course overview and schedule

Instructors

Margaret Rosenau, RCST®, SIH owner and approved BCTA instructor; and Vanessa Lillie, RCST® and approved BCTA instructor

Schedule

The dates listed here are 3 options for the Intro to BCST/Module 1 of the training. Module 1 can be taken as a stand-alone introductory course with no obligation to continue with the full training.  Invitations to enroll in the full certification training will be extended after completion of this Intro course.

Intro/Module 1  Online Nov 1, 3, 4, 2024  &  On-site February 22-24, 2025

Intro/Module 1  Online Feb. 8, 9, 11, 2025  &  On-site February 22-24, 2025

Intro/Module 1  Online May 3-5, 2025  &  On-site June 6-8, 2025

(Online Schedule: 9:30-10:45a / 11:15a-12:30p / 2:30-3:45p / 4:15-5:30p  –  On-site Schedule: 9:30a – 6p with breaks and lunch)

* Please note:  Modules 2-10 of the full Professional Practitioner Certification Training are all 5 days on-site here at the school in Denver, Colorado

Module 2 – Sept 24-28, 2025
  Fluid Dynamics

Module 3 – Dec 10-14, 2025
  Embryology, Epigenetics & Spinal Vertebrae

Module 4 – March 11-15, 2026
  The Autonomic Nervous System

Module 5 – June 10-14, 2026
  Tissues: Motility & Mobility

Module 6 – August 26-30, 2026
  Cranial Bones, Brain & Sinuses

Module 7 – November 11-15, 2026
  The Gut, The Face and Viscera

Module 8 – Feb 10-14, 2027
  TMJ, Stress, and the Central Nervous System

Module 9 – April 28-May 2, 2027
  The Pelvis, Stages of Birth and Ignition

Module 10 – July 14-18, 2027
  Integration, Completion & Graduation

Course Overview

“A biodynamic approach to Craniosacral Therapy entails a real perceptual shift from the patterns that conditions present within the system to the inherent forces that organize them.”
~Franklyn Sills~

The School of Inner Health’s Craniosacral Biodynamics Certification Training leads to RCST® (Registered Craniosacral Therapist) practitioner status. The training consists of 51 days, divided into ten modules of five days each, held roughly two months apart. Certification is for 700 hours of training: 350 in-class hours and 350 hours in practice sessions and independent study. Module 1 may be taken independently, but for certification purposes and in support of group dynamics, those desiring to complete the training and be eligible for RCST® status should plan to take the ten modules concurrently.

Craniosacral therapy is an elegant and effective system of healing based on the discovery by Dr. William Sutherland that there exists a subtle micro-movement in the body. Through extensive experimentation, early osteopathic physicians noticed that when this motion is in full expression, many conditions improve. “Craniosacral” also refers to the significance of the central structures of the body including the cranium, spine, and sacrum.

The biodynamic paradigm, which underlies our approach to craniosacral therapy and all courses at the School of Inner Health, focuses on amplifying the inherent health and healing capacity of the system. Though health is always present, it can be obscured by overwhelming challenges.

Skilled biodynamic craniosacral practitioners catalyze the healing process with their informed presence and attention, helping to facilitate well-being anywhere in the human body. They are trained to recognize a client’s whole body as inherently well, regardless of symptoms or injuries present. They also have a solid knowledge of anatomy and can recognize both the patterns of restriction and the patterns of health in bones, tissues, and fluids, including the cerebrospinal fluid.

In this training, students will delve deeply into the core elements of the biodynamic approach to craniosacral therapy. The training is taught in a layered fashion, exploring anatomical relationships between fluid, tissue, and bone. We focus on the relationships rather than structures or functions in isolation. The training is structured to reflect the development of the human body and its systems. You will begin by learning to recognize and respond to formative energetic forces and the life force in our bodies. You will then explore fluids, tissues, the nervous system, embryology, the cranial system, and other aspects of the anatomy and physiology of the human body.

The course is filled with endless discoveries about the body and ourselves. As a graduate of this program says: “If you took this class for personal growth alone, it would be worth every penny.” Students are encouraged throughout the course to challenge what they’ve previously believed and follow what interests them. The course is taught in a way that sparks curiosity and builds confidence.

