Mother holding baby - Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy

“My Baby Could Not Hold the Adjustment”

A mother brought her fussy baby in for therapy. She was constantly crying in pain and keeping her parents up at night. Mom said, “We can’t do this anymore.”

I found on examination fascial strain from her pelvis into her diaphragm. The first visit yielded a dramatic release in her body, as she left the office in a calm state.

Mom reported on the second visit that she was immediately transformed into a new baby. She nursed well on the way home and was great until late that night.

She then reverted back to her fussy, crying self. It seemed to the parents that nothing was accomplished. Mom told me, “My baby could not hold the adjustment.” This essay addresses that comment.

I explained to mom that we do not adjust anyone. You cannot adjust the fascial web since it appears to have a mind of its own. It is holding all of its lifetime traumas and will let go of each in its own space and time. We just listen to the body and allow whatever layer(s) to release.

We saw this short transformative phenomenon repeatedly in our infant research. A good analogy views the traumas as layers of an onion. A huge layer was released on the first visit, but deeper layers soon appeared.

In this hypothesis the physical and emotional traumas during those 40 weeks need to be revisited and cleared in future visits for the baby to become strain-free and happy.

All of my posted stories are derived from my practice in the Philadelphia suburbs. If I were to practice anywhere in the world, I would be writing similar narratives.

Our work deals with universal and timeless truths—every human being spends months in a uterus and then experiences birth.

Ninety percent of us contract soft tissue strain from fetal, labor, and delivery traumas. (Frymann, V. Relation of disturbances of craniosacral mechanisms to symptomatology of the newborn: Study of 1,250 infants. Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. 1966: 1059-1075.)

Let’s help release the tightness on day one to prevent a possible lifetime of suffering.

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