I've been blessed with many opportunities to be of help to others which I am grateful for. The following are some of the interesting experiences that I would like to share. We have to keep in mind always that no two sessions are alike. There is no guarantee to a particular end result as well. All we can do is to set the intention, do our best therapeutically and let the healing happen naturally.
The boy who fell asleep at the wheel
This is a story about the deep connection between a mother and her son, interconnectedness that exists in this universe and the profound effect of a therapeutic still point.
At the massage school where I taught an introductory class on CranioSacral therapy, it was required that all students receive a mini session before the class so they would experience for themselves how it felt. One of the students, Michelle, approached me with a request. She was a mother of 3 year old boy. She couldn’t find anyone to babysit him so she asked if he could be in the room with us. “He knows how to be quiet,” she assured. “Absolutely,” I replied.
There was a small desk and a chair at the end of the treatment room and she had him sit there. The boy seemed to be shy and quiet. He had a small toy car with him that he rolled over the desk, seemingly content playing with it all by himself. The Cranio treatment was to be about 30 mins long and mom said he would be just fine.
All through the treatment, I could hear him ‘driving’ his little car up and down the table, playing by himself. He never made any indication of being bored or wanting to come up and speak to his mom. He really knew how to be quiet!
At the end of the session, I moved into position to balance her cranium & sacrum. Although, she didn’t seem to completely relax up until this time, my hands in that position allowed her body to slip into a deep still point. The still point is of great significance during a craniosacral session. It is during this brief period that the body goes into a healing mode and the nervous system balances itself.
For a therapist, when the client slips into a still point, everything seems to become very quiet and still and it almost feels like you are in deep meditation. It is not uncommon for the client to fall asleep at this time. Michelle was finally able to let go and fall asleep. Everything around me became quiet. A bit too quiet. I realized that the noise from the toy car had also stopped. I stayed in the position, with my eyes closed, until Michelle’s body came out of the still point. I turned around to check on the boy and found him asleep with his head on the desk, still clutching his car!
I finished the session with Michelle and woke her gently. As soon as she opened her eyes, her first question was to ask if her son was okay. I told her he had fallen asleep. She sat up on the table in complete disbelief. She said to me, “He never sleeps during the day. He never takes naps and is usually awake until 11pm every night!” She went over to pick him up. He continued to sleep, resting his head on her shoulders, waking up just enough to say “I love you mommy.”
*****
Vertigo!
This incident was a great learning as well as confidence building experience for me.
It began with a phone call from my friend Wendy. She told me that a young man she knew had met with an accident while rollerblading. It had resulted in severe vertigo. He had seen his physician and was told that there was nothing that could be done and it might just correct itself in 6 months.
The young man, Paul, couldn’t do anything he could normally do anymore. He couldn’t drive. He couldn’t work and was worried about his job as well. My friend Wendy was very confident that CranioSacral therapy will be able to help in recover faster than the 6 months the doctor had told him it would take.
Personally, I had my doubts but at the same time, I wanted to give it try and see if it would help. His friend brought him to me for his treatment. He couldn’t hold himself up because of the dizziness. He was bent over and walked holding the wall for support. While on the treatment table, I briefly explained how the treatment would be and made no promises about a cure. I did tell him that if he was to pay close attention to any changes he notices the next 2 days and if he thought he felt even 20 % better, then we should schedule his next session on the 3rd day. If he felt the session never helped in any way, then, well.. at least we tried.
The session progressed like any typical session until I got to his temporal bones. The moment my hands got into position, his body slipped into a deep still point. His temporal bones seemed to twist and move on their own until I felt a release and they fell back into a synchronized movement. Paul had fallen asleep and his breathing had deepened. I finished the rest of the session and gently woke him. I reminded him about his homework and to call me in 2 days. To me, it appeared as if he was walking straighter and wasn’t holding the wall like he did when he came in but I dismissed it as my own wishful thinking.
In exactly 2 days, Paul called me back. For someone who had never experienced bodywork like this, he had taken his homework seriously. He explained in detail about all the changes he had notice and best of all, when asked how the vertigo was, he said “50% better!” I became just as excited as he was and we scheduled his next session the very next day.
After the second session, he called back the next day to say his vertigo was non-existent!
I take great pleasure in narrating this story to my students when I teach the intro class and the moral - Never under estimate the power of body’s ability to heal itself.
*****
Emergency Therapy
A call for help can come at anytime ..anywhere.
This incident happened while I was in India. My extended family, including aunts, cousins and their kids decided to go on a vacation to a rustic resort, nestled in the tea estates of south India. Since this place was far from civilization, we had no cell phone service, no wifi or access to technology. The parents saw this as a good opportunity to get the kids involved in playing games that we ourselves played growing up.
In the middle of game of “7 tiles”, my niece, tripped and fell flat backwards. She fell hard, hitting her head on the ground. She lay still for a few seconds, probably stunned from the fall and blow to the back of her head. Her mom and dad came to her side and helped her up asking her questions to see if she was able to answer them coherently. Thankfully, she did. She had no open wound to her head or any bad bruise anywhere.
Being a typical teenager, she was embarrassed at creating a scene and kept insisting she was fine. Her cousin took her back to the room so she could rest. Knowing that a bad fall like that would result in a headache soon, I felt like I should do something to help. I took permission from her parents to treat her and they were more than happy that I asked. The closest hospital was probably more than 20 miles away and their home town was more than 70 miles away. Both parents didn’t feel the need to take her to a see a doctor right away since she didn’t show any sign of having a concussion.
For her treatment, I decided a combination of CranioSacral therapy and Pranic Healing would give her the relief she needed and help with the healing as well. I chose to give her a Cranio treatment first as I felt that my touch would make her feel comforted from the shock she had just experienced. She complained her head had started to hurt. I cradled her head gently in a CV4 and other vault hold positions while her body experienced a few still points. I continued with the session, balancing the bones of her cranium & sacrum and making sure her cranial rhythm was even and smooth again. Her mom came to check on her and she said her headache had come down in intensity. On physical examination of the back of her head, the area had turned red from the fall.
I asked her cousin to get me a handful of salt from the restaurant kitchen and a bowl of water so I could give her a Pranic Healing session. I had her sit up, proped against the wall near the bed for support. I focused on pranic psychotherapy to remove trauma and stress energies from her energy field and then worked on the physical injury. By the time the session ended, her headache was completely gone. She seemed a lot more cheerful, even making jokes about her own fall.
The next day, we packed to get back, stopping on the way to see a few more sights. Everyone was in a holiday fun mood and had forgotten what had happened the previous day. After we got home, her dad came to check on her asking her how she was feeling. “Fine” she insisted. He asked her to turn around and show him where she hurt herself. She did. We stood there in silence looking at a completely normal looking scalp! No redness, no swelling, no bruising..nothing abnormal. How amazing is that?!
*****
