We are delighted to be welcoming Tad Wanveer, author of the book Brain Stars, Glia Illuminating Craniosacral Therapy, back to the UK soon to present CST Touching The Brain 1 and 2 courses.
Tad worked closely with Dr. Upledger, mainly while he was a staff therapist at the Upledger clinic serving as head of the intensive therapy program, clinician, co-director of the clinic, and illustrator of various work published by Dr. Upledger, such as Cell Talk.
As a blogger and journalist I have found myself doing some weird stuff over the years … sitting naked inside a chamber being bombarded with ozone, for example; leading a horse around an obstacle course using only my thoughts; reviewing a Shakespeare production performed inside a gigantic steel box with only buckets of blood as props.
Since 2015, when Eric Moya developed the mentoring programme and visited from across the pond to train up a group of our qualified practitioners, we have been able to offer students mentoring as an additional support mechanism. However, it seems that there is still some confusion as to how it differs from a study group.
Meet Natasha Calia, a participant in the June IP. As a therapist and CST student, she discovered on CST1 that the work touched her deeply, and so decided to jump into 5 days of it with both feet! She spoke to us about her experience.
First off there is the dough, a mixture of flour, water, and a bit of yeast to help it rise. You mix it, knead it, let it rest a while until you are ready to roll it out.
Could you tell us a little about your background and what first got you interested in - and then committed to - CST?
I began my career as an acupuncturist in 1979. I kept hearing about this mysterious modality called CranioSacral Therapy and I was intrigued. One weekend I received a massage at a local health spa and at the end of the session the therapist did two amazing things that dramatically changed my state both physically and mentally. (I didn’t know it at the time of course, but she did an OCB release and a CV4 still point.) I got off the table afterwards and said, “What was that?? Wow!” When she replied, ‘CranioSacral Therapy,’ I began looking for a course.
My year begins in October 2017. I had finally committed to rebooting my focus and set my intention to complete the Upledger training. I had been sidetracked for a good five years by family ill-health, death and random accidents and, as a mother of three and the only child close by to ageing parents, I spun and juggled the family plates. But looking up, once all those around me were stable and settled, it was time for me.
The Intensive Therapy CST course changed my outlook on life. This is what people need, it’s what they want from therapy. We need human touch. We need genuine care and compassion. I felt love in that room – and I loved the Upledger approach, the therapy and the people.
For the last 14 years, I have been running multidisciplinary osteopathy clinics , but before that I was a bouncer!
My brother is an osteopath and my sister a palliative care consultant, and although historically, I had never had a specific interest in therapy myself, I have always been very much a ‘people person’ and minded about people...
'The Foundation Certificate in Body Science is not just for people without any anatomy training. I found it so useful with my experience as a therapist, because it ‘pulled it all together’ for me and I could relate it back to my practice.'