Monday, January 30, 2017. The last day of the stay in Seattle. Sharon Wheeler’s workshop had finished its full four-day run the previous day. The first day was covered in “A Technique for Carrying Out Session 7 Efficiently.”
On the first day, a client was brought in and Sharon gave a demonstration, introducing in the course of it every technique to be learned (the client demonstration ran close to three hours in total).
In the afternoon we paired up and moved into practice, taking our time with what had been shown — about three hours of it. The approach was thoroughly hands-on. Rather than the class format of introducing each technique carefully and having the participants pair up and practice it in turn, everything was demonstrated first and practice began straight afterward, and in that respect it differed from the Bone Work held in November 2016.
Anything unclear could be put to Sharon directly, and the class proceeded in a way that was characteristically hers — possible, I think, thanks to the good fortune of a small class of four.
On the first day I was on the receiving end. In Cranio Work, after checking from below the neck to the crown of the head, it begins with a technique called Cranio Torque, in which the temporal and parietal regions are lengthened with two fists; then the bone along the jaw, mouth, nose, and the outside of the eyes is traced as though tracing wet sand, bringing the bone into order; then the approach moves inside the mouth and the nose, and it ends by bringing the AO joint into order.
On the first day I received from a participant with twenty years of experience who had graduated from a school of Structural Integration. The change was strong, and on the second day I felt heavy.
On the second day it was my turn to work on my partner. Sharon’s teaching is grounded, and she points out precisely the places where mistakes are easy to make. Because of that, one becomes able to do it almost without noticing.
In the latter half of the second day, since I was feeling heaviness in the head, I received Cranio Torque from Sharon, focused on the right side where the heaviness was. Her touch on the head was lighter than expected, and how strong the impact was became apparent on sitting up.
The morning of the third day brought Sharon’s second client demonstration. Having practiced across the first two days, I watched the session with a clear sense of what was being done, so where the refinements lay and what was taking place became much clearer.
The afternoon of the third day and the morning of the fourth were given to four clients in total, two at a time, each handled by the participants. With two at a time, I observed on the afternoon of the third and practiced a session on the morning of the fourth. Since it ran close to three hours, I was able to keep my own pace.
The afternoon of the fourth day was given over to review, with detailed explanations of each technique using a skeletal model, and the workshop came to a safe close.
Sharon uses no anatomy and proceeds through the workshop in plain language, which makes what is learned usable the very next day.
This Cranio Work supplements session 7, and I think it will be useful for people whose left-right balance is disturbed and for people with shoulder tension who have trouble at the AO joint. Sessions resume tomorrow, and I would like to offer this to clients as well.
Note, August 2026
The same instructor changed her way of teaching according to the content. At the Bone Work in November 2016, each technique was introduced carefully and practiced by the participants in turn, one after another. The Cranio Work in January 2017 was different. Every technique to be learned was shown in a demonstration lasting close to three hours, and then the afternoon went straight into about three hours of practice.
Not building up in sequence, but showing the whole and then putting hands to work. And with almost no anatomy, in plain language. What is learned takes a form usable the very next day.
It brings back Ida’s teaching, described in the Bone Work entries: put him into water and let them swim or drown. That was the result of having no method available, but Sharon’s way looks like a method extracted from it. Secure the time to show the whole. Keep the group small. Keep it possible to ask about anything unclear on the spot. And then have them practice without a sequenced explanation. Throwing someone in and preparing what is in place before throwing them in are separate matters.
The same structure of understanding also occurred during the work itself. Watching the second client demonstration on the morning of the third day, after two days of practice with my own hands, what was being done was clearly visible. What had not been visible in the first day’s demonstration became visible after moving the hands. See, then move; move, then see again. The order does not run one way.
The classificatory system of Taxonomy received in the Advanced Training in 2025 has the opposite design. The kinds of standpoints are organized first, so that where to work from can be selected. It is a method of handing over the map before the walking.
Both are necessary, I think. Without a map the wandering never ends, but without the experience of walking the map cannot be read. Having walked without a map for four days in Seattle in 2017 took effect nine years later, when the map was handed over.