The Power of CranioSacral Therapy

CranioSacral is a very gentle and relaxing treatment, yet it can achieve powerful results.

Mr. Gir

In summer of 2023, my 11 year old cat Mr. Gir suddenly lost his balance. Not just a little bit, either. He was sitting on the floor, waiting for dinner. As I came near, he looked up at me. The act of looking up caused him to fall over onto his side. This was not remotely normal for him, and it was honestly terrifying.

I checked in with him, he said "I'm okay but please fix it." So I immediately took him to the emergency vet. They asked me all the typical questions, did you get any new plants he may have eaten? Did you change any cleaning products? Did he get into any marijuana? The answer to all these questions was no, but they refused to believe the last one for some reason. Maybe it was my tie dye shirt, I don't know. Finally I got them to stop asking about that, so we could try to figure out what DID happen and fix it.

They gave him a physical exam and did blood work, all of which came back normal. I kept asking about his inner ear, because that's where I felt the problem was. They kept saying it's fine. They told me the next step was "a very expensive MRI, and it's going to be a brain tumor." I checked in with my shamanic guides and felt very strongly it's not a tumor, and said so. They kept returning to it, and I felt like the guy in Kindergarten Cop saying "it's not a tumor!!"

I spent over $500 that night, and left with no answers or help for my boy, who is my heart. I gave him Reiki and I did shamanic work for him, but they weren't the right treatment. He was still very dizzy and unbalanced.

So I took him to his regular vet. They said his bloodwork was so normal it was boring. They checked his eyes and his ears. Said it was all normal. They said the next step is "a very expensive MRI and it's going to be a brain tumor." And we were right back to Kindergarten Cop again. Another $200 with no answers and no help for my boy.

As I checked in shamanically, it felt to me like the bones of his skull were all being squeezed together. I felt so much pressure in his head, it felt so constricted, like being squeezed in a vice. That's when I remembered CranioSacral Therapy.

In massage school I had an introductory course in CranioSacral. I loved it and always said that I wanted to do training in it once I graduated. But life happened, and I had never done it. When I was working in resort spas they never offered that service, so it had always been a "one day" dream that was put on the back burner.

I got Mr Gir scheduled for a CranioSacral appointment. I had no idea what to expect, all I knew was that my guides insisted it would help. It did.

That day, he was about 50% improved in his balance. We rescheduled for the next week. The practitioner told me she had been able to create more space in his head (she, too, had felt that compression) but that if it was a tumor, then it would again take that space up over the next week.

The next week, he was maintaining his balance the same from my perspective. Checking in shamanically, I did feel much less compression in his head. His appointment came, and the practitioner agreed, he had held the healing she'd given him the weak before. She gave him another session, and he improved again.

Gradually we spread his healings to once a month, and he improved to 95% normal balance. He seemed to hold here, not gaining any further improvement, but not losing any either.

That's when I decided to take CranioSacral training off the back burner and finally make it happen. And I'm so glad I did!

I have seen CranioSacral work erase daily migraines my client had suffered for decades, restore proper function in limbs, realign bodies and restore balance in people and animals. All while being very relaxing and gentle to receive. And it can be done over distance, which is ideal for animals as they can relax in their own home while receiving treatment. Distance work is also very convenient for people who may not have a CranioSacral therapist nearby.

In summer of 2025, Mr. Gir suddenly lost his hearing. He slept straight through the vacuum. He then escaped the house as I came in the door. I brought the treat jug outside, shaking it noisily because that always makes him come runnng. He did not come running, though. I found him in the back yard, and came up behind him shaking the jug. No reaction. As I was coming up to him he finally turned around, and promptly jumped back in surprise. He had not heard me at all.

We went to a new vet (I had other issues with the old one) and I explained about his hearing and also his balance issue and told them I thought they were related and that the problem was in the inner ear. But it was a repeat of the previous visits. This time, I told them if it was a tumor, he would be dead by now. It's been 2 years. They say it could be vascular or neural. There is one nerve that carries the information for both hearing and balance from the inner ear into the brain, so this makes sense to me.

At that point it had been a few months since Gir had received a Cranio treatment, so I gave him one. His hearing came back immediately.

One of the main focuses of CranioSacral is to free up the nerves from any pinching or other impingements so that they can function properly. This is as close to a diagnosis as we're likely to get for Mr. Gir. But CranioSacral doesn't require a diagnosis to work, it just works. And that's good enough for us.

Today, Mr. Gir is still doing well. He has good quality of life, his balance is near normal, his hearing is good, and we get lots of snuggles in daily. And he gets his CranioSacral sessions.

The Gift of Crochet

Learning Crochet was a big gift for me, one that enabled me to create many more gifts both for myself and others. It also taught me important lessons about gifts, love, and true connection.

The other day I got the urge to crochet something new. It's been a while, typically now I only crochet in the cooler months. So I found myself a new project. Looking at the pattern and yarn possibilities, I thought about how I learned crochet in the first place.

When I was about 9 or 10 years old, my grandpa and step grandma were watching me one evening. I was restless and bored, nothing was interesting me. My step grandma, in an effort to entertain me, decided to teach me to crochet. She taught me chain stitch, single crochet, and how to end off the yarn. I was fascinated.

I took that and taught my mom. Together we made countless afghans, using only those stitches. We bought loads of inexpensive yarn of all different colors and made our afghans in rainbows. All single crochet stitch, fringes at each end. We started off with a chain stitch, making it however long looked good to us in the moment. Then we added row by row until the size looked good. The only pattern was created by the colors we used. It was something fun for us to do together, and we usually worked as we watched tv.

Soon we had them in every room of the house, and then began making them as gifts and giving them away. As we made a gift, we would use colors that the person who was to receive the finished afghan would like, and make the size to fit them. People loved them because we put our heart, thought, and effort into them, and because they were soft and warm.

