Chiropractors are finding that one simple technique can have a major impact on their patients' well-being and overall bodily health. The Cranial Release Technique takes only about a minute, gently stretching muscles at the base of the skull to realign bones in the head. Patients have reported benefits to a wide range of bodily conditions, from improvements in joint paint and headaches to allergies and even digestive problems.
For chiropractor Mark Schmall, healing was believing. While attending a professional conference in 2006, he limped into line to receive a demonstration of a chiropractic technique he had heard of but had not tried. Just a few weeks prior he had suffered a serious knee injury.
“I had very limited range of motion in my knee. I could only flex it a few degrees,” he says. “And I didn’t know what to expect because I was watching people ahead of me in line and it just looked like they were getting their necks stretched.”
He lay down on the table when it was his turn and received the treatment, which took only a minute. Standing back up, he found all the pain in his knee was gone – and so was his limp. He even was able to squat down to the floor.
“I had pretty tremendous results, not really knowing what had been done to me,” says Schmall.
He had just experienced the Cranial Release Technique, a gentle stretching of the muscles at the base of the skull. The goal of CRT is to restore proper alignment and movement to the bones in the head, impacting the nervous system. Proponents of the technique say doing so can benefit a range of conditions from body stresses and aches to overall wellness.
Over the next few months, Schmall continued to notice benefits from his brief CRT encounter. His knee continued to be fine. Tension he had had for four years in his upper back and neck as a result of a car accident dramatically lessened. And when spring came, he was surprised to find his allergies had cleared up. Schmall contacted the chiropractor who had performed the technique — William Doreste, founder and CEO of CRT, Inc. — and a month later was offering CRT at Maximum Health and Fitness, Inc., in Rock Island, Ill. Other chiropractors offering CRT in the Radish region are Clifton Bethel of Southpark Chiropractic in Moline, Ill., and Jenny Sechler of Hampton Health & Wellness, Hampton, Ill.
Like Schmall, Hampton, Ill., chiropractor Jenny Sechler had an interest in becoming certified in CRT based on personal experience. Her philosophy is not to offer services to her patients that she herself has not tried. Learning CRT was an easy decision for her, though, because she had received and benefited from different kinds of cranial work for nearly 10 years.
“I had an interest in it because so much of our overall health involves the brain, so to do something that directly restores balance to that system has the potential for a lot of benefit,” she says.
In Sechler’s experience, other cranial techniques can involve manipulating the skull bones one by one. To her, what makes CRT unique is that rather than working with cranial bones and tissues individually, it is a single, simple process that can restore balance to them all. A CRT procedure lasts about a minute, roughly 30 seconds for each side of the neck. The stretch is usually done while the patient is lying on his or her back, though variations exist for patients who may be wheelchair bound.
Bethel began practicing the CRT technique in the last year and reports that it complements any health protocol. “Whether you’re doing non-traditional stuff, be it yoga, chiropractic, massage or reflexology, or you’re just a traditional medical patient, we’ve seen some great results.”
Because CRT is so gentle, Schmall has been able to apply it to patients ranging from a 6-month-old baby to a 91-year-old woman. He has seen improvement in patients’ digestive complaints, asthma and extremity joint problems. Sechler’s CRT patients have experienced fewer headaches, reduced stress and a restored sense of balance.
“The people I work with tell me it’s amazing,” says Sechler. “They say while they are laying on the table, the technique feels like nothing at all. And then come all these benefits.”
For more information about CRT, including where to find a practitioner in your area, visit cranialrelease.com.
This article, by Sarah J. Gardner, originally appeared here and is used with permission: http://www.theultimatewellnesspractice.com/cranial-release-technique-can-be-used-for-stress-relief-aches-and-overall-wellness/
