Board of Directors

Ruti Wagaki photo

Life for me began on the African continent and, having spent most of my childhood overseas, English is my second language. Much of my adult life has been lived in the United States, where a college dance injury set my path toward the bodywork field. I have maintained a private bodywork practice since 1996, practicing various iterations of Craniosacral Therapy since 1999. After twelve years teaching foreign language, I began instructing in the healing arts in 1997—first as massage school faculty and now as a BCTA/NA Approved Teacher. I am a current Teaching Assistant at the Barral Institute for Visceral Manipulation, and in 2014 I became certified as a Qigong Instructor. While serving on the BCTA/NA Board in 2020–2021 I helped establish the association’s Racial Equity and Inclusion Initiative, and two of my articles were published in the Cranial Wave, 2022 and 2023 editions. Living in the high desert Southwest, I enjoy hiking along with mountain biking and river running, and my work is currently centered in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and remote healing for clients around the globe.

I am a biodynamic craniosacral therapist and co-director of The Human Development Center Bellingham, Washington. I began studying craniosacral therapy 20 years ago while working as a care provider for children living with disabilities and in hospice. Growing up in Alaska gave me a deep respect for and intimacy with nature and the raw elemental power of this earth that has shaped my views of life, and the continuum of life. I currently works with prenates, newborns, infants, children, families, and individuals of all ages offering somatic process work, attachment and bonding support birth work/education, infant massage, BCST, and holistic resiliency.

My path to craniosacral started with western herbology, deepened into East West Planetary Herbalism and Ayurveda, and eventually to Reiki Mastery and a Registered Yoga Teacher certification. Along the way I also worked as a parent coach, work that, looking back, was already preparing me for the families I now serve.

Having run my own practice for the past seven years, I work with the breath of life and with the guidance of the body’s innate health. This way of being present with someone doesn't require fixing or explaining, and that has come to hold all the other threads of my training.

My practice centers on the thresholds of life. I work with families preparing for conception, with newborns, and with families approaching the end of life. These moments ask so much of us: patience, trust, surrender, and presence. I find deep meaning in offering steadiness to people as they move through them.

Following the path of my own healing, I began a bodywork practice as Licensed Massage Therapist in Ohio in 1996. I studied Polarity Therapy, Reflexology, and Upledger CST, and SER training. I became an RCST in 2007, mentored by Gary Peterson and served as a teaching assistant for several years. I have also enjoyed applying my biodynamic skills as a volunteer at a Farm Animal Sanctuary working with rescued horses, goats, pigs, and ducks (the chickens not so much, they always declined my invitation to settle!). I joined the BCTA/NA Board in 2011 and had fun creating Association’s first newsletter. Since 2012, I have served as the BCTA/NA Treasurer, bringing my long-time experience in corporate finance and nonprofit board leadership to help the organization grow. I live in Aurora, Ohio with my partner Christine, three mini donkeys (Mary Poppins, Buttercup and Ginny) and two cats (Dash and Dot) in the embrace of 6 1/2 acres of loving trees.

I taught all levels of education for over 40 years specializing in Learning Assistance/Special Education. Using Brain Gym in the classroom eventually led me to the many other modalities that I have learned to use in my practice. I was very excited after retirement, to be able to take the RCST^® training very close to home. I began this therapeutic practice in 2010. Since that time I have attended all of the in person BCTA/NA conferences, sat on the conference committees, and now have been on the Board since 2019. I feel very fortunate to do this work, be in the community of my colleagues and serve on the Board. I live and work in a private practice from my home in rural southern British Columbia.

Michael Hiraman Reynolds Board of Director

I am a Biodynamic Craniosacral Practitioner and teacher working with babies, pregnant people, children, families and adults in Bellingham, Washington. I grew up in the pacific northwest as an avid outdoorsman, sailor and mountaineer. I have done hands on and distance work since 1976, been an organic gardener and beekeeper since 1971. Working with honeybees and the earth has been and continues to be a profound education and influence in my life. Through most of my twenties I lived in a monastery in India and have had a meditation and equanimity practice for over 50 years. I teach stillness meditation, beekeeping classes and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy along with assisting Clara Cunningham in pre and perinatal somatic psychology courses. I have a deep interest in quantum field dynamics and perceptual fields and their relationship to stillness and accessing resilience and healing. Both myself and Clara Cunningham founded the Human development Center in Bellingham, Washington where we work, teach and play.

(More Biographies to come)

Maryann Herklotz photo

Roger Gilchrist

Become a Member