My Story With Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy

As I write this now, I am living my life in the fullest potential of Health. The past few years, I have been happy, healthy, and thriving. I have been able to work and study with many skilled practitioners to develop myself and the tools I can offer. But, it wasn’t always this way.

In High School, I was an honors student involved in multiple sports and other after school activities. Just after turning 16 however, I was diagnosed with a rare movement disorder which left me unable to care for even my basic needs without support from others. I could no longer walk unaided. My arms and legs violently jerked around completely out of my control. When these spasms reached my abdominal muscles, I no longer believed that I would survive the few weeks remaining until Christmas.

As my illness evolved, I began to develop seizures, and daily panic attacks. I spent 10 years barely surviving, and my quality of life was nonexistent. I began to think that life with this condition wasn’t worth living anymore.

During my initial visits to the ER, the doctors did not believe that my symptoms were real. I was a young adult experiencing the scariest moment of my life, terrified that I would die, and I was just brushed aside. Even after I had a diagnosis, doctors tried to convince me that I was exaggerating my symptoms for attention. I carried this cruel story for years afterward, always doubting whether the wisdom of my body could be trusted.

As I reflect back on this time, I realize that the doctors didn’t know how to treat my condition. It was easier for them to label me as psychosomatic than admit that a young woman was now disabled. The only medication offered to me was experimental, came with a long list of side effects, and the risk of changing my personality.

By the time I was 18, I was inconsolable, crushed by the limitations of my body, completely unable to regulate my nervous system, and grieving for the loss of who I had dreamed of becoming. I was in a stream of suffering, and believed that there was no way out.

Then, in the dead winter of 2008, I began to work with a Craniosacral Therapist. This broke the endless cycle of seizures, and for the first time I could expand the space in between my symptoms and begin to recover. Craniosacral Therapy gave me tools to connect to the intelligence of my body, teaching me how to listen to what it was trying to tell me. By spring, I was able to walk safely on my own again, and from there I began a longer road beyond recovery and into a more wholesome, easeful life.

Craniosacral Therapy was deeply transformative for me at a very vulnerable stage of my life. I felt that my practitioners looked at me as a whole person, not just as a symptom. Truly seen for the first time, I was encouraged to explore feeling into the wisdom of my body by slowing down and  being present with the world around me.  Through this skill, I learned how to self-regulate in difficult environments.

I was given the space that I needed to expand into my potential. The stories I held about my body changed, and I rediscovered how to trust my body again. This wisdom carried itself into every level of my being, and enlivened my entire reality.

Craniosacral Therapy not only gave me my life back, but helped me to evolve into a more embodied person, where my full potential in the wholeness is more easily accessible to me.

That is why I want to share it with you.