March 23 – 2007
Questions and comments for this issue:

+ Postnatal depression.
+ Trigeminal neuralgia.
+ Bipolar disorder.

Hello,
Just let me put my machete down for a minute so
I can tell you about a new study on healing and
men.
That’s right I said men, manly men.
Are you listening to me Pilgrim?

‘Males typically defined as masculine – strong,
capable of endurance and tough – were seen to have
an improved recovery rate,’ says Professor Glen
Good of the University of Missouri-Columbia.

‘It has long been assumed that men are not as
concerned and don’t take as good of care of their
health, but what we’re seeing here is that the
same ideas that led to their injuries may actually
encourage their recovery.’

So that’s it for me.  Out with the pink loafers
and the angora sweaters and in with the DKNY
combat fatigues and the Gucci backpacks.  It’s
rugged hard living for me from now on.
That’s right I’m drinking tap water and hiking
to the coffee shop.

So let’s saddle up and have a look see at the mailbag.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,
I really enjoy your newsletters.  I have been
getting them for quite a while now but have never
asked you anything before, so here goes.

A woman called me the other day to ask if cranio
could help with postnatal depression.  I said yes
and set up an appointment to see her next week.

I have never treated postnatal depression before
so I read up on it.  Nothing is jumping out as a
possible cranio sacral link.  I will ‘treat what I
find’ when I see her but was just wondered if you
had any experience of it.

Thanking you in advance.

JL
London.

PS. I downloaded your book and it is excellent.
Should be a bestseller.

MY COMMENTS:

Thank you for the kind words.
I have found that postnatal depression is a
condition that responds really well to cranio
sacral.

The root cause is often as a result of the
birth process.  The main causes being one or a
combination of the following – Labor, forceps,
ventouse, caesarean section and epidural.

The birth process can leave the mother’s pelvic
floor full of restrictions.  This in turn
pulls the dural tube inferiorly which in turn
translates into the intracranial membranes and
affects the sphenoid which in turn leads to
depression.

I have seen this pattern in 95% of the women I
have treated for postnatal depression.

It usually resolves pretty quickly.  6 or 7
weeks.  The initial treatments focus on getting
the pelvic floor to come into harmony and release.
Then once that happens it’s a matter of following
that work up the dural tube into the head until
the sphenoid settles.

I have treated women who have suffered with
postnatal depression for up to 10 years.  After
that length of time they are nearly always on
medication and their second or third
psychologist/counsellor.

It is fantastic and at the same time sad that
it takes so little to get rid of the symptoms and
how much heartache that could be avoided if they
had treatment earlier.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,
I am a Cranio Sacral Therapist. I studied with The
Upledger Institute and have been a Therapist for
nearly 2years. I truly am amazed at what this
therapy can achieve.  The reason I am writing to
you is because I have recently been introduced to
Trigeminal Neuralgia which I had never heard of
until now. I just wanted to inquire when you treat
this problem what areas do you treat for success.
I would appreciate any feed back on this you may
give me.
Thank you so very much.
H.I.
Australia.

MY COMMENTS:

To get an understanding of trigeminal neuralgia
you need to study the structure of the trigeminal
nerve.
I’ll run through it briefly here.

The Trigeminal nerve is the largest in diameter
of the cranial nerves.  It is predominantly a
sensory nerve receiving sensory input from the
face and scalp.  It also provides some motor
supply to the mylohyoid and the anterior belly of
the digastric.

The two trigeminal nerves leave the pons and
travel anteriorly for about two centimetres under
the tentorium.  The trigeminal then forms a
ganglion out of which it branches into the 3
divisions.

OPHTHALMIC DIVISION
The ophthalmic division receives sensation from
the eye balls, the lacrimal glands and the skin of
the forehead, eyelid and nose.  It enters the
orbit through the superior orbital fissure.

Just before it enters the superior orbital
fissure, it sends some sensory fibres to the
tentorium.  That’s why pain behind the eyes can be
an indication of tentorial tension.

MAXILLARY DIVISION
This division is entirely sensory and receives
sensation from the skin of the middle portion of
the face, lower eye lid, side of the nose, upper
lip, roof of the mouth, gums and teeth.
The Maxillary branch exits the cranium through
the foramen rotundum which is formed in the
sphenoid.

