Cranialsacral Therapy pt.6

/0 Comments/in /by

Hugh Milne was Rajneesh’s (also known as Osho) bodyguard for years. I didn’t find this out until recently and hadn’t realized he’d written a book on it. As Milne described in this video he had to watch people as Osho’s bodyguard.

Many of the things that stood out from Milne’s book had to do with listening. The listening wasn’t with your ears alone, it was all of you. Pay attention. He encouraged watching body stance, posture, physical expression. Watching the video it became clear that he’d practice deep observation as Osho’s bodyguard.

In meetings and organized talks he’d watch for signs of agitation in the audience. Those were the people he’d approach and make light chat with. Depending on how they reacted he acted as bodyguard. I found it remarkable to see two of my teachers had worked so closely together, something that intrigues me forever. Here they were Rajneesh and Milne in close contact, a fact I’d never realized before.

I encourage my students to practice this observational skill in their bodywork practice. It cuts our work when we can observe posture in particular to figure out what people are doing to hold themselves in positions that hurt more than they help. If we can educate, it makes a huge difference. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Being devoid of attachment to particular outcomes is ideal as a bodyworker. We want to help but being too fixated on outcomes leads to stress, strain and burn out. Relax. Enjoy your work with people and watch them, assist them, make them aware of their own patterns and practice, practice, practice.

Jesus didn’t become a healer over night.

Being able to sit and deeply listen is the core of cranialsacral therapy. Just making contact is more than doing anything. In that deep stillness, the client’s healing can come out. When we’re not trying to do anything is where most of the healing seems to happen.

Myofascial Pain Trigger Points

/0 Comments/in /by

Pain due to carpal tunnel syndrome and myofascial pain from trigger points is all too common. In our previous blog posts we went over chest and shoulder girdle pain and we’re slowly working out way down the arm. This is pt. 4 and the muscle I want to cover is flexor carpi radialis.

Trigger points in this muscle will send pain down the hand near the wrist. It’s an easy to reach spot and if you spend your time at a keyboard doing computer work try this out. Even if you’ve no debilitating issues it will probably be tight as mine is, from doing manual labor. Use slow continuous pressure from your implement of choice. I show using finger pressure then a steady elbow in the video.

Flexor carpi radialis is a good starting point for forearm and hand pain. Check out the anatomy of the muscle and also keep in mind that you may compress and remove blood supply to the hand temporarily. This flush of fresh blood is a good thing and to be encouraged, we’re cleaning you out from the inside out.

If you can use a tool like your elbow or a small knob feel free to be creative. Any small amount of work you do is cumulative. Good luck and keep carpal tunnel syndrome at bay.

Myofascial Pain Trigger Points

/0 Comments/in /by

Myofascial pain trigger points in infraspinatus are a problematic area to work on. They’re hard to reach but this video shows an easy way to access and treat these yourself. Infraspinatus is one of the muscles that make up the rotator cuff. This muscle in particular is an extremely common dysfunction I see in my bodywork practice. Due to its function in moving the upper arm around it means that it’s used when people lift their arms out in front of them. This happens in such common activities as driving, using a computer or many manual labor tasks like hanging sheet rock.

Keeping muscles in the rotator cuff relaxed seems to be good in preventing long term injury or a torn rotator cuff. When you think about tightening a guitar string to the point that it snaps, that is what can happen to a tight infraspinatus. Releasing chronic contractions and trigger points in the area go a long way to helping ease this tension and set things back in good working order.

Remember to go slow, breathe through your nose and relax onto a golf ball or tennis ball when you do this. Take your time and also keep in mind that the area can be extremely tender to the touch. Feel free to fold a rag or towel over your tool of choice to soften the pressure. The area is muscular, not bony and it takes time to get the superficial muscles to relax and allow a deeper tissue to be relaxed and released. Try it first for about 5 minutes, you can extend duration from there.

Cranialsacral Therapy pt.5

/0 Comments/in /by

A client for massage told me they had TMJ problems. Speaking with them I recommended they come in for cranialsacral therapy. She seemed to be a balanced person, hard working, intelligent but this one issue plagued her for years.

