"Thank you for all of the work you have done for us. We are so grateful for the calm you brought at a time when things felt insurmountable. The kindness you showed by listening so closely to our concerns made such a difference through those really tricky weeks." Olivia.
Craniosacral Therapy (CST) is a very gentle treatment for your baby which can help with many common issues. The birth process can sometimes be a tricky start to the world for your newborn, in which both parent and baby are in need of support.
REASONS WHY YOUR BABY MIGHT NEED TREAMENT:
- You are having feeding issues. Whether this be bottle or breast, often feeding can be difficult. There can often be oral tension that can prevent your baby from latching well, this is something that can be helped with treatment.
- Your baby has symptoms of reflux and/or colic. I work out why these symptoms are occurring to find the root cause.
- Your baby has a tongue tie or has had a release. CST can really help as part of before and after care.
- Your baby only wants to turn their head to one side, or you might notice that they favour one breast. They may appear to be very tense or have a very strong neck. There is often restriction in the body from how they were positioned in the womb. Again, all of this can usually be helped with a few gentle treatments.
- Your baby is hard to settle. Babies cry, of course they do. But if you feel there's lots of unexplained crying then craniosacral can help to relax and reset your baby's body.
- Your baby struggles with wind. A baby's digestive system is immature and so processing milk can be hard. I work a lot to release the tummy and ribs, this can really help to assist digestion.
- Your baby's head shape looks a bit unusual. Babies heads are designed to move in the birth canal, often heads can look misshapen for a few weeks. CST can help with the process of the head realigning which has positive effects throughout the body.
- You had a tricky birth. This could be that it was super quick (or slow) or that things didn't quite go according to plan. You might have had an assisted delivery, vontouse, forceps or a c section. All of these can have an impact on how your baby is feeling in the first few weeks.
CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY FOR PARENTS:
Working on you is as beneficial and important as working on your baby. You are both deeply interlinked. This can be done whilst you are holding or feeding baby or if your baby is asleep.
CST for you can:
- help to support your nervous system during this emotional time
- help with bonding
- help with any trauma or stress that you might be experiencing following birth
- help you to feel calm and relaxed so you can feel confident in your new parenting role.
- help you to understand how to soothe your baby through your own body regulation.
WHAT TO EXPECT?
A Parent & Baby session will start with a chat about any concerns you have about your baby and what has brought you to find CST. It is useful for me to hear your pregnancy and birth story to help me to facilitate a more tailored treatment. I am trained to tune in to your baby's craniosacral system to feel for any imbalances and tension. Your baby should generally be quite relaxed but if this isn't the case then I am still able to treat them.
I usually treat babies on average 3 - 5 times. Craniosacral therapy is a process and therefore coming just once will not give time to allow the treatment to work.
I am also a qualified baby massage instructor and so can teach you massage techniques that you can do at home to help baby in between sessions.
Sessions are led by your baby so no need to panic if baby needs to sleep, feed, poo etc! I am still able to treat your baby even if they are wriggling about or need to feed.
Please note that it is quite normal for babies to be unsettled for around 24hours after treatment.
I am very passionate about CST and am so pleased to have helped so many parents and babies. It is always so rewarding to see parents relax as they watch their baby respond positively to treatment.
MY STORY:
My journey to discover Craniosacral Therapy started with my babies.
My son was born in 2006, a long birth but a pretty good one! I took him for CST as someone had told me that it was a good thing to do. So off I went, he lay on the treatment couch and fell asleep! The therapist said he was great, no further treatment needed. That was that! How could they place their hands on my baby and know that?
In 2011 my daughter came along, not quite the birth that I had planned. A pretty rough start for us both. I knew that we needed help, so off we went for CST. What happened was amazing and helped our recovery in so many ways. I was fascinated by this treatment that appeared to be so gentle and yet so powerful. Once my daughter had made a full recovery I continued to have regular CST sessions as a matter of self care.