Craniosacral Therapy: Emotional and Physical Trauma
Did you know that craniosacral therapy ( CST ) can help with symptoms produced by emotional and/or physical trauma?
Someone who has gone through an emotional or physical experience that was overwhelming , upsetting, or frightening that experience is called trauma. A traumatic experience is know as a “ whole body experience”. And so, the body goes into fight or flight or freeze in order to survive what happened to them.
This response can happen during or after the traumatic event and the body will immobilize and shut down the body in response to a threat or a danger. The body’s response to trauma is a hyper-arousal response and so vagus nerve work through craniosacral therapy can bring the system down to a safer place allowing relaxation and feelings of safety and healing.
That is precisely the role of Craniosacral therapy.
Craniosacral therapy brings our system out of hyper-arousal, hyper-awareness to a safer state where we can release tension and restrictions and have more room for healing.
You may be wondering… how can a therapist treat this? First you need to learn about the vagus nerve.
The Vagus nerve and trauma.
What is the vagus nerve? The Vagus nerve is cranial nerve number 10 (CN X). It’s the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system in the human body and comes out of our brainstem ( at the base of our brain) and travels to our abdomen. The vagus nerve connects to multiple organs such as our heart, lungs, gall bladder, stomach, liver , kidneys, intestines,. fertility organs, and pancreas. It also affects our neck, ears, and tongue.
The vagus nerve and the role in trauma.
The body’s response to trauma is sympathetic system of hyperarousal response. ( fight or flight resposne) and so vagus nerve work through craniosacral therapy (CST) can bring down the nervous system to a safer placer allowing relaxation and feelings of safety and healing. CST therapy brings our systems our of hyperarousal , hyperawareness to a safer state where we can release tension and restricton and have room for healing.
Vagus Nerve Exercise:
This is a great exercise to calm down your nervous system to help you relax.
In a Seated position check your range of motion in your c-spine ( neck) . Turn your head to the left , come back to centre, turn your head to the right.
Place your hands interlaced behind your head and lay down.
Keep your head straight. Look to the right for 30-60 seconds and then to the left for 30-60 seconds.
Stop when you feel any signs of the following : Yawn, Swallow, Take a spontaneous inhale “ sigh”.
Check your range of motion in your c-spine ( neck). Your range may be greater as this exercises also repositions the atlas ( C1) and axis ( C2). This will increase bloow flow to the brain stem which has a positive effect on the ventral branch of the vagus nerve.