Dear Lactnet Friends:

As a practitioner of craniosacral therapy for over 20 years, I feel
compelled to respond to this question.

Energetic medicine doesn't  often fit into the RCT/classic research design.
Yet energy is all around us, and we are more energy than matter.

(There is a RCT, published in Pediatrics in 1994 that showed the benefits
of homeopathy for the treatment of diarrhea. The published responses to
this study were mostly about "how can you give different treatment to
people?"  Most of modern medicine is about a factory approach to
situations. Human education and health don't flourish in a factory. But
that's another topic.)

The energy of love is life saving; yet how is love defined and measured?
How much love does a baby need to thrive? 3? 17? 34?  Love can't be
quantified.   Babies suffer without touch, as we saw with the Romanian
orphans, who didn't grow. How much touch?  We need more than measurable
things to thrive.

As for the placebo effect, that is a real thing!  Many prescription
medicines work as a result of either the placebo or from unknown effects.
If something works, and you don't know how it works, does that make it
useless, especially when it causes no harm? Using the word "placebo" merely
means that no one can identify precisely what is the mechanism of relief;
relief is still obtained.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081023195216.htm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/23/one-big-myth-about-medicine-we-know-how-drugs-work/?utm_term=.594e60c055d9

Laying on of hands has been a way to anoint, to comfort and to heal since
biblical times. Cransiosacral therapy is a scientific approach to the
laying on of hands, and never causes harm (when correctly practiced)....and
that is something that modern medicine can NOT claim.

Getting muscles to relax, to slacken, to let go of their tension enables
reorganization of those muscles, resulting in changes in function.

In my private practice, I have seen CST renew a mother's commitment to
breastfeeding; when her level of tension drops, both she and her baby do
better.  I have seen it repair breastfeeding relationships damaged by
routine hospital practices, I have watched infant torticollis resolve on my
table, under my hands, more than once.

I also recognize its limitations. As with any modality,  a practitioner
needs to recognize when a referral is needed.

What CST offers is something missing from most medical care today: focused
attention to the client, and time spent with the intention of "let the
greatest good be done", all via the medium of gentle touch.

warmly,
-- 
Nikki Lee RN, BSN, Mother of 2, MS, IBCLC, CCE, CIMI, ANLC, CKC, RYT
Reviews Editor,* Clinical Lactation*
www.nikkileehealth.com
Pronouns: she/her/hers
*Communications are confidential and meant only for whom they are
addressed.*

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