She’d seen dentists, orthodontists and various medical professionals but no one seemed to be able to help. I worked with her then put on gloves to do work on her lateral pterygoids. She found it so tender I tried several times to sink in but with little luck. It takes finesse, a deeply relaxed client and frankly, time. You need time to settle and sink in and thirty minutes makes for a poor session.

I asked about her TMJ dysfunction and she said, “Well it’s more headaches.” I asked more questions to clarify and she said that the TMJ stuff didn’t hurt but the headaches kept her from really excelling at life. The pain, frequency and duration meant that she just got lost in life. Friends can’t help her, nor doctors and with no one to help, the pain just agonizes some days. I asked where they hurt and she made a motion with her finger, right through her eyes temple to temple.

Her lateral pterygoids which I’d been unable to relax are faulting her sphenoid. The muscles connect to the sphenoid, which is the keystone bone in the center of the head. It exits on either side of the cranium at the temples. As any boxer knows, the knockout punch is to the temples or the jaw, both put significant pressure on the sphenoid via its articulations and in response your bodies protection is to pass out.

I know what I think is right but clients are at times a hard sell on cranial bones moving, sphenoid what? Explaining all of this comes out of left field. What medical school did you go to? Life and love, the same that Jesus went to. Cranialsacral therapy is as much energetic as it is sound structure and function. One without the other is incomplete.

I never saw the client again. It’s sad to feel I can help but when they’re unwilling to do more than one session in a world where they want a single pill to fix things, my hands are tied. Healing is cooperative. I provide what I can in bodywork and education but the clients have to meet me with self care.

For this reason regular sessions are best with something like cranialsacral therapy. For most conditions I recommend a minimum of three treatments just to see if you have any benefit. At the most it may rid you of your health issue, at the least you’ll feel relaxed and calm.

Hopefully I can head to Big Sur, CA and take a class with Milne in the future. It’d be an honor to work and study with him.

Myofascial Pain Trigger Points

/0 Comments/in /by

Myosfascial pain trigger points in pec. minor wreak havoc on clients just as subclavius does. Where subclavius locks the clavicle in place or pulls it medially, into the body, pec. minor pulls the shoulder blade down and forward. That slouched forward posture we all see so often usually has pec. minor involved. To complicate matters more women with breast tissue have increased pull on this area from gravity and often find pec. minor shortening over time.

To reach pec. minor you have to sink through pec. major. The muscles break into three bands that generally connect along the 3rd, 4th and 5th rib. There’s no harm if you miss it, even pec. major work is good. If you have trouble locating pec. minor slide your arm behind your back on the side you’re working and push your chest forward on that side, this should help you isolate the muscle fibers to work on. The area can be very tender, go slow.

Use your fingers, maybe two at a time to reinforce each other as you press. If it begins to hurt your fingers, switch fingers and take your time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. You build strength in your fingers and hands over time but don’t jeopardize your hands to work on your pec. minor.

The trigger points can refer pain to the shoulder joint on the same side and down the arm into the fingers. Don’t be afraid if you feel this while pressing into pec. minor. Go slow, breathe, feel the tenderness and let it soften. In time the trigger points will vanish. When pec. minor lengthens you can breathe more easily, roll the shoulder blades back and your angel wings start to open. Your upper back and chest feel free again.

Myofascial Pain Trigger Points

/0 Comments/in /by

Myofascial pain trigger points come up regularly not only in clients but in my own body. The simple video below shows you how to work on a muscle called subclavius. I find many women with large breasts have problems with the area as well as people with severely rolled forward shoulders that cause a slouched posture.

You can hold pressure on the spot that causes referred pain down the arm. Hold until the referred pain subsides or your hands grow tired. Rome wasn’t built in a day, take your time. Play with the muscle, angle and move the clavicle around to find the sweet spot. Self care for trigger points is highly effective.

Cranialsacral Therapy pt.4

/0 Comments/in /by

My learning yoga, practicing Thai massage and working with cranial sacral therapy all ran together. I’d delve deeply into breathing exercises and noticed that I could make my hands warm. I didn’t know why but clients seemed to like it when I worked on them so I would purposefully breathe deeply and do so.

Once performing chair massage a woman was startled because she said my hands were so warm. My then boss, also a massage therapist looked at me, one eyebrow cocked, knowing I was doing something but unable to figure out what the weird kid was up to. I kept my secret, explaining things even I don’t understand gets tiresome.

