Migraines and Craniosacral Therapy

The National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine just came out with documented evidence Jan of 2013 stating that Craniosacral Therapy is effective for preventing migraine headaches. Of course, this comes as no surprise to me. In fact, it was my own experience as a migraine suffer that lead me to become a Craniosacral Therapist.

As a child, I suffered from frequent debilitating migraines. I remember them very well because the only thing I could do was lay in a dark room with a cold cloth over my eyes. They were dizzying and made me very nauseous. My mother tried everything she could for me. I had gotten them for as long as I could remember. When I was about 11yrs my mother began attending CranioSacral workshops with John Upledger, DO. She then began to practice Craniosacral Therapy on me during my migraine episodes and it soon became the only thing that gave me relief. By the time I was 16 years old I was living migraine free and have been for nearly 20 years! I always knew that whatever she was doing with my head had worked to permanently correct the problem. However, it wasn’t until I graduated from massage school and attended my first Craniosacral training that I truly understood what my mother was doing for me and it was through this experience of knowing firsthand how Craniosacral Therapy can heal chronic pain patterns that lead me into this work.

Migraines can be caused by many factures: Environment (weather changes, exposure to bright light, high altitude, smoke, certain odors, and prolonged loud noise), diet (chocolate, garlic, pickled products, processed meats and fish, aged cheese, alcohol—especially wine, or caffeine withdrawal), other factors (exertion, too much sleep, fatigue or exhaustion, irregular motion such as amusement rides or boats, stress, or hormonal changes).

Craniosacral Therapy involves light touch and manipulation of the skull and spine to release restrictions in muscle, fascia and nerve tissue. There is very slight joint like movement between the articulation of the cranial bones. This is to make room for the ground swelling and pumping action of the cerebral spinal fluid. Sometimes the cranial bones can become compressed which can create congestion in the blood and cerebral fluid flow, and in turn can back up the venous sinus system. The venous sinuses are a vein like system just under the skull that filters out used blood, cerebral spinal fluid and various chemicals used by the brain.

The cranial bones themselves can also become ‘out of alignment’ in a way also contributing to the headaches by putting un-necessary pressure on the cranial nerves. These compressions in the craniosacral system can also affect the function of the autonomic nervous system creating a lot of stress for the sufferer (both physically but also mentally and emotionally). Craniosacral Therapy can help all of these problems associated with re-occurring migraine headaches.

The key to successful Craniosacral for migraines treatment is consistency. Often times, people come in for help with their migraines experience a few sessions, see improvement right away, then disappear for a time until they experience their first major migraine re-coil a month or two later. It is recommended to begin Craniosacral treatment once a week for at least three months even when you stop experiencing the migraines. Once they are consistently under control then you can drop to sessions every two weeks for about another three months, to see if they are still manageable with sessions further apart. Sometimes you have to negotiate going back and forth between once or every two weeks until you find the perfect medium. Eventually, switching to maintenance sessions every 3 weeks or so until you and the practitioner feel the migraines have resolved.

The amazing gift Craniosacral can provide to anyone suffering from chronic pain is that unlike many other alternative healing modalities, when something shifts in Craniosacral Therapy it tends to stay that way!

This is copywrite by Dominique Clothiaux-Sarff RCST, LMT, CD(DONA) of Charolttesville, Va for for information please visit www.registeredbiodynamic-craniosacraltherapy.com

Craniosacral Therapy Helps Infertility

In 2011 the UK presented research on the effects of Craniosacral Therapy for infertility. The overall success rate coming out of the world’s best Fertility Clinics for IVF (In-Vetro Fertilization) success rate is only 30% for couples wishing to conceive. However, in clinical trials done by the Biodynamic Craniosacral Association in the UK indicated the woman who received regular Craniosacral sessions while undergoing this form of conception had a success rate of over 50%! Within that same study they also found that regular Craniosacral sessions can also improve your chances of conceiving naturally! In their study they took women who underwent up to 5 years of infertility, who began to seek out regular craniosacral therapy, and 2/3rds of those women were able to conceive naturally within 1 year of treatment.

