Craniosacral Therapy for Anxiety

One of the most beneficial effects of Craniosacral Therapy is its ability to calm the nervous system, and regulate the body’s fight or flight responses.  Despite how popular this modality is within the holistic healing community, many of my clients were not familiar with it, until they made a visit to my studio.  My clients are typically drawn to this therapeutic modality because they are looking for natural ways to reduce stress, anxiety, chronic pain, and other symptoms – without having to further medicate themselves.  Lucky for them, they found the right place!

How Does Craniosacral Therapy Help with Anxiety?

Let’s begin with what common anxiety signs and symptoms may include:

• Feeling nervous, restless or tense
• Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
• Having an increased heart rate
• Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
• Sweating-
• Trembling
• Feeling weak or tired
• Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry
• Having trouble sleeping
• Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
• Having difficulty controlling worry
• Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety

Craniosacral Therapy is intended to support the re-balancing of the neurological system, which inherently affects the rest of the body. The treatment works directly within the areas of the body where we hold a lot of tension, including the cranial and facial bones, the jaw and TMJ area, throat, pelvis, and the tissues, organs, and fascia.

How Craniosacral Therapy Works: A Closer Look?

Craniosacral Therapy works directly with the cerebrospinal fluid in your brain and spinal cord to encourage it’s movement, which helps to  create homeostasis in your body. Cerebrospinal fluid, a clear plasma-like fluid, performs vital functions including supporting the nervous system, being a shock absorber, providing nutrition, and immune function.  The practitioner uses a light touch (5 grams or less) to release tension around the cranial bones, facial bones, meninges, and other aspects of the nervous system, so that the body can start unwinding from years of chronic stress.

By re-balancing the areas that protect and support the brain, clients can experience profound and long-term results within their nervous system, especially if they have suffered from a traumatic brain injury, whiplash, or chronic headaches/migraines.  The more advanced version of Craniosacral Therapy, dubbed SomatoEmotional Release, focuses on releasing trauma stored deep within the tissues and organs.  This particular modality is suitable for those suffering from grief, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other stress-related conditions.  Once these systems are balanced, clients can experience greater freedom in their bodies, while reducing their fight or flight responses to everyday situations.  This treatment is also appropriate for children and infants over 3 months old.

Dali has received her Craniosacral Therapy credentials from the renowned Upledger Institute.  She is certified in Craniosacral Therapy Level I, II and III including SomatoEmotional Release, Pediatric Craniosacral Therapy, and Concussion Recovery.  When necessary, she integrates Brain Balance Therapy in some of her sessions to affect specific nuclei in the brain (particularly those in charge of “fight or flight”) for optimal results.  This is what makes her treatments unique and highly effective for many of the conditions listed above.