‘Drink at least 8 glass of water a day’ — Really?

I prefer that people use their own body weight, activity levels, and geographical climate to figure out how much they need to drink. I also like ‘teaching’ people to look at the color of their urine. It is a great indicator of body hydration/dehydration. Urine output should be anywhere from pale yellow to mostly clear (unless you take a multi-vitamin).

Here are a few more recent reports that have been in the news:

ABC News: Advice on Water Doesn’t Hold Water

Yahoo News: Research debunks health value of guzzling water

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Eight Glasses (one of my favorites)

We should be teaching people to listen to their bodies. We should not be giving such specific information as 8×8 because as we all know, people take things way to literally. They look for someone else to ‘fix’ their problem and when someone says to them ‘You need to drink at least 8 – 8 ounce glasses of water per day’ they listen and go for it … even if they only weigh 100 pounds.

When are we going to stop giving ‘guidelines’ and teach people how to actually listen to their own bodies?

Add on to that the problems with people consuming more unfiltered water and water that has been sitting in plastic bottles leeching chemicals into the water. Not only are these plastic bottles bad for us, they are horrible for the environment.

How much water do you drink? Do you actually achieve the 8, 8 ounce glasses recommended? Have you tried to achieve that? How did it make you feel?

CranioSacral Therapy is full body work. While the core focus of the work is the health of the craniosacral system, not all of the session is spent working on the system. Rather, during a session the therapist may be in and out of the craniosacral system several times. To understand why, I must first talk briefly about fascia. And trust me, this is a very, very brief overview of the fascial system.

Fascia is everywhere in the body. It covers every structure of the body from muscle to bone to organ and surrounds cells within those muscles and organs. It is a vast connective web that runs everywhere in the body, uninterrupted from head to toe, front to back, side to side, and deep to superficial. You could literally start at the big toe and travel to and from anywhere within the body and never leave the fascial system. In fact, if we could remove everything from the body but leave every fiber of fascia intact, the body would still maintain the shape of the human body.

Fascia is very adaptable tissue. It has collagen and elastin fibers to make it both elastic and stretchable.  When fascia is healthy, it allows for ease of movement of the body. It can expand during pregnancy, it can stretch during yoga, and it can then return to its resting position without pain. It can glide easily over muscle fibers and over itself. It is when fascia is unhealthy or becomes damaged that problems occur.

Unhealthy fascia can come from a variety of internal factors such as nutrition, hydration, hormone levels, supplements, and medications. Damaged fascia might be from any accident, injury, or traumatic insult to the body’s tissues. Fascia can become knotted up, it can stick to muscle, bone or organ, and it can lose its elasticity or its ability to return to a neutral position. It is because of any of these mentioned factors that we might experience pain, tightness, stiffness, ‘knots’ in our body, or a variety of other symptoms.

From a CranioSacral perspective, we need to address these fascial concerns no matter where they are in the body: Even if they are outside of the craniosacral system. Why? Because as I stated previously fascia is a continuous, uninterrupted web of tissue throughout the entire body. This means that if someone has hurt a knee and the fascia gets injured, this injury could create tension within the fascial system. This tension could put a slight pull on the fascia that then begins to ‘tug’ on the fascia of the low back. Suddenly this person is having low back problems. Then the pull begins to travel up the person’s back and into his/her neck. Now, he/she is getting headaches. Yes, this can all happen from an injury that occurred at the knee.

These pulls can then create abnormal tension in the fascia of the craniosacral system. We could work just on the craniosacral system to release the tension within the system, but it wouldn’t get to the core of the problem. Until we work the knee to release the fascial restriction that started it all, the problems or symptoms will continue to return.

In CranioSacral Therapy we learn to evaluate the body in a way that helps to locate fascial restrictions outside of the craniosacral system that may be having a direct effect on the system itself. It is often these fascial restrictions throughout the body that are the ‘core’ of the person’s neck pain, shoulder pain, migraines, fibromyalgia, etc, etc, etc.

So while it may sound like CranioSacral Therapy works only on the head and tailbone, I can assure you that it is a full body therapy.

