Revisiting trauma - Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy

Revisiting Trauma

I am presenting this case to show my CFT thought process and how it can relate to our work at birth.

A young man came to me recently with daily head and neck pain. He was fine until his accident about 14 months ago. He jumped from a high point into a body of water feet-first and hit the back of his head breaking through the water. He had been to many providers without a successful resolution.

He had zero cycles and his craniosacral fascial system was totally locked down. Since this trauma was fairly fresh for him, it started to nicely come out at the top layer of his onion on his first visit.

One goal of CFT is to allow the body to recall that trauma. So I started just by holding his feet, where he hit the water first. The strain slowly went up his legs into his pelvis. Later in the visit it went from his feet up to his ribcage. I never touched his head or neck. His brain cycle at the first visit ended at 60 seconds.

When he came in for his second visit, he said that he was responding well. I had him standing and allowed his body to go into an excruciating painful whiplash extension. The fascia was vibrating hard in his upper back and neck, and he released well. After a number of these sessions where the fascial pain diminished considerably, his brain cycle opened to over 100 seconds. His head felt better, and I expect him to do well with future CFT visits.

Now let’s extrapolate this concept to birth. When we take a fussy baby back to his/her birth trauma, s(he) may express precisely how s(he) feels emotionally and physically. There is no sugar-coating this aspect. We hold a space for him/her to become free of the effects of the trauma. It appears in healing that revisiting the emotional and physical aspects of trauma are important to fully heal it.

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