"You will just have to live with it? - Take these drugs and the problem will go away. - There is nothing wrong with your child. - We have done everything we can. - That is normal for babies. - Your child will be like that for the rest of their lives. - Surgery is your only option. - You are imagining it. "

Sandymount, Dublin, Ireland.                               
From John Dalton
June 14, 2009       
2:30pm
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How Much Does it Cost?

Hello,
   Is your faith in the medical system shattered? Has your wallet been emptied by over confident therapists. Have you been on the emotional roller coaster, rising with hope that each new approach is going to work, then crushed when it doesn't? Have you tried everything and still not got the results you wanted?
   You're not alone.
   In fact you're like so many of the people who have come to me for help and got it.

       I'm going to explain a bit about cranio sacral therapy but before I do let me tell you about myself so you can put what I say in context.

• I've been practicing cranio sacral therapy for the last 15 years.
• I've treated over 1000 people.
• My success rate averages 85-90%. Meaning 85-90% of the people who come to see me get the result they were looking for.
• I developed the only Australian Government accredited diploma of cranio sacral therapy.
• I was a founder of The Australian Institute of Cranio Sacral Therapy.
• I wrote the book The Wellness Detective Manual
• I write a newsletter for cranio sacral therapists and students that is read in 17 countries.
• I lecture internationally on cranio sacral therapy.
• I have developed an initiative to bring Cranio Sacral Training to people in developing countries called Open Source Cranio

Let me start off by telling you what I'm NOT going to do. .
I'm not going to make any claims that cranio sacral therapy is going to work for you.

You see, here's the thing.
   If a therapist tells you they can guarantee that you're going to get better or that they are going to heal you, well . . they're kidding you.
And probably themselves too.

We would all like guarantees but when it comes to health, there are none. When you come right down to it, what we look for is an approach that has the most likely possibility of working.

An executive from pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Smith told Britain's, 'The Independent' newspaper in 2003. 'I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work, I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people.'

   30 to 50%!!

   My success rate averages 85-90%

How do I arrive at that figure?
   Very technical.
   I go through my patient records and add up all the successes.

What constitutes a success?
   When someone first comes to see me I ask them what they want me to help them with.

‘I want to stop having chronic back pain. I want to stop being depressed. I want my child to improve at school to the point where they don’t need special assistance. I want to stop feeling so anxious. I want to get off my anti-depressants.’ and so on.

   If, at the end of their treatment program, they have what they wanted at the beginning, I consider that a success.

That’s not very scientific.
   I'm not going to try and convince you of the scientific validity of cranio sacral therapy. Let's face it, if a scientific approach was going to help you it would have done so by now and . . . well, you wouldn't be reading this.

   At best cranio sacral therapy is acknowledged scientifically as having, 'A substantial amount of anecdotal evidence in its favour.' Which is an academic way of saying, 'Lots of people are saying this thing is really good.'

   Cranio sacral therapy is not much to look at and when you're having it done it doesn't feel like much is happening but it gets results and that's what people talk about.

   It takes the wacky approach that your body knows how to fix itself better than the therapist does.

   I'll explain . .

   If you fall and bruise your elbow, do you have to think about how to fix it?

   Me neither.

   Some part of us just knows how to do it. It knows because your body is designed to fix itself. And it manages to do this very well most of the time.

   It is part of the balancing act your body is continually engaged in.
The technical name for it is homeostasis.
A bit like cycling a bike, your body is continually adjusting itself to the external changes it finds itself in.
   You run up a hill, you're heart rate increases and you start to sweat. You have a big meal and your body puts all its resources into digesting the food and you feel sleepy.

   When you look at the workings of your body in this way, 'healing' is part of the same balancing act. You bruise your elbow, you're body fixes it. You get an infection, your body kills it off by raising your temperature. What we call 'healing' is just another part of the balancing act your body is engaged in.

   You only run into a problem when, for some reason, your body has to over-compensate to maintain balance. It would be like trying to ride the bike with a rhino hanging off the side. You may be able to keep going but the effort, over time would be draining and eventually you would crash.

A Rhino? What's the rhino?
   Well, our body fixes itself on a daily basis with things like bruises or infections etc., which would be small rhinos. A big rhino would be trauma.

   Let's say a person is in a car crash and they hit the steering wheel at 70kph. That is obviously a lot more serious than a bruised elbow. The impact will put a deep imprint in their body. The broken bones and lacerations caused by the accident will heal within a matter of months, but the physical after-effects can go on for years - causing anything from headaches to depression or worse.

   Our bodies never stop trying to release the deeper residual patterns of trauma. If the imprint is too intense it overwhelms our body's repair mechanism. The prolonged effort of trying to release a traumatic imprint that is stuck is exhausting and after years of trying your body can feel very low in energy.

Birth Trauma
   One of the most common causes of trauma is birth. Modern birth is often mismanaged from the outset. Labour then becomes a frenzy of 'emergency procedures' which often leave the baby with deep physical trauma.

   Even with a natural, problem free labour, if a baby gets stuck and distressed during delivery, even briefly, it can put substantial restrictions into the baby's system that may not show up for years. I have treated hundreds of babies for a wide range of symptoms that all originated from birth trauma.

   And it's not just babies, unreleased birth trauma can remain trapped in our bodies for years. 78 years is the oldest birth trauma I have treated.

   That's right - 78 YEAR OLD MAN RELEASES TRAUMA FROM BIRTH!

   This doesn't just apply to physical trauma, emotional trauma is just as devastating in your body as physical trauma.

