Craniosacral Therapy for Children

Your child’s CranioSacral session takes place in a small room with calming, quiet music on in the background.  As always, CranioSacral therapy is given over the clothing.

Your child’s comfort and feelings of safety are important to me.  During treatment, smaller children may benefit from sitting on your lap or being down on the floor with toys/books or even on a soft, padded table with or without toys/books.  Your therapist will follow their lead whenever possible.  There may be times where holding a position for a time is important and your therapist may ask for your help if needed. Your older child may be comfortable sitting or lying on the soft padded table.  

Your therapist won’t start treatment until your child is comfortable and feels safe and secure.  You are encouraged to stay with your child for the duration of the appointment.

How many sessions really depends on the symptoms your child is having.  You and your child may notice great symptom relief in one session but often times it takes several sessions over time.

Children move to learn so it’s a natural thing for them to want to do so.  Your therapist understands, expects and respects this. 

Your therapist will use a small space with toys/books to occupy your child during their treatment.  You are invited to play or read a book to them during their session.  

Many parents bring a snack, a blanket/toy that gives their child comfort or a special/novel toy to keep them occupied.  You are welcome to do so.  Once they are ‘settled’ into an activity, your therapist will begin treatment.  You are encouraged to stay in the room during their session.

If your child is upset and crying, your therapist won’t begin treatment until they feel safe, secure and settled. 

It may take a while as your child acclimates to being in the treatment room and accept treatment.  They may even benefit from taking small breaks during the session.  There is time built into the session to respectfully allow for these instances. 

Many parents report that their child sleeps very well following an appointment.  CranioSacral looks very passive but your child’s body is working hard to self-correct and this takes a lot of energy.  

CranioSacral therapy can help your child’s nervous system move out of ‘fight or flight’ and into ‘rest and digest’.  

What does this mean?  A child whose system is stuck in ‘fight or flight’ mode, may demonstrate irritability, increased anxiety, being overly busy and quick with their motions or difficulty focusing on the task at hand as well as have difficulty sleeping or getting restful sleep.

The ‘flight or fight’ mode is supposed to be a temporary state of being.  It’s there to alert us of danger and move quickly away from it.  Our bodies are made to automatically go back to ‘rest and digest’ after the danger is gone.  But with stress or trauma, a child’s body can become stuck in the ‘flight or fight’ mode.

When the ‘fight or flight’ system is turned off, your child’s nervous system can then move them into a calmer ‘rest and digest’ state.  A child in ‘rest and digest’ mode appears calm with improved ability to focus and manage stress and tend  to have more restful sleep.

A stressor or strain happens in a single event or over time, such as birth, an accident, injury, or ongoing stress both mentally or physically.

Your child’s body will then compensate for these stresses and strains.

It’s when your child’s body compensates for these stresses and strains that the tissues can begin to tighten and distort the CranioSacral system (fluid surrounding the brain/spinal cord).

This distortion can cause tensions to form and results in restriction in the muscle, connective tissue and nervous system.

It’s this restriction that may cause the ability of the brain/spinal cord not to function properly and potentially every other system it interacts with and may cause symptoms such as headaches, sleep difficulties, digestive difficulties, difficulty with attention/focus, ear infections and more. 

During this light touch treatment, your therapist uses their hands to ‘listen’ and feel your child’s natural rhythms in their CranioSacral system.  As a rule, the rhythms move smoothly and have a symmetrical back/forth or out/in feeling.  When your therapist feels that the rhythm isn’t moving smoothly or symmetrically, they will stop and hold the area and support your child’s self-correcting ability. It’s when your child’s rhythms begin to move smoothly and unhindered that your child will then be able to continue to self-correct on their own.  Depending on your child’s condition/symptoms, your child can self-correct after the first session or take more sessions to correct.