Day two began with Q&A. In the advanced CranioSacral Therapy (CST) classes, we spend at least an hour every morning sharing our experiences and learnings from the previous day’s sessions. This sharing helps us to hear about other’s experiences so we can broaden our knowledge base of what could come up in a session and possibilities of how to support the client through those issues. It is very valuable discussion.

The lecture portion covered structures like the pituitary, thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, fornix, basil ganglia, cerebellum, cerebrum, pons, medulla, etc, etc. You get the idea. Brain parts.

After lunch we traded sessions. When I was the therapist I got to dialogue with my client’s tentorium, and foramen magnum. Pretty cool. She released a lot of tension in her cranium.

Day three, after Q&A, our main lecture was about the reticular alarm system (RAS) (or reticular formation) and the centrum. But the really great part of day three was during practice time. As the lead therapist, I had the privilege of speaking to many structures in my client’s body: the thalamus, the pons, the RAS, scar tissue, the centrum and even to elastin cells! It was a wild journey through the body and I am honored and in awe by the experience.

As the client, I also had several parts that spoke up during the session including: RAS, sphenoid, cranial membranes, the control center, my heart, and the centrum. The amazing thing about dialogue with the body is that when the session is going really well, it feels like I am in a hypnotic state. The words come out of my mouth before I have a chance to think about what I am saying. It’s like I am literally hearing the words as they come out – like someone else is talking t me. It was an amazing experience. I laughed and cried a lot during the 60+ minutes I was on the table. I was also pretty sore the next day from all the release my tissues went through. It was one of the deepest most intense and most freeing sessions I have ever had. God, I love this work!!!

Day four was a nice, integrating day. Again, we started with Q&A before getting into lecture. But the lecture wasn’t really a lecture this day. Don (a truly wonderful teacher) led us through a guided meditation of our bodies, specifically our central nervous system. It was an amazing tour of all the structures we had covered in the class. We also did a little palpation exercise through the different layers of tissues and fluids in the body.  Day four is typically a shorter day in CST classes. We usually go in at 8:00am and are out by 2:00pm, so the morning was a bit shorter.

After lunch we did some practice sessions. Because it was the last day and some had to catch flights, it was up to us how long we stayed to work on each other. I was fortunate to find a group that just wanted a little bit of structural work each to help integrate the work from the past three days.  One of the group members had some trouble getting a timely lunch. (He needed to leave by 1:50.) So, when he got back it was around 1:10. He stayed to work on us without receiving a session. It was very kind of him to do that. So, I and the other group member each had a nice 15 minute structural session. It was wonderful.

15 minutes may not sound like a lot. But, when you have two very skilled, highly trained therapists working on you at the same time, your body releases much faster than with just one therapist.  15 minutes allowed them to work my entire cranium as well as my pelvis, abdomen and upper chest (pelvic, respiratory, and thoracic diaphragms for those of you trained in CST).

It was an amazing weekend of learning and personal growth. I am looking forward to integrating all that I learned into my CranioSacral work in my practice. I’m sure I’ll be adding more info from the class in future posts. I’m still processing a lot of stuff.

After introductions we spent the morning talking about cellular anatomy and physiology: Neurons, glial cells, organelles, neuronal impulse conduction, neurotransmitters and neuropeptides. We finished the lecture portion talking a lot about the circulation of the brain, specifically the Circle of Willis and the production and circulation of cerebrospinal fluid.

The format for most classes beyond CranioSacral Therapy II is that we get all the lecture material before our lunch break (usually somewhere around 12:00-1:00). When we return we work in groups of three giving sessions with the intention of adding into the session some of what we learned that morning. In the group of three, one person is the ‘client’ on the table receiving a session, one person is the therapist and the third is the assistant. The assistant is also using CranioSacral to work on the client in a way that supports what the lead therapist is working with. It’s a great opportunity to have multiple therapists during a treatment.

As the therapist, I was very fortunate to make contact with and have a discussion with my client’s Cerebrum and cerebrospinal fluid. It was really amazing. My assistant and I could notice an actual change in the client’s voice when the Cerebrum was talking. It was wild. And the change that we could feel in the client’s tissues was incredible.

