1) What conditions does Craniosacral Therapy (CST) help with?
The effects of CST are far reaching, so it would be impossible to draw up an exhaustive list of symptoms than can be helped by CST. However, to summarise, I specialise in the following three areas:
Stress and Anxiety. Craniosacral Therapy is unique in its ability to treat the source of symptoms on every level, mental, physical or emotional. Letting go of tension and fear held in the body enables it to settle into calmness.
Pain Management. People may come for Craniosacral Therapy because they have acute physical symptoms like headaches or back pain, or long standing issues with pain.
Babies & Children. Craniosacral Therapy can offer support for colic, reflux, sleeplessness, irritability in babies and many common behavioural, social and learning difficulties in children respond well
2) There’s nothing actually ‘wrong’, can I still come along for a session?
There doesn’t need to be anything ‘wrong’ as such for you to benefit from a session. Many people use it simply to maintain their sense of well being and calm. I actually still have regular sessions myself for this reason.
3) So how does CST actually WORK?
It took me 3 years to train in CST. It works on many different levels and different approaches are used depending on the needs of the individual. To summarise:
“Craniosacral Therapy is a subtle yet profound and powerful hands-on technique, developed from osteopathy, which identifies pain and tensions held in the body. It supports the body’s natural tendency to find health and optimum balance by relieving the body of these restrictions and allowing it to realign. Craniosacral Therapy can often effect structural change, but also has much wider implications, both physically and psychologically. Craniosacral Therapists are trained to feel motions in the body which are more subtle than the heart beat and lung breathing that we are all familiar with.”
The best way of understanding the treatment is to experience it yourself. You don’t have to believe its going to work for it to work and you certainly don’t have to understand how it works for it to work. But it does take at least a little bit of hope on the part of the client (I always have hope).
4) I’ve had this insomnia / back pain / depression for 20 years. Can you resolve it in one session?
I have actually had people ask me this. One lady even said that even though there wasn’t a doctor in the land who could help her, she still expected me to resolve her long standing symptoms in one session! It’s only right that I manage people’s expectations the best that I can. Generally speaking, fresh / recent trauma / restriction in the body tends to resolve very quickly (new born babies suffering with birth trauma are a good example of this). When symptoms have been there for decades (or the tension has been gradually building over this time), it’s likely that it will take longer to resolve. I usually recommend a short course of treatments (maybe 5 or 6) and then a review to see how much progress has been made. It is true to say also that there might be other issues that your system needs to resolve before the specific issue that you want me to address is able to come to the fore (that is, your body has its own sense of priority and since I am working with your body’s own innate ability to heal itself, the ‘inherent treatment plan’ of your body will dictate the order of things). Amazing things happen in my clinic but I am not a magician!
5) So……what are you actually DOING?
This is a question I often get asked either when someone is watching someone else have a treatment or when they are having a treatment themselves but have not been able to ‘feel’ much changing.
In Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (CST), there will be no physical manipulation ever. I am working at a much deeper, more fundamental level. For various reasons, some people are able to notice a lot of the changes that are happening in their body during a session and some will notice fewer or maybe even none (this does not mean that nothing is happening!). Somebody watching a session may observe jerky movements, changes in the clients breathing, movement and so on but obviously they will not see all of the changes that are happening inside the body (again this does mean that nothing is happening!).
If you want someone to ‘click’, ‘crunch’ or otherwise manipulate your body you need to seek a different kind of therapy!
6) Are you being honest with me (Will you tell me that I need more sessions than I actually do for example)?
One of the reasons that my practice is a successful one is because I get good results. Another is that I take pride in running it with honesty and integrity. I have a firm belief that a therapeutic relationship built on mutual trust and respect gives you the best chance of getting the results that you want. This said, I cannot fix everything for everyone! I also cannot guarantee in advance how your system will respond to treatment. However, I am a highly experienced practitioner and my advice to you will be based upon the successes that I have seen in the past. I know what tends to work best and I will be honest with you about how I think we can achieve the best results possible. We will discuss this in order to ensure that your treatment plan is a good fit for you.
7) Can something so gentle make me better?
YES! I am working with your body’s innate ability to heal itself. I will be listening with my hands to what your body needs and facilitating the process of release and restoration. When we are working at the level of the mid-tide, changes are gentle but profound.
8) Can CST work even when many other avenues can be exhausted and the doctor says nothing can be done or that my condition will only get worse as the years progress?
That is very possible yes, I have seen it many many times!
9) How long have you been practising for / how well qualified are you?
