CranioSacral Therapy... A New Choice in HealthCare

Many people remember the spectacular high-board diving of Olympic champion Mary Ellen Clark. But, that bronze medal almost didn't happen. Before the 1995 Olympics, Clark experienced dizziness that left her unable to perform and close to ending her career. In her words, she had, "been everywhere and done everything to get better. Nothing helped." Then she discovered CranioSacral Therapy.

CranioSacral Therapy uses gentle manipulations to correct the bones of the head and pelvis, unwinding the membrane system surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The focus is on the core of the body, the central nervous system, returning the body to its original state of wellness and alignment.

A practitioner evaluates the CranioSacral system by reading the CranioSacral rhythm. This rhythm is like the breath of the nervous system, similar to the respiratory rate and heart beat of the body. It is created as the cerebrospinal fluid is pumped from the brain, down the spinal cord to the sacrum, or tailbone. It is most easily felt at the head, but can be read all over the body. When the cranial rhythm is low or not in balance, it indicates a dysfunction.

Dr. John Upledger, the developer of CranioSacral Therapy, treated Clark at the Upledger Institute in Florida. He found that Clark had significant strains in her hips, spine, and head that were causing dysfunction in her CranioSacral system. He traced the cause back to Clark repeatedly hitting the water during her dives at 35 miles per hour, 50 times a day, for several years.

When the body experiences more physical trauma than it can deal with, it begins to compensate, reinforcing the original strain, and creating additional problems. The energy of each diving impact stayed in Clark's body, until she developed vertigo. After unwinding the CranioSacral system, and releasing the trauma, Clark was eventually able to return to diving.

Not every case is as straightforward as Mary Ellen Clark's. Take the case of Jackie (not her real name), a 42-year-old full-time mother of three children. When Jackie came to my office she was suffering from debilitating migraines that were occurring on an almost daily basis. Her stress level was very high. After taking her medical history and performing a total-body evaluation, I traced the cause of the migraines to a misalignment in her cranial bones that happened at birth.

This original lesion eventually led to a vicious circle of pain, stress, and more pain. As Jackie got older, the tension in her CranioSacral membrane system continued to build, increasing the number and severity of her headaches. She was unable to find a cure. After just two sessions of adjusting Jackie's cranial bones and addressing some of the stressors in her life, she was only experiencing about three migraines a week; half the original number. She continues to improve.

CranioSacral Therapy has also proven effective in treating chronic pain, depression, whiplash, scoliosis, learning disabilities, TMJ dysfunction, post- traumatic stress syndrome, respiratory disorders, auto-immune diseases and other health challenges.

Depression: It's Not Just in Your Head

Jerry (not his real name) is a 12-year-old boy who was adopted a few months after birth. Although he was welcomed into a loving home, Jerry was not able to adjust. As he grew, so did his rage and anger. His parents didn't understand and neither did Jerry. They took him to doctors and counselors where his behavior got labeled: attention deficit disorder. Drugs and therapy did not help. At home, the anger escalated to violence. In desperation, his parents took him to a psychologists specializing in young people. The psychologist recommended CranioSacral Therapy. This healing partnership proved to be exactly what Jerry needed to interrupt the hopelessness that was gripping his life.

CranioSacral Therapy uses subtle manipulations to unwind the central nervous system, focusing on the core of the body. A practitioner accesses this system by gently moving the bones in the head and pelvis to bring them back into alignment, loosening the membrane system around the brain and spinal cord. A tight membrane system and misaligned cranial bones can cause physical and/or psychological dysfunction.

A total body evaluation of Jerry and his CranioSacral system revealed that there was a severe restriction at the base of his skull and that his membrane system was tightly wound, like a ball of yarn. He reported constant headaches and anxiety. He felt like he had no control over his anger and he felt a great deal of sadness and depression. Often he felt a stabbing pain in his chest, where his heart is. Jerry was working on expressing his anger in his psychotherapy sessions. But it was clear that there was some specific physical restrictions slowing down his progress.

After just a few sessions of correcting Jerry's CranioSacral system, he reported no more headaches, and that he felt more relaxed, less anxious, and did not fly into a rage as often. His parents found him much more at ease and less antagonistic after treatment.

