Ken Piercy, MTI, CST-D

CranioSacral Therapist

                    My journey into becoming a CranioSacral Therapist

The Long and Winding Road, or What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been.

When I graduated from high school in Dallas in 1972, well, let’s just say the Valedictorian’s position was not in jeopardy. 

From there, I went to college, majoring in Music.  I drove a truck to pay the bills. Was more successful as an Owner/Operator than as a guitar player, but kept in touch with the music bug.

After a six year stint in transportation, I jumped into the bar and restaurant biz, on the opening team and as a manager for a new venture called Dave & Busters.  That seemed to work pretty well in the eighties, but was very hard on the body.  Music, entertainment, theatre, and more fun than the law allowed.

Keeping my hand in music got me into audio engineering, which kept me sharp on wiring different electronics and sound production gear.  This was advantageous in learning and understanding telecom Central Office switches, the next step in the journey.

In 1988, I sailed straight into the telecommunications biz, with a little “think tank” group in Dallas.  We invented ways to attach payphones (remember dropping a quarter?), voice mail and central office switches.  As the patent administrator, I wrote several U. S. Patents, some of which I was a named inventor.  Many of which are now licensed to major telecom companies.  

In 1993, one of my experiments using myself as the crash-test dummy, a slide into 3rd base, severed the anterior ligaments in my ankle and ended my adult softball career. In the rehab, I was introduced to this new-fangled idea called CranioSacral Therapy. So, I started studying this stuff. 

It was during this time, my activities in music and audio engineering got me together with both the Vocal Majority and Bugs Henderson, two very dynamic, and very different styles of music. The Vocal Majority is an outstanding, international award winning male chorus, and Bugs is a blues guitar playing legend.  Working for years with these two groups gave me the opportunity to work in some of the finest venues from Seattle to Scotland.  Every beautiful theater and church in the Metroplex.  As well as some of the seediest gin-joints.

That got me all the way to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, aka, NARAS, or otherwise known as The Grammys.  One of the little known features of my past is that I held my spot as a voting member for The Grammys for about a decade, up until they started taking the melody out of music.  I don’t mean when Dylan tried in the sixties.  I mean when Eminem made a successful career out of it at the turn of the century.  (Bet you weren’t ready for that phrase again, were you?)  I realized I probably wasn’t the target market anymore, and politely bailed out.  

By 2003, I was still studying CST and getting pretty good in therapy practice, but I was still in a full time telecom management position. It’s pretty tough to jump out of telecom management money and go into some strange, new therapy that’s relatively unknown.  That’s where karma kicks in.

How do you make that jump?  The telecom corridor turns into the telecom cul-de-sac, dead ends and layoffs abound.  I get laid off. Next, I meet Sally Fryer and get a job offer at Integrative Pediatric Therapy as a CranioSacral Therapist. Then, Sally and Suzanne say, “Hey, we’re going up to the hospital to work on the conjoined Egyptian twins.  Ya wanna come along?” 

So, in two months time, I went from working in telecom to providing CST to the Egyptian twins.  Remember, I didn’t write this play. I’m just trying to act out a part in it.  But it sure is fun, working through the twists and turns.  The last twelve years have been the best years of my life.  And I look forward to the interesting things yet to come my way. 

What does all this have to do with my Curriculum Vitae, you might ask? Well, in the school of Hard Knocks, I’ve done plenty of graduate work. Everything from driving trucks and developing telecom to the U.S. Patent Office; from beautiful churches and theaters to bars, gin joints and the Grammys.  And a Near-Death Experience as the bicyclist in the Head-On Bicycle Motor Vehicle Collision.  That’ll advance your CranioSacral Therapy education, if ya live to tell the tale. 

In the world of therapy and body mechanics, I’ve used myself as the crash-test dummy on several occasions.  Only in the interest of science and furthering my education. 

In CranioSacral Therapy I’ve taken CranioSacral Therapy - CST 1 & CST 2, SomatoEmotional Release - SER 1 & SER2 , Advanced CST, Advanced 2, CST for Pediatrics, Therapeutic Imagery and Dialogue,  Clinical Applications of CST and SER with Dr. Lisa Upledger, CST for Obstetrics, CST for the Immune Response and CST Dissection.

In the Visceral Manipulation side of the International Association of Healthcare Practitioners (IAHP), developed by Jean-Pierre Barral, D.O., I’ve taken Visceral Manipulation - VM1 & VM 2 and Visceral Applications for Pediatrics.

Bruno Chikly, M.D. has brought to IAHP, Lymphatic Drainage and the Brain Curriculum, from which I’ve taken LDT 1 and BC 1 & BC 2.  His wife Alaya has contributed Heart Centered Therapy from which I’ve received HCT1 & HCT 2. 

I received my CST Techniques certification in 2005 and my CST-D Diplomate certification in 2007.

The road goes on forever...

Return to www.cstofdallas.com/

Built in Texas by Texans