of us who work with the dynamics of human growth and
development will continue to fruitfully explore these books for a very
long time.
Reviewed by Michael Dunning