I graduated from the Craniosacral Therapy Education Trust (CTET) in 2011 after a three year training. For over two years, I have worked as a tutor in CTET’s teaching clinic, supporting final year students. My practice is very busy. I will soon be qualified to work as a supervisor (mentor) to other CSTs.
10) I’m sure I must be the worst case you’ve ever seen?
People say this a lot. There can be a lot of shame and embarrassment over our condition. Rest assured that I have worked with a lot of trauma (military, road traffic accidents, abuse, violence, the list goes on). I am not here to judge you or your situation. I am here to create a safe, listening, neutral and supported space for your system to express what is going on and then I will facilitate the processes that need to take place in order for you to recover, at a pace that feels okay for you. You are getting help and that is what’s important.
11) Your life must be really perfect! / You must be really sorted!?
Often people see their practitioner as being someone who is ‘shiny’; someone who sets a good example and they assume that the practitioner must have a pretty perfect life. Typical things that people often assume about me are that: I am vegetarian (probably vegan), that I meditate daily, that I have a VERY happy marriage, that I never shout, that my children are completely zen, that I am super healthy and fit, that I never take prescription drugs and that I probably don’t drink. It is true to say that my focus is very much on my own health first (otherwise how can I help anyone else), but I am far from perfect.
Honestly, I am on a journey just like you are. I have suffered a fair few traumas in my life, more than I care to recall. I have a belief that often therapists are people who have ‘been through the mill’ themselves. Hence why you tend not to get therapists in their 20s. I have worked very very hard on myself over the years (receiving CST has been a big part of that but not all by any means) and I will continue to do that always. Not because I aspire to be shiny, but because I know I still have a lot of growing to do and growth brings me better health, a better understanding of myself and others and the result of that is that I feel happier, make wiser decisions and I enjoy life more – yay!
I pride myself in running a most ethical and professional practice and am bound by the CSTA, their team of lawyers and the guidelines that they provide to members, which of course is in strict accordance with government guidelines.
Following publication of the new lockdown legislation for England, and as a member of the CSTA (which is a verifying organisation for the CNHC) and a Craniosacral Therapy Practitioner, I am pleased to confirm that I have been given permission to continue to practise, in short where the benefits of the session outweigh the risk of transmission of the virus. Your safety is my number one priority and I will ensure that we are within the guidelines before you book and if need be, we will wait.
Safety is my number one priority as it is yours I’m sure. Covid secure measures are in place of course…..I am now having regular asymstomatic tests to give you extra peace of mind.
Please do not suffer in silence, we are facing a tsunami of mental health problems this year and CST can be of enormous help so please don’t wait, get in touch.
Does your child suffer with anxiety? I see many children in my clinic and most of them come to me because they are suffering with symptoms such as excessive worrying, difficulty sleeping, poor digestion, being moody and snappy or withdrawn, obsessive behaviour, self-harm, panic attacks, depression and so on. To see your child suffering like this is very hard and to know what to do is even harder!
In my work as a Craniosacral Therapist, specialising in trauma and anxiety, I quickly became known as an expert in anxiety in children. I hope to give you some key points as to how to recognise that your child needs help and the best way to go about getting the help that will make the biggest difference to them whilst giving them some skills and more resilience going forward that will protect them from overwhelming anxiety into the future.
I don’t understand why is my child like this!?
Often we don’t, but perhaps that is not our role. We have all had different life experiences. Some people are more prone to anxiety than others and there are complex reasons for this.
It’s important to recognise that regardless of the symptoms your child is currently showing, the underlying cause (which is nearly always tension/anxiety) is what needs addressing and that is what I am practised at doing.
Our role as parents/carers
There are three key areas to this:
Accepting that your child needs help – and now!
We can pass it off as phase. We like to think that children are resilient and surely he/she’ll just grow out of it? And maybe they will. But in my experience, when anxiety shows itself and it is not addressed in a helpful manner, it tends to grow and manifest into bigger and more scary things. So, the sooner you act, the better
2. Don’t blame yourself
It’s a parent’s default isn’t it? I’ve been there. BUT – I have never met a parent yet who isn’t doing the very best that they can with what they have and who doesn’t want the best for their child. Many children have a less than ideal start in life (even the unresolved stress from an overwhelming birth experience can linger on in a child causing future issues), and some continue to have more than their fair share of struggles. Looking for somewhere to cast blame is nearly always unhelpful, so lets work towards acceptance of the current situation and the best way forward; its what you do now that matters.
