Craniosacral Therapy & Health
Before we dive in, I want to acknowledge that I’m being selfish right now. This year has been devoted to a deep dive into nutrition, what the research actually says, how the different topics tie into social justice issues, and actionable steps.
This week, I really want to talk about craniosacral therapy, and since I’m in charge of what makes it onto this page, I’m going to!
I hope you don’t mind indulging me this week, and I promise that I will get back to the regularly scheduled program next week.
Top left: me in 2009, very swollen and painful! Bottom left: me in 2017 with my trusty wheelchair and Tedward. Right: Me in 2020 feeling so much better!
Why I Am In Love With Craniosacral Therapy:
If you are familiar with my story, you know that I live with chronic pain and limitations in my mobility. I have tried many different paths to healing and it wasn’t until I began incorporating craniosacral therapy into my treatment that I started noticing major improvements in my condition.
I knew that physical therapy and bodywork can be helpful for my condition (psoriatic arthritis) and others with chronic pain, but every time I visited someone for treatment I felt worse. Chiropractic adjustments would just pop back out immediately. Physical therapy and exercise tended to create inflammation cycles that would put me in bed. Massage was excruciating, and acupuncture was hit or miss. I changed my diet frequently, trying to find the right balance. I took supplements 3-4 times a day and by the handful.
Even the hard-hitting pharmaceutical medications either only worked for a short period of time or actually made everything worse, including my mental state. I was frustrated and in ever increasing amounts of pain using a wheelchair during longer family outings. My hands had lost most of their function, and I felt like a failure as a medical professional, wife, and mother. Life was rough!
Craniosacral therapy came into my awareness several times beginning in medical school and extending through my early years as a doctor. I was interested, but placed my focus on being the best primary care physician I could be. Also, I didn’t think my body could handle providing, let alone receiving, bodywork. I was wrong! In the five years since I began my craniosacral therapy training, my health, my medical practice, my plans for my future, and my outlook on life have all been transformed.
Don’t get me wrong, I still deal with pain on a daily basis, but it is manageable with mostly predictable patterns. I can usually identify my triggers and adjust accordingly. I do not take pills by the handful, and I no longer need to wear different braces. I eat a wider variety of foods than I had before. I can now exercise, and my wheelchair hasn’t been out for the past three years.
To sum it up, I am in love with craniosacral therapy because it works. It works like nothing else I have encountered in my life and my career. It works for me and it works for my patients.
Some things need to be experienced to be truly appreciated!
Explaining Craniosacral Therapy:
This is one of those fun exercises where you get to try to explain something that is both quite technical and also a bit esoteric. It’s a near-impossible task, but I will do my best. If you want to learn more, I recommend scheduling a session to experience it first hand. Even my patients have a hard time trying to communicate their experiences to others.
First, I will state that I practice craniosacral therapy as taught by the Upledger Institute with a strong influence from Systems Informed Body Mind Therapy thrown in for flavor. There are other schools of craniosacral therapy, but I do not have training in these and therefore cannot evaluate or educate on them.
Upledger craniosacral therapy focuses on the physical structures of the body with amazing attention to detail. The skill to feel subtle rhythms and structures within the body and changes in tissue is required to practice craniosacral therapy. Patience and the ability to be fully present in the moment with no attachment to the treatment outcome is also necessary. That being said, it takes a special skill set that cannot fully be taught in order to be a craniosacral therapist. I tip my hat to all the therapists out there wherever they are on this journey: it requires an exquisite amount of self reflection and inner work!
Craniosacral therapy focuses on the central nervous system: The brain, the spinal cord, the cranial nerves, the spinal nerve roots, the bones of the spine and skull, the cerebrospinal fluid, the meninges, and all the tissues that are associated with these structures. Expanding out from there, we evaluate and engage the fascial network of the body, the bones and joints, the fluids of the body (blood, lymph, interstitial fluid), the muscles, the peripheral nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, and more.
In order to feel and work with all of these different structures, we use very light touch to engage the tissues and then follow any movements that present. Watching a craniosacral therapy session is quite boring, but being a part of the treatment is always captivating. As the tissues move under the practitioner’s hands, they interact with other structures in all dimensions and throughout the entire body. It’s not uncommon to be working in one area while the person being treated experiences changes in another area. Remember the song about the knee bone being connected to the shin bone, etc? We really get to experience this with craniosacral therapy.
The goal of treatment is to be in constant communication with the person’s tissues and follow their lead in order to change old patterns that are creating pain or dysfunction. Sometimes, old memories of injuries or emotional traumas come up during treatment. Using gentle words, soft hands, and the patient’s awareness of their body and the story it is telling, we work together to better understand the connection between what happened and their current state. Often this results in shifts in the tissues and deeper insights that can be taken to mental health practitioners for further work.
It is gentle yet profound work. While assisting in a recent course, the instructor Mariann Sisco, PT summarized craniosacral therapy: “The body is in a state of organized dysfunction. We gently disorganize it and ask it to reorganize more functionally.”
Because craniosacral therapy works with the brain and nervous system, it tends to be a very relaxing and deep treatment.
What To Expect From A Craniosacral Therapy Treatment:
Expectations are a sure route to disappointment, but I will try my best to paint a picture of a “typical” craniosacral therapy session with me.
