People often ask me to define "Biodynamic Massage." When I'm feeling lazy I say that it is a combination of skin on skin massage strokes with the deep listening of Biodynamic cranial work. This is true, but it doesn't do justice to the potency I have found in giving and receiving this work. It is much more than just cranial work with massage strokes. In teaching both the beginning Biodynamic cranial and Biodynamic massage courses, I often hear from seasoned massage therapists who are burnt out with the rigour and repetitive motions of their massage practice. They tend to be more interested in learning the Biodynamic cranial work in order to move towards a more subtle yet effective modality of treatment that can help extend their own bodywork careers. I completely understand this incentive and have shared the call to move to more subtle ways of being with another body. Yet, as I split my work between Biodynamic Cranial and Biodynamic Massage, I find that the opposite is true- I am more invigorated and feel more vitality when giving Biodynamic massage as opposed to cranial work. I know that this is personal to me, as I have close colleagues who find the opposite to be true for them. But I do feel called to share my inspiration in order to benefit those who, like me, will find deep rejuvenation and healing from receiving and giving this work. 

Skin on Skin Contact- The main (and significant) difference between Biodynamic Cranial work and Biodynamic Massage is skin on skin contact. In Biodynamic massage we use oil to warm up the tissues of the body, integrate disparate areas, and work with tissue densities. As we work to clarify the felt sense of our own derma body as a perceptive organ which can be open and receptive to the quietude in and around the client, we can also begin to connect to the derma body of our client. Because there is no barrier between the skin of our hands and the skin of the client, we can more fully sense the similarity in texture between our skin and the skin of the client leading to a more integrated and merged experience where the boundaries between the two begin to fade. This merging of the derma bodies helps to create a three dimensional experience of connection that is sensitive, integrated and wholly satisfying.

On a physiological level, there have been a plethora of published studies showing extensive short and long term benefits of skin on skin contact for infants with their parents. These benefits include hormonal regulation and release of oxytocin, improvement and regulation of heart and breath rate, regulation of blood sugar, body temperature, stress reduction and pain relief.  From my personal experience in giving and receiving this work, I believe that these benefits apply to people of all ages, both the recipient and the practitioner, and that we can begin to co-regulate our systems much more easily and quickly with the support that the skin on skin contact provides. 


Warming up the Tissues/ Repetitive Stroking - This tends to be the aspect of massage work that long term massage therapists may become averse to, as it requires physical exertion and repetitive movements. For some practitioners, giving this type of massage may not be appropriate for their physiology as it does require a certain amount of strength and resilience. But there are also benefits to the practitioner of repetitive stroking within the biodynamic framework. 

As opposed to cranial work, massage more rapidly warms up the tissues of the client leading to a more expanded and dilated sense of the body. As a practitioner, I also become warmed up by the physicality of the process. I feel as though previously discrete and isolated areas of the client's body begin to thaw and merge with the rest of the system giving me more of a sense of a whole organism rather than discrete parts. In the course of a Biodynamic massage session I often feel the warmth begin to expand into the space around the body and sometimes permeate the room. The air feels more humid and the client's physical and energetic body can begin to expand into this space more easily than with purely the cranial work. 
I also find that the repetitive stroking of the tissues during a Biodynamic massage begins to "massage" the inner body of myself as the practitioner as well as the inner body of the recipient, which I personally find invigorating and enlivening. As the physical body tissues are depressed in towards the core of the body and released back out during repetitive stroking techniques in relationship to the rhythmic movements of the practitioner, our inner bodies begin to move in relationship to one another, merging together and apart in a way that creates a sense of homogeneity and lack of separation. In this way both inner bodies of the client and practitioner are more responsive, receptive and cohesive. Similar to the sensation of integration between the dermal bodies of practitioner and client, the repetitive massage strokes bring an integration and merging between the two inner bodies.  It diminishes the separateness between us and without that sense of separation, the effort required as the practitioner fades. 

Freedom of tactile expressions- including various pressures, gliding, and friction. In cranial work we are limited to work with layers of fabric which prevents us from following gliding expressions through the fascia. When we work with skin on skin contact we are more freely able to follow all types of movements ranging from deep to superficial, long glides, short strokes, and tapotement. As a practitioner, when I am able to follow these movements with freedom and without the limitations that clothing causes, I actually feel less fatigue and more energized by my practice. As a client, when the stroking contact of the practitioner is in complete alignment with what my body is asking, my perception shifts into identifying more with the movement of the stroke, and less with that which is being stroked. I become a shifting, moving pattern of glide, stroke, compress and not the body experiencing those movements.


Freedom from the binding of clothing- As a client of Biodynamic Massage, when I have the opportunity to allow my organism to be unheeded by fabric I feel less "clothed" and confined by notions of who and what I am. I have no waistbands to remind me of my hips, no bra straps to remind me of my chest. My skin can be one continuous organism that is not separated into body parts with all the associations that these body parts can carry.  In the biodynamic process I can shed my sense of self to allow for new expressions to emerge that are not limited by my age, gender, or even humanness. I have experienced myself as a fish swimming through waters, a bird soaring through the sky, an old crone, a young boy. . . and totally unrecognizable non entities that my usual sense of self has absolutely no context or reference for. When I have the opportunity to let go of that usual sense of self that I continuously re-affirm day after day, I have a beautiful taste of freedom.