About Me

Hi, I’m Kirsten . .

I first experienced craniosacral therapy when my midwife suggested I take my newborn child after our emergency cesarean. The room went still, the baby gazed intently at a Buddha statue on the shelf and went very quiet. The baby was a week old and shouldn't even have been able to focus that far away. Sleeping, feeding and tummy were all much better that night. I thought to myself "that was cool, I should get a session for myself one day".

Life, parenting, you know how it is . . so hold that thought for seven years or so. Then I was in an intensely stressful period in my life, and the right hand side of my neck and shoulder seized up. I tried lots of different things, many felt great and gave some temporary relief, but it just kept coming back. It was obviously affecting my movement, but also my sleep, my mood and my general resilience.

Somewhere in the middle of one painful night I remembered "what was that thing we did with the baby?". I hopped online and found a Melbourne practitioner (the closest one I could find) I went and had my first session.

I sat up on the table after that session and said “what on earth was that? what did you do”. After the second session, I had movement back in my neck and shoulder, and soon decided to enrol in a 2-year training course. This practice has profoundly changed and shaped my life since then. 

“what on earth was that . . you didn't do anything, what did you do?!”

Going a little deeper . .

This work is deeply personal for me. Six years ago I was deeply confused.

I had a successful career doing something that felt good for the world. I had cofounded and was running a not-for-profit organisation for 13 years. We had secured more funding than we’d ever had and were rapidly scaling up the team. I was happily partnered, parenting two gorgeous healthy young children, and helping run our regenerative farm. From the outside, I had a most excellent ethically-aligned and happy life. 

But on the inside, something felt deeply wrong. I was spending far too many waking hours looking at a screen and being grumpy and distracted from people, relationships and life all around me.

I started to have a pervasive and unsettling feeling that “this isn’t it, this isn’t what you’re here for, this isn’t enough”.

An inconvenient, pervasive and unsettling feeling that “this isn’t it, this isn’t what you’re here for, this isn’t enough”.

Quiet whisperings in dreams and insistent messages from my body. The refusal of my eyes to participate in late-night online meetings and an inability to care about my work even with an ever-increasing dosing of caffeine; and a dysregulated nervous system making me a snappy and volatile version of myself. 

Burnout? Yes, for sure. Peri-menopause? Yes that too. And yet, this increasing sense that my body was trying to get my attention - but what was it trying to say? 

Burnout? Peri-menopause? Inflammation . . sure, but is my body sending wake-up calls?

Discovery and practice of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy has been a central pillar of this building a new way of learning and listening:

. . Learning to listen to the quiet, insistent and wise stories of my body and my heart. Hearing them tell me just how much I needed to change to be really fully alive and in service to life in these incredible times.

. . Allowing that change to unfold, through a deeply uncomfortable shedding of my adult and professional identities. Navigating the very quiet space between what I was and the not-knowing ill-definement of what I am becoming. Allowing movement and direction to come from deep within the quiet stillness, guiding me on a very different path.

A big part of this change has been moving my attention from ‘saving the world’ i.e. trying to change what’s ‘out there’ - to working very closely within myself and other people to heal connection wounds, pain and trauma that keep us from connecting deeply and being fully alive. Many of us raised in the environment movement know the phrase “Think Global Act Local” . . it doesn’t get more local than right here, right now, inside ourselves.

In a world gone mad, with so much unresolved trauma and disconnection, a big question for me is “how do we deeply change the story?”

Biodynamic Craniosacral Practitioners and teachers have been my steady guides in this journey, along with many other teachers and lineages.

“Think Global Act Local” starts right here - inside ourselves

Acknowledgements

I live and work on Taunurung, Bangerang and Yorta Yorta Country in North-East Victoria, and sometimes practice on Country of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations. I acknowledge their deep knowledge and care for the health of people and Country over thousands of millennia - more than 2,000 generations. I offer my respect to their Ancestors, Elders past and present and acknowledge that the land has not been ceded - always was and always will be Aboriginal land. I pay the rent here.

I am in awe of and deeply grateful for this Country that I live and work within, with continually deepening relationships and guidance of magnificent and wise trees, plants, waters, stone, fire and sky.

My practice of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy has been developed primarily through the Body Intelligence Institute and Etienne Piersman. In addition to the Western lineage of this modality (primarily Osteopathy), it is important to recognise its origins in Native American bone-setting traditions (more here), and likely being informed by many other cultures for whom it has been a known way of healing.

Significant streams of my adult learning and practice have also been shared from Native American lineages such as Apache via Stalking Wolf and the Lakota Woptura traditions, via people (too many to name) and organisations who are teaching me how to become still and deeply connect with myself, nature and spirit. These include: Helpers Mentoring Society, Firekeepers, Nature's Apprentice, Wild Heart and 8 Shields Institute. I pay my deepest respects to the courage and determination of those who have guarded knowledge and kept ceremonial containers alive, and the generosity and vitality of those who share it with us now. Deepest gratitude also for the healing and guidance that has come direct from country and spirit within these practices.

I am queer, green, and strongly oriented towards community, social, racial and environmental justice. I have been enabled and shaped by movements and action in all these domains, as have my perspectives and practices that I bring to my work. I thank the generations and multitudes of activists who pioneer and persevere in pursuit of a fairer and safer world, for all of life.

I was born in Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara, Aoteroa  (Wellington, New Zealand). My ancestry is mostly Irish with a little English and Danish, and I was raised in the Catholic Church. The courage and determination of my ancestors to live and to thrive in all circumstances inspires me to honor them by doing the same.

And I acknowledge Susan Raffo, whose book “Liberated to the Bone” showed me the importance of being clear who I am and taking time to acknowledge and name it!

  • I just wanted to let you know how amazingly good I feel after Monday's session. Still. It's like a tonne of weight has been released. That I didn't know I was even carrying. So I guess there is likely still more to shed. Thank you soo much.”

    — Fiona, Mansfield

  • When you're going places inside yourself that are difficult to explain or understand, it's comforting, motivating and very exciting to go with someone who knows the way - or is willing to go there even when they don't.

    —Chris, Melbourne

  • After a treatment from Kirsten I feel calmed, nurtured and eased totally body and soul. Over the years I have had cranial treatment but the result with Kirsten has been the most profound.

    —Maryann, Violet Town

  • I went to see Kirsten as I was experiencing some body aches and pain after working long hours and weeks on end. My experience was very relaxing, much of what my body needed. Kirsten has a calming presence about her, and after 2 sessions, my aches have gone. I feel like my body and mind have had a reset. Will definitely see Kirsten again.

    —Jeska, Mansfield

  • Kirsten didn’t try to “fix” the grief; she helped my body and mind stop holding it in such a rigid way. That shift made it possible for me to process everything that had happened without being overwhelmed by it. If someone is navigating loss or carrying emotions that feel stuck, I would strongly recommend working with Kirsten. Her approach is subtle, but the impact is real. She helped me find a way to move forward while still staying connected to what mattered.

    —Emily, Melbourne

  • The treatments have been so calming and helpful to me, they feel like a collaborative merging of our energy fields, to facilitate my boy's "self-healing". But it's not something I could do on my own. It's hard to explain. I had very deep and significant shifting moments and inner world experiences. I always feel safe and like her energy provides access and protects me to venture deeper. I am so grateful for her care and support.

    —T.j. Melboune