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Hey folks!  I've spent all week trying to remember what I was supposed to ask you about and I finally did!  One day ahead of my client being here...I'm hoping you have time to help!  One of my clients just found out that she has a hiatal hernia and she's hoping I can help her with it.  I'm planning to do a CranioSacral Therapy Respiratory Diaphragm release; do any of you have any suggestions for how to help with a hiatal hernia?

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Hi Gary!  I appreciate your skepticism; it's what keeps everyone on the planet from becoming an extremist.  I am very wary of coming across as if this stuff were magic; I thought twice about posting on a public forum information about dialoging with the body.  But, ultimately, it's my truth and I need to be willing to talk about it - and substantiate it.

I will do my best to address your concerns but it's challenging - especially with a busy schedule and another client today - time is limited.

The CSF doesn't flow through the whole body; it's a semi-closed system that is housed by the meninges in the brain and the dural tube in the spine.  It's pressure is regulated so it stays at a desirable level, in healthy people.  Yes, in some people the pressure increases to dangerous levels because some part of the system is faulty.  Those people are not good candidates for CST if they are in an acute situation.  The pressure is normally relatively low - too low to correct a suture that is stuck or a skull bone that is crooked.  That requires some outside help; however, the system is strong enough that with just a little bit of assistance it can self-correct (just like everything in the body).  Your note about hydrocephalus is one I can't address with a lot of knowledge; all I can tell you is that I know that CST can't solve all problems and that I wouldn't do CST on someone with hydrocephalus unless they have a shunt in.  Modern medicine can help people in some ways.

Upledger was a proponent of light pressure over time rather than the original ideas of cranial osteopathy that used more force.  The idea is that the body has the opportunity to self-correct when the practitioner takes the strain out of the system.  With a light touch, the practitioner is less likely to introduce trauma into a delicate system.

I am certain that I could teach you to feel the CS rhythm in a matter of a couple of minutes, and to feel when it stops and starts.  If memory serves me correctly, there are about 50 distinct rhythms in the body that people can tune into and feel.

As to the ability to dialog with the tissues, that's more difficult to address in this forum.  The practitioner actually must be in a lower state of emotions - calm, and clear.  Almost a meditative state - we have to be able to tune into very subtle things so if we are agitated it will not go as well.  It drives me nuts when people don't have good explanations for what they do and why it works.  I can't adequately explain the dialoging at the moment - and that's a failing on my part.  You can bet that I will figure out a good way to discuss that and get back to you!  I can also tell you that I don't do the dialoging with every client, even though many times it's not out loud.

Therese, you have responded with more courtesy than my assault on your favored modality deserved.  As you've witnessed in discussions with people skeptical about trigger point therapy, my response is often downright vicious.  I thank you for your friendship, and ask for your forgiveness. 

I look forward to continuing this conversation about CST when we both have more time.

Hi Gary, really, it's good to have to defend what I do with what I hope is reason, or at least something that makes sense.  It bothers me when I hear CS therapists say that a client needs faith for CST to work.  NO it doesn't!  There is science here; it's one of the things I like very much about CST - it's the blend of science and intuition that I am working toward in my life.

And there are people out there who would like to tear down someone else's work.  There are people who are negative about John Barnes' work as well.  Ultimately, the goal is to return clients to better health (physically, mentally and emotionally).  Whatever pathway a therapist chooses (as long as it's respectful of the client; there are many that I believe to be otherwise) is good as far as I'm concerned.

Keep challenging me and asking questions.  It helps me have clarity about what I do and why.

On the note of having more time...I need to make a grocery/supplies run!  Mostly I just want to chill out...Oh well!

no deadline on this.  we take take as long as it takes to get everything said.  I'm sending you a private message.

If anyone wants to hear.  I can tell you my experience with CST.   And it does not mean its the truth.  It's just my experience.  This was a long time ago, before any one ever heard of Barnes, I think? lol

Sure! And I'm sure that Therese is eager to hear anything you want to say about any MT technique also.

