Member Login

Criteria for Approving Teachers

In April 2000, the Board of Directors of the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America (BCTA/NA) approved basic criteria for approving teachers in the Biodynamic method of Craniosacral Therapy.

The BCTA/NA Teaching Community continues to refine these criteria as our organization grows and matures. The refined criteria represent a guide for future teachers and serve to facilitate the process through which Teacher Trainees are mentored experienced Approved Teachers.

Note: In the craniosacral therapy community, the terms Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and Craniosacral Biodynamics are used interchangeably.  Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is used here.

Fundamental Principle

The fundamental principle we follow is the Breath of Life and the unfoldment of the creative impulse as a potency both in our individual students and the organization as a whole. The BCTA/NA Teaching Community is dedicated to:

  1. holding the teacher-student relationship as primary,
  2. creating highly competent practitioners of biodynamic craniosacral therapy,
  3. promoting study and research that supports our understanding of the Breath of Life — the mystery of the Divine found in and around each of us that creates our unique incarnation.

The principle is intended to be met in keeping with the spirit of the teacher approval criteria, while allowing a Teacher Trainee's mentor to create some variation as needed.  The Teacher’s understanding of the BCTA/NA Standards for Practitioner Competencies  is an integral part of the skills necessary to convey these standards to students.

Teaching Goals

Teachers of biodynamic craniosacral therapy maintain a set of goals based on the unity of mind, body, and spirit as experienced in the present moment. These goals are to:

  • Maintain a focus on the Breath of Life as primary
  • Encourage the intuitive, imaginative and spiritual capabilities of the student.
  • Explore the ability to shift perception from analytical to self-reflective thinking.
  • Maintain the classroom as a sacred space that contains and nurtures the inner growth of the student.
  • Increase the capacity of students to deepen their awareness of basic biodynamic principles while acknowledging current models of neurobiology.
  • Create an expanded concept of health and healing as seen across cultures.
  • Provide the space to safely explore and hold the polarities of science and wholism, illness and health, spirit and matter, etc.

Teaching Skills

The skills that accompany the teaching goals include, but are not limited to:

  • Classroom management skills including the ability to help student’s process their experience
  • Cognitive and interpersonal skills that include a high sociability with both students and staff and the ability to be self-reflective and nonjudgmental.
  • The ability to explicate the underlying beliefs and expectations in the Standards of Practice.
  • Encouraging awareness and need for self-regulation or containment, especially emotionally and behaviorally.
  • Reducing the re-traumatization from touch and intimacy issues that frequently arise in students.
  • The ability to apply strategies for learning and to honor different learning styles; this includes equivalent demonstrations of learning when necessary.

Teacher Approval Quick Links: