Meet Thomas

I took my first training in craniosacral therapy in 1993. This 3 day class was valuable because I learned that I could feel subtle motions in the cranium. I broadened my knowledge and opened up new possibilities about the body. I either did Rolfing or a cranial session. The problem was that I couldn’t figure how to integrate craniosacral therapy into my Rolfing practice. I wondered, “how can I use this work in a whole body way?” In 1996, I attended a lecture at the University of Vermont Medical School by Dr. James Jealous, DO, in which he talked about how the embryo’s early formation occurs outside of genetics, that these creative forces are still present in the adult and that they can be accessed for healing. I literally got chills up my spine! There was something here that resonated deeply within me.

At that time, Dr. Jealous was practicing in a town nearby. I contacted him to find out more about what he had said. He was very gracious in giving me his time, and I arranged several public presentations at which he agreed to talk. I found out early in our conversations that he doesn’t teach non osteopaths. I was not about to go to osteopathic school due to my age and family obligations, but I began reading all that I could concerning osteopathy and cranial work. I then found out that former Rolfer, Michael Shea, was offering a class in biodynamic craniosacral therapy. He talked about many of the concepts that Dr. Jealous talked about. I immediately enrolled in the 10 week course.

That training introduced me to a whole new way of thinking about the body and healing. I was introduced to WHOLISM, what it feels like, and how to shift my self to be able to perceive that which “chilled my spine” when first listened to Dr. Jealous speak. Even though I have around 1250 hours of training in biodynamic craniosacral therapy, I’m a Rolfer at heart. I have spent the last 12 years exploring how to integrate the contact skills learned in my biodynamic training into my Rolfing practice. The results have been profound and at times miraculous. I can get more done, with less effort (my hands never hurt) and my clients are much more comfortable.

Nothing of this nature is offered outside of a complete biodynamic training. My intent is to offer what I’ve learned and explored in a way which doesn’t diminish the essence of this approach and simplifies it for our profession. There is much that osteopaths have to offer and have discovered in their explorations. After all, Rolfing has a firm foundation in osteopathy’s principles! Since most osteopaths won’ t train individuals outside of their profession, I am offering what I have discovered from as nearly a pure translation as possible. I will only teach from my experience of what has worked. I want to provide the underlying principles and concepts allowing students to explore these skills in their own practices.

Thomas is a faculty member of the Rolf Institute® and has been a Rolfer® for 24 years. He has studied craniosacral therapy since 1993 and has over 900 hours of training in biodynamic craniosacral therapy. Thomas found it difficult to integrate his initial crainiosacral training into the Rolfing® paradigm. Typically Structural Integration involves working with the pieces to get the whole more emergent (integration). Biodynamics taught him that Wholeness, as expressed through Inherent Motion, is always present in the body and by orienting to wholeness, the pieces will reorganize to the whole. He has studied the mechanisms involved in how we first become embodied as embryos. This gives us clues about how the adult body maintains its health and is reordered when it gets disorganized. Thomas has spent the last 14 years integrating this knowledge into the Rolfing paradigm and he integrates this into all of his sessions and classes. One of his clients, an osteopath who was initially a Rolfer®, has stated that,”If I had learned how to Rolf like this, I never would have become and osteopath.”