MANDIBULAR DIVISION
This is the largest of the three branches of
the trigeminal.
It receives sensation from the lower lip, lower
face, inner cheek, tongue, lower teeth and gums
and the temporomandibular joint.
It also has a motor aspect supplying the
temporalis, the masseter, pterygoid, mylohyoid and
the anterior digastric.
It exits the cranium through the foramen ovale
which is also located in the sphenoid.

So that is the rough geography.
If you are treating someone with trigeminal
neuralgia trace the pathway of the trigeminal
nerve with your intention.

Pay particular attention to the areas of
vulnerability which are for the ophthalmic
division,

• the superior orbital fissure.

For the maxillary division,

• the foramen rotundum,
• the maxilla,
• palatine,
• sphenoid
• and zygomae.

And for the mandibular branch,
the foramen ovale,

• the TMJ area.

***QUESTION***

Hi John

It is a long time since I have written to you, but
thanks for all the newsletters – I look forward to
receiving them.

I want to ask your help today. I have some friends
in Cape Town who have a son approx 40 years old
who has suffered from Bi Polar since he was about
15 yrs old.

They have tried every possible treatment, but have
had no success. I would like to advise them about
the condition and ‘Cranio’ and then to advise them
to seek help CranioSacrally

Please advise ASAP

Kind regards

John Rosen

Johannesburg SA

MY COMMENTS:

I treated a woman before I left Brisbane who
had Bipolar for thirty five years.  She had been
institutionalised a couple of times and had been
given shock treatment at the start of the 90′s and
again in 2000.

When she came to see me she was in the process
of weening herself off her medication.  The
pattern of her symptoms was two months of feeling
very high followed by two moths of feeling very
low and so on.  When she came to see me she was in
a low.

Taking her case history was very intense
because she was obviously in a lot of emotional
pain and couldn’t stop crying.  We got through it
and she lay on the table and I assessed her.

It turned out that the root cause of her
symptoms was – physical. Her sphenoid was
restricted.

In the course of taking her case history it had
come out that she was a forceps delivery.  As you
know, the sphenoid isn’t ossified when you are a
new born.  This woman’s right greater wing was
torsioned in relation to the body of the sphenoid.
The right greater wing was also side bending in
relation to the body, meaning the right wing was
much more anterior than the left wing when the
sphenoid was in neutral.

It always feels to me that the patterns of
restriction in the sphenoid act as indicators of
the deeper restrictions in the membranes.  Bone
doesn’t move on it’s own.  Trauma is nearly always
held most strongly in the membranes.

The other thing I’ve found with depression and
the sphenoid is that it’s not the sphenoid that
brings on depression but rather the effect the
pattern of restriction has on the pituitary gland
which is sitting atop the sphenoid in the sellae
turcica.  Particularly as the infundibulum of the
pituitary perforates the diaphragma sellae.

The restriction pattern in this woman’s
sphenoid was like this.  Deep patterns of
restriction held in the tent and surrounding
membranes since birth.  Her pituitary was also
under pressure at its infundibulum.

She saw me for six treatments at the end of
which she was neutral.  Not high, not low.  She
couldn’t remember ever feeling like that for more
than a day or so when she was in transition from
high to low or visa versa.

I was in email contact with her about two
months later and she was still symptom free.

35 years of symptoms sorted out in six weeks.
Who’s glad they’re a cranio sacral therapist!
Hands in the air! Come on, you at the back, hands
in the air!

Not all people with bipolar will respond as
well as this woman.  Not all bipolar is caused by
restrictions in the cranio sacral system.  I would
encourage your friends to get their son assessed
by a good cranio sacral therapist. It will all
help.

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now John.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.

May 06 – 2007

Questions and comments for this issue:

+ How to convince Doctors of the validity of cranio sacral therapy?
+ Migraine question.
+ Do you have to get ‘hands on’ when treating post vasectomy pain?

Hello,
I’m just back from a trip to Brisbane where I
was delivering my ‘Core Success’ seminar.
How did it go?
Very well, thank you for asking.

It was great meeting old friends and some new
ones too.  Some of the very first students I taught
in Australia were there, though they are seasoned
therapists now, and some therapists I hadn’t met
before, some of whom flew up from Sydney especially
for the event.

Jenny Palmer, who organised the seminar, is
going to write something about it so I will pass it
on when she does.