At a party with friends several years into my practice I was more secure. I was doing very deep breathing exercises most of the day. I just lived a normal life but I focused on my breathing. At a party one night I went Really deep. No one could tell I was doing anything, I just altered something so imperceptible that no one would notice. A friend came over and said, “Rob, what are you thinking about?” I smiled with no answer and then he persisted, “Come on, I know you’re thinking about something.” I laughed loudly and said, “I’m thinking about all of it.”

My response wasn’t a mock. I was just free floating. The mental state that came with this deep breathing was an acceptance of whatever floats through your mind. Don’t attach, just let the movie play out. My friends fortunately have grown used to occasionally odd behaviour from me due to my practice and eccentricities.

I sat on the floor. As I sat conversation flowed and someone mentioned I was a massage therapist to some of those friends of friends who were unaware. A beautiful young lady, a friends girlfriend, jumped up from her seat and in front of everyone, without a pause, lay on the ground at my feet asking me to massage her.

It’s all a practice right?

All my friends were watching. What to do? I don’t really want to work, work is over, this is my down time. Someone’s girlfriend is asking me to touch them with observers everywhere. I love female attention but I breathed deeply, sitting to see what options and actions would be best. As she lay on her stomach I calmly said, “Turn over.”

She looked at me confused but I assured her and after she turned over I moved down to her feet. Knowing my friends were watching I just tuned into her. I placed one hand on the outside of her foot and the other on the other side making no physical contact. I’d probably been taking 3 breaths a minute for the past half hour. I was other.

I honed in, listened, again, without physical contact. I settled and breathed and when all felt like it’d synced, I breathed, channeled whatever was in me and flicked my fingertips in the slightest most imperceptible way. She immediately interrupted, “I can feel that running up my legs!” I still hadn’t layed a hand on her.

Placing my hands on her feet I listened to her cranial rhythm for a few minutes then stopped. At this point I’d sat up and returned to the party like nothing happened. The rest of the evening she kept asking me what I’d done. Where had I learned it? I just shrugged. I still do.

To my friends and close associates she just became the girl I radiated on. There are many mysteries to the body, one need only to sit and listen deeply to be able to hear what they’re saying.

Cranialsacral therapy pt.3

/0 Comments/in /by

I tried to promote my doing cranial work in Baton Rouge years ago and remember my first ad was for it. It was the high art but I was determined. I saw a client here and there, one spa I worked at even added it to their menu.

The first client I worked with was a deep sea diver. He welded underwater in some crazy suit and was having headaches that turned into migraines. His girlfriend encouraged him to come in and in the 30 minutes I was given I walked in, put my hands on his feet and coned in. That is to say I breathed, relaxed and slowly tuned into what was going on. Two minutes in the guy said, “Hey Doc! The problems with my head.”

I laughed and realized this was going to be a long road. He didn’t know what I was feeling for, what I was doing and barely did I. Listening to his feet didn’t seem to him to be a treatment for head pain. I felt his head and could tell the temporals were involved. They didn’t move together so well, felt lopsided and the right side panned more slowly than the other. I only saw him that once and he saw no major improvement but I’d at least begun to work on people.

Months later a fellow massage therapist referred a woman to me for cranialsacral therapy specifically. I met her in the office, spoke with her and we began. I don’t recall what her complaint was, but I started at her feet and then moved to her sacrum. Placing one hand underneath her and one on top above her pubic bone, I settled in. 20 mintues later it felt like I’d come to. I’d tranced out, continued feeling the ebb and flow of her sacrum. In a space of calm and quiet I heard “it’s not right.”

My eyebrows lightly wrinkled and I listened, relaxed to hear the same phrase repeated. “It’s not right.” I didn’t resist, just let whatever it was through but after a few more minutes I felt I’d done whatever was needed here. I slid away my top hand, looked up opening my eyes and the client turned to look at me and let out the saddest, “Awww” in memory.

In a flash, I knew what was wrong. I knew what had happened. She’d been raped. I remained calm, finished the session and never said anything to her. You see, I wasn’t looking for that, wasn’t prepared to see it and certainly wasn’t prepared to talk to a client about something they hadn’t really told me. The flash left no doubt. Her response of “aww” felt like she finally found someone who could touch her in a healing way, to start the process of looking at what had happened.

