Craniosacral therapy and craniosacral fascial therapy - Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy

Craniosacral Therapy and Craniosacral Fascial Therapy

Craniosacral therapy (CST) can be effective for some patients, but not for others.

A six-year-old boy presented with a myriad of problems: headache, neck pain, jaw pain, earaches, shoulder pain, poor sleeping, difficulty focusing and concentrating, mouth breathing, and bedwetting (every night). He was born frank breech with the cord wrapped around his left hip.

He could not latch on and had a hard time even taking the nipple of the bottle. He also had colic, gas, and indigestion.

He wore a helmet for nine months for his plagiocephaly and torticollis. When he started to walk, his left hip was a hindrance. Life was a struggle for him and his parents.

When the medical model failed, mom took him for craniosacral therapy. Over a three-year period, he had about 200 visits of craniosacral therapy.

When I heard 200 visits, I felt that his parents were extremely dedicated to helping their son—doing everything they possibly could, trying to find what worked.

I found that he had a zero-second brain cycle and a twisted pelvis pulling all the way up into his head. The key areas of his body were trying to function in extreme tightness.

The first therapy visit was a breath of fresh air for him. In twenty minutes of treating his pelvis and lower back, I measured his brain cycle at 90 seconds. After helping to release the upper-body twisting, I measured his cycle at 140 seconds on the first visit—amazing.

This phenomenon substantiated what I found in the early 1980s. The fascial web basically controls the craniosacral system. Craniosacral therapy was helpful for patients who had loose fascia. With fascially restricted patients, it lost its effectiveness.

He had 200 hours of craniosacral therapy and presented with a zero-second brain cycle. In my opinion, he could have had weekly craniosacral therapy for the rest of his life without any change.

Every cell of the craniosacral system is a part of the fascial web. If that web is extremely tight and twisted, as in this case, the cranial and sacral structures cannot hold their position with craniosacral therapy. It is similar to chiropractic where vertebra cannot hold their position in the face of a tight and twisted web.

The parents reported some nice improvements at the second visit. His brain cycle had opened to 200 seconds, and he had a dry diaper for the first time in a long while.

I focused on two areas: his pelvic floor and his neck and sinus connection. He was born with a sacral dimple and had some rectal bleeding. When you connect the dots to the bedwetting, the obvious fascial conclusion was his pelvic floor was unusually tight for a child.

Neck strain was also pulling hard into his sinuses, resulting in his chronic congestion. His mother said that he was always getting sick.

After the end of the second visit, his brain cycle opened to 300 seconds. I expect him to do well as he continues to peel his onion of trauma.

Therapy at birth would have been a game-changer for him. Come join Holly and Kim at their Gillespie Approach Trainings to help change the world.

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