Shambala has the honour to host a training in one of the most avant garde and fascinating healing modalities today; Craniosacral Therapy, by one of the best teachers worldwide.

We personally recommend this course not only to get you started and be able to practice this fascinating form of therapy, but also as a profound journey towards self-knowledge.

What is Craniosacral? By Dr. Leonid Soboleff

Life expresses itself as motion. At a deep level of our physiological functioning all healthy, living tissues subtly move with the motion of life. The presence of these subtle movements involve a network of interrelated tissues and fluids at the core of the body. The membranes that surround the central nervous system, cerebrospinal fluid, bones of the cranium and the sacrum, create that network called CranioSacral System.

The subtle movements that produces rhythmic impulses by CranioSacral System are regarded as expressions of health that carry an essential ordering principle for both body and mind. When these rhythms are expressed in fullness and balance, health and well-being naturally follow.

During the course of our lives our bodies become patterned, shaped and conditioned according to how we are able to deal with any stresses or traumas. If stresses or traumas are overwhelming, they become locked in the body as sites of inertia. These sites of inertia effect the natural rhythmical movements of the CranioSacral System.

The emphasis in CranioSacral Therapy is to help resolve the trapped forces that underlie and govern patterns of disease and fragmentation in both body and mind. This involves the practitioner "listening through the hands" to the body's subtle rhythms and any patterns of inertia or congestion.

Through the development of subtle palpatory skills the practitioner can read the story of the body, identify places where issues are held and then follow the natural priorities for healing as directed by the patients own physiology.

The intention of treatment is to facilitate the expression of the CranioSacral System and so enhance the body's own self-healing and self-regulating capabilities. Furthermore, the practitioner's deep and clear quality of presence can become a reflective mirror for the patient and an invaluable cue for their potential for change.

About Leonid Shoboleff

At age 23, after completing my medical degree at Tver Medical Academy in Russia, I began to realize the limitations of conventional medicine along with the restrictions of the Soviet regime. I had no intent or desire to become a doctor. As a matter of fact I was so terrified of blood; I could not even be near hospitals. Who would have known that it would be one of my motivational factors to get in to Medical school?

Another motivation was pure survival. 1977 was the year of my graduation from high school and it was the year of the Afghan war at its peak. I had a year to get ready and pass an exam to Medical School or go to Afghanistan. Even though back then I was trained as a military doctor and graduated as lieutenant of Red army, it was the only option to escape from a draft.

Political affairs of east and west didn't last long and in the year of 1989, the Berlin wall came down. It was the first time that Russians were allowed to leave their country. And it was the year that I set up sails to go to America. It was the year of my Saturn return; a year of complete transformation.

Complete transformation normally doesn't go without physical breakdown. And that was also the case for me. Everything was swept away from my feet: family, home, friends and relationships. Nobody pushed me to do any of this, I was doing it to himself. As strange as it sounds I was creating suffering and pain to myself. My body didn't know how to respond to any of this, it completely collapsed. On a surface everything looked OK. The best hospitals in US could not find anything being wrong with me. But I knew I was slowly dying.

Intuitively I knew that my body had an ability to heal itself, so I had to seek answers outside of the traditional medical model that I was so fond off. My quest and my healing journey brought me to the Pacific coast of Northern California to Esalen Institute, to become my home, my nest, my Alma Mater for the next 10 year of my life. I can write a novel about my life at Esalen and about my initiation to a CranioSacral Work which opened a pass way to my healing and allowed me to transcend mind based limitations to what healing is all about.

I have many passions in life including music, yoga, meditation and the healing arts. Each of us brings something special into this journey we call “Life” and deep inside we all are gifted healers, musicians, poets and artists. As I strive for freedom and perfection on my own spiritual path, I encourage people around me to be the best they can be, fully embracing their own power and light. My biggest teacher is nature. From nature I’ve learned how to be still, how to recognize patterns of impermanence, how to see beauty and radiance in everything that surrounds us.

To know more about me, visit http://craniosacralasia.com/index.html

Curriculum Level 1: Emergence

Discovery of the craniosacral system (C-S)

Anatomical and physiological viewof the C-S system

Breath of life as underlying foundation

Acquiring of the listening skills

Fulcrums

Palpation: gross-subtle, active-passive

Stillness

Tides of the cranial system

Listening stations

Flexion/Inhalation- Extensions/Exhalations of the system

Fascia as a whole body system

Cross diaphragms

Pelvic diaphragm, Respiratory diaphragm, Thoracic inlet and Hyoid bone

Occipital Cranial base from Mid Tide level of perception

L5 and sacrum relation

Dural tube evaluation, traction

Occipital-Sacral Guide

Frontal bone lift

Parietal bone from the mid tide level of perception

Sphenoid inhalation and exhalation

Temporal bones

TMJ Temporal-Mandibular Joint and TMJ

CV4 Still point

Inherent treatment plan