Students learn to refine subtle levels and layers of perception that are uncommon in the modern worldview. In a world where we see everything as separate, the ability to make connections is essential. This is the ultimate goal of the course: for students to have a greater facility with, and understanding of, the whole human body, as well as the ability to meet each body, person, and story with skill and presence. The world is alive, and a myriad of relationships are occurring in our body and environment every moment. Students learn to reconnect to their own aliveness, to their own living vitality, and to the vitality in the living world. This is an essential skill for a Biodynamic Craniosacral therapist and for any one working in the field of Biodynamics.

In this training, you will:

• Learn experientially through hands-on work, exercises, and lecture in a relaxed, safe, supportive environment

• Deepen and expand your subtle, therapeutic, relational, and non-invasive palpation skills

• Develop essential skills that enable you to track the human system in its expressions of health as well as patterns of resistance, imbalance, and disease

• Learn to palpate the three subtle craniosacral ordering rhythms and tides

• Learn safe and effective approaches to a variety of human conditions

• Explore in depth aspects of craniosacral therapy, including primary respiration, inherent Health, stillpoints, and the inherent treatment plan

• Discover and experience how primary respiration generates and maintains function

• Go in depth into the topics of the relational field, biodynamics, fluids, tissues, nervous system, embryology, the cranial system, and working with birth and death

• Explore anatomical relationships between fluid, tissue, and bone

• Discover how to palpate the formative forces of the human system

• Learn to embody your awareness at a deeper level

• Learn to palpate the difference between when an experience or symptom is held in stasis or inertia and when it is in relationship to its inherent Health, often called Dynamic Stillness

• Learn to skillfully invite physical and emotional life experiences that have become isolated by pain, strain, disease or trauma to find their way back from isolation to wholeness

• Work directly with the nervous system and learn to amplify the cerebral spinal fluid that bathes the spine and brain, supporting improved nervous system function

• Learn to support clients in transformation and personal growth

MODULE 1

Renowned osteopath James Jealous said, “It’s none of my business how the process of healing is occurring.” What is our business, and our focus in Module One, is how to create the conditions that allow healing to occur. A necessary condition for healing is a healthy relational field. In this module students learn about the relational field, the core components of the Biodynamic paradigm and begin to develop perceptual and palpation skills. Students are introduced to the anatomy and physiology of the Craniosacral system including the cerebrospinal fluid. It has been said that the whole training is touched in Module One because it teaches both the foundational skills of Biodynamics and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, providing students with many tools to create the conditions for healing.

MODULE 2

Ah, the fluids! In this module we dive into this essential realm that is a core component of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. Students are introduced to and begin to recognize the fluid field and the expressions of the fluid tides with their distinct qualities and rhythms. This fluid field recognition will in turn support recognition of bony and tissue motion. We also explore potency and activation and discuss how to recognize the “absence” of fluids. Students will increase their perceptual and experiential skills of the inherent treatment plan, motility and formative forces.

MODULE 3

In this module we return to our origins as we explore the vast and dynamic world of Embryology. Embryology is a profound and important life stage and a significant part of our anatomy study in our Craniosacral Foundation training. We didn’t just begin our human journey as embryos, these embryonic shapes and forces are still within us, and we can contact them. When we do, our therapeutic capacity and connection with the original intentions of our incarnation increase exponentially. Knowledge of embryology helps students and practitioners to relate to wholeness from the earliest moments of a human life. We will focus on the first two months of human development and specifically on the formation of the nervous system, vertebrae, and heart, and the developmental dynamics of folding and unfolding. We discuss conception and implantation and explore the imprints of these experiences. Students learn about the role of epigenetics and ancestral imprints. We also explore the fascial relationships between the cranial base, spine and pericardium. The second and equal focus of this module will be the spine. Students will learn to work with cervical, thoracic and lumbar vertebrae and deepen their ability to perceive layers of tissue, fluid and bone.

MODULE 4

The orientation of Module Four is to the nervous system, both the central nervous system and the triune nature of the autonomic nervous system. Nervous system dysregulation is the underlying current in over 80% of health conditions. Students learn about the nature of trauma and the value of resources and how to recognize and support the expansion of the window of presence and resilience. We discuss the components of the orienting response. We will explore each branch of the Triune Nervous System (Stephen Porges) in depth. Students will deepen their knowledge of their own nervous systems as well as gain concrete tools and knowledge for supporting others.

