by Claire D’Gaia, RN
After my chiropractor worked on me for a few months doing craniosacral work following a severe whiplash auto accident in 1987, my recovery was so profound I chose to start attending classes. I went through massage school in Santa Fe, NM in 1988. The 1990s took me from level 1 craniosacral through level 4 through the Upledger Institute, plus studying with a Hugh Milne instructor.
After working with a newborn babe and seeing such profound changes — with the mother reporting back, “I can’t believe my daughter’s improvements” — I chose then to only work with mother and babe together, and father and babe together, to facilitate bonding. That mindset of “not believing” can actually undo a portion of successful healing. Our thoughts and words are far more powerful than we know and understand.
This approach works until the child is about 5 or 6, developing into their own selves. Before that age, baby, toddler, and young child are still one unit with the mother. Birth is the best time to start receiving craniosacral work, as the birth process can be quite intense.
I have worked with autistic and ADHD teens successfully, in that their inner awareness of themselves became more active during the still point period — when the nervous system can reset through physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual traumas, little or big.
Whenever we feel judged, blamed, shamed, controlled inappropriately, or violently disciplined, our body fascia contracts and begins to hold onto energies we don’t know what to do with. This contraction can inhibit our natural movements — head to toe — of the craniosacral rhythm beginning in the brain, where cerebrospinal fluid is filtered out from our blood. A brilliant design by Creator! This fluid gets pumped slowly, 6–9 times a minute, down the inner spinal column, bringing nutrients to the nerves that exit the spine while simultaneously removing waste products, dead cells, and toxins.
The person on the table stays dressed in comfy, loose clothes, and my hands go under the back and on top of the body, sensing where the rhythm is felt — or not. This is light touch and stillness.
“Every one of us has our own Inner Physician,” said Dr. John Upledger, D.O., and this Intelligence helps the body to relax and rebalance itself. The effects have included a rounding out of a cone-head after birth, stronger suckling, better bowel elimination, and better sleep cycles. Pre- and post-surgery, this treatment helps calm anxiety and speeds healing. It’s great for migraines, clenching, grinding jaws in sleep, and improved circulation. The body is addressed head to toe. It takes about 3 days after a session to fully feel the effects. Emotional releases can happen during a session and/or afterward. Cancer patients may benefit greatly.
I also guide people in feeling their feelings — basically with focus and breath — so the held-in emotions leave the fascia and become a memory with no trigger.
During a hospice situation, the dying person can relax more into the mystery and fears of dying. Sports injuries are addressed, and injured areas receive increased circulation while the worry of the condition is freed.
Sessions are 1.5 hours. Working on a clock for one hour usually interrupts crucial natural shifts.
To me, craniosacral therapy is the most spiritual healing modality. Unlike massage therapy — where pressure and movements can effectively relieve stress, a treatment from outside the body (from the practitioner) — craniosacral light touch and stillness allows a natural unwinding from within the body, to leave outwardly. Allowing your body to move on its own is encouraged.
The end result for myself receiving this work has always been clarity — an understanding of myself I had been struggling to find on my own that evaded me. Filled with a stronger inner peace, I continue on my soul path, witnessed and loved through the session.
I am honored to work with you.
— Claire D’Gaia, RN (St. Louis, MO Jewish Hospital graduate, since 1976)
