Q:What is CranioSacral Therapy

A: CranioSacral Therapy is a method of examining and treating your head and body for restrictions that cause you pain and dysfunction. CranioSacral Therapy addresses the membrane system and connective tissue that connect the cranium and sacrum to each other. CST permits improvements in brain and spinal cord function which, increases the health of your entire body, enhances your resistance to disease and assists in a return to optimal function.

Q: How does CranioSacral Therapy work?

A: CranioSacral Therapy works by releasing restrictions in the fascial and/or membrane system. The cranial bones and the sacrum are used as handles to these membranes. The Cerebrospinal fluid circulates within these membranes and has a normal pumping rhythm of 6 – 12 cycles/minute. By utilizing the cranial bones and the sacrum as handles to these membranes, restrictions can be released and the normal rhythm re-established. This has direct influence on the hormonal and nervous systems – two of the systems that govern the body.

Q: When should CranioSacral Therapy be used?

A: If you experience chronic pain, recent injuries, headaches, head injuries, facial pain, whiplash, jaw pain and dysfunction, chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, nervousness, post traumatic stress disorder or immunosuppressive symptoms, as well as many other physical and emotional symptoms. CranioSacral can help to release pain and restore normal function.

Q: Why is CranioSacral Therapy used?

A: Balancing your CranioSacral system speeds your recovery and helps to relieve your pain while improving neural, hormonal, muscular, visceral and brain function.

Q: Can CranioSacral Therapy be used when the patient is seeing other health care practitioners?

A: CranioSacral Therapy works well with other therapies such as Chiropractics, Dentistry, Hydrotherapy, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy, Naturopathy, Allopathy, Physiotherapy, Counseling, Visceral Manipulation, Muscle Energy Technique, Psychotherapy and Exercise Therapy.

Q: What is SomatoEmotional Release (SER)?

A: SER is an offshoot of CranioSacral therapy which clears your mind and body of the residual effects of past injuries and negative experiences.

Q: How does SER work?

A: Often, during a CranioSacral therapy session, the patient will revisit past injury, insult or trauma. Your therapist, acting as a facilitator, supports you to re experience and express the body's memory thus ending the suppression, consequent pain and dysfunction.

Q: When would I expect an SER to occur?

A: When pain has become chronic and other therapies have provided only temporary relief, it is likely that your body may be suppressing or dissociating from, a memory of an injury. CranioSacral will facilitate this release. SER is often approached as an avenue for personal growth.

Q: What will SER feel like?

A: The re experiencing of a past injury or trauma frequently results in a re experiencing of the pain, fear or anger that was present at the original injury. The complete release of this memory, physically and emotionally, brings about a profound relief that is well worth the effort required to complete the process.

Q: What is Visceral Manipulation?

A: Visceral Manipulation is a therapeutic approach to relieving abnormal tissue tensions of and around your organs thereby promoting and improving organ function. The basic philosophy of Visceral Manipulation is that an organ in good health has good movement.

Q: Why manipulate the viscera?

A: If a tissue becomes fixed or adhered, it will become a point of chronic irritation. Other tissues will pivot around that point in an effort to adapt to it. Their function will become altered as well. Altered motion creates organ dysfunction. Adhesions can form between organs and the surrounding tissues, which also attach to your bones. A longstanding adhesion can cause a chronic tension on the spine creating back pain, shoulder pain, and/or neck pain.

Q: How is Visceral Manipulation performed?

A: The therapist listens to your organ function, heat, movement, and lack of movement with a trained hand and thorough knowledge of anatomy and physiology. The therapist listens for abnormal tissue tone and lines of tension, following these influences throughout your body. With specifically applied manual forces these tensions are released. By encouraging normal organ function, through the restoration of proper motion, organ function is enhanced, and the body can regain optimal health.

Q: What does Visceral Manipulation feel like?

A: You may experience an increased awareness of an existing area of discomfort that you already have. Sometimes symptoms are recreated before they go away. Many times Visceral Manipulation is only experienced as an improvement in body function and a feeling of well-being.

Q: What is the lymphatic system and how does it work?

A: The lymphatic system is a fluid system comprised primarily of lymph vessels and nodes and works together with our blood system to maintain our health. The proper functioning of the lymphatic system is critical to our body's ability to detoxify and regenerate tissues, filter out toxins and foreign substances, recover crucial substances that have escaped from the blood, and maintain a healthy immune system.

Q: What is lympahatic drainage therapy (LDT) and how is it performed?

A: LDT is a hands-on technique that activates and cleanses our fluid system. The therapist will assess the rhythm, direction, depth and quality of the lymph flow. This evaluation will determine the therapist's approach for draining body-fluid stagnations. The therapist works with flat hands, using all the fingers to stimulate wave-like movements. The pressure applied is very light, and most people fall asleep during treatment.

Q: What should I expect after treatment?

A: Some people may experience some muscle aches, sluggishness or fatigue for several days. This simply means toxins are being eliminated from your body. It is important for you to drink as much as possible to help flush out the toxins and aid detoxification.

Q; What is Therapeutic Massage?