MODULE 5

In this module we explore the vast interconnectedness of the tissue field including mesoderm, fascia, ligaments and muscle tone. Students will begin to weave together their knowledge of fluids and tissues and deepen their understanding of potency and mid tide. In the middle of this module, we begin to explore inertia and the imprints of unresolved experiences in the tissue field of the body while maintaining awareness of the larger field of health. Students learn to orient to the natural fulcrums of the body and the entire reciprocal tension membrane system. Students learn to recognize and palpate the movements and restrictions of the Dural membrane and the reciprocal tension membrane system. Lecture topics will include tensegrity, natural and inertia fulcrums, states of balance and balanced membranous tension.

MODULE 6

Module Six involves a deepening exploration of the bones of the cranial base and vault as well as the brain tissue, ventricles, and venous sinuses. Students will expand skills of recognizing and working with shapes introduced in Module Five and learn to identify the nature of intrinsic and compromised bony motion more precisely. A meditation with William Sutherland’s lecture, “tour of the minnow” will facilitate a dive into ventricular relationships. Students will gain skills to recognize brain structures and will be introduced to the venous sinus system and learn how to support the drainage of the venous sinuses.

MODULE 7

Module Seven explores the two seemingly disparate regions of the face and the gut, which are connected physically through the esophagus, and both intimately involved in emotional responses or defenses. We palpate a variety of facial bones and explore facial bone relationships. Sessions include working intraorally with the soft and hard palate. Students also palpate the esophagus and gut and increase their understanding of the Vagus Nerve and Vagal Tone. The final protocol of the module involves both facial bones and the pelvic floor. Lecture topics will include the latest information on the gut / brain connection and how to support people with a variety of gut-related illnesses.

MODULE 8

Module Eight explores the head, neck and shoulder region in depth, studying the bony structures of the mandible and hyoid, as well as revisiting the fascial connections from the cranial base to the pericardium. This module could also be called “Nervous System II” as we visit the relationship between trauma and pain and the role of neurotransmitters and fluid dynamics in the stress response. Students learn to disengage nociceptive facilitated segments. In this module we also re-visit and expand upon earlier explorations of joints including the shoulder and O/A joint, and then learn about the function and dysfunction of the Temporomandibular joint and external and intraortal protocols to support decrease and / or resolution of TMJ symptoms.

MODULE 9

In Module Nine, we consider the cranium in the pelvis. We discuss the birth journey and explore the birth patterns that imprint the cranium of the baby and the pelvis of the mother during a vaginal birth process. In addition to birth stages, students will revisit intraosseous patterns and learn about the possible impacts of interventions including cesarean birth. Homework given before the module will provide students with a lens through which to understand and begin to differentiate from their own birth material.  Additionally, students have the opportunity to experience a supported birthing process as a client and to learn the practitioner skills needed to recognize and support a magnificent and potent expression of the breath of life known as ignition.

MODULE 10

In Module Ten we review the key components of the training, thread everything together and tie up loose ends. Students participate in both hands-on and written assessments of their ability to perceive and facilitate shapes in the different layers, their knowledge of practitioner skills and their capacity to recognize and facilitate shifts in nervous system states. We revisit and deepen earlier teachings about the heart, the nervous system, the fluid and the fascia. We discuss in depth what it takes to build a successful practice in the field. Students engage in self-exploration around their goals and concerns and identify concrete action steps.

Class Venue

School of Inner Health, 7550 W. Yale Ave., B-204, Denver, CO 80227

Required Reading

Resources Page

MODULE DATES- COHORT GRADUATING 2025

Intro/Mod 1 a    February 9, 10, 12 and March 31 - April 2, 2023

Intro/Mod 1 b    June 27, 29, 30 and August 11-13, 2023

Intro/Mod 1 c    August 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 2023

Module 2            December 6-10, 2023

Module 3            February 21-25, 2024

Module 4            May 1-5, 2024

Module 5            August 7-11, 2024

Module 6            October 23-27, 2024

Module 7            January 22-26, 2025

Module 8            April 9-13, 2025

Module 9            June 11-15, 2025

Module 10          August 27-31, 2025

MODULE DATES- COHORT GRADUATING 2026

Intro/Mod 1 a  February 7 ,9, 10 and March 1-3, 2024

Intro/Mod 1 b  May 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 2024

Module 2           September 25-29, 2024

Module 3           December 4-8, 2024

Module 4           March 5-9, 2025

Module 5           May 14-18, 2025

Module 6           August 6-10, 2025

Module 7           November 12-16, 2025

Module 8           February 11-15, 2026

Module 9           April 22-26, 2026

Module 10        July 8-12, 2026