Gotta run … Off to day 2!

This coming Thursday through Sunday, I will be attending this amazing class in Hartford, CT. The class is presented by the Upledger Institute for those of us who have completed training through (at least) SomatoEmotional Release II. The class is an in-depth look at the neuroanatomy, physiology and biochemical processes of neurological function. It will be an intense exploration of tapping into the consciousness of the body’s tissues using imagery and dialogue techniques.

I believe the way the class will flow is this …

Lectures will be a detailed look at the development of the central nervous system from conception. I believe we will explore different brain structures and where in development problems can arise. As well as looking at how the different parts function and what jobs they all perform.

The hands on portion will be about connecting with different brain tissues/structures of the person on the table and using therapeutic imagery and dialogue techniques to obtain information about these structures. This information will relate to the person’s overall health and vitality. It may include information about previous stresses, strains or injuries that may have created suboptimal conditions in which the nervous system operates. Once we have established communication with specific parts of the nervous system we can work with that part to find out what it might need to help improve its functioning.

I am really looking forward to learning more about the nervous system on this level as well as continuing to practice and improve my dialogue skills. One of the many, many great things about taking a class like this is that I will be working with others who have advanced training and are passionate about learning and practicing CranioSacral Therapy. I end up learning so much from my colleagues.  Plus, it is such a great opportunity to learn more about myself and my body as I will be receiving this work each day during the class.

I’ll keep you posted as much as possible during the class but I am usually physically and emotionally drained by the time I get home and don’t do much other than sit on the couch and stare blankly at the TV.

In general the craniosacral system is like the ‘housing’ for the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). It is protected by the bones of the skull (or cranium), the vertebrae, and the sacrum. Inside of this bony outer boundary are the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord and make up the craniosacral system.

The outermost layer of membrane is called the dura mater or dural membrane. This membrane lines the inside of the cranium and extends down the vertebral canal around the spinal cord. It has very few attachments within the vertebral canal to allow for movement of the spine, and then securely attaches again on the sacrum. The dural membrane creates the watertight, outermost boundary for the cerebrospinal fluid.

(The other two layers of membrane are the arachnoid mater and pia mater, and all together the 3 layers are called the meninges. Because I am not going in depth into the system, just know that the outermost layer, creating the ‘container’ for cerebrospinal fluid, is the dura mater.)

Just like the respiratory system or the cardiovascular system, the craniosacral system is a physiological system that has its own rhythm. This rhythm is created by the production and reabsorption of cerebrospinal fluid. The volume of fluid in the system is constantly changing; rising and falling at a rate of about six to twelve cycles per minute. This rhythmic motion helps to circulate cerebrospinal fluid around the system. This is important given its many functions, including:

• Providing nutrients to the brain and spinal cord
• Removing metabolic waste products
• Acting as a shock absorber
• Creating buoyancy to reduce the effects of gravity on the brain
• Maintaining an environment that supports good nerve transmission

What happens during this change in pressure within the system is that the outermost boundary (the dural membrane) gets stretched slightly when the system is full of fluid. Because of this stretching of the membrane and the fact that the membrane lines the inside of the cranium, there is an accompanying movement of the cranial bones as the dural membrane is filled and emptied. The movement of the bones is actually a very slight opening and closing of the sutures in the skull. (It was previously believed that the bones fused together by adulthood. We now know this is not the case.)

In CranioSacral Therapy classes, we teach students how to evaluate movement of the craniosacral system to detect restrictions. Restrictions within the system can effect:

• Functions of the brain and spinal cord
• Visual and auditory systems
• Motor coordination
• The endocrine and immune systems

Since the craniosacral system plays such an important role in the development and performance of the central nervous system, it is important that it be functioning as best as possible. A restriction could cause any number of problems including chronic pain, headaches/migraines, scoliosis, learning disabilities, chronic fatigue, and other health concerns.

CranioSacral Therapy can help keep your nervous system and your entire body functioning at its best.