None of my schooling, before or since has prepared me for these sorts of things. It’s come up again from time to time and intially I was scared. What if this thing turned on and I can’t turn it off? I don’t want to walk into the grocery store and feel this stuff. Over time I’ve relaxed, my yoga and meditation practice has grown and I’ve less fear of being me, even if that me starts to seem highly odd. I can only do what I do.

I pick up things from clients occasionally but it mainly passes through. I’m older, wiser and more secure. I’ve learned to settle in and not much surprises me. Well, not much except that the practice deepens and the harder you focus…the more you see.

Cranialsacral therapy pt.2

/0 Comments/in /by

My feelings about bodywork changed after studying cranialsacral therapy. I took two Upledger courses as they were more easily available than those of Hugh Milne but I knew now, there was more out there. Healing came in many forms and most cultures have their own healing practices that we as westerners can preserve.

I read Milne’s book and knew that this would be a life long practice. There was no end to the depth that you could deal with in helping heal yourself and others. Without being over the top or seeming abstract Milne laid all of the work out in front of me. The therapist who worked on me did most of what was needed in that single session. I had a few more but nothing ever happened like that again. My body rebalanced itself.

As I read Milne’s book I became aware of the fact that cranial bones are not fused. There is a slight give to the sutures and a pulsation of the cerebrospinal fluid inside the dura, a tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. If one develops skill and practices you use it as a sort of diagnostic. You place hands on someone, feel what’s moving and where and knowing anatomy in depth start to discern what may be imbalanced.

It all seems complex but in the end, you’re just listening to someone. When people say, “but cranial bones don’t move, there is no pulsation of cerebrospinal fluid that can be felt” I simply ask if they’ve ever tried, while smiling. This bodywork feels to me much like meditating while your hands are on someone. Over the years I believe my bodywork has gained more depth as I practice. Predominantly it’s due to an active yoga practice which allows me to quiet my own nervous system, from this calm place it’s easier to listen.

The first time I put my hands on someones sacrum and became still, I just sat. I’d never felt this before but I’d never looked either. All of the sudden my hand swayed toward the tailbone. It was such a solid, deep, long swing that I took my hand off in near shock. Is it true? Since then everyone I do it to, feels completely different. One sacrum is full of swing, dance and sway another is creaky like an old door on hinges. Each gives you a little information about people, their bodies and their being.

Predominantly the work seems good for TMJ dysfunction, migraines, chronic headaches, trauma, PTSD, lingering sexual trauma and children with austism. Most people who search for it are at the end of their rope. They’ve tried everything and then boom, it’s the thing that helps. I was in that category.

Trigger points treatment

/0 Comments/in /by

I’ve spent years mashing on myself and others trying to unlock the mysteries of the human body. After ten years I still feel I’ve only scratched the surface. Anything I’ve learned I pass on to clients and help others on their healing path.

Years ago while in massage school I developed horrible pain in my shoulder. I’m left handed and working at a large shipping company doing repetitive manual labor I developed severe pain that eventually made me quit and look for other work. Whatever happened at that job has sat with me in some form for the last ten years or so. While in school I realized that my teachers didn’t know what was going on and after leaving school I continued to work on myself and try to figure out how to get it to stop.

There was a low level ache that ran down my arm and never ceased. Months went by and I’d done things that others consider near torture to get it to stop. At a friends house one day I noticed a baseball bat in the corner. Being the explorer I am I lay the bat on the ground and layed down on the knob end where you hold the bat while working what I now know to be my rotator cuff, particularly infraspinatus.

Infraspinatus is one of the most commonly dysfunctional muscles in the human body. I didn’t know this at the time but as I lay on the bat and pressed into my rotator cuff I noticed horribly sharp pain. This felt good, in the way that deep, intense bodywork can feel but it took my breath away. I relaxed, moved my arm around, got as comfortable as I could and continued to breathe deeply. Finding a single solid spot that seemed the most tender I lay down and breathed for nearly 30 minutes.

