What is SourcePoint Therapy®?

The following article was written by Jeffrey Maitland, author of three books: Mind Body Zen (Random House 2010), Spinal Manipulation Made Simple: A Manual of Soft Tissue Techniques (North Atlantic Books, 2001), and Spacious Body: An Exploration in Somatic Ontology (North Atlantic Books 1994). Jeffrey was one of my basic and advanced Rolfing teachers; he is a good friend and dharma brother of many years. He is an excellent healer and works in the energetic domain, as well as being a well-known instructor of Structural Integration and the use of the Cold Laser in a therapeutic context. Jeff recently attended a Module One of SourcePoint Therapy® in San Francisco; this was his very generous unsolicited response to SourcePoint.

What is SourcePoint Therapy®?

With one brilliant creative stroke, Bob Schrei and Donna Thomson have created a new form of energy work based, in part, on sacred geometry.  They teach a new way of dealing with dysfunction that does not employ manipulation to release fixations. Instead, their way of working is an order-bestowing approach that actually constitutes an alternative to manipulation. SourcePoint Therapy®, as it is called, is both powerful and profoundly simple”“ so simple, in fact, that almost anyone can learn it.

The essence of SourcePoint Therapy® consists of entraining the body to its energetic blueprint or template. All that is required of the entrainment practitioner is the ability to locate certain points (which are very easy to feel) in the energy field around the body, scan the energy field for dysfunction (which is also easy to feel), let go of all desire to fix the client, shift his or her orientation (intentionality) to allowing the entrainment to happen, and simply stepping out of the way and letting re-formation occur.  No attempt is made to release this or that structural, functional, psychobiological, or energy fixation.  The practitioner simply creates a space within which it becomes possible for the human body to entrain to its form-maintaining blueprint.

The body then re-forms itself”“not because fixations have been released, but because the practitioner steps out of the way and lets the entertainment do the work of re-formation. The Holistic practice of entraining to the blueprint deals with dysfunction and disorder by re-forming what is de-formed or distorted. As a result of directly introducing order back into the system, fixations simply disappear as a matter of course.  Traditional Holistic forms of manipulation deal with dysfunction and disorder by releasing fixations in the proper sequence.  Unlike SourcePoint Therapy, order is not introduced directly.  Rather, order is the end result of a process of eliminating fixations. To say it simply, the practice of entraining with the blueprint eliminates dysfunction by ironing out and re-forming what is distorted, whereas the practice of manipulation eliminates dysfunction by releasing fixations.

Upon first hearing the above description of how a SourcePoint practitioner works, you may think that it sounds suspiciously like a form of biodynamic cranial work.  For the sake of clarity, it is important to understand where they are the same and how they differ. They are alike in two ways.  First, the shift in orientation (intentionality) on the part of the SourcePoint practitioner to letting entrainment happen is the same shift in orientation that is required of the biodynamic practitioner when he/she lets the organizing forces do the work of releasing fixations.  Second, both call upon something else, other than themselves, to make the therapeutic change. The difference between them comes down to how they accomplish the aim of their interventions.  The biodynamic practitioner does his work by allowing the organizing forces of the body to do the work of releasing fixations. Since the aim is to release fixation, it is clearly a form of manipulation.  In contrast, since the SourcePoint practitioner does his/her work by allowing the blueprint to do the entraining re-formation, it is an order-bestowing approach, not a form of manipulation.

Understanding the difference between releasing fixations and entraining to the blueprint is important because the quality of an entrainment practitioner’s work is directly tied to how clearly he/she grasps this distinction.  It is quite common to slip from performing entrainment work into habitual ways of manipulating restrictions (e.g., unwinding) without noticing it.  When that happens the therapy is not as effective.  A clear grasp of the difference makes for a clear and appropriate orientation (intentionality) toward performing the work as well as clear intention about the nature of the work”“all of which adds up to more effective and efficient therapy.

©2011 Jeffrey Maitland