Having my head rubbed like a stress baby cured my
You never really know what a new year has in store for you but, for me, 2016 will always be remembered for throwing a few right hooks. It started on January 9 with an earlymorning phone call. ‘Did you get my message?’ said my brother, Ben. Alarm bells rang immediately.
our dad had been ill for several years with a rare brain disease called progressive supranuclear palsy and had been in a care home near to Ben’s house. I’d been mentally bracing myself for this call for ages. But, I now know, nothing prepares you.
Less than a month after Dad died, my boyfriend proposed.
This was undoubtedly wonderful news and, having known each other since our teens, we decided we were well acquainted enough not to have to sit out a long engagement. So we set a date for just months later, not taking into account that planning a wedding in such a short period of time can be, well, rather tiring.
Add to this a relocation from one city to another (including researching schools for my seven-year-old son from a previous relationship), and buying a new house. We opted for a cottage that needed a major refurbishment — just because we hadn’t got enough on our plates.
Then, in the midst of it all, a body blow — I lost my job as an editor on a glossy magazine.
The year isn’t even over yet, but it’s safe to say 2016 has thrown me some of the most stressful life events I’ve ever experienced. I’ve tried very hard not to let it get me down but, I admit, I sometimes felt like a punch bag. It was the continual low-level anxiety — which manifested in tense head and neck aches even painkillers couldn’t help — that made me decide something needed to be done; I wanted to feel like ‘me’ again.
A friend mentioned she’d been having craniosacral therapy — George Clooney was an advocate! — and found it restorative, even healing.
An alternative medicine, craniosacral therapy — or cranio, as it’s sometimes known — is thought to relieve pain and tension by gentle manipulation of the skull, as well as other body parts, to realign the natural rhythm in the central nervous system.
At first, I poo-pooed this as new age nonsense. Wasn’t this what I’d had done for my son as a baby? It was one of those ‘must-do’ neurotic mum fads (along with baby yoga) that we were all urged to do to make our babies sleep through the night.
At five days old, I’d taken him to a craniosacral specialist in harley Street, desperate for some respite from his refusal to sleep. It didn’t work for my son — I wasn’t confident it would help de-stress an adult.
So it was with some reluctance that I went to see elena de Antoni, a leading cranial practitioner at the Mandarin oriental Spa in London.
She’s devised a package called the Stillness Ritual, which is craniosacral therapy plus a separate massage. The idea behind the 50/50 combination — which is unusual, as you usually have cranio on its own — is that the two work hand-inhand to restore the body holistically. As the base of my spine was slightly twingy, I decided to pair my cranio with a back massage.
I arrived full of a nasty cold, so elena recommended we work on the back area first, using a body oil made with eucalyptus and peppermint. She said I should leave the oil on all day, as both ingredients work as an anti-viral treatment. She gave me a gentle massage for an hour.
By then, I’d shed a layer of my tenseness and was intrigued to see how cranial could relax me further.
elena lay her hands underneath my neck and held them there for several minutes. Next, she cupped my head, touching it gently and later asked me to lift up my pelvis, so she could hold her hands under my lower spine as I lay on her hands.
To say this treatment is subtle is an understatement. The only thing you feel are the practitioner’s hands. There is no massage. But I felt so relaxed that parts of my body began to twitch involuntarily, like when you’re on the verge of sleep.
I’d usually be embarrassed to find my body reacting like this in front of a stranger, but I was too blissed out to care. When the treatment was over I had many questions: primarily, had she moved her hands at all? If not, how could it have had an effect?
ELeNA explained that the light contact of craniosacral treatment lets her feel the rhythmic motion throughout the body — ‘as though I can feel the body breathing’. She can tune in via the gentle contact and address and release any disturbances and resistances, even if you the patient never knew they were there. This stimulates self- healing within the body. Intrigued, I wanted to know if she could feel anything when she was touching me.
She said that, at first, she felt a ‘weightiness’, which slowly evaporated. I admit it all sounds a bit woo-woo. But I felt a lightness I haven’t in months and as good as floated out of the spa.
I spoke to Beatrice Doubble, spokesperson for the Craniosacral Therapy Association, to find out why more adults are using what was once seen as a treatment mainly for babies. ‘I would put it down to modern-day stresses and hectic lifestyles meaning we burn ourselves out quickly,’ she explains. ‘We’re looking for more of a balance.
‘What’s interesting is how more and more people are drawn to therapies that treat the body as a whole and recognise the interconnectedness of body and emotions, for example, via the nervous system, which craniosacral therapy treats so well.’
I’m certainly a convert. I’ve had five treatments since, and the results have been as successful. At my last session, I challenged myself to try to keep my eyes open during a particularly relaxing part of the treatment, but I couldn’t. I was tranquil drunk.
With cranio, I feel as though I’ve found my inner boxing gloves. So, 2017, if you’ve got any nasty surprises waiting around the corner, bring ’em on. Cranio has returned me to my emotional fighting weight.