Craniosacral work and TMJ Relief in West Lake Hills, Austin, Wimberley, and adjacent communities.
01/14/2026
A clinical study found that two bodywork techniques for neck pain, using sustained pressure (“real” bodywork) and light touch (“sham” bodywork), got the same results, measured by pain sensitivity, neck mobility, and proprioception, in five minute sessions.
Why am I, a craniosacral therapist, not surprised? More people should know about this! Massage therapists who are wearing themselves out and clients who believe that deep tissue work is the only thing that helps.
“Whether we press deeply into tissue or rest our hands with still attention, something meaningful happens in that interaction between practitioner and client.”
Context is powerful: Even light, mindful touch can significantly shift pain and proprioception, reminding us that how we work matters as much as what we do.
01/12/2026
Your tongue is at the top of the chain holding your entire posture together.
Change one pressure point in your mouth, and your body rebalances from head to toe.
The blue line in this video is the Deep Front Line the fascial chain that connects your jaw, diaphragm, pelvis, and feet.
If your bite is off, your body twists through this line trying to stay upright.
That’s why dental work, veneers, or jaw tension can change how you walk or stand.
Your core, your hips, even your balance all start with how your teeth meet.
Fix the chain at the top, and everything below finally aligns.
So how do you fix it?
You have to address the body adaptations and start with the first point of contact with the ground.
Your feet, this is where that process starts. Then, correct the top of the chain with the Functional Activator, which retrains the tongue and jaw to align the head and neck.
The fix my Posture Bundle hels reconnect the two ends of your posture system so your body can align naturally again.
When both ends of the system are rebalanced, your body can finally let go of its compensations instead of fighting against them.
That’s how you reset posture from the ground up and the brain down at the same time.
In addition, Therapeutic Insoles can be helpful in improving posture from the ground up.
Credit:
01/10/2026
It takes boldness, even audacity, to step out of our habitual patterns.
01/07/2026
Craniosacral Therapy and osteopathy are often described as gentle — yet many people report deep physical and emotional shifts after just a few sessions. In t...
01/07/2026
An MIT study finds waves that ripple across a newly fertilized egg are similar to the waves in seemingly unrelated systems, from ocean and atmospheric circulations to quantum fluids.
12/03/2025
This article by Function Health is about auto-immune diseases. Early testing could catch them early.
Roughly 15 million Americans live with at least one autoimmune disease, and that number is rising. 34% of patients diagnosed with one autoimmune condition will go on to develop at least one more. Yet these conditions are often misunderstood and underdiagnosed. It often takes multiple specialists and...
12/03/2025
A new study from Boston University is the first to illustrate that the brain’s cerebrospinal fluid pulses during sleep, and that these motions are closely tied with brain wave activity and blood flow. It may confirm the hypothesis that CSF flow and slow-wave activity both help flush toxic, memory-...
12/01/2025
Just got another referral for Craniosacral Biodynamics from a ketamine therapist who works with people (and especially combat veterans) with PTSD.
This modality helps unwind the autonomic nervous system from chronic stress, and people don’t have to relive the traumatic experiences.
I myself had PTSD years before it was even named and years after because I didn’t know I had it.
Recovering included being triggered, going to psychotherapy, getting a diagnosis, my own research (Waking the Tiger was instrumental in understanding that PTSD means the trauma response is embedded in the body), dreamwork, journaling, talking to others who were around then to get perspective, more fully understanding what happened when I was a child — all that in a couple of years.
I figured the right next step for me was to learn how to relax while lucid, because I didn’t know what it felt like to be relaxed, and I started seriously meditating and cranked up my yoga practice.
I also started receiving craniosacral therapy and acupuncture on a regular basis for 3 years.
I relaxed myself into quitting my job, selling my house, going to massage school, and taking my first CST class while still a student, in 2011.
And now, 14 years later, it’s hard to convey how much I love offering Craniosacral Biodynamics.
I continue to explore how relaxed I can get while lucid! Maybe someday I will have the words to tell you what that’s like.
11/18/2025
If you are interested in doing a foundation training in Craniosacral Biodynamics, taught by one of the most seasoned teachers on the continent (Roger Gilchrist/Wellness Institute), IN AUSTIN, please get your application in ASAP. Seminar 1 will be held Dec 9-12.
So glad to see more research on the benefits of massage and the recommendation to embed it in the healthcare system. It would be so amazing if insurance covered it!
