The humpback bridge lady
When this patient came to see me she was experiencing a lot of pain and debilitation from a herniated disc at L5/S1. She had been a passenger in a car which went over a humpback bridge too fast giving the area a serious jolt. The lady was booked in for an operation to remove the disc and fuse that spinal level together, an operation which works well for some people but not for everyone. CranioSacral Therapy released the tension in the area, relieved the pain and, in time, helped the disc to heal up itself. This was a big treatment for me, not just because of the excellent result, but because it helped me to develop a new way of working with the CST techniques. The lady was late for her first appointment giving us just twenty minutes of the usual hour. I felt I needed to work with her sacrum and lumbar spine but also with her dural tube and sphenoid bone, so on the spur of the moment I tried doing all of these techniques at once. There was some improvement immediately with the first short treatment and I saw the lady four or five times altogether. I'm happy to say that she never needed the operation.
Into the shadow self
This story is about a patient I treated at a rehab clinic, a gentleman who was drinking himself numb without really understanding why. Whereas the first story was a completely physical treatment this second one shows how an emotional concern can be wrapped up inside a physical one. He was a very friendly, pleasant guy from the US who happened to be going through a very difficult and expensive divorce. He also had serious lower back pain which CST started to ease but not release completely. During one treatment, I suggested that it might help to look into the problem a little more deeply. I helped him to relax, working with the sacral, lumbar, iliac area, helping him to visualise a safe, peaceful place where he could relax completely on his own. The pain eased off completely. Then I suggested that his wife was coming to visit him, to his surprise the pain returned full on, as if a switch had been clicked. We looked into the emotions that were coming up for him and at last got to the heart of the matter, deep down inside he actually felt like killing her. However, being a pleasant, friendly man he hadn't been able to admit that to himself, so had locked the feeling away deep down inside his sacrum. He resolved the issue by accepting that as human beings we have all sorts of unsociable urges. Our human brains are built on a mammal brain which is in turn built on a reptile brain, it's just the way we are. But as human beings we also have choice, and can choose not to do the things we sometimes feel like doing. I don't know how the divorce worked out for our gentleman in the end but I remember him saying this, "Marriage is like an elevator: it has it's ups and downs but sooner or later you get the shaft".
Here's a link to this week's Thursday Group Event on Facebook, have a great session if you're joining in.
