Umbilical Holds
Contents
Common Holds
Above and below the umbilicus
Above and below the umbilicus
Above and below the umbilicus
Above and below the umbilicus
Overview
Basic Hold
Treatment Notes
Treatment Exercise: Supporting ignition via the umbilicus
1. Start at the sacrum
‣ Orient to resources and health. Take your time.
2. Place the head side hand under the back, at the level of the umbilicus
‣ Orient to the abdominal cavity.
‣ What is the quality of potency in this cavity? Does it feel alive, vibrant and full? Or are there qualities of absence, flatness, being empty, and hard to contact?
‣ Notice any shapes and patterns and signs of activation in the autonomic nervous system.
‣ Orient to any expressions of health. Can you support the organism to move from fragmented conditional experience towards the coherency of the deeper, slower tides.
3. Ask the client to place one or both hands over their umbilicus
‣ Use verbal skills to help them explore their felt sense of their abdomen.
4. Put the hand that was at the sacrum over their hand/s covering the umbilicus
‣ Let the client know you will be placing your hand over their hand/s. Go slowly.
‣ It is easy to feel through the client’s hand. Their hand being there can really help to provide a sense of containment and safety in meeting a potentially vulnerable area.
5. Work directly over the umbilicus without the client’s hand underneath
‣ If the client feels safe, you can progress to working with one hand directly above the umbilicus and one hand directly below.
‣ Appreciate the early relational dynamics that can be held in this region. When the cord was cut there was a huge transition from being dependent on the umbilical stream to the lungs and heart fully coming online. This ignition of the physiology is often non optimal and dampened down. The umbilicus is often coupled with shock affects, hardening in the abdominal muscles, contraction in the diaphragm and restriction of the liver.
‣ As the pattern of experience begins to resolve you may feel potency spreading out from the umbilicus and a sense of order and coherence infusing the whole cavity. Can you support this ignition of order?
6. Orient to long tide
‣ Be open to a connection to a greater wholeness via long tide. Can you find the interconnectedness underneath the patterns? Connect to the seed of life and appreciate what has grown.
‣ Nourish the vulnerability of the the umbilical connection and support the ongoing process of ignition and rhythmic balanced interchange.
Relevant Anatomy
Fetal circulation[1]
There is reduced flow to the lungs as the oxygen comes via the mothers blood and umbilicus. Before birth, blood is diverted away from the lungs via the foramen ovale between the two atria and the ductus arteriosus between the pulmonary trunk and aorta. The relatively high pressure in the fetal lungs shunts the blood through the ductus arteriosus into the aorta. At birth there is huge transition as oxygen supply shifts away from the umbilical stream and is supplied by the heart and lungs working together.