When we meet in your home, I will bring my massage table with me unless we have decided on another arrangement. Before we move to the table, we will check in on how you are doing then I will ask you questions to better understand your situation and assess for anything that needs further evaluation. We will then discuss your goals for treatment and answer any questions you have. This is also when we will discuss any ground rules for how we will move forward. If you want me to ask permission before touching certain body areas, let me know. If you do not want me to work in certain areas, let me know. If you want me to tell you what I’m feeling as I go, I will do this too - until you fall asleep or are no longer interested.
Our time together will have been agreed upon in advance and ranges from 60 minutes up to 120 minutes depending upon your resources and preferences. Once your health status has been assessed, your questions have been answered, and any non-craniosacral therapy needs have been addressed, you choose when you are ready to get onto the table.
On the table, you will lay face up and fully clothed. We can use blankets, pillows, and bolsters to ensure your comfort in this position. If you are unable to lay on your back, we will adjust accordingly.
When you are comfortable, I will ask you to set a one to three word intention for the day’s treatment. I will then begin by touching your head or your feet and move through a full-body evaluation creating a map of the patterns of tension through your body. From there, I will determine where to begin treatment and then follow your body’s lead. I won’t know where to begin until I have had a chance to check in with your tissues.
We then work together, me by contacting your tissues with my hands and you by falling asleep, paying attention to what is happening in your body, or allowing your mind to drift off and daydream. Often a combination of all three occurs spontaneously during treatment.
When we near the end of our time or your body signals that it has had enough for one day, I will make sure you are well integrated and we will wrap up our session and discuss scheduling our next visit. Typically, I like to see someone one week after their very first session with me and then 1-2 times a month while working through specific issues.
For maintenance, some (like me), receive treatment monthly, some quarterly, yearly, or simply as needed.
The number of sessions needed is impossible to predict, as this depends on many things including how long your condition has been present, your current state of health, and what you do to support our work between sessions.
The list of what can be treated by craniosacral therapy is also long, but not guaranteed. I have had cases of tinnitus and colic clear after one session, migraines disappear after three sessions, concussions resolve fully after two sessions, and cases where ongoing craniosacral therapy in addition to other supports were needed. Some people work with me to support mental/emotional transitions in life, some prefer to focus on issues from current or past injury, and others to support their experience with chronic conditions. Often we work on multiple levels during each session.
There are some conditions that require extra care and an adjustment to treatment. If you have a condition where a change in the pressure inside your skull could be dangerous, you can still receive craniosacral therapy from a practitioner with more advanced training and experience, but certain techniques will not be used and they will most likely avoid working with your head, spine, and sacrum.
Practicing as a craniosacral therapist and Naturopathic Physician gives me a unique set of skills, tools, and knowledge.
Blending Craniosacral Therapy and Naturopathic Medicine:
I find myself in a privileged position as a craniosacral therapist: I am also a licensed naturopathic physician. My medical training and license grant me the legal authority to evaluate, diagnose, and treat medical conditions.
Additionally, as I chose to pursue naturopathic medicine, I am trained in lifestyle medicine, nutrition, herbal medicine, homeopathy, patient education, and techniques to help you create goals and monitor your progress towards them. All of these different areas work together and with craniosacral therapy to help you heal.
When you understand what is going on with your body, how your daily routines and habits affect your health, and you are given clear and accessible options to support your health, healing occurs naturally! This healing is on all levels of your being and can be profoundly life changing. It all depends on you, as you are the actual healer. I, and other healthcare professionals, merely assist you in your journey to being the fullest and most authentic version of yourself at the time and place you find yourself and with the resources available to you. What we, your healthcare team, do can be impactful and important, but our efforts won’t work without you doing your part to support your healing on a consistent and daily basis. Like I tell my patients, I can’t follow you home and make sure you drink water, exercise, eat your vegetables, and go to bed on time. That is all up to you.
This brings us back to expectations. If you expect someone, even a highly skilled medical professional to fix you, you will be disappointed. But, if you expect a medical professional to listen to you, try to better understand you, provide you with the best available evidence and information that is pertinent and meaningful to your care, offer the most effective and least invasive treatment options, and respect your autonomy, the combination of craniosacral therapy and naturopathic medicine may be just what you’re looking for.
Through the application of craniosacral therapy, I’ve been able to set and meet goals that are higher than I ever dreamed. I wish the same for you.
Applications:
If you find yourself ready to try craniosacral therapy and you like the idea of seeing an Upledger trained therapist, you can search for a practitioner near you here. If you are interested in working with a naturopathic physician, you can search for one through your state association or board of naturopathic medicine.
If you are a medical practitioner interested in learning more about craniosacral therapy, I highly suggest attending a course through the Upledger Institute and/or signing up with The Idea Crucible to read articles, view webinar recordings, and attend our virtual study groups. In the interest of transparency, I will let you know that I am an employee of The Idea Crucible.
If you want to work with me specifically, and you are in my travel radius, please give me a call, and I would love to see if we are a good fit.
Look at those beautiful chard plants! Next week we will learn more about greens like these.
Next Week:
Next week, we will return to our investigation of nutrition by talking about our first nutritionally dense food: greens.
To our health!