So how does cranio sacral therapy help?
   It helps by following the movement of repair. It's a bit like the movement of breathing or the movement of blood pumping around your body. The difference is the movement of repair is very subtle. It takes years of practice to be able to feel this movement. Being able to feel the movement of repair is crucial to knowing where a body is getting stuck in the process of repair.

• Visit the last resort first . . .and save money.
   It became a joke among my students and graduates that we were actually in the resort business because for most of the people who came to see us, we were the last resort.
   It doesn’t need to be like that.
   Most people are floored when they add up how much they’ve spent so far trying to get better.
   Don’t waste any more of your money.

• Benefit from no returns.
   When you understand that cranio sacral therapy helps trauma release from your body, then it makes sense that once restrictions are released in this way, they are gone for good.
   So when you’re done, you’re done.
   It's as simple as getting a big piece of cellophane and scrunching it into a ball and then assisting it to unravel itself.
   Once it has unraveled itself, there's no need to 'maintain' its state of unraveled-ness.
   So you don’t need any ‘maintenance’ treatments to keep your health. What you spend having treatment is finite and has a very definite end.

• Gentle on you.
   Cranio sacral therapy is a very gentle approach. There is no pushing, adjusting or manipulating your body into a set or 'correct' position. There is no intrusive probing into your past. The contact is very gentle and people often fall asleep during treatment. Because of this gentleness it is good for children and people in a lot of pain.

• You will feel the benefits within 4 weeks.
   Most people feel the benefits immediately. If it takes longer you will generally see enough improvement after 4 weeks to know that it's going to work.

• Gets to the root of the problem.
There are many approaches that will give you complete reduction of your symptoms. The trouble is the reduction only lasts for a short period of time and then you have to return from more treatment. Eventually this kind of approach makes your body dependant on the treatment.
   Cranio sacral therapy works with the root cause of the problems. This has the effect of causing lasting relief of symptoms.
   In 15 years I have never had anyone return for treatment for the original problem they came to me with.
   Not one.

How much would you pay to get better?
   In modern Ireland we no longer have the luxury of wondering if alternative approaches work. We are more concerned with the question of whether we are going to get treated by . . . anyone!

   Lengthening waiting lists, patients on trolleys and the threat of super bugs roaming our hospitals are forcing many Irish people to consider becoming 'Medical Tourists'. Medical tourism is one of the largest industries in the world with global revenues of approximately US$ 23 Billion in 2008.
   23 BILLION!!

   And even then the success rate is not great. Kerry O'Brien of Australia's ABC recently did a story about an Australian man who went to India for a knee reconstruction which cost him roughly €4800 including flights and hospital stay. He was quoted €4200 for the implant alone in Australia.

   Unfortunately there were complications and the implant had to be removed when he returned to Australia. So he was pretty much back where he started minus €4800.

   I charge €140 per treatment for adults and €60 per treatment for babies. Children are somewhere in between depending on their age.
   There is less time involved with babies and the length of the treatment program is nearly always less.

   Adults take between 10 - 14 weeks to get better. Babies often require only 2 or 3 sessions. Treatment sessions are once a week. So for an adult, at most you could spend €1960 to get better.

   To get better.                       Top

   Just to put that in context, a common procedure like back surgery will cost about €26,000. That's not counting time off work etc. How much of that you pay will depend on your health cover. I have helped lots of people avoid major procedures like surgery of one kind or another. It is almost impossible to calculate the value of finding a remedy for the problems of a child.

   I can only see 12 people a week and I'm already full.
   Cranio sacral therapy is intense work to facilitate and I've found that any more than 12 people a week and I start to burn out pretty quickly.

   When I first started learning cranio sacral therapy I really hadn't a clue what I was getting myself involved in. My background was in Film and TV and I had no good reason to make the change. But once I heard about it, there was something about this cranio thing that wouldn't let me go.

   If you're having that feeling right now and you think I can help you then I encourage you to give me a call 0862 272751 or email me.

   I can usually tell from a description of your situation whether I think I can help or not. If I think I can I'll put you on the waiting list for an assessment.

   If you come for an assessment and I don't think I can help you, there is no charge. If I do think I can help, we begin treatment in that first session.

   While I obviously think cranio sacral therapy is fantastic, it can’t help with everything. I vividly remember a woman who came to see me for an assessment. She was in a wheel chair and had a severe palsy which was slowly spreading throughout her whole body.

   She had been seeing a ‘cranial’ therapist twice a week for the previous eight weeks, who told her that her skull bones were very tight. The woman’s symptoms weren’t changing. She was desperate and I really wanted to help her.

   But . .

   When I assessed her I could find nothing wrong with her cranio sacral system. Yes, her cranial bones were a little tight but nothing that would cause the kind of severe symptoms she was manifesting.

   Sadly, for us both, I had to tell her that I didn’t feel that cranio sacral therapy could help her.

   I really hope you find what you are looking for, regardless of whether it's with me or cranio sacral therapy. Feel free to email me with questions or comments, I'd like to hear from you.

   All the best.

P.S. When it comes to your health and getting better there are no guarantees. Anyone who tells you different is kidding you.
   Once you accept that, you realise that what you are trying to decide on is what approach has the best possibility of working.
   As I said, my success rate is 85-90%. When you are finished treatment you never have to come back for follow up treatments for your original complaint.
   I can tell you over the phone whether I think I can help you or not.
   When you come in for an assessment I can definitely tell you whether I think I can help you or not.
    If I don't think I can, I won't charge you.
   Call me on 0862 272751 or email me and get more information about your particular situation.
   Bear in mind that I have a waiting list and may not be able to see you straight away.

P.P.S. I have seen too many people come for treatment after they have spent lots of money and time on treatments that didn't work. They have come to me as a last resort.
I encourage you to save time and money and most importantly heartache and come to the last resort first.