Uhm ok,  Gary you are my online buddy... So of course you want to know.   This is way back in the 80s.   I had a massage therapist friend.  Who at the time had been doing massage someting like eight years more them me.  Id been at it a couple of years I think?  Anyway.    Also we had a mutual chiropractor friend.   All the other chiropractors in town were seeing or trying to see 50 to 200 patients a day.  This guy would see only 15 people max durring his day.   The massage therapist friend was from Sweeden originally..  so    me, the  Sweedish guy, and the cool chiropractor got together and ordered video tapes from,  I think it was a Still, on Cranial Sacral Therapy.  We studied together.  Practiced on each other.  At the time I was working in another chiropractic office.  All the clients that knew me well let me practice my Cranial Sacral Techniques.  Which was pretty much trying to palpate this pulse.. The ceribrial fluid pulse.  Now there was a certain frequency of pulse that was considered normal.. Anything outside that peramater was considered not normal.   So I got to where I felt I was for sure feeling this pulse.  I was not feeling heart, breating or any other pulse.   Now the basic deal was, as far as I knew, and still know, is that in order to heal someone you want to bring that pulse withing the normal peramaters.  And you did that by various cranial and sacral minipulations that were very suttle.  And in order to get certified in this therapy there was several levels of training..  Time and money.   So I did an experiment.   All the clients that came in to see me that had a cold or hurting, or not feeling good.  As well as the ones that felt great, were atheletic or on a gift certificat because of their birthday.  I started checking this pulse before and after the massage.   And sure enough the ones that were not feeling good, had a pulse frequency out of the normal range( I forgot what that range was now? ).  And the ones that felt good , had a pulse withing the normal frrequency range.   Then I would check the frequency of the cranial pulse after I massage them.  I was doing a general shiatsu sweedish like massage/ lomi lomi kind of thing with some pressing on trigger points.. And what I found was.. That after working on someone that felt bad , or  was hurting.   With my regular massage techniques.  Their pulse fell withing the normal peramiters.. And they would tell me they felt better.  So I figured.. I didnt need to study this complicated therapy because all I had to do was give them a good massage, and their cranial pulses went back to normal..   And I just left it at that.    Sorry for any mis spelled words... I suck at spelling.. lol   So I just don't see the advantage over a really good massage.  And now, after 30 years.   Im getting good at massages. But I dont claim to know everything about CST.   Ive just taken another path..

thanks, Gordon.  My problem with Upledger-style CST and Barnes-style MFR and scads of modalities unnamed,  is that, since the stuff they do can't be duplicated by an untrained (in that modality) MT, the technique's developers tend to keep pushing the boundaries of common sense and pocketing the big bucks.  Neither CST nor MFR can perform miracles, such as reversing organ failures or knitting bones or curing cancer or even healing a hiatal hernia--yet even more ludicrous claims have been made by CST and MFR certified practitioners. 

They can't produce evidence it works, but no matter. "It's been scientifically documented"  is always the claim of the proponents of miraculous modalities, including Gem Wands and Amethyst-embedded vibrating pads and Gua Sha skin scrapings. 

I feel the knots, I witness the client's reaction to pressure applied to a trigger point.  I feel the change in the tissue as the trigger point dissolves and the pain fades away.  Hell, my 10 year old grandson can feel a trigger point release! Without undergoing CST 1 and CST 2, however, no one will feel that CSF pulse-- now, in a classroom setting, I might indeed feel it, because I paid big bucks for the experience, and, besides, I don't want to disappoint the nice instructor or my classmates. 

It's very late, I'm going to bed.

Well, a lot of people dont believe what I say.   But I know what I know, and can back up what I say with client testimonials and quoted words from intelligent people in various medical scientific fields.  However, what I dont know, I dont know.  And what I do know now, I didnt know in the past.   So I will end with a couple quotation things.   I like to keep an open mind( unless you disagree with me.  lol).                  

   "The dust of truth swirls, and seeks its own cracks of entry.  And a tree fallen in the forest, without ears to hear, makes no sound.  Yet it falls."                                      

   " But thats's impossible, " said Alice, "You can't be disappearing!"  "It's best you confine your thoughts to things about which you know." replied the Cheshirre Cat as he finished disappearing.

This is a good discussion but I need to bow out for about 10 days - I'm overwhelmed with all the things I need to be doing!  I appreciate everyone's viewpoint and opinions but I don't have time to participate in a way that I consider to be useful.

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