Dear friends,
During our time in the womb, we are tethered inside the amniotic sac, protected and supported by its nourishing fluids and resilient membrane. And as we develop, we need the support and the resistance of this membrane to exercise our muscles, to grow our bones, and to activate our neural networks. — If you are a parent, you’ll recognize these indispensable in utero activities as that elbow or foot poking out at you from your pregnant belly.
Our need for support as a prerequisite for development remains a constant throughout our lives; as long as we will grow, so long we will need a foundation from which to develop.
In the lineage of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of Body-Mind Centering ®, and long my teacher, the principle that support precedes development is not abstract—it is deeply biological and profoundly experiential. It is also foundational to our craniosacral work. We do not impose change; we attune to the conditions that allow our inherent health to express itself.
From the moment of conception, life unfolds within support. The fertilized ovum does not strive or effort. It responds. Cellular division, specialization, and organization occur because the environment provides the warmth, nourishment, containment, and rhythms of support.
Photo: Martha Graham in Lamentation
Development arises through relationship.
As our embryological processes continue, each new expression of form and function emerges from the support of the existing ground. Fluids provide buoyancy and communication. Membranes create our protective boundaries. Bones emerge as supporting frameworks, allowing movement to organize with efficiency rather than strain. At no point does development happen in isolation.
Nervous System Support: Regulation
This same principle is alive in every craniosacral session. Before any shift can occur, the nervous system needs to feel safe and supported. Safety precedes regulation. Relationship precedes release.
When our system feels met—when we sense that we do not have to defend ourselves or perform—our parasympathetic nervous system, of which the vagus nerve (CN X) is the largest, is able to modulate the sympathetic nervous system’s fight/flight/freeze state allowing for better and sustained self-regulation.
Support precedes development not only in our tissues, but in the whole person. Emotional resilience grows through attunement. The capacity for change grows through being listened to without an agenda. Healing emerges not because something is fixed, but because the system is no longer working against itself.
As we broaden the lens, the same truth applies. Families, communities, and cultures develop in response to the supports that surround them. For example, Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. When care, stability, and connection are present, complexity and creativity can emerge. When support is withdrawn, our systems contract, condense, or collapse.
In craniosacral work, support is not passive. It is the active quality of presence—listening with the hands, with the whole body, with patience and humility. It is the willingness to follow rather than lead, to trust that the system knows its own priorities when given the right conditions.
Bonnie’s teaching reminds us that development is not something we make happen. It is something that happens when we provide the right conditions.
The question—in our lives, and in the world—is this:
- What kind of support is needed now for development to unfold?
And perhaps even more quietly: - How can I become that support?