A Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy infant practitioner emailed me this recently:
“I saw a four-month-old for two days of intensive therapy. The infant was having trouble nursing and maintaining her latch. She had tongue, lip, and cheek ties revised twice and also had craniosacral therapy (CST). Despite this, she continued to have issues.
I found strain in her pelvis that was pulling deep into her neck, tongue muscles, maxilla, and cheeks. I helped to release these areas and taught mom appropriate exercises.
Today, mom texted me that she had a couple of difficult feeds, but she is sucking much better. Mom can actually feel her tongue engaging.
I’m so happy I could help this mother!”
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Forty years ago I loved craniosacral therapy (CST), but I saw that its scope of correction was limiting. I found that the fascial aspect was a critical missing piece. In our infant research we found that the fascial web appeared to rule the craniosacral system.
One day an Amish mom told us that she had taken her fussy baby, who was significantly improving with our work, to a local cranial osteopathic physician. I remember that baby had a brain cycle of 250 seconds. He said the baby looked great and was good to go. She could not understand how her baby got well without us doing cranial work on his head.
We believe that the fascial web connects and structurally controls every cell of the craniosacral system. When we helped the infant body work out the fascial strains from various birth traumas in our research, we found that the craniosacral system generally self-corrected. Thus, we do not teach any pure craniosacral techniques at our Gillespie Approach Infant Trainings. It is all about the fascial web.
That discovery led me to believe that someday hospital therapists could quickly learn the work without having to take extensive osteopathic manipulative training. Our main therapeutic premise is to just listen to the body, allow the infant to drive the movement, and let the healing begin. It makes me believe that our vision of therapy available in every birth hospital worldwide is doable. Even though I may not see it, that gives me great hope for the future.
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Gillespie Approach Infant Training is designed for students to work with infants.
2026 Dates:
- January 25–27 | Melbourne, FL
- March 22–24 | Greenville, SC
- May 17–19 | Westfield, IN
- June 28–30 | Bozeman, MT
- August 9–11 | Boise, ID
- October 4–6 | Olathe, KS
- November 15–17 | Newtown Square, PA
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