So what exactly is Cranial Osteopathy?
Cranial Osteopathy is the popular name for what we cranial osteopaths call The Involuntary Mechanism (IVM), which frankly is a bit of a mouthful.
The IVM is a very subtle movement, rhythmic and symmetrical, which happens throughout the whole body, in the bones, the connective tissue, the central nervous system and the fluids which bathe the brain and the spinal cord.
This movement is mostly easily felt at the head and at the pelvis, but it is happening everywhere – from your little finger to your big toe. This is why I quite like to sometimes use the term Micro Osteopathy, rather than Cranial Osteopathy which implies it only involves the head.
Micro Osteopathy is more about the tiny scale of movement involved, and can indeed be used on any part of the body – even someone’s little finger; but that’s another story.
The treatment is very gentle – the lightest of touch from hands that may seem to be hardly moving, but believe me they are. I sometimes feel that although I can see my hands are hardly moving, in terms of the information I am getting from the patient’s body, it feels as they are doing really big movements. Which I admit is a bit disconcerting.
Can Cranial Osteopathy Help You?
Sometimes the rhythm and symmetry of this cranial movement can get a bit out of synch, almost as if the two ends of the body – the head and the pelvis – are not really talking to each other, and this can be when we experience pain or discomfort.
Maybe there was an accident, an illness with a high temperature, or a shock of some kind, such as chemotherapy or getting very cold, or even stress or emotional trauma – and it might have been recent, or a long time ago.
This gentle way of treating patients is a wonderful way of helping their bodies to let go of pain, let go of stress, let go of trauma – and relax. Needless to say, it can really help patients to sleep better.
It is wonderful for babies to help them recover from the compression of being born, or the stress of an emergency C-section, and also for new mums as well, whose bodies have done the hard work of carrying a child to term and delivery.
Maybe you have had a fall on your bottom, or whacked your head. I once had a patient who had walked into the edge of a shower door and given herself a black eye!
Or the motorcyclist who had been in an accident, with various bruises and strains, and after a few session was doing really well apart from the little finger of his left hand. And what finally resolved that pain, for it never to return? working with the IVM, that beautiful and subtle movement, in his left pinky. It was wonderful to feel the strain unravelling and his whole arm relaxing.
So, if you live or work in or near Baldock in Hertfordshire, or Bromley in SE London, and would like to make an appointment, or have a chat first to see if my kind of gentle osteopathy might be able to ease your aches and pains, text me or give me a ring on 07535 350343