The next step was to address Jerry's trauma over being adopted. Although his CranioSacral membrane system had loosened, it still felt as if he was drawing himself into the core of his body. In treatment, it become apparent that Jerry was convinced deep down that his adoption was an abandonment by his birth mother. In his body, that abandonment translated into a nervous system that remained poised in a stressed, high-alert state of being. Using therapeutic imagery and dialoguing, Jerry was able to see that his sadness was stuck in his brain and his heart, squeezing his entire central nervous system and his chest. Visualization helped him to release this traumatic memory from his body and free up the restrictions. He recently reported have one of the best weeks of his life and he continues to improve.

Jerry's case is not unusual. It is the body's natural inclination to take traumatic events and create a physical response. Memory is literally in the bones, the organs, the spinal cord. It's not just in the brain. To unlock the mystery of how we process our experiences, we must explore the body at the cellular level and follow the biochemical trail of emotions. Depression is not just in your head.

In her new book, Molecules of Emotion, neuroscientist Candice Pert warns that the body and the mind are not separate. "The mind can and must be healed through the body." Pert's discovery of opiate receptors in 1972 laid the foundation for the discovery of endorphins, which cause the body's natural high. Her research focuses on the blueprint of emotions carried throughout our bodies in biochemical 'feedback loops.'

Imagine that the body is an interstate highway system with dozens of hormones being delivered around the clock in special trucks. When these network pathways are running smoothly they allow the mind-body connection to stay in balance. When we experience a trauma, it's like an earthquake, causing parts of the highway system to collapse. What you have is a biochemical traffic jam. Important chemicals don't get delivered on time, or don't get delivered at all. One of the results can be depression.

Full physical and psychological healing depends on our ability to release emotions that are trapped in the body. CranioSacral Therapy is one of the modalities Pert has found that unblocks and reestablishes the normal flow of our body's chemicals. Dr. John Upledger, the creator of CranioSacral Therapy, discovered that the body walls off a physical or emotional trauma into energy packets that remain trapped in the tissues. He calls these 'SomatoEmotional cysts.'

But what makes one person get depressed after an argument with a boss while another person is able to forget the incident soon after it happens? Part of the answer lies in examining how much trauma or abuse a person has experienced and how early these events happened. Researchers have found that abused, neglected, or otherwise traumatized infants and children are more likely to be depressed as adults. There is a definitive link between a person's early history and the ability to function later on.

In her book, Pert explains how depressed people have high levels of stress steroids because previous trauma has permanently disrupted the body's biochemical 'feedback loops.' She writes that the result can be 'extremely limited patterns of behavior and response, which eventually drive people into an emotional black hole.'

It is possible, however, to restore the body and mind to a natural state of balance. That is the goal of CranioSacral Therapy. It is not meant to replace psychotherapy, but to enhance the process. The mind-body split is being repaired, one therapeutic relationship at a time.

Michael Morgan has a private practice in Fairfield, Iowa and can be reached at 641-472-0939. In addition to CranioSacral Therapy, he has been trained in Visceral Manipulation, Mechanical Link and Zero Balancing.

Stages of Life- A New Book

By Michael Morgan,
CranioSacral Therapist

This book explores the value of ritual and ceremony in all stages of life, culminating in the development of becoming an elder in a modern society. Traditional societies have always had a place for the elders, and they have always been a resource for the younger generations as they grow, mature and develop into useful members of the community and society at large.

Admittedly this is a book written for and by members of the "baby boomer" generation—a 76 million plus force of citizens passing into that realm of life that will be different for them than perhaps any other generation.

In this book I explore the modern technological solutions to life transitions: birth, adolescence, middle age, marriage, mid life change, aging and dying, and contrast this to the traditional ways—using respect for nature, family and legacy—in which life transitions are approached.

The challenge of this book is that there is neither one way or another which is totally "right" or "wrong" in regard to these transitions—to quote environmental leader and thinker Thomas Berry, "we are between stories." The wisdom of the local and regional thinking of the past doesn’t quite fit the demands of a global or planetary future, and we are in a transition where new rituals and ceremonies may guide us into a new and as yet undetermined future. This is where Stages of Life leads us, and explores how we are all involved in a process of discovering who we are for ourselves and our children.

I welcome your input as I continue this journey in writing Stages of Life…

Michael Morgan has a private practice in Fairfield, Iowa and can be reached 312.543.4719. In addition to CranioSacral Therapy, he has been trained in Visceral Manipulation, Mechanical Link and Zero Balancing.