Migraines and headaches
I have had headaches and migraines since I was 14 years old. I have felt continuous improvement with CST. Since the intensive this summer, I went without a headache for an entire month, the first time this has happened in 15 years. (K.C.)
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I recently worked with a thirty-eight-year old client whose symptoms demonstrated the relationship between tailbone dysfunction and migraine clearly. The client described an eight-year history of migraine headaches, neck pain, and neck muscle spasms. She had seen many doctors, including neurologists, and had undergone cranial and cervical imaging, all of which were negative. The headaches had become constant and severe. They were exacerbated by exercise, exposure to extreme temperature, or by carrying small items, such as a lightweight purse on her shoulder. Her situation became unbearable when, four months prior to seeing me, she had her first child. “It became too heartbreaking for me not to be able to carry her without experiencing pain. I was beginning to lose hope for myself.”
Her headaches could rate anywhere from seven tot nine out of ten on the visual analog scale. They were located in the suboccipital, temporal and frontal regions. When I first met her she revealed a history that included a fall down a flight of concrete stairs twelve years prior. This had resuolted in a coccyx fracture.
I found that her coccyx was significantly sheared posteriorly at the sacrococcygeal junction. It was also extended and deviated tot the right. The nearby coccygeus muscle on the right side of the coccyx was significantly shortened and seemed to be reinforcing the right deviation of the coccyx. The combined posterior shear, extension, and right deviation of the coccyx seemd sufficient to place excessive tension on the dura. This likely translated all the way up to the foramen magnum, falx cerebelli and falx cerebri. In this case, the positional dysfunction seemed so pronounced, and the tension on the dura so extreme, that any further tension introduced into the system (even from something as simple as carrying a lightweight purse or lifting her baby) could not be dissipated by the craniosacral dura and related fascia/fluid. The increased tension would easily and repeatedly result in head pain.
At the start of the second session a week later, she noted that she had not had a headache all week, even when holding her baby. At the start of the third week session she reported she was able to carry her fifteen pound child three blocks without a headache. In fact, she had not had a headache at all.
During the entire three-month period in which the initial eight-session treatment course took place, she experienced only three headaches, each lasting only a couple of hours, with a max intensity of five out of ten. She and I were overjoyed by her ability to hold and carry her baby without fear of developing a migraine.
(An answer to your pain, CranioSacral Therapy practitioner case stories, ISBN 9780990796640)
This is a healing modality that does so much with so little. The lady had been complaining of unusually severe migraine headaches. On several occasions she ended up being admitted to the hospital for a shot of Demerol. Along with the headaches, she would get a soft spot that felt like jelly near her front fontanelle, although she was over thirty-five years old. She also had numbling and tingling in her left arm, which quite often relsulted in the swelling of her hand. This was attributed to a disc that “went out” every now and again. She had gone for physiotherapy, which had helped at the time; the problem still came back frequentlyto haunt her, however.
I managed to get permission to treat her with CranioSacral Therapy. She was hesitant because she did not like to be touched and was very tense. I reassured her by saying that I would stop immediately if she was uncomfortable at any time.
At first evalutation I found her rhythm to be quite erratic. I gently worked on the diaphragms and kept checking in with her about the touch to see if she was all right. Her body eventually started to relax and she began to feel at ease. I then treated her on another day to get her used to the feel of being treated. It was on her third visit that things really opened up for her.
When I greeted her that day she had very low energy and felt one of her migraines coming on. She was preparing for the worst, thinking she might have to go to the hospital, which was the usual process. She was squinting due to the sensitivity of her eyes. Her arm was also numb and swollen.
I began to free up her frontal bones, which were stuck. Almost instantly, she felt an easing in the pressure of her headache. I continued with freeing up the other cranial bones.
I ten got a strong sense to release the disc in her thoracic region. I followed and moved gently into place. She then said that she could feel the headache from her disc. It as a line up her spine and into her head. I asked if she was in pain and she replied that it was cuncomfortable but bearable.
Not long after that she said, “Oh, it’s gone. It’s fine now. No pain or discomfort.” I continued. After what seemed like only five minutes, but in reality was close to fifteen, a movement happened within her spine. She said, “Oh, my God, did you feel that?” I replied I had and asked her how the pain in her head was. When she answered “What pain?” I knew that we were on the right track.
I later got an email from her titled “Your Magic Hands!” The first sentence read as follows: “I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful I feel thanks to you. I could cry I am so happy about it, Thanks again and again and again!”
(Working Wonders, Case Studies from Practitioners CST, ISBN 9781556436055)