Lastly I want to point you to this wonderful picture I came across in the National Geographic. The man lying in the hospital bed is only days after open-heart surgery. He is having cranio sacral therapy.  I like the picture because it is confirmation of where cranio sacral therapy is heading.  But I’m getting ahead of myself,  as you will see when we get into the first letter in the mailbag.

***QUESTION***

Dear John,
I recently had a patient who told their Doctor they
were having craniosacral therapy.  The Doctor
dismissed it out of hand saying there was no
scientific basis for it and discouraged her from
‘wasting her money’.
My patient told me she wasn’t keen to continue
treatment.
I intend to visit the Doctor in question and see if
I can’t change his mind.
I know Dr John Upledger has done some scientific
studies on CST, I am just wondering if you know of
any other studies or can suggest some good
arguments for the validity of CST.
Thank you for your newsletters.

C.S.
Sydney.

MY COMMENTS:

I was only talking about this at the seminar in
Brisbane the other day.  The simplest way to
explain it is to ask you to look towards the
future.  About one or two hundred years in the
future.

Medicine will look very different.  The
exclusively mechanical model that is currently in
vouge will have expanded to include an appreciation
for the body’s ability to fix itself.  Cranio
sacral therapy, or whatever it is called then, will
feature largely.

Every ambulance and para-medical team will
include a cranio sacral therapist.  Emergency rooms
will include cranio sacral therapists as standard
members of staff.  Maternity wards, and in
particular, delivery rooms will all have cranio
sacral therapists.  Every child born will receive
cranio sacral treatment within the first hours of
life.
Rehabilitation facilities will be dealt with
predominantly by cranio sacral therapists.  The
treatment of chronic pain and illness will rely
heavily on cranio sacral therapy to provide lasting
solutions.
Inmate rehabilitation programs in prisons will
include cranio sacral therapy.  Children with
learning difficulties will receive cranio sacral
treatment as part of their special care.  The main
treatment for autism will be cranio sacral therapy.

On a hill there will be a golden castle where I
will ride out on my favourite unicorn, Tabatha.
No, hang on.
That last bit was a dream.

Now let’s come back to the present.  At the
moment, we are ahead of our time.  We are the front
runners, the pioneers.

The thing about being a pioneer is that it is
difficult.  Just ask anyone from the turn of the
century who was saying that one day humans would
walk on the moon. Or someone from the middle ages
who was saying that one day people would travel by
air.
Think about all the things that we take for
granted now, like radio and TV and the internet.
At one time they all seemed far fetched ideas.  Now
they are commonplace.

The flaws in the current medical model are
becoming more and more apparent to the general
public.  When you think about the future it doesn’t
make sense to seek the approval or ally yourself
with a model that is failing. This is one of the
reasons that I have never tried to convince a
Doctor of the validity of Cranio Sacral Therapy.

Another reason is that the methods of evaluation
and the science are not sophisticated enough yet to
measure what we do.  When they are sophisticated
enough than there will be more of a bridge for us
to talk.

Another reason is that we have not got our act
together enough as cranio sacral therapists.  There
is way too much infighting and ‘my-way-is the-
right-way’ sort of thing going on.  Too many 4-day
courses after which you can call yourself a cranio
sacral therapist.  Too much cranio sacral therapy
as an adjunct to other approaches.  We can’t even
stick to one name for crying out loud.
By the way I am renaming what I do, cranio-
vision-quest-bio-morphic-angelic-sacral-therapy-
approach.

Catchy, no?

Moving on.

It is like the underlying fear and insecurity
that often drives therapists to associations.  The
thinking being that if we all band together we will
be taken more seriously.

Which leads me to ask, by whom?
Doctors?  I don’t think so.
The public?  I doubt it.
In my experience the public will go with a
referral from someone they trust over any number of
qualifications and association memberships.

So I would discourage you from confronting the
Doctor.  Instead I encourage you to trust in the
part of your patient that brought her to see you.
It will do the right thing for her.

Also trust in the Doctor to acknowledge your
successes.

Your work hinges on your trust in the human
body’s ability to correct itself.  I am encouraging
you to trust in the body of humanity to correct
itself too.  It really is no different.

***QUESTION***

Hi John,

As always, these newsletters give me great insight,
so thank you for supplying us with it!