A: Massage is a term describing a variety of techniques using the hands, mechanical or electrical apparatus to stimulate or soothe soft tissues of the body for therapeutic purposes. Registered Massage Therapy denotes that the practitioner has academically achieved recognition in their knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology and is capable of evaluation, treatment and prescription.

Q: How does Massage Therapy work?

A: Massage works by using kneading, stroking and frictions to relax muscles and to stimulate the soft tissues. This Therapy can increase blood and lymph circulation while breaking up entropic tissue formation between muscle fibers. Further, Massage Therapy aids the removal of toxic metabolites and increases the production of red and white blood cells.

Q: What does Massage Therapy feel like?

A: Therapeutic Massage and its effects vary with each individual. Clothing is usually removed from the area treated and the patient ought to feel relaxed and comfortable. A lubricating oil, or powder, is used to reduce friction during the circular stroking and compression of soft tissue. Much of this treatment can be described as good pain.

Q: Why is Massage Therapy used?

A: Massage is useful in the treatment of many conditions in which the relaxation of spasm, the reduction of swelling and muscle mobilization is desired. Massage can be helpful in overcoming the swelling and pooling of fluids at the sight of recent injury, surgery or trauma. Massage Therapy promotes recovery following an athletic event and enhances performance while preventing muscle cramps due to lactic acid build-up.

Q: What is Process Work?

A: "Process" is the natural flow of our inner life. Process work is a fluid method of working with areas of our lives that are experienced as problematic or painful. Instead of looking back on our experience as problems and pre-judging them as negative, we invite our physical symptoms, relationship problems, group conflicts, and social tensions to come forward. They unfold from a no conscious level, revealing their meaning and healing qualities vital for our personal growth. Process work draws from many "channels" or avenues of information such as: cognitive, visual, auditory, kinesthetic and spiritual. Process work has been effective in treatment of seriously ill, comatose and dying people, resolving conflicts and addictions.

Q: How does Process Work complement other therapies?

A: We use the "process" approach in conjunction with CranioSacral Therapy to become a somatic release. CranioSacral Therapy facilitates a patient to identify and release, unwanted behavioral patterns from our body. This allows us to then move forward in our process towards optimal wellness.

Q: How does Process Work work?

A: Cognitively, symptoms in our body are traced to their origin, whether they are of a physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual nature. Release of our body tissue and release of our behaviors and limiting belief systems will occur simultaneously.

Q: How does Process Work benefit the patient?

A: We, as individuals, often find it difficult to give equal value to all aspects of our life. We tend to identify ourselves in a particular way with certain self images, ideals, or belief systems. In so doing, we work hard to maintain these beliefs. When we have invalidated a "less valued" part of ourselves we develop illness. Working our process, with the help of CranioSacral Therapy allows us to explore and move beyond the boundaries of our immediate identities. In doing so, experiences which we have viewed as disturbing or pathological, become pathways to our wholeness, and to living our full truths.

Q: What is Counseling?

A: Counseling is an approach that involves the use of different therapeutic techniques such as Process Work, Therapeutic Imagery, Gestalt or Jungian therapy, or NLP to encourage the expression and release of feelings. Many of these feelings are painful and arise from unresolved conflicts and losses.

Q: How does Counseling work?

A: Through a variety of techniques the counselor will help you to look at the core issues of concern (i.e. physical symptoms, relationships, etc.), which will lead to the revealing of new information that is vital to your growth. The counselor helps you, the client, to recognize your harmful behavior patterns, challenges you to take risks towards implementing new ways of relating, thereby supporting you to take responsibility for your life and choices that you make. Together, you and your counselor will then decide on a course of action to effect positive change.

Q: When should you consider the support of a counselor?

A: If you need assistance finding solutions to areas of concern in your life. A counselor will support you in resolving key issues, assist you in defining your life direction, and help you to make decisions that are right for you.

Q: What will I have to do?

A: To receive the greatest benefit from these sessions, you are encouraged to participate actively by sharing with the counselor and by doing the "homework" activities, which encourage problem solving, self review and practicing new behavior patterns that the counselor recommends.

Q: What is Muscle Energy Technique (MET)?

A: Muscle Energy Technique is a method of manual manipulation of the skeleton. MET is similar to a chiropractic adjustment in terms of it's focus on alignment and nervous system function, while
it is dissimilar to chiropractic as little or no force is applied to the patient by the practitioner. In MET the 'adjustment' is called a "Fix".

Q: How is Muscle Energy Technique applied?

A: The practitioner evaluates the patients body in forward bending and back bending to identify specific restrictions of motion. Slowly and methodically, the therapist positions the patient's body in the opposite
position to the restriction and supports the patient to create their own 'Fix'.

Q: When is Muscle Energy Technique applied?

A: MET is applied as an alternative to Chiropractic. This gentle, patient-directed technique can be used in a wide variety of situations to treat a broad spectrum of conditions.

Q: What will it feel like?

A: Muscle energy technique may feel like a bending and stretching. It may feel like a pinch at an anatomical barrier. It can feel like an accurate accessing of an already painful area followed by a relief,
release and an increased range of motion.