If you’re struggling with things like infertility, pelvic or vaginal pain, menstrual cramps, lower back pain, Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or irregular menstrual cycles it means your body is trying to tell you something.  If you’re are experiencing these health conditions, know the focused attention, support and relief of the pelvic region needs can be realized through Craniosacral Therapy, as it calms the nervous system, reduces restrictions and improves circulation.

Craniosacral therapy is primarily used to improve the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, the fluid that surrounds, cushions and protects our brain and spinal cord. The pulse and flow of cerebrospinal fluid can become blocked and cause a lack of communication between different areas of the nervous system. The goal of craniosacral is to get cerebrospinal fluid and energy flowing, moving and communicating again, and to reduce the inflammation and dysfunction that leads to pelvic symptoms.

It should also be noted Craniosacral Therapy can help encourage fertility by regulating hormone levels, reducing stress levels (one of the big obstacles in fertility), reducing physical tension, and improving ovulation.  

Stress may directly affect your ability to conceive and the healthy development of your baby. Studies show that being a stressed out soon to be Mother can even affect your baby’s childhood development down the road. Experiencing a high level of stress while pregnant can impact your baby’s developing nervous system, cognitive function, microbiome (healthy bacteria) and their future behavior.  Preconception, pregnancy, and raising children can be stressful times. We can shift how the body responds to stress by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system.  

When we are relaxed and stress-free, our body is in the parasympathetic state. The parasympathetic state is what enables us to rest, digest, and reproduce. This is the polar opposite of the sympathetic state, which excites and triggers our body to act in a fight or flight mode. Our stress reflex is hardwired in us, deeply rooted, ancient as the human race and present in all mammals. When faced with true danger, the last thing we need in order to escape and get out of harm’s way is to rest, digest food, or make a baby. The sympathetic nervous system triggers the release of stress hormones, which flood our muscles with blood, increase our pulse and heart rate, and ready our body to fight or flee in effort to remain safe. When the danger has cleared, the normal response is for our body to return into a parasympathetic state and continue our calm lives – at least until the next “threat” appears. However when we experience continuous or deep stress, however – perhaps due to a traumatic event or day-to-day life challenges that have spiraled out of control – our body spends more time in the sympathetic state, effecting the ability to become pregnant.

The Journal Human Reproduction published a study that found highly stressed women “took 29% longer to get pregnant in comparison to other women and that their risk of infertility doubled.” To increase the chances of getting pregnant the lead researcher saod, “eliminating stressors before trying to become pregnant might shorten the time couples need to become pregnant in comparison to ignoring stress.” 

In addition to all of the wonderful stress-removing aspects of craniosacral therapy, there are also direct physiological effects.  Crainosacral therapy also helps to promote circulation to your pelvic organs and release tight muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and fascia. Fascia is an intricate web of connective tissue that surrounds all tissues of the body, including pelvic organs.  It’s shown that Craniosacral Therapy can help by facilitating the tissues of your uterus to become more receptive to receiving the embryo and aiding with implantation as well as reducing discomfort (bloating, pain) from all of those pre-natal and pregnancy drugs that we take as we undergo an IVF cycle.

Stress creates muscle tension. We’ve all felt this in our shoulders, neck, or jaw after working long hours to meet a deadline. Or maybe you’ve felt tension in your low back, stomach, or legs. If the pelvic muscles are always in a slightly contracted state due to stress this could lead to a misaligned pelvic structure, tipped uterus, or twisted fallopian tubes. Misalignment of the pelvic structure coupled with tension in the low back or pelvic floor also adversely affects the nerves and blood flow and supply to the reproductive organs, making it difficult to conceive or maintain a pregnancy. This all ties back into our central nervous system. Until the body feels “safe” and is assured that the “danger” has passed, we will not move out of excited fight-or flight mode and into a relaxed state that ultimately facilitates reproduction. 

It’s important to remember hormones can be thrown out of balance for many reasons, and one of them is stress. Under stress, the adrenals pump out cortisol and keep our nervous system in the excited “fight or flight” mode. When your brain senses this  excited and threatened state it redirects attention away from producing sex hormones and toward cortisol production.   

