As mentioned in the previous entry, last weekend I took the Core Synchronism (1) workshop in Boulder, Colorado with Alyssa Gillespie. What an illuminating and enjoyable experience! It took place at Trinity Shore Wellness Center and I was one of sixteen participants. We had two amazing assistant teachers, Lauralai and Amy, both experienced Core practitioners, who provided hands-on assistance as needed. Class was a mixture of theory, q & a, and mostly hands-on practice, with each participant giving and receiving a treatment in each of the 6 sessions.
This workshop felt more like a retreat than others I’ve taken. A delicious, home made, plant-based lunch was provided each day (as an affordable add-on) and there were lots of tasty, healthy snacks, like nuts, figs, energy bites etc, to eat on breaks, as well as herbal tea to drink. Everywhere I looked there were beautiful touches, Indian fabrics, meditation pillows, incense, essential oils, chains of marigolds, singing bowls, bells and flower essences.
We covered a lot of material over the three days. Many, but not all of the participants, were already body workers and there were at least two others, besides myself, who were already Core practicioners. I’ve been using Core in all my treatments since taking my first class in the modality in 2016. Depending on the requirements of my client, there may be more or less in a particular session. I came to this workshop ready to learn, to revisit the training and to invigorate my practice.
Core Synchronism is a hard modality to put into words; it needs to be felt, experienced and practiced for one to begin to understand it. Alyssa rose to the challenge using a mixture of analogy, metaphor, personal anecdotes and visual props, disarticulated skulls, an anatomical skeleton, images on iPads and handouts to help explain what the students were feeling. She did a great job of answering all of our questions and had the humility to admit when she didn’t have an answer. With thirty two years of experience, she is still learning, challenging herself and growing in her practice. Thank you Alyssa!
On the morning of the first day, the students were feeling the cranial rhythm and floating femurs, occiputs and sacrums into place. In the afternoon, students were palpating the Core current as it spirals clockwise at Bregma (the anterior fontanel) and connecting that electrical current of sound and light to the vertical Core that flows from the head to the feet and back. A suggestion from Alyssa that I loved, and found immediately useful, was silently telling the Core, “I speak Fluid Mechanics.” and allowing the Core to slow down and show us the Core Column flowing inferior to the feet.
In our treatment trades, we synched all the bones in the lower body with each other and with the sacrum and then all the bones of the upper body with the parietals. With each session, the students receiving treatment achieved a profound level of relaxation. On the afternoon of the second day, and morning of the 3rd, we synched the cranial bones, gloving up to do the internal maxilla, the teeth and the palatines. In the afternoon and in our final session, we gave the Core Lymph treatment which is a very different and much more gentle experience than manual lymph drainage. Instead of focusing on lymph nodes, it focuses on the ducts, the Cisterna chyli, the Right Lymphatic and the Thoracic ducts and preparing the heart to receive the transmuted lymph fluid. It is truly a magical treatment that boosts the immune system of our clients.
As Core practitioners our job is to witness without judgement what we’re palpating. By simply doing this we allow the Core current of our clients to move towards synchronization and towards greater health and harmony. We are not healers, we are mechanics. allowing our clients to reach a deep state of relaxation in which their bodies can heal themselves.
A revelation for me was that Alyssa does not consider Core Synchronism energy work. We agree that all bodywork is energy work, but because we are accessing the Core Current through the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), we are focusing on the mechanics of that movement and it is therefore not solely energy work. When I’m teaching Polarity Therapy, I tell students that that modality is a gateway between traditional forms of bodywork, such as Swedish massage and energy work, and I’ve thought of Core Synchronism as being even more in the realm of energy work. But, this workshop helped me remember that, while Core is a type of energy work, it is grounded in the fluid mechanics of the body, making it accessible to all, regardless of their ability to sense energy.
To learn more about Core Synchronism please visit Dr Robert Stevens’ (discover of Core Synchronism) sites nmsnt.org or coresynchronism.org There are lots of free articles, to sharpen your interest, available to read on the site. To really find out more, get a treatment with a Core Synchronism practitioner. We’re all over the country!
Exercise: Place the heel of you hand, palm towards your face, on the bridge of your nose allowing your fingers to mold around your forehead. Wherever your middle (fire) finger lands will guide you to Bregma, the anterior fontanel; the suture where the frontal bone meets the parietals. This is the spot where the Core current enters the body. Now using either your index (air) or fire finger, lightly touch that spot. By lightly, I mean using the same pressure that you would use to touch your eyelid. Listen with your fingertip for a spiraling current. From the top of the head it should be spinning clockwise, (from your face towards your right hand). It may be stopped or spinning counterclockwise; if so, stop it with your will and allow it to restart, it will start spinning clockwise. Don’t be frustrated if you feel nothing, be patient. It may be moving too fast to palpate, ask it to slow down. Keep listening. Try again. Still nothing? Try later today, try tomorrow, or the day after, you’ll get it. Whether you do or you don’t, get a Core treatment and it will help you feel what we’re talking about….Enjoy!