SomatoEmotional Release and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov

The essence of Jewish medicine is summed up by  the Rambam who tells us in the Laws of Character Traits (3:3) that though the purpose of life is  to  connect to Hashem, it is impossible to do so if one is hungry, sick or in pain! As such, the physicians job is to act as a messenger to help restore the balance which is lost when one is sick or in pain.  As a practitioner of Jewish Medicine, one of the tools that  I use in my practice to achieve this balance is CranioSacral therapy(CST), and its companion therapy, SomatoEmotional release (SER). CST is a gentle, hands-on technique, in which the therapist seeks to determine the causes of pain and dysfunction, and encourages the body’s self-correcting properties. The therapy utilizes the craniosacral system, a recently discovered phenomenon, which involves the membranes and fluids surrounding and protecting the brain and spinal cord (the dural tube). It is a semi-closed hydraulic system extending from the bones of the skull, face and mouth (which make up the cranium) down to the sacrum and tailbone area. Because of the network of fascia that extends from the cranium all the way down to the feet, a skilled practitioner can feel the CranioSacral rhythm anywhere in the body. Any trauma or injury, however, can cause a change to the normal CranioSacral rhythm, affecting either to its symmetry, quality, amplitude or rate. The result can be a somatic dysfunction manifesting as pain, headache, inability to concentrate, irritability, palpitations or depression. Abnormalities to any of the body's structures or functions, whether the nervous system, the musculoskeletal system, the blood vascular system, the lymphatic system, the endocrine system or the respiratory system, will usually influence the craniosacral system. The process of SER expands upon CST, to release emotional as well as physical traumas, some imprinted decades before, even from childhood, birth, or before, which the person has been carrying around like a weight, causing him dysfunction and eventually even collapse.

Recently I saw an amazing selection from Likutei Moharan (Anochi 4:5) in which Rabbi Nachman says that averos (sins) do the same thing to the body, and become imprinted in the bones!

"The sins of a person are on his bones, as it says in Yechezkel, 'And their sins will be engraved on their bones'. Every sins involves a combination of letters (permutation) , and when a person commits a sin, that bad permutation becomes engraved on his bones. Through this, the potential of the commandment he transgressed goes to the "other side", that of impurity, and he is given over to the"malchus" (dominion) of the gentile governments (instead of dominion of Ha-Shem), giving them power over him. If, for example, he violated the commandment, "You shall not have any other gods..," he destroys the good permutation of the commandment and builds (with the letters of that Mitzva) an evil permutation which then becomes imprinted on his bones and avenges him, as the verse says in Yermiyahu," Your sins have overturned these..." and as it says in Tehillim, "The deathblow of the wicked is evil". [So how does one extract, or release the imprint of the sin?] ( Note: this is the continuation of a previous chapter where Rabbi Nachman discussed this concept-YF) By confessing in detail the sin commited, to a Tzadik (holy person) who is also a scholar. This causes the letters that have been imprinted to leave his bones recombine, and re-form the letters of the commandment, as it says in Tehillim, "All my bones will say...," destroying the evil permutation that was built, and connecting him to the Kingdom of holiness."

May the merit of all the true Tzadikim protect us, and may we be worthy of releasing all of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual traumas, no matter how deeply they are embedded, enabling us to truly begin anew.