Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy & Head Injuries

Head Injuries or Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) have become an area of much interest and reporting in recent years. It is wonderful to see TBIs getting the awareness they should be. Unfortunately, western medicine is still learning how to diagnose and treat TBIs. It is still learning how to predict the course of healing. This creates uncertainty; uncertainty creates fear.

I can say from personal experience with TBI, that BCT is a powerful modality for healing TBI trauma.

How does BCT heal brain injury? By making sure that the many levels of TBI trauma receive the attention and care they need. Here’s a partial list of these levels.

1. The actual impact site injury: Where the head itself was hit can hold trauma and pain (though in whiplash type TBI there might be no impact trauma).

2. Shock in the neurons: The brain cells itself are flooded with cortisol immediately following impact.

3. Freeze/tension/twist in the cranial membranes: The brain is surrounded by cranial membranes. These membranes are extensive and essential to dispersing oxygen trough the brain. On TBI impact they can get “stuck” in the impact position. Untreated, this leads to oxygen deprivation and cell death.

4. Freeze/tension in the sphenoid bone: Much of the brain tissue “rests” on the sphenoid bone on the base of the skull. Sometimes after TBI, the sphenoid holds deep tension which makes it difficult for the trauma to fully release and difficult for the client to feel fully at ease.

5. Freeze in impact bracing: Even though the best way to survive an impact is to relax, our instinct is to brace which can freeze tension throughout the system.

6. Constriction of the vagus nerve: The vagus nerve, or tenth cranial nerve, deserves its own blog post. It is the only cranial nerve that leaves the head, extending through the jugular foramen to the thorax where it innervates most of our organs. This pathway protects the nerve from injury in the case of spinal cord damage, but exposes it to tension and impingement when the foramen is disturbed by trauma.

7. Shock and tightness in the neck and shoulder muscles as they try to avoid, suppress and control the injury: After a TBI, one often feels fragile and holds the body stiffly and with great care to avoid re-injury; this creates more tension in the system.

8. Vertigo from the incomplete movement: Picture throwing a baseball and then right when the motion is fully underway, stopping your arm instantly and completely. The body wants to complete the movement, almost desperately so. Vertigo, especially after a TBI, has a similar origin. The brain was moving in a certain direction and it is still trying to complete the movement, creating a feeling of spinning. (Vertigo of course can have many causes, which will be discussed in a future post).

9. Constriction in cranial nerves: There are thirteen cranial nerves. Constriction of these can lead to changes in sense of smell and taste, sensitivity to light and noise as well as the many changes that can arise from constriction to the vagus nerve.

10.  Fear: As mentioned there is immense amount of fear around TBIs. There’s the fear the body felt the moment before impact, the fear that the injury will not heal, the fear of being reinjured…these too need to be cleared for true and complete healing to take place.

11. Resonance of the TBI with prior injuries and patterns: Often a TBI that resists healing has resonance with patterns already in the body. This can be patterns from previous TBIs but it can also be a deeper pattern of feeling disconnect with the body itself. Childhood trauma can create a feeling that the body is unsafe; the TBI reinforces it. And so for the TBI to be healed completely that childhood trauma must be addressed.

12. Stimulation of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems: TBI impacts, especially ones that aren’t seen coming, can lock a delayed fight-or-flight response into the nervous system. That is, a part of the nervous system is still trying to protect from the injury or avoid it or fight it off – this too must be released for full healing.

13. Fatigue: From all of the above. Clearly, TBI trauma can be extensive! But it can be healed, even years later.