At the end I was near tears. The sensation was so deep there was nothing else for a time. The stimulation was so core I could explore nothing else. I finally sat up and noticed that my shoulder pain was gone. My rotator cuff was apparently causing the issue I felt. It was sore but the shoulder pain I felt has never returned. Months of agony, gone in 30 minutes. At the time I was unsure what caused this and am only now starting to put the pieces together.

Trigger points treatment is profoundly healing work. The more I explore, the more I’m amazed. I’ll be shooting videos soon to show you how to treat trigger points and how to do self care for trigger points.

Cranialsacral therapy pt.1

/0 Comments/in /by

Cranialsacral therapy was the first outside of the box bodywork I ever received. Towards the end of my schooling in massage I knew I’d never get my teachers help releasing whatever was going on with my jaw related to TMJ dysfunction. My basic knowledge base had me know that there were muscles chronically contracting, I was having low level bruxism when I slept and for whatever reason my body couldn’t just let the muscles relax completely.

I pleaded with my dentist and my teachers and both said, “we’ve heard of something called cranialsacral therapy.” A woman came to our student clinic and one of my friends in school introduced her as she said she practiced this healing art. I got a card, made an appointment and showed up for my session.

After a brief conversation I remember being distraught, explaining to her near my wits and emotional end that I don’t know why my body is fighting. She had me slide off my shoes and I lay on a massage table completely clothed. My first thought was, how are you going to massage me with my clothes on? Her being the expert I just let her do her thing. She placed her hands on me and didn’t move. First my feet, then my legs and hips then my head. She’d sit for long periods of time and I just remember feeling calm and relaxed to have someone make contact.

She slid on gloves and told me she was going to do some work on muscles inside my mouth. I was instructed to breathe through my mouth gently and try to relax into what she was doing. Using her pinky she performed what’s basically a deep tissue stripping of a muscle connected to my jaw. She did one side and I remember feeling, “Oh boy! This is doing something…it hurts down in there.” She did the other side and my jaw felt like it was a mile wide. My head felt expansive in a way that it was previously in a vice grip.

She placed both hands on my mandible and unwound it. With a skill and grace I’ve never found again she gently allowed me to let go for the first time in forever. There was what felt like a tissue release and near popping of the muscles in my jaw. The fibers slid past each other for the first time. I had a small amount of drool on either side of my mouth which I wiped and she placed her hands on my head again.

As she finished she said, “I think we got it, it was your sphenoid.” I was elsewhere mentally. I’d been entranced in what she’d done. The work was gentle but it felt SO deep. It wasn’t like massage at all. This was other. I sat up, got my bearings and felt completely different. All this emotion flooded forward as I noticed that I felt clear, in my head. I was stunned and looked at her and said, “It feels like you straightened out my head.” My focus, intensity and then near anger had me stand up and almost corner the therapist. “What did you do?” I was stern, I wasn’t leaving her office until she explained what she’d done. It was as close to miracle as I’ve ever personally experienced.

She wrote down a name and a book. Hugh Milne: The Heart of Listening.

I haven’t had TMJ problems since.

Forearms and Hands pt.2

/0 Comments/in /by

Hand pain is something I find fairly frequently as a massage therapist and also something I have to be cautious about from my own practice involving those same structures. Many times I see hand and finger tingling, numbness and pain in various forms coming from the forearm extensors of clients.

In my clinical experience the points that you’re working are primarily at the elbow end of extensor carpi radialis, extensor carpi ulnaris and brachioradialis. Those are big words but don’t let them scare you, people just use them when they’re trying to seem smart. If you watch the video and use these techniques you’ll hit all three points with ease.

If you use these techniques on someone go slow and be purposeful. You can hold a point to get a release or you can roll through it towards the elbow which is also intense. It can feel odd to someone to press in one area and feel it elsewhere so reassure the person you’re working on that you’re not doing damage so long as the sensation is intense but no pain is experienced. To me that means that you don’t contract muscles and pull away out of fear of further harm.

Trigger points can be extremely tender. For people with chronic issues these can be real healers. I wouldn’t doubt there are people who’ve given up their favorite activities, knitting, spinning or playing musical instruments when they didn’t need to. Working as a massage therapist for ten years I use these on myself regularly, it’s allowed me to keep going without fear that I would harm myself.

Good luck and feel free to share your experiences.