“Traumas are released if they are listened to without judgement”

His hands are as large in reality as they are powerful when they rest on his patients. Through them, he ensures that he can listen to the soul of the people that, according to what he tells us, is always expressed in their bodies. And deep listening transforms them.

Mike Boxhall, long-serving British psychotherapist and craniosacral therapist, former President of the UK Craniosacral Therapy Association (CTSA), has spent most of his time traveling the US, South America and Europe for 15 years to teach his unique technique of contact craniosacral therapists.

A way of working that filled his consultation with couples seeking to resolve their infertility for years and that has made him the “grandfather” of more than fifty children.

Mike Boxhall, psychotherapist and craniosacral therapist

His technique is rooted in craniosacral therapy, a method developed by American doctor Andrew Taylor Still, who discovered that the bones of the skull, brain, spinal cord, and meninges are connected to the sacrum and all of them have a rhythmic movement. powered by cerebrospinal fluid. This rhythm expresses the imbalances of the organism.

But Mike Boxhall, who is also nourished by the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung and based on Buddhism, after years of practice has reached his own conclusions about life, disease and the mysteries that shape them.

-How do you define yourself?
—I like to see myself as a bridge between science and ancient wisdom. I am a psychotherapist and craniosacral therapist; that is, I work with the mind and the body. I am also the bridge between the two and I like to help people discover and integrate spirituality in their body.

Much is said about spirituality without taking into account that any spiritual experience takes place in the body and corresponds to a sensation. Spirituality is above all a sensory experience, otherwise we would be facing a concept, we would talk about it, but without really knowing what it is.

—And this establishment of spirituality that you encourage, is it really healing?
—The healing of both the body and the mind and soul is the result of complete acceptance, the easiest and the most difficult when it comes to living. I say it very often: there is nowhere to go, everything is in its place, we just have to wake up. Looking for happiness, we move away from it.

It only takes presence and stillness. Stillness is a state in which we are aware of what is happening without getting caught up in it or becoming attached to it. What I facilitate is that people come into contact with themselves and see who they are, where they come from…

And at the core of my work is the integration of the feminine and masculine principles, as defined by Jung. I’m not talking about genres. The feminine and the masculine can only be integrated through trust.

It is said that thinking is masculine and intuition is feminine. The world in all areas –and also in medicine– has an excess of the masculine and has been suppressing the feminine. Under these conditions we can never feel complete or balanced.

Spiritual work also means for me rebalancing these two principles and returning to the feeling of wholeness.

“Everything seems to lead in the same direction: honoring the heart, whose maximum expression is trust and not searching.”

—And how can we recover the balance; that is, to recover our feminine aspect?
—It’s basically about surrendering, surrendering. It is about abandoning the processes that take place in the head to allow Intelligence to emerge with capital letters, an Intelligence located in the heart.

It is learning to function with the heart, which is the source of authentic wisdom –sophia in Greek–, accompanied by the brain, but in a more balanced way. Scientists currently question the sovereignty of the brain and there are many who say that it is the heart that directs us.

Everything seems to lead in the same direction: honoring the heart, whose maximum expression is trust and not the search. The more we let go, the closer we are to Intelligence itself, which is the source of the universe.

“And this is health?”
-Absolutely. My work is a journey undertaken between two or more people at a level of being where there is no disease. The more we are able to surrender, to shed our armor, and to accept who we are, the closer we are to the source of All.

And by visiting or touching this very deep place, then, according to my experience, it is possible to return to your daily life without your pathologies returning with you. It is a rebirth in the present because you discover a deeper dimension of yourself, your essence, what you really are.

And for me that is what spiritual work consists of: it is not about going in search of an object, but about recovering the subject that you are.

—One of your mottos, and something you repeat to your students, is: “Let the work do the work.”
-Yeah. Most knowledge ends up being a limitation. So I go back to “I don’t know”. Scientists say that 90% of our pathologies arise from stress, which takes shape on a physical and psychological level. Then someone comes along, tags him, and ends up dealing with the tag, forgetting about the person.

Embarking on a spiritual journey means entering the unknown and the limitless, and that can be scary because we don’t know what we’re doing. It’s what I teach my students: no goal, and learn to trust the process. If you knew where you were going it would already be a limitation.

I show that I can let go, and what do I let go? My limitations. My little “I” to get closer to infinity. There is no success or failure, there are no silver cups, there is only learning and expansion of consciousness.

—And what, specifically, is the role of craniosacral therapy in this spiritual work?
—Craniosacral therapy is a very beautiful way of getting in touch and establishing a first connection with the body, but then I go further and say to myself: “I don’t know. I trust.” And then things start to happen…

Let’s say that I work now with Diana, who is here with us. I would be in physical contact with her, but my hands are not transmitters, they simply receive the person. The two great needs of a human being are to be supported and to be listened to. And we almost never have them covered.

My symbolic work is based on holding and listening to the person through my hands.

—Is it important to place your hands in the right place?
—The place where the hands are placed on the body of the person is not relevant because I do not treat organs or parts, but I support the Being.

And as that Being feels listened to, without being judged or analyzed – which in many occasions is something extraordinary for him – then he begins to trust that he is fine just the way he is and can find the courage to go deep. in his suffering.

The patient trusts that he will continue to be supported even though he visits his darkest places and allows himself to explore them. The magic is that those traumas buried for years, now heard and received without judgement, are released, what they have spent their lives reacting to suddenly disappears simply by being treated.

—It can be said that the body tells its story…
—I don’t know what the story is because this would be a limitation. What you know will always be a limitation in the process. What is important is what the other person, the patient, feels. I encourage my students to create the conditions for the patient to become empowered and aware of his habitual behavior patterns. But even under those conditions there are stories.

A woman I am currently treating was about four years old when she picked up the phone the way girls pick up the phone at that age, quickly picking up the hook and saying, “Hello.” Then a voice told him: “You should go look for your mother because your father has been murdered.”

Over the next few years, she gradually lost her hearing and is now completely deaf. She limited listening to her because of this episode. I am now working with her and I hope that she will gradually improve as well, but we’ll see.

“What is it that makes us sick?”
—I think that to a large extent it has to do with not being present and being tied to undigested issues that continue to ferment within us. The tendency to punish ourselves when we are not perfect, an energy that keeps us trapped in dissatisfaction.

And the body finds a way to express its discontent, its suffering or the trauma experienced, which may not be its own but that of the parents and can also affect us. The solution is to return to the present, where the cause of this suffering no longer exists, and take responsibility instead of continuing in the role of victim.

In that moment of present consciousness there is the possibility of opening a door to let go of what torments us. Simply by expanding consciousness, the transformation of people is observed.

At 85, Mike Boxhall radiates energy. He has been a craniosacral therapist and psychotherapist for 45 years, but before that he was a businessman, soldier and rubber planter. Jung’s approach to Buddhism and psychology changed his life. He now seeks to create a coherent model of body therapy that integrates mind and body. Among his books stand out quiet conversations (Ed. Advaitia, 2015), and the empty chair (Ed. The mustard seed, 2012).