Craniofascial therapy, or CFT, is a gentle unwinding modality that incorporates the craniosacral system and the fascial network. The craniosacral system includes the skull, spine, and sacrum, and the spinal cord and fluid encased within these structures. This system has its own ebb and flow, or respiratory rate, separate from the rhythm of the lungs, heart, lymphatic system. The fascial network enmeshes within every fiber of the body, from our skin and major muscles, holding their shapes, down around each muscle or nerve fiber. It can be likened to a fiber optic network, or my favorite way to describe it, the mycelium of the human body. Mycelium is the fungal network within the soil, used by trees and plants to send messages. Our fascia is relatively unknown medically, an enigma within ourselves that we have only begun to understand.
What we do know, is that the fascia can create adhesions, responsible for gluing muscle fibers tightly together, and causing things like frozen shoulder. When the fascia tightens and restricts, it can place as much as 2,000 pounds of pressure on the skeletal structure... no wonder you can't move through that! Now when this restriction puts pressure on the craniosacral system, the spinal cord, skull, face, brain... many key components of our body, disastrous results can occur. But what causes this restriction? Allow me to get a little weird for a second.
In my craniofascial training, which included additional work with tongue tied infants, there were 40 women in my workshop. All of us in different professions, massage, speech therapy, chiropractic, midwives. All of us also with our own tongue tied babies, swimming upstream to discover root causes. I found myself for the first time in a room with multiple people with known corn and grain intolerances, and at least 25% of us reporting known severe toxic mold exposure.
As I began to work on more and more people using CFT, I noticed that we were getting profound results in emotional release and trauma integration. Often unwinding folks backwards through accidents, assaults, other moments where the body stored a deep and painful memory. I started to understand that the fascial network is the physical embodiment of the emotional body!
Now with babies, being born with tongue ties, meaning they are having fascial restrictions while developing. The results of this restriction being tiny jaws, mouth breathing and sleep apnea, nursing struggles, and further concerns as they grow if these restrictions don't get address. But they aren't born with trauma, are they? Well, I believe (and this is mostly my own intuition and speculation) that we are starting to see the results of living out of alignment for multiple generations. Processed, plastic, dyed food. Additives in water. Poorly kept, moldy apartments and homes. Pollution in the air and water, all these contributing to the fact that we are facing a completely dysfunctional gut biome. Pair that with the unresolved trauma of multiple major wars, poverty, abuse, shame, guilt, deep dark secrets that eat away at our families. Eventually all of these factors are no longer something that the human body can overcome and prevail over. The problems spill over into those who have not caused them, and are simply victims of the way we have lived without listening for so long.
So... CFT, this gentle unwinding, on a practical level, brings space back to the craniosacral system, allowing it to "breathe" and giving the brain and spinal cord optimal movement for ideal development. And it also brings the emotional body fully into the physical body, and gives us the chance to feel and heal things that we are carrying, whether they are our own traumas, or those of our ancestors. I realize this makes little sense, and I can't wait to show it to you so you can experience it for yourself.
Yours in healing,
-Zen
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