These findings are even beyond the documented success rate of Acupuncture for infertility which is currently the number one alternative/complimentary treatment acknowledged by western medicine as a possible aid for conception in the US.

By Dominique Clothiaux-Sarff RCST, LMT, CD(DONA) of Charolttesville, Va for for information please visit www.registeredbiodynamic-craniosacraltherapy.com

Craniosacral Therapy is a Deep Integrative Process Back to Wholeness which is Unique to Everyone

Even in the mist of great uncertainty when all seems lost...the movements of the 'Breath of Life' are within us.... organizing the field, our bodies, spirit and our nervous systems accordingly. In fact when it seems dark and cold within, is where we can find re-birth into joy. Sometimes we need a little help to begin moving us there. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy can help with this deep integrative process back into wholeness which is unique for everyone.

This is copywrite by Dominique Clothiaux-Sarff RCST, LMT, CD(DONA) of Charolttesville, Va for for information please visit www.registeredbiodynamic-craniosacraltherapy.com

The Long Term Effects of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy

Craniosacral Therapy is a type of hands manual therapy that works directly with the nervous system. In the face of chronic pain, injury, trauma and illness the nerves in the body produce holding patterns within the muscle memory and fascia of our tissues. If left unresolved for too long these holding patterns in the fascia affect all other systems in the body. The founding father of Osteopathic Medicine A.T. Stills investigated extensively in his career, how all systems of the body are inter-related and that when one system is affected by strain it affects the others systems.

Craniosacral Therapy may seem like a very light and subtle type of work. However, it has the ability to unlock a person’s own healing process is very profound and real. In fact the majority of the work is centered on supporting the ‘Health’ in the entire system as a whole, so that what is off balance can begin to come back to its original state. One of the fascinating things about this type of bodywork is that once there is a shift in the physical tissues it tends to stay that way. It has been in my experience as both a massage therapist and a biodynamic craniosacral therapist that the fruits of craniosacral therapy tend to be more permanent towards the health in the long run. Massage therapy is a very valuable tool to gain immediate relief from imbalance, but if you want to experience real change in what you are carrying in your body, biodynamic craniosacral therapy offers a much better chance of helping these patterns resolve. Accompanied with this possibility of real physical healing, the nature of the work also balances the nervous system. Clients report feeling much more settled in their bodies, in their mental and emotional states, in their lives and in their circumstances. Sometimes the most fundamental shift that needs to happen in order for the health to arise is the client’s ability to shift their perception of what is physically happening for them. All of these things provide the human body a way to gain freedom from the patterns that hold them.

This is copywrite by Dominique Clothiaux-Sarff RCST, LMT, CD(DONA) of Charolttesville, Va for for information please visit www.registeredbiodynamic-craniosacraltherapy.com

The Ordering Principles of the Field

For the first time, Tufts University biologists have reported that bioelectrical signals are necessary for normal head and facial formation in an all organisms (just in August 2012)! Watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndFe5CaDTlI&feature=related. As Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapists, we have been aware of this information for quite some time due to the research and generous sharing of associate professor of anatomy and embryology at the University of Maasricht, Holland Jaap van der Wal: http://www.embryo.nl/ .

How this translates into Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy: This bioelectric field is what organizes form all together. As an embryo we begin our formation very similar as a mineral by growing out into the world in a somewhat disorganized fashion. Then magically a bioelectric streak of light appears, creating a mid-line and the whole growth pattern of the embryo changes into something more organized. It becomes more organized by initiating the movements of our growing patterns into spirals. The folding of the embryo is because of the energetic field coming through, (as you can physically see in the video posted above).

The World is alive and we are in relationship with it. Science is just beginning to understand living physiology. All life grows and moves in spirals. (Check out Viktor Schauberger’s research of fluidic vortexes and the movement in nature.) Our Being is not separate from all cosmic forces at play. We are creatures that are surrounded by an environmental field. We are made mostly of water and our environment (which is also a part of us both energetically and physically) organizes a fluid body where the energetic qualities of our being and feeling bodies (autonomic nervous system) meet. Our physical body is where the metaphorical and more solid essences manifest into form. All these layers are grounded by a deep and knowing Stillness that births the potency to drive and organize all these forces at once. When we look at the body this way it becomes clear.  Form is organizing the fluid within the field AND form becomes denser as it comes to center into the physical.