I just thought I’d give you some feedback about the
chronic fatigue client I posed a question about in
an earlier newsletter.

I treated the person before the newsletter reached
me, so didn’t have the added help from your
insights. I had been treating this woman for other
things for a while, when the time came to deal with
the chronic fatigue directly. In the space of only
3 weeks the whole issue seems to have been
resolved.

It started off with really good communication with
the hypothalamus, pituitary and membranes where
they were able to correct themselves and stay good.
Next week several past life traumas and associated
local restrictions needed to be released after
which chakras 1 and 2 were able to start releasing
their restrictions. The biggest problem was in the
2nd chakra where lots of damage had been done when
the client as a newborn was given drugs to
counteract kidney failure.

Those drugs caused damage to the nervous system,
which lasted for quite a few years. The result was
a very big block in the energy flow in the area.
I’m sure there were other contributing causes for
the chronic fatigue starting up 7 years ago, but it
wasn’t necessary to go into them. After one and a
half sessions over 3 days with work only with the
2nd chakra there was a definite endpoint, where her
whole body came to peace and I got a very strong
communication that that was the end of it.

She didn’t jump up and down like a two-year-old
right away, but has continued to get stronger and
more energetic every week since. She hasn’t had any
relapses since those treatments in November.

Question.
A friend of mine suffers really bad migraine and
I’m about to start looking for the reason. I don’t
know if it is always the same thing that is wrong
or if the causes are many and varied. I happened to
be there when my friend got really bad with the
migraine, so I tried to help. Someone else who was
there said migraine comes from the stomach
meridians being blocked and building up too much
pressure, giving pain behind the eyes (linking in
with the light fenomena sufferers experience) and
vomiting.
But when I sat with my sick friend and started to
tune in I got the feeling that that is only the
symptom, that the cause lies elsewhere, and her
pineal gland was very persistently engaging with me
and giving me the idea that the cause may have to
do with the pressure of fluid inside the head.

What is your experience in finding and treating the
cause of it?

Eva Kuhl Bornefelt
Central Coast
Australia

MY COMMENTS:

Thanks for the feedback Eva.  I am glad your
chronic fatigue patient made such a good recovery.

The first thing that stood out to me about your
migraine question is when you said, ‘I’m about to
start looking for the reason.’  I encourage you to
change this approach.  I have found it much more
effective to let the reason find you.

Instead of actively looking for the reason,
which is a very active dynamic, I encourage you to
trust the persons system and be available for the
reason to reveal itself to you.

On the nuts and bolts department the pain behind
the eyes can often indicate tentorial tension.
This happens because of the recurrent, meningeal
branch of the mandibular branch of the trigeminal
nerve.  It can be referred pain from the tentorium.

If you were being drawn to the pineal gland then
I would go with that.  Because you also mentioned a
feeling of pressure I would check the integrity of
the aqueduct of Sylvius.  If it is restricted it
can cause back-pressure problems.  You can read
about a woman I treated with this very problem

http://www.open-source-cranio.com/cases/intracranialtension.html

***QUESTION***

Hello John,
A guy is coming to see me next week to see if I can
help him with his vasectomy pain. Have you had any
experience with this? And if so do you have to
treat it ‘hands on’ so to speak.  I’m not
homophobic or anything but I’m really hoping that
you don’t have to.

Thanks.

B.A.
Perth.

MY COMMENTS:

A hundred cheap jokes swirl around my mind but I
am a bigger man than that and much as I might like
to, I will resist.

Fear not.  You can have excellent success
without having to get hands on.  A lot of the
problems with vasectomy pain come from trauma
inflicted during the surgery where the surgeon tugs
over zealously on the vas deferens to get it clear
of the scrotum so they can get on with the
procedure.

When you look at the anatomy of the vas deferens
you will see that it travels from the testes
superiorly into the lower abdomen where it makes a
hairpin bend in the inguinal area before
descending to the prostate.

I have found that the trauma gets stuck in this
bend.  Working in the area of this bend is roughly
where you would have your hands when working on the
pelvic diaphragm.  You can help whatever
restriction is present to release with this
contact.  You can also help any restrictions
further down or in the testes themselves from this
contact using your . . . intention.

So breathe a sigh of relief and be glad you
learned about intention.

So that’s it for this issue.

Cheerio for now.

Till the next time.

Your Mate,

John D.