
A Pediatrician’s Primer to Understanding Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy
Fussy babies are tight. The answer to many age-old infant conditions like colic and reflux cannot be this simple, but it is.
They are tight because physical and emotional birth traumas have restricted the function of their soft-tissue fascia. No one has really studied that concept.
I remember in gross anatomy dissection lab in 1969, the instructor told me to cut away the fascia so I could get to the organs. That was my “studying” fascia. Maybe you had a similar experience.
In histology, I memorized and quickly forgot some fancy fascial terms to ace the exam. The endomysium covers every muscle cell of the body. The perimysium bundles muscle cells. The epimysium wraps the entire muscle. Does this bring back memories?
Histology also tells us that the fascial web connects every structural cell of the body. For example, the fascia connects every bone cell (as clinically shown in the bilateral clubfoot baby post) and every organ cell (as clinically described in the hydronephrosis of the CHARGE baby’s right kidney).
We grounded this seemingly insignificant science into an effective manual application. We found a great way to loosen newborn and infant fascial webs so they can function better.
We further believe that some common childhood conditions like asthma are the direct result of fascial tightness. We have seen since the early 1980s that trauma can tighten the respiratory fascia down to the smooth muscle cells covering the ducts of the air sacs to create a breathing problem. Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy can help to release that strain for the asthma to slowly dissipate.
Please be aware that some of your patients may be just tight. Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy can help to normalize their physiology.