THE BEFORE, THE AFTER and THE NOW
Carolyn Inabinet, author of The Cranial Connection (1986), is the Director/Owner and primary piano instructor at Music Works Community, an alliance of piano teachers located in Phoenix, AZ since 1974.
Carolyn was a 1968 Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of Tennessee with a BA in music and French. In addition, she pursued extensive graduate work in instructional technology and design, musicology, early childhood music, piano and classical organ.
Ms. Inabinet, the co-author of Practice and Progress (1992) and The FJH Studio Organizer (2002), is a nationally certified teacher of music (NCTM). In addition, she is the creator of PianoFonics, supplemental materials for beginning piano instruction.
May Song
Enrique Granados
The hand is a miraculous creation.
What do an Osteopath and a Piano Teacher have in common?
TOUCH
The artistry of ten fingers flowing across piano keys is audible and visible…
vibrations of Sound the ears can hear and the eyes can see.
The artistry of ten fingers palpating the body is silent and invisible…
vibrations of Silence that the body can feel and the mind can sense.
Both exemplify the exceptional, the remarkable, the extraordinary..
Music evokes a ‘felt’ sense beyond words.
Palpation elicits a ‘felt’ sense beyond belief.
HANDS OF HARMONY
OUR GOAL
The Cranial Connection Paradigm
reveals the value and serves to validate
the Osteopathic Cranial Concept legacy
and the results of Osteopathy in the Cranial Field.
The misinformation and misinterpretation
of this medical concept and specialty continues to remain
undervalued and discredited.
THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE
My extraordinary experiences with cranial Osteopathic treatment
not only sparked curiosity but also generated intense motivation.
I wanted to understand how this doctor was facilitating
the amazing changes that were happening in my body.
I wanted to become an Osteopath.
The Genesis of The Cranial Connection
A fine arts degree in music was not preparation for medical school. In 1984, I enrolled in pre-med courses at Arizona State University to meet undergraduate pre-requisites for application to Osteopathic medical school. An elective graduate physiological psychology course required a research paper. Thanks to a referral from an Osteopath, a neighborhood osteopathic hospital with a library opened their doors to me and my research was simplified. This paper was The Cranial Connection; my professor was most interested in the content and served as the first ‘editor.’
I received permission to use illustrations for my research paper from John Upledger, DO and author of Craniosacral Therapy. I had been a ‘demo patient’ for Dr. Upledger in his Phoenix workshop. My applied anatomy coursework was not in the classroom at ASU.
This paper ‘attended’ an annual American Academy of Osteopathy convocation in the hands of my osteopath who was most appreciative of my research project. The positive response of his colleagues prompted the publication of The Cranial Connection (1986). This synthesis of published material became a professional introduction to the anatomical and physiological basis of Osteopathy in the Cranial Field. Osteopathic medical schools offered copies in their book stores and it was used as an introductory text for over a decade at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. The AAO invited me to their Seattle convocation where they hosted a “Meet the Author” recognition reception. Over the next several years, around 5,000 copies circulated around the world. I received notes of thanks from medical doctors, osteopaths and dentists as far away as Australia, China, Austria, Germany and Brazil.
This was the era before computers and internet. I had rented a Selectric typewriter to type the paper for my class requirement. This was also the era of my divorce. The paper reached the mediation courts of Phoenix in addition to the AAO Convocation. The Cranial Connection and my stacks of articles became my defense during a nine-month mediation court saga in a custody battle with my attorney-husband to prove my ‘competency as a parent’.
Shared custody was granted. Differences of opinion in the 1980’s did not mean incompetence.
I never became an Osteopath.
Life had radically changed in the five years following my introduction to Osteopathy.
The Cranial Connection reached more health care professionals
than patients I could have treated had I been able to place the letters D.O. (Doctor of Osteopathy) after my name.
Instead, I created a music school with a primary focus on piano instruction for all ages, 3 – 93.
For forty-five years, I have taught hundreds of students – kids and adults – how to use their ten fingers
in a very different way than if my hands and fingers had learned how to treat patients.
THE NOW
Forty years and counting….
The world of cranial Osteopathy as the primary form of medical care in my life
progressed gradually, simply because there were no answers or help elsewhere.
The limitations of surgery, pharmaceuticals, and medical specialization
were surpassed by an integrated approach to body structure and functioning.
The Whole is greater than the sum of the Parts.
What was done in the name of medicine and dentistry,
and that which could be undone,
slowly unfolded.
Initially, there was no belief or faith…only skepticism and doubt.
Time after time, inconceivable surprises cultivated a Trust –
in the process, in my body and in the doctor.
And from these experiential moments flowed a Knowing.
And, thus a metamorphosis began that fashioned faith and later became
Conviction and Certitude.
And a different Reality materialized.
“You believe only when you
do not know.
Belief and doubt are
equal terms.”
Andrew Taylor Still,
founder of Osteopathy
An unimaginable and phenomenal Paradox
was unveiled during these years of medical mayhem:
1- there has been a progressive ‘unraveling’ of complex medical trauma over the years.
Vitality and resilience materialized rather than deterioration and debilitation.
furthermore,
2- this reversal or ‘unwinding’ was accomplished through the art of palpation
…TOUCH.
Communication ‘in-between’ Doctor and Patient
…the insightful and remarkable perception of the causation of the patient’s condition
by the Osteopath… and the treatment and recovery that followed.
…a ‘counter’ entropic phenomenon for the patient that not only treated the
condition but also generated improvement of overall health.
This is why I have become a StoryTeller
…and not just my story, but other amazing stories.
Discover a different perspective with remarkable possibilities.
Witness the unfolding of Radical Optimism.
Explore the Extraordinary and the Surprising.
Journey on a “Road Less Traveled”
into vitality and health with a
Piano Teacher and an Osteopath…
rejuvenation, rehabilitation, repair, restoration, regeneration
after the Silence of the ‘Before’
THE BEFORE BEGINS