3. Take an honest look at your own mental state
Ouch, I hate this one. As a parent myself, I find it very hard to admit that my mental state is perhaps the single most influencing factor in my children’s mental health. But, in my many years as a therapist working with anxious children, it has become more and more apparent to me that an anxious child often has an anxious parent. The reasons for this are long and complex (and deserve their own blog), and of course it can be a chicken and egg situation, but please please please, for your child’s sake, as well as your own, please take an honest look at your own mental health and if you need help, get some. Don’t just accept that ‘this is who I am’. Change is possible, even for yourself.
The advice that I am going to give you for the care of your anxious child is not dissimilar to the advice for an anxious adult, so you may able to apply a lot of the principles in this blog to help yourself as well as your child – wow, you are going to see some progress!
A toolbox for anxiety
In my clinic, I often talk to parents about creating a ‘toolbox’ for their child. The idea is to find resources, skills and coping strategies that help keep them well and happy and put them inside.
They will become familiar with these things through trying them. They will have their favourites and they will know that the toolbox is there any time they need to open it and use what’s inside. Some things they will grow out of over time, and new ones will be discovered, but it’ll be there for life and they can open it and use what’s inside anytime they need strength/support/life feels tough.
Essentially, I am talking about building the resilience of your child. I believe we all need a toolbox. None of us are immune to anxiety. As an old tutor of mine, Steve Haines always says, ‘squeeze anyone hard enough and they will become overwhelmed’. So as I go through a list of resources that I know to have been helpful for many children that I have worked with, see what you think your child might like to try and consider which of them might help you too. You might come up with some of your own too which would be great.
Craniosacral Therapy (CST) – addressing the cause not the symptoms
When we experience shock/trauma, which all of us do at some point, whatever our system is not able to resolve at the time, is held in the physiology. Using a very gentle hand on approach, I identify any specific tensions or restrictions that are being held in the child’s body, and then help those tensions to release in a very kind supportive way, and at a pace that is right for the child. My experience is that the result of having released this held shock/underlying tension is that anxiety symptoms lessen or completely resolve.
Another really important aspect of my work is to tune into the nervous system and listen to it. Our nervous systems should spend most of their time in ‘rest and digest’ mode and rarely need to be in ‘fight, flight or freeze’ (the latter only when there is an emergency). However, after experiencing either acute stress, or ongoing stress, our nervous systems can get stuck in the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mode and finding the ‘off switch’ can become almost impossible. This leads to symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression and so on.
Teaching the nervous system how to slow down or down-regulate is very powerful and usually has a profound impact on the child’s outlook, sense of calm and ability to cope.
Many parents worry that their child won’t lay down for a treatment, much less stay still! But don’t worry, I work around their needs. Often newborn babies receive their treatment whilst in their mum’s arms, or even breast feeding. I get down on the floor with a toddler and a toybox and sometimes a screen to watch and I grab what hands on time I can – a few minutes here and there can be enough. Older children will often happily lay on the treatment table as long as they can have a parent close by holding their hand and reading a book. We work it out one way or another. The most important thing for me is to provide an environment where your child feels as safe and content as possible.
Nearly all the children that I see, REALLY enjoy their sessions and will ask to come back, even once they are all better! In fact, its not unusual for them to be asleep by the end!
I find that improvements are often seen after just one session, although obviously lasting change can take more of an investment. But to me, Craniosacral Therapy is the single most effective way to tackle anxiety.
2. Emotional connection/time with your kids
It has been proven that emotional connection creates a strong resilience when it comes to trauma/life’s difficulties. Think of ways to connect to your child. If you have a teenager like me, this may be more challenging!
Offering them your time and asking them how they’d like to spend it might be a good start. You may not have much time to offer, but that’s okay. Let them know how important they are to you and how you’d like to dedicate 15 mins of quality time to them every day. Talking, running, laughing, dancing, cooking, reading or having a cuddle can all be a great way to connect.
Mood cards can be a good way to find out more about what’s going on for your child. I use these ones with my two:
The Mood Cards: Make Sense of Your Moods and Emotions for Clarity, Confidence and Well-Being (MOOD Series) cards by Andrea Harr.
My girls and I make a habit of sitting at the table together to eat dinner each evening and we’ll often look at the cards. Each has an emotion on one side and some queries and affirmations on the other. I teach them that there is no such thing as a ‘bad’ emotion, that anger for example is neither good nor bad, it just is. So we’ll tend to pick one ‘easy’ emotion and one that we find harder and then we each have a turn to talk about what’s going on for us. It helps us all to open up and gain clarity on what we are feeling.
