Patients Ask, “What Is Fascia?”
Fascia is the tissue that supports and connects everything in the body. It remembers all of its physical and emotional traumas back to conception.
Picture a three-dimensional spider web from head to toe and finger to finger. It gives the body tensegrity to hold a unique shape. You may have learned it in school as the extracellular matrix.
Picture putting each of the below tissues into this relaxed structure. Then trauma strikes it to impair body systems and affect the quality of life. Fascial pressure has been measured at 2,000 pounds per square inch.
Muscles: Fascia encases every muscle cell in the body. Fascial strain can inhibit the function of any muscle.
Bones: Every bone cell is connected in the fascial matrix. If a bone is broken, the fascial web can hold the memory of that trauma and inhibit optimal healing.
Nerves: Tight fascia pressing on free nerve endings can be a primary cause of pain.
Blood vessels: Tight fascia can affect the arterial and venous flow of blood, the key to life.
Lymph vessels: Tight fascia can restrict the flow of lymph, directly affecting the immune system.
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Organs: Fascia connects every cell to allow for optimal organ function.
Cranial bones and the sacrum: A loose fascial web allows the brain and spinal cord to breathe and the cerebrospinal fluid to flow well through the craniosacral fascial system.
The infant research told us the most important factor in our work was the developing fetal fascial web. We all agree that adult whiplash car accidents, childhood falls, and the like can severely restrict fascia. A tough labor/delivery may also be important. But to uncover the root cause of many lifelong issues, fetal soft-tissue trauma can be the key factor.
In a “perfect” uterus an unrestricted fetal fascial web can develop into a well-functioning craniosacral fascial system. For many others this web can readily develop into a twisted and tight position, possibly imprinting bodily function for a lifetime.
To resolve many nagging conditions we need to revisit the physical and emotional traumas of those forty weeks. The body has to unwind that twisted growth position and then relearn how to function with a normal fascial web.
Birth is the best time to identify and mitigate future issues. At five minutes of age, we cannot say that the Baby Brain Score (BBS) will tell us what conditions will develop or be prevented. But we can say untreated craniosacral fascial restrictions have a strong possibility of creating conditions later in life. We do not want people to suffer their entire lives while doing their best to manage their health issues.
A strain-free newborn has the best chance to develop as a happy and healthy individual. The Gillespie Approach goal is for all the world’s babies to be happy and healthy. We are the Happy Baby People.
Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy Articles on Health Conditions