For more information to gain clarity of the fluid body of which I speak check out some of the highlights of Joseph Chilton Pearce's research here:  http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/JCP98.html

The body has many different rhythms and when you bring it together you have biodynamic forces. The expression of them all is a reflection of what is happening in the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. Which is in essence to what we are listening too and helping to balance during a craniosacral session.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is a particular approach into the study of the natural and creative forces that organize the human body. The forces that are found throughout the natural world are the same forces that we carry within your physiology. They include a subtle ordering principle that drives the creation, development and maintenance of all systems. Within the expression of these forces is a polyrhythmic movement that is stable and palpable, moving in cycles and spirals known as Primary Respiration. This movement is omnipresent in all living organisms and it moves in a natural expansion-contraction pattern that is very different than the respiratory breath and the heart beat.  Interactions with the movements present in craniosacral understanding can have remarkable health benefits.
This is copywrite by Dominique Clothiaux-Sarff RCST, LMT, CD(DONA) of Charolttesville, Va for for information please visit www.registeredbiodynamic-craniosacraltherapy.com

Craniosacral Therapy from a Different Perspective

Craniosacral Therapy first emerged out of the beginnings of Osteopathic Medicine between 1864 and the 1930’s. Since then it has been an unfolding journey into how to work with the living physiology and to unlock a person’s own natural healing process in the face of disease, trauma, illness and chronic pain. Dr A.T. Stills (the founder of Osteopathic medicine) who through the great trauma of watching his children die of spinal meningitis at the hands of allopathic medicine in 1864 questioned whether the human capacity to heal was locked inside the body rather then something that could be treated by medications. “In sickness has God left man in the world of guessing?” He decided “God is not a guessing God, but a God of truth. All his works, spiritual and material, are harmonious. His law of life is absolute. So wise a God places the remedy within the material house in which the spirit dwells.” He then set out to study the mechanism behind our tissues which became the ongoing study behind true Osteopathic philosophy and would be carried on by those interested in the living organism. He discovered that through the connective tissue layers all things were connected. Viscera (organs) are connected to Soma (connective tissue, joints, nerves, blood, lymphatic vessels and basically all tissues and fluids of the body as a whole). And that any dysfunction in either system would affect the other. He discovered that by palpating the body he could actually trace how the tissue was affected through his keen sense and understanding of the living body. He also came to understand that that there was a kind of life force that organized the body that was beyond what could be seen, measured or completely understood.

Stills work was continued on by one of his students W.G. Sutherland who discovered that there was a subtle, palpable oscillation, which the Breath of Life engenders, called the ‘Primary Respiratory Mechanism’. This discovery of Primary Respiration and its mechanism ended up being the most outstanding contribution in the history of physiology. Furthermore, this subtle motion is found most predominately in the tissues of the central nervous system but also exists throughout the entire body and, this motion is what organizes all of the tissues and function of organs in the body.

Today, the continuation into the understanding of the Primary Respiratory Mechanism is embodied in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and follows the evolving research of Stills and Sutherland as well as, Osteopaths Rollin Becker, James Jealous, Embryologist and Pre and Perinatal Psychology Pioneer William Emerson, Psychologist Franklin Sills and Continuum Movement Theory originator Emily Conrad.

The underlying principle is that there is a Healing Intelligence within the body that maintains Health at all times. Health is always there. It is an ever present force in our Being. It is neither born nor dies. It is constant. In our Soma, health is forever organizing around the original embryological Blue Print of our making which anatomically begins with conception. How health organizes in our bodies is, modified from the Original Intention of that embryological Blue Print, by our life experiences and by our genetics. All parts affect the whole, this is the concept behind the Osteopathic term Inherent Health.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy facilitates the body's own natural healing processes in restoring health and balance. It is a gentle, non-invasive method of treatment that has proven to be effective in treating a wide range of medical problems associated with pain, trauma, illness and dysfunction. It is a subtle yet profound approach to healing.

A Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist works to support the Health that is already there and not necessarily the place of trauma. The more wider known Biomechanical ‘CranioSacral’ Therapy is more centered around structural balance and integrity while also finding a way to align the body through ‘Craniosacral manipulations’. A Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist also holds a deep knowledge in manual therapy, but actually works to hold the entire aspect of Inherent Health and works to make Health and the underlining Intelligence stronger in the body. They do this by helping the cellular tissues to settle and trusting the Breath of Life and the physiological Tides. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is centered on helping the physiology find Stillness where it can re-charge and gain access to its original state. By doing so the body can release holding patterns associated with trauma, illness and other chronic conditions. If unwinding happens in a session, the therapist works to slow things down and to resource the trauma. Their knowledge of how to work with the Primary Respiratory Mechanism comes from a deep understanding of Anatomy, Fluid Dynamics, Embryology and Buddhist Psychology. The therapist listens to the entire system with their hands and their entire Being all the while helping the body to remember the Health and Intelligence that is already there. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is a gradual process, but the effects can be complete and lasting.

What happens in a Biodynamic Craniosacral session? The client will usually come in presenting with their condition in the foreground, or on the center of their consciousness, with the Blue Print out of reach from their resources. The therapist provides a neutral and non intrusive field that will reflect and perceive wholeness in the client’s system from the moment the client walks in the door. Within the therapists neutral field they will include the Whole in their awareness that contains the story, the condition, the history in the system as well as the anatomy and physiology, the Health, the Blueprint and the Mid-Line point of balance in the tissues. After some time, the client’s physiology will begin to remember space, option, Health, Blueprint and wholeness all the while beginning to present signs of resource. Resource is important in the healing process because that is where the body can change its state through a process called Transmutation. Transmutation is where form is organized, fluid cohesion and integration can happen through the building of Potency on the cellular tissue. This Potency brings movement to the physical tissue in a place called Dynamic Stillness. When these elements occur the body can experience healing sustain on a permanent level, because it has moved on its own, on its own time with the support of the therapist.

Craniosacral Therapy is not energy work but more based on the physical body and its subtle expressions of movement. In order for the practitioner to feel these movements and to perceive the whole system of expression they must sit quietly listening with a quite mind and hands that are "thinking-feeling- seeing-knowing". The fluids of the body are very intelligent and it is only when the client is in a relaxed state, feeling safe and secure on the table that the motilities of the body can show the practitioner their true nature.

What they listen for is the embryology patterns, the nervous system functions, the organ motility, bone and ‘fascial tensile fields’ which are all driven by the Fluid System. Within the Fluid System there are very subtle rhythms that have many different layers to them. Those layers are called Tides because they move throughout the body just the same as the different Tidal layers of the oceans and all the bodies of water on Earth. These Tides give potential for the potency of Breath of Life to be carried into every cell, and tissue in the body bringing life and Health to the surface.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapists also work with the relational field in a way that creates a safe therapeutic atmosphere before a client gets on the table. Craniosacral work can transform the process of the psychology when treating chronic conditions and disease. The movement of the Breath of Life and Primary Respiration alone is what preserves the transformation process of the psychology. Psycho-therapeutic dialogue is not essential to the therapeutic process of the inherent treatment plan and can be more of an interruption to the therapeutic process. However, the degree of safety between the therapist and client is essential to the healing process which is established by the therapist’s ability help the client settle into Mindful Awareness of the body and its sensations.

One of the things that is so amazing about the effects of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, is that it is like the gift that keeps on giving! Often times the real change in the physiology will happen weeks after a session. The body will move and adjust itself just at a speed that is right for that individual person. The healing process is a slow process and if the body has a chance to correct itself on its own time than the changes that occur will stay.

This is copywrite by Dominique Clothiaux-Sarff RCST, LMT, CD(DONA) of Charolttesville, Va for for information please visit www.registeredbiodynamic-craniosacraltherapy.com