We did get bored with that eventually. I set my hook aside for years.

Then, my mom had my first little sister. I wanted to make her a baby blanket, and I wanted to make it nicer than the ones we'd made before. I asked my step grandma to teach me how to read a pattern. Her response was "Just do exactly what the pattern says." So I tried that, and it didn't go very well. Mostly because I didn't actually know how to do many of the stitches, or the basics like "turn". That first baby blanket came out very crooked, and I couldn't figure out the border. But I did figure many other things out, which I went on to use in many more projects. And my sister LOVED the blanket! She loved it so much, that she wouldn't drink her bottle without it. As she grew, she carried it everywhere. My mother was much annoyed by that, because she had to keep track of it.

My second sister was born 2 years later, and the baby blanket I made her turned out much better. It was quite pretty. I had figured out the basics and how to read a pattern by then. My littlest sister loved it, too. And then, as my sisters grew, they outgrew their baby blankets. They asked me for new ones, big enough to fit them. So I made them new ones, which they loved.

The next year, they asked for another new blanket each, because they've grown more. Again, I made them. Repeat the next year. Each blanket was a new pattern, new colors. Something that I thought they would like, that would be fun to make.

Then one day I was visiting my mom (I lived 8 hours away now) and we decided spur of the moment to visit my grandpa and step grandma. As soon as we walked in, I saw it there on the back of her couch. The blanket I'd made last year for my littlest sister. It wasn't put there for my benefit, she didn't know we were coming. It was obviously there because she liked ti. But that wasn't my first thought.

I was hurt. I put so much heart into that blanket for my sister, and then my mother just gave it away like it meant nothing. She hadn't even told me. My sisters were asking for new blankets again, but mom was saying "they have enough, they don't need any more" and then I found not only that, but she'd given at least one away.

After we left, my mom said she hoped I didn't mind that she'd given it to step grandma. She said that step grandma was always gushing over my work, saying how beautiful it was, how even my stitches, etc. and that she hoped one day I would make something for her. But so far, I had not. Mom thought my sisters have plenty, they won't even notice, but step grandma would love it and appreciate it. She was right.

I had never given step grandma anything because I thought since she taught me, she can make anything she wants. What could I make that she would want more?

That day I realized several things. First, don't give your time, effort, and skill to those who don't appreciate it. It's a waste of time and energy.

Also, those who do appreciate you, and your skill, will treasure your gifts, even if they have, or seem to have, the same skill. They treasure your effort, the thought and the heart you put into it for them. They feel the love in it, and that is everything!

After this, I went on to make other things for my grandpa and my step grandma. She treasured them all. I made a cross stitch picture, she hung it on the living room wall. I made my grandpa slippers, they were his favorite.

The best gifts come from the heart. Sometimes, they are gifts of skills, like when my step grandma taught me crochet. Sometimes the gift is the connections and relationships made and nourished.

As the holidays are coming up, I want to encourage you to give gifts thoughtfully. Consider what would be more meaningful, and what is going to nourish connections and relationships more. Somtimes this makes for unusual, but treasured and cherished gifts.

And don't forget yourself! You deserve gifts too. Maybe consider giving yourself the gift of learning a new skill, or making a new connection.

Sacred Rhythms: A Year of Nature's Wisdom is now available as a gift option, for one idea if you'd like to give a gift of deeper connection.

I hope this has sparked some ideas for you, and helps you navigate the holidays with more connection and joy.

Building a Better World

We know we're not happy with the world we have. So, how can we build one we DO want to live in?

What does our society look like in your dreams? What do you wish for?

Last Saturday I held my first Monthly Shamanic Journey Circle. Spirit has been telling me to build community, to create a place for people to come together in community and support. A place people are accepted for who they are, where they can be themselves. Where we can grow and empower each other.

I have created the Rock'n'Reiki Shamanic Journey Circle to fill that need. Each month we'll gather and take a question of interest to the whole community to Spirit for guidance. We will also journey for guidance for personal issues for each other and provide general community and support for each other.

At this first Circle, the thing on everyone's mind through the whole week has been gun violence. Nobody should have to die that way, or lose family members to gun violence. That's the world we find ourselves living in, but none of us wants that. The question everyone has been asking is "how can we make it stop?"

But that's not the right question. In shamanism, we understand that energy flows where attention goes. So whatever you give your attention to, you feed. The universe does not differentiate between what we want and what we don't want. If you give attention there, you will give energy there.

So, we chose to put our attention and energy into a different question. First we talked about what it is we DO want. We want to live in a world where everyone is free and accepted to be who they are. Love who you love. We want to live in a world where we're all safe to go to work, school, shopping and just live our lives in general in safety. A world where we support each other, where we uplift our friends and neighbors.

We chose to journey to our Spirit guides and ask "How can I build the world I want to live in?" We all received practical guidance we could put into use immediately. We all received guidance that love is the answer. We all were told to start being the change we want to see. We were told, in different ways, to let our heart lead us, to keep an open heart with people. We all received specific and individual things we could do as well, based on our own skills and life circumstances. I was told to continue to build this community as well as a Reiki community for my current and past students, and so I will.

Some of the guidance we received seems very simple. But it isn't always easy. It is more important than every though. And, Spirit said that these things, leading with your heart, keeping an open heart, and love for others are contagious in the same way a smile is contagious. Spread the love!

What does the world YOU want to live in look like? Ask your guides how you can begin building that world. They'll have practical guidance you can put to use today. Things only you can do.

If you'd like to join our community, you are welcome! You can join us in person or over Zoom, you'll be part of the community either way. We meet the second Wednesday of the month at 7pm Eastern Time. Contact me for the zoom if you're interested!