3. Books to tackle worry
There are several out there. My personal favourite is ‘What To Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid’s Guide To Overcoming Anxiety’ by Dawn Huebner and Bonnie Matthews.
This book works on the principle that worrying can become a habit and how to break that habit. It suggests that a worry is like a tomato seed and that the more we fuss over the seed and give it our attention, the more it’ll grow. It also introduces the idea of a ‘worry box’, which I love. We refuse to enter into thought or discussion about anything worrying, it simply goes in the worry box. We only open the worry box once a day for a limited time to address and rationalise the worries. Then it gets closed until the next day. Over time, you’d be amazing, the worries diminish.
4. Breathing exercises
The breath is a powerful tool. I have seen clients who are taking nine breaths to my one. Training yourself into the more natural, deeper, slower, more efficient and relaxed abdominal pattern of breathing will help the nervous system to slow down and to stay calm. Ten minutes of practice, morning and night will usually mean that your regular breathing and therefore your nervous system will be calmer most of the time in a week or two.
Your child may not be old enough to do this, but if he/she is, the main two things to address are (whilst laying on their back)
a) their tummy moves in and out with their breathing, not their chest
b) the out breath should be as slow as possible – a slow count of 6 would be amazing
The more awkward it feels to start with, the more benefit you will get from the transition! Start where you are at. Acknowledge the awkwardness and take baby steps. Using your tummy for one breathe only might be great progress! Slowing that out breath down from a count of just one to nearly two is great too! Be kind and patient with yourself and your child, these are life skills we are learning.
5. Mindfulness
There is no ‘correct’ way of being mindful. What we are really talking about when we say mindfulness is getting practiced at bringing ourselves into the present moment. When we are truly in the present, the past doesn’t take over and the future hasn’t happened yet. It is a key skill in mental health. Again, a life skill and one that most of us need to get better at.
There is much help and advice out there to help you achieve mindfulness. Often CST opens the door to children and adults alike, but if you would like some guidance, I like this book and CD:
Sitting Still Like A Frog: Mindfulness Exercises For Kids (And Their Parents) by Eline Snel.
There are also many apps to try.
6. Gratitude
It has been proven that gratitude has many benefits to us psychologically. In this material world where all we seem to want is more, appreciating what is good in life can have genuine benefits. Making a daily habit of naming a couple of things that each family member is grateful for can really steer things into a more positive direction.
7. Referral to CAMHS
The school may already be aware of your child’s anxiety. They or the GP may make a referral to CAMHS. You or your child may even be able to make the referral yourself.
After what is usually a very long wait, you should be given an for your child to be given a mental health assessment. To say that CAMHS is under-resourced is a huge understatement, which is a very sorry situation and a large proportion of children do not any help at all.
My advice would always be to take responsibility yourself. By all means apply to CAMHS for help, but the help if there is any is likely to be slow and insufficient. Thankfully, there is much that you can do in the meantime, rather than waiting for the help that may never come (see toolbox!).
Some schools are able to offer talking /play therapy which can be helpful.
In summary
Hopefully this blog has given you an insight as to how you can be most effective at helping your anxious child, and yourself!
Life can be stressful. We all need healthy coping strategies and support in place. Start filling up your child’s toolbox. By taking action now, you are showing your child that it is good to be open about their feelings and to reach out when they need help or are worried; that they are not alone and that things can and will get better.
I am here, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to answer your queries on 07956 390419 (Sarah Johnson RBCST BCST) or email sarah@craniokent.co.uk.
I’m currently writing a book on the subject of anxiety in children and how as parents, we can best help them. I will be expanding on many of the subjects that I raise here, and also I am adding a lot of new ones. Please keep your eye out for it.
Does your child suffer with anxiety? It is very common and can show itself in many ways such as worrying, difficulty sleeping, digestive issues, being moody and snappy, withdrawal, depression, obsessive behaviour, panic attacks and so on.
This time of year can be especially challenging, with the new academic year, which brings lots of change and new experiences for school aged children. But what can you do to help your child? Some children are more prone to suffer with anxiety than others, but part of our job as parents and carers is to act, when they show that they are struggling and not just ignore it and hope that it’ll go away by itself!
Craniosacral Therapy
I see a lot of children in my practice who are suffering with anxiety, and Craniosacral Therapy is usually fundamental to changing things for them.
