Close-Up spotlights craniosacral therapist Tom Bertels

Brooklyn, NY -- While allopathic medicine views the human body in terms of systems and components, health doesn’t exist in isolation. According to craniosacral therapist Tom Bertels, we can benefit from a more holistic understanding of the human body.

Bertels is a founding partner of New Amsterdam Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, a practice dedicated to addressing the underlying issues that affect our overall health. A licensed massage therapist, Bertels has spent his career specializing in various somatic therapies that seek to integrate the mental, emotional, spiritual and physical aspects of our body.

“It’s the difference between a mechanical view of the body and an energetic view of the body,” explains Bertels, “The body holds conditions and patterns as a result of physical or emotional injury, but it also holds the key to resolve many of these conditions.”

There’s an inherent health to the body that’s being expressed all the time, stabilizing and organizing the body’s energies. In session, a craniosacral therapist “listens” to this inherent health through the fluctuations of cerebral spinal fluid. By working with the body’s inherent health and organizing forces, balance can be restored and symptoms alleviated.

“It’s easy to get someone on the table,” says Bertels. “The significance is: what do they feel like after they get off the table? What do they feel like the following week? And how do they feel about themselves?"

Restoring the body’s sense of balance requires that we open our mind to the intention and the possibility of change.

“We may address a particular complaint, but we treat the whole system," says Bertels. "Our job is to align with it and let it do the work. As a result, clients feel more integrated, balanced and regulated.”