I did it! I’m a dip!

Last month, I flew to Phoenix and passed a hands-on test to become a second-level certified CranioSacral therapist. Woo hoo! This is the highest level of certification that the Upledger Institute has, and right now, I’m the only one in Pierce County who has this.

What does this mean? Well, I have been doing craniosacral for 13 years now, and being a CST-D implies that I have the Upledger Institute’s seal of approval that I know what I’m doing. It also means that I can wear the tiara now, heh heh.

Amy Hanson Diplomate Certificate

Will I stop learning new things? No way! I’ve got nerdiness hard-wired into my brain and psyche.

So, book your appointment below if you’re looking for a competent therapist to see if a Certified CranioSacral Therapist in Pierce County can help you with your pain.

New Look!

Geo Line Quilt 2

We have moved to a new hosting service for our website. We kept it simple for mobile devices. If you experience any issues while using the site, please get in touch with me by using the contact form. This Massagebook form will open in a new window. I try to respond within 72 hours of contacting me.

Amy Hanson, LMT
Amy Hanson with Mr. Burger
(class mascot)


Hours of Operation have stayed the same. Tuesday – Saturday, 11 – 6 PM, by appointment only. Remember, if you are a first-time client, you must pay in advance. Please read CST: Science Explanation.

Saturday has the Proctor Farmer’s Market. I am currently open every other Saturday corresponding with the farmer’s market. Get some craniosacral and some fresh-grown produce.

Video: Digestive Issues

Pinwheels Quilt

Watch this video of me explaining CranioSacral therapy

Pinwheels

Digestive issues

How complementary therapies (craniosacral, acupuncture, EFT, energy field work, lymph drainage, massage, Reiki, visceral manipulation) can help.

Reduce carpal tunnel wrist pain

How complementary therapies (craniosacral, acupuncture, EFT, energy field work, lymph drainage, massage, Reiki, visceral manipulation) can help.

Cancer treatments

How complementary therapies (craniosacral, EFT, energy field work, lymph drainage, massage, Reiki, visceral manipulation) can help with side effects of cancer treatments.

Chronic Depletion Class – New Amazing Technique

Chronic Depletion Class

I went to the most amazing craniosacral class last weekend for body/mind healing. It was mind-blowing. Game-changing. And although I don’t blog much, I need to talk about it.

The class was “CST and Working with Chronic Depletion.” I thought we’d learn about adrenal burnout, stress hormone levels, and craniosacral techniques to raise energy levels.

We covered none of that. Instead, the teacher, Eric Moya, developed a whole new way of doing craniosacral work. It’s working with epicenters.

Epicenters

In epicenter work, practitioners find various problems in the client’s body, which can be energy cysts (trapped chaos left over from injuries or trauma) and/or places where the craniosacral rhythm is low, or some other body/mind issues. Normally, we’d use our brains and intuition to decide which area to treat first. But in epicenter work, we find the central point of all these areas–a sort of center of gravity. Then we treat that area.

Get that? We’re not treating a problem, we’re treating an area that is totally fine. The epicenter receives the work and sends it along to the place that needs it most. The body knows how much treatment that area needs, and then sends it along to another area. The body also knows how to stop before the system gets overwhelmed.

 Ah-maze-ing.

How do we know when we’ve found an epicenter? It feels different in a very specific way. Among other things, it feels connected to the whole body.

The next evolution in body/mind healing

I imagine the newer CranioSacral therapists thought, “Oh how nice, a new technique.” But all of us old-timers were sitting there with our hair on fire.

Eric Moya’s epicenter work and Tad Wanveer’s glia (brain cells that are not neurons) work are taking CST’s healing abilities to a new level.

It’s so mind-blowing.

And fun. What will come next in the evolution of body/mind healing?!

Here’s a link to the Upledger Institute’s description of the class, if you want more info. It is geared to practitioners and has a little video description by Eric Moya.

Chronic depletion

Meanwhile, chronic depletion is an interesting idea. A chronically depleted person has no long-term body resources to cope with short-term stress events. So no long-term, no short-term. Every little stress is too much, even something small like a ringing phone. They can’t rally.

Someone who has “regular” depletion does have long-term body resources, even though their short-term coping is low. They may fall apart but are able to rally.

Fortunately, epicenter work helps with all levels of depletion.

What does chronic depletion feel like?

In class, we were asked to remember a time when we Could. Not. Cope. Here are some descriptions we came up with to convey how we felt. I thought it was an interesting list and wanted to share it. Chronically depleted people would experience some combination of the following:

Emotionally:

The feeling of labile, fearful, anxious, hopeless, panicky, angry, raw, weepy, full of indignation, lonely, disappointed, depressed, suicidal, scrambled, flat, frozen, lacking compassion, fragile

Physically:

A lot of weight gain or weight loss, sluggish, in pain (especially in the joints), exhausted, unable to sleep, brittle, numb, having stomach pain, having a lot of accidents, heart palpitations, becoming hypersensitive to the environment, uncoordinated, dissociated, breathing problems, rashes, coming down with frequent illness, hair loss, migraines

Mentally:

Unable to learn, obsessive, unsupported, compulsive, hyper-alert, impaired communication skills, decreased relationships with other people, impaired time-management abilities, scattered, distracted, unfocused, unable to problem-solve and find solutions, shut down, stuck, forgetful, having a very narrow mental focus

Spiritually:

Feeling lost, disconnected, empty, faithless, isolated, only having bad luck, forsaken, seeking, praying for energy, dark night of the soul, questioning it all, God is gone, crisis, being punished, bargaining with God, hyper-focused on ritual

Interesting, eh?

Book a session!

If you want to come in and experience epicenter work, you can flip to my online booking page here. There were a few Seattle practitioners in class, and one from Bellevue, but this isn’t something widely available yet. (253 Pride, y’all!)

Changing Hours

three ghost quilt

Suddenly, temps are dropping and leaves are turning red and yellow and fall is in the air. I hope you had a fun summer and are ready for lots of rainy days to curl up with your favorite book or quilting project.  I know I am!  Between the house and office projects, and traveling to Japan and Colorado, I need the rain to slow me down.

As I look forward to the coming months, I’ve decided to change things up a bit and add office hours on Saturdays.  I think Saturdays will be more convenient for folks who work out of town and find it hard to get back to Tacoma by 5.

And it allows y’all to shop at the Proctor Farmer’s Market after your appointments.  The Farmer’s Market is only held on Saturdays and is a mere two blocks away. So you can stock up on “cranio and kale!”

You can book a Saturday appointment online like any other day.  There’s a Book Now! link on my website.  I hope you find this change useful.

Best, Amy