Our nervous system should spend most of its time in the ‘rest and digest’ mode and rarely need to be in ‘fight, flight or freeze’. However, after experiencing stress, our bodies can get stuck in the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mode and finding the ‘off switch’ can become almost impossible. This results in a variety of symptoms: anxiety, stress, being hypervigilant, being aggressive, very tired, depressed, and so on. And yes, this can be the case in very young children too, even babies. The priority here is for the therapist to show the child’s nervous system how to down-regulate from the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mode to ‘rest and digest’ and this is what I do. This practice alone usually has a profound impact on the child’s anxiety or stress levels.
The next stage of their treatment is for me to identify any specific tensions or restrictions that are being held in the child’s physiology, and then help those tensions to release in a very gentle way, and at a pace that is right for the child.
It is worth saying at this point that nearly all the children that I see, REALLY enjoy their treatments and will ask to come back, even once they are all better! It is not unusual for them to be asleep by the end! Making your child feel safe, and secure in the knowledge that I am there to help and support them is a top priority for me. And if you don’t feel that your child could lay down during the treatment or keep still, don’t worry, we can work around this and treatments can still be really effective.
So there is a brief explanation of why Craniosacral Therapy and how it works. Now onto the ‘toolbox’ part…..
When parents bring their children to see me, they often ask me is there’s anything they can be doing at home, with their child, to support them whilst they receive treatments and I tell them about the toolbox, which I believe everyone needs. A toolbox of resources, or in other words, things or skills that we know help to keep us well and happy, help us to cope and keep us strong. Things we should use on an ongoing basis, but could turn to particularly when the going gets tough.
So, I’ve put together some suggestions of some things to go in the toolbox. These are things which either I have used myself with my own children, or that have been recommended to me by other health professionals or other parents. If you have any of your own ideas, please let me know because I am always keen to extend the list!
Books
The Wishing Star by Relax Kids. Relax Kids do various books along similar lines for children. This one is full of creative visualisations, meditations and relaxations. Children can imagine they are lying in soft grass, sitting in a peaceful cave, watching a beautiful sunset and flying like a bird. From 5 years old.
What To Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid’s Guide To Overcoming Anxiety by Dawn Huebner and Bonnie Matthews. A favourite of mine – this book is aimed at primary aged children, and talks about how ‘feeding worries’ helps them to grow and introduces the idea of a ‘worry box’.
Sitting Still Like A Frog: Mindfulness Exercises For Kids (And Their Parents) by Eline Snel. A book and CD, which teaches us how to be in the moment, rather than the past or the future, a key skill in mental health.
Affirmation Cards For Kids by Catherine Keller. Often children find it hard to say good things about themselves, but with daily practice, it becomes easier and easier and soon it is a new way of thinking!
The Law Of Attraction For Kids by Jennifer Quaggin. Similar to the above, but aimed at slightly older children.
Mindfulness / relaxation / sleep apps
There is vast array of these apps available. A lot are free. My advice would be to do a search and try several until you find one that your child likes. Some people prefer talking, some music, some white noise. They can be used for mindfulness practice and / or at bedtimes to help quieten the mind.
Breathing exercises
Abdominal breathing is the most efficient and relaxed way of getting enough air into out lungs. However, we sometimes get into the habit of chest breathing which increases our stress levels. There is good advice online on abdominal breathing and how to train yourself (or your child) to do it habitually, eg. http://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/resources/patient-information/therapies/abdominal-breathing.pdf.
Help from the school / GP
Do the school know about the situation?
Have you told your child’s GP?
Schools are often able to offer additional support where appropriate. Both schools and GPs are able to refer your child to a mental health specialist for assessment.
In summary
Life can be stressful. We all need healthy coping strategies / support in place. Many children are under a lot of pressure from school and so on. Start filling up your child’s toolbox. By taking action, you are showing your child that it is good to be open about their feelings and to tell you when they need help or are worried; that they are not alone and that things can and will get better.
And please note also, that often when we take a look at our children’s stress levels, we realise that our own stress levels need addressing also. It’s really hard for children to be calm when their parents are not, so its important to address your own stress levels too. How about filling your own toolbox?
Please do feel free to get in touch if you would like to discuss anything in this blog or if you have concerns about the impact that stress or anxiety is having in your child’s life or your own. I’ll be happy to have a chat with you.
Special thanks go to Julie Clark of Julie Clark Nutrition for suggesting that I write this blog in the first place!
...the pain in my neck is a lot better, I haven't had nearly as many waves of anxiety and I feel a lot happier!"
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...the pain in my neck is a lot better, I haven't had nearly as many waves of anxiety and I feel a lot happier!"