While they can be seen as a luxury, massages are often part of healthcare – here’s how they affect physical and mental health
11/08/2025
The Upledger Institute is offering a two-day training for laypersons, teaching applications for treating Alzheimer’s and dementia. It’s online. A 10-minute stillpoint every day can make a difference, reducing agitation and improving memory.
If you know anyone caretaking someone who’s suffering, please let them know. It’s November 15 and 16.
Description:CranioSacral Therapy for Longevity; Applications to the Treatment of Alzheimer's and Dementia is designed to train laypersons, elder care practitioners and healthcare practitioners how to treat a very specific geriatric population with the modality of CranioSacral Therapy. Based on our r...
11/03/2025
I’m taking an online class in how to slow or prevent Alzheimer’s Nov 6-9. Taught by Michael Morgan, long time researcher and instructor for the Upledger Institute. It builds on some Upledger classes I’ve already taken.
I’m excited to learn more about this. I have a client with it and hope I can help slow its progress.
Here’s a TEDx talk by him from 2016. This class will cover the basics and also newer discoveries since then. We now know that cerebrospinal fluid (VIP in craniosacral therapy) cleans the brain while we sleep. Looking forward to learning more.
Michael Morgan's talk begins by looking at what differentiates brains of "normal" patients and those of patients suffering from senile dementia and Alzheimer...
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A car wreck in 1996 left me feeling like I was living in someone else’s pain body, and I set out to find some relief. I didn’t understand what the accident had done to my body, just knew that sometimes I dragged one foot when I walked, my hips and back hurt all the time, and moving in certain ways was painful.
I tried massage of various types, chiropractic of several types, osteopathic manual therapy, rehab yoga, regular yoga of different types, structural integration (Rolfing), Pilates, acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, functional movement, and more. I had never had a massage before, and I loved visiting these folks practicing various healing arts. Their work was so different from my writing jobs in journalism, technology, and government. It opened up a whole new world for me.
When I was considering a career change, I knew I wanted to do something in the healing arts. After being accepted into an acupuncture program and learning Reiki, I did Reiki for an injured healer friend, who told me I needed to get a license to touch people. So I went to massage school, doing my basic training at the nationally known Lauterstein-Conway Massage School, later completing its advanced program and becoming board certified in therapeutic massage and bodywork.
I finally understood what had happened to my body in that car accident, and I worked diligently to heal from that injury, blogging about it here.
Not long after finishing my basic massage training, a new friend with whom I was having a delightful conversation asked me, “So why aren’t you a craniosacral therapist?”
I didn’t have a good answer. I’d loved the work Nina Davis did with me for several years. I realized I wanted to explore craniosacral therapy, and three days later I was in a biodynamics class taught by Ryan Hallford, who’s been my primary biodynamics teacher since January 2013. He also trained me in oral work to relieve TMJ disorder.
Later I took some classical craniosacral courses from the Upledger Institute. (Classical CST comes from the early career of William G. Sutherland, DO, and Biodynamics comes from his later years.)
Craniosacral work, both classical and biodynamic, have worked really well for me, so much that I’ve trained — and continue training — in these modalities to share their goodness with you. I’ve repeated most of Ryan’s classes and have been his teaching assistant. I work with mentors. I read books and listen to audio files and podcasts. Regular meditation is essential. I find many ways to deepen my skills.
Biodynamics is a hybrid of bodywork and meditation, built on trusting, listening, and skilled sensing of your whole system. It augments the recipient’s own innate healing processes.
Biodynamics helps your system become more coherent (unified), so that your cells work together more effectively. Healing efforts that are no longer needed may be released, transforming and renewing your whole self.
In many sessions, I offer Zero Balancing, which I was introduced to at Lauterstein-Conway and also found wonderful for my body. ZB aligns your skeleton and allows your energy to move freely. Many recipients are surprised by how different they feel after a ZB session: taller, lighter, more expanded, more grounded, able to move easily.
I find that most people enjoy and benefit from receiving Zero Balancing before receiving biodynamics, because the goal is to feel and move better when you leave, and these modalities do that, and they keep working on you for a while after a session.
When the need arises, I may use other skills in my toolbox: reflexology, cupping, orthopedic massage, myofascial release, trigger point release, lymphatic drainage, and more.
*I don’t heal you. I work in the healing arts, but you heal you. I’m there to support your natural healing abilities, and I hope you are too.