Perhaps the most valued aspect of Craniosacral Therapy is its ability of “rebalancing our body’s own systems” including hormones,  which helps us carry a successful pregnancy. 

These days we’re bombarded with information from the internet, news, and being constantly in touch with everyone. Our nervous systems are constantly stressed and pressured to recover and stay calm. Staying emotionally and physiologically calm is very important for couples trying to conceive. This is where craniosacral therapy also comes in, by helping you get back to parasympathetic mode.   

When you are in a calm state you are sending signals to your womb that the timing is right for conception, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and raising your child in a safe environment.

It should also be noted trauma/injury, chronic tension, repetitive movements, poor posture, and surgery such as C-sections, can produce adhesions.   These adhesions (which can be particularly troublesome in the pelvic area and may interfere with conception) can be reduced by Craniosacral therapy,.   A 10-year retrospective study done by Clear Passages Physical Therapy Clinic demonstrated improved fertility in their patients after regular manual hands-on physical therapy to eliminate adhesions. The study comprised 1392 women with infertility due to a variety of causes, including occluded fallopian tubes, endometriosis, and hormonal dysfunction. Some women in the study were also undergoing IVF along with their physical therapy. The study used a whole-body approach, along with using manual therapy to release adhesions around the uterus, ovaries, and sacrum. The study concluded that reducing physical blockages around the pelvic area improved fertility rates in their patients. 

Craniosacral Therapy during Pregnancy can help:

• Address back pain in pregnancy
• Resolve foot pain
• Treat sciatic or other nerve pain
• Release pelvic, vaginal or groin pain
• Improve pelvic floor strength and function
• Establish optimal fetal positioning for birth (including breeches)
• Promote recovery from tears and stitches
• Facilitate recovery from Cesarean birth
• Resolve post-epidural back pain
• Restore pelvic stability
• Assess and treat birth trauma
• Address body image issues
• Relieve cramping

A Journal of the American Osteopathic Association published Study found that fertility rates improved for 60% of subjects after manual therapy was applied to the pelvic region. Though the number of subjects in the study was small, the author has said “manual therapy could potentially be used as a first course of treatment for infertile patients considering hormone therapy, intrauterine insemination (IUI), or IVF treatments.” Because of its inherently relaxing nature, CranioSacral Therapy can help women reduce internal stress and negotiate the transition into proper parasympathetic functioning to enable conception. 

Please reach me if fertility and conception is something you would like to have a deeper conversation about. 

About Dr. Kaminsky & Craniosacral Therapy

Having a Chiropractic background since the year 2000, Dr. Kaminsky offers many methods of treatment with an emphasis on Craniosacral Therapy and Pranic Healing in NYC.

Craniosacral Therapy (CST) is a method focusing on the link between the cranium (head) and sacrum (the second to last bone at the base of your spine), scientifically proven to work in unison to pump fluid throughout the body, an unknown disruption of which can cause many health issues.  The craniosacral mechanism pumps vital fluid called cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) through the body and in a sense energetically lubricates the joints, tissues, organs; basically all cells of the body. It is the driving force of all your body’s systems of function; including maintaining the tone of your muscles.

The Central Nervous System (brain and spinal cord) are surrounded with CSF generating energetic rhythmic impulses of fluid delicately pumping throughout your body’s parts “breathing” the movement of life. This measurable rhythm of moving fluid, like the heart rhythm, pulse rhythm, breathing rhythm is the foundational “blueprint” and primary principle of our real-time state of our health. 

Compromises of our rhythmic movements of fluid flow correlates to the impulse restrictions in the system which the body is unable to overcome or self-correct. This is the reason why we have “dis-ease”, symptoms, conditions, basically all ailments.  This is where the skill of an experienced craniosacral therapist becomes valuable.  By placing his or her hands on your body the practitioner can feel, detect, evaluate, and facilitate correction of these restrictive arrhythmic impulses.

The craniosacral therapist helps your rhythm restore and renew in compromised areas allowing for healing to take place of sensory, motor, musculoskeletal, neurological disorders, symptoms, conditions and pain.  To learn more, visit the other pages on this website. Call to schedule your healing treatment with Dr. Kaminsky.