Cranial Osteopath Marylebone London
At Wellthy Clinic, we offer Cranial Osteopathy sessions in Marylebone, which help reduce pain, ease tension, and promote well-being. Our Osteopaths have a highly trained sense of touch and can sense subtle tension changes. Treatments are deeply relaxing and relieve pain all over your body. We provide cranial osteopathy at Harley Street, just a minute’s walk.
What is Cranial Osteopathy Used For?
Reducing stress and pain and promoting well-being. Cranial Osteopathy can help with a wide range of conditions, including chronic lower back pain, for which other osteopathic techniques may not be suitable. After experiencing physical or emotional stress, our body tissues commonly tighten up. Although our bodies can generally adapt to stress at the time, prolonged stress or strain can remain. This remaining tension can accumulate and be held in the body, restricting its free movement and then symptoms develop. The Cranial Osteopath works with your body to activate the innate ability of the body to heal itself by removing restrictions and providing support to bring the tissues back into a state of balance. It’s a treatment suitable for babies, children, and adults. We offer Paediatric Osteopathy at Wellthy Clinic.
What Does a Cranial Osteopath Do?
Hands-on treatment is mainly applied to the tissues of the head; however, it can also be used directly on different parts of your body. Cranial works on the principle that non-invasive, gentle cranial manipulation of joints and tissues can promote overall physical well-being. When arriving at our clinic, we will review your case history to understand your current symptoms and medical history. The osteopath will be interested in injuries that happened a long time ago; even birth trauma like this could affect your presentation. After that, you’re active movements will be examined, you will be provided with a diagnosis, and then go ahead with cranial massage treatment with your consent. Although cranial techniques are very gentle, patients can experience remarkable benefits following treatments.
Cranial Osteopathy for Migraines
Gentle stretching and massage to the tight muscles of your neck and upper back can help relieve the build-up of muscular tension that may lead to migraines. A treatment can help to reduce pain, ease tensions and promote well-being. Recent research has shown that osteopathy can effectively manage long-term chronic migraines (Cerritelli et al 2015). You can learn more about cranial osteopathy for migraines here.
Cranial Osteopathy for Anxiety
Firstly, seeing an Osteopath is a therapeutic, calming experience. You can share your worries and receive hands-on treatment for your pains and muscular tensions. A treatment is a deeply relaxing experience which can help reduce your anxiety. It is common for patients to constantly be in fight or flight mode with demanding job roles and busy lifestyles, so a cranial treatment can act as a good ‘circuit breaker’ to help turn down this switch. It can be so relaxing that some patients fall asleep during a treatment or report they have the best night’s sleep following sessions! At Wellthy clinic, we will also give home-based exercises and nutrition for anxiety advice to help you manage your symptoms.
What is Cranial Osteopathy for Adults?
A deeply relaxing experience which can bring significant benefits. Although overall mobility in the limbs, spine and head (cranium) starts to reduce in adulthood, there are still gaps between the cranial bones (sutures) that Osteopaths believe can influence balance tensions. For example, following a head injury, it is common to experience headaches so that cranial treatment can be of great benefit. During treatment, some clients are aware of different sensations, such as mild tensions, aching or sensitivity that gradually disappears, or feelings of warmth and relaxation. Other people are not aware of anything happening during the treatment, but feel differently after the treatment. The majority feel deeply relaxed during treatment, and it is common for people to fall asleep after cranial massage.
Cranial Osteopathy Back Pain
A recent systematic review (Dal Farra et al, 2021) suggested that their study strengthens the evidence that osteopathy is effective in pain levels and functional status improvements in chronic lower back pain patients. A recent randomised controlled trial (Castro-Sanchez et al 2016) evaluated the effects of craniosacral therapy on disability, pain intensity, quality of life, and mobility in patients with low back pain. Ten craniosacral therapy sessions resulted in a statistically greater improvement in pain intensity and haemoglobin oxygen saturation. Also, systolic blood pressure, serum potassium, and magnesium levels were improved after 10 sessions of classic massage in patients with chronic low back pain. However, there was a call for more high-quality randomised controlled trials research. You can learn more about osteopathy for lower back pain.
Can Cranial Osteopathy Help TMJ?
Yes, we think so — but it depends on the cause of your TMJ. If you have neck and upper back restrictions or a history of the head, facial and neck pain/trauma (including dental work), Osteopathic treatment can help to reduce your symptoms, which should help to relax your jaws. A profoundly relaxing treatment could help if you experience high levels of stress, which causes you to grind your teeth. If you haven’t tried Cranial Osteopathy for TMJ, it is worth giving it a go. Eleonora, one of our Cranial Osteopaths, experienced great results herself as a patient with a TMJ dysfunction - one of the reasons why we are passionate about helping others.
What to Expect After Seeing a Cranial Osteopath?
Commonly, adults feel a little lightheaded, sleepy and relaxed after treatment, but then feel better. According to the NCOR approximately half of all manual therapy patients experience some mild to moderate short-lived reaction to treatment. These can include, for example, a temporary increase in pain, aching after treatment, or post-treatment fatigue. In Licciardone’s (2003) study of osteopathy patients, 10-20% reported increased pain or symptoms. However, 42% of those went on to make clinically significant improvements compared to baseline. Most muscle soreness, aching and headache post-treatment resolved within 24 hours. Many patients who attend osteopathic treatment take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to help with their symptoms. Approximately 1 in 10 people who take NSAIDs daily experience persistent headaches (NHS 2021).
How Many Cranial Osteopathy Sessions will I need?
At Wellthy Clinic, we will try to give you an idea of how many treatments are necessary depending on your presentation. This will be reviewed at each session, depending on your progress and as part of your treatment plan.
Cranial osteopathy for adults is just one of the osteopathic services we provide. Osteopathic techniques can even help treat running injuries.
How to Find Us
Wellthy Clinic is based at 63 New Cavendish Street, Marylebone, London, W1G 7LP. It is only 70m from Harley Street and right in the centre of London’s medical district. It is easily accessible and only a 5-minute walk from the beautiful Marylebone High Street.
If you would like to book a session with us at our beautiful location, please feel free to contact us.
References
Cerritelli et al (2015) Clinical effectiveness of osteopathic treatment in chronic migraine: 3-Armed randomized controlled trial Complementary Therapies in Medicine (23) 2 pp. 149-156
Castro-Sanchez et al (2016) Benefits of Craniosacral Therapy in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Journal of Alternative Complementary Medicine; 22(8): pp.650-7.Dal Farra et al (2021) Effectiveness of osteopathic interventions in chronic non-specific low back pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis Complementary Therapies in Medicine
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Licciardone, J., S. Stoll, et al. (2003). “Osteopathic manipulative treatment for chronic low back pain: A randomized controlled trial.” Spine 28(13): 1355-62.
National Council for Osteopathic Research Risk & Patient Incidents
Sutherland Cranial College of Osteopathy
Chronic Back Pain (source)
Eleonora Sansoni
Eleonora Sansoni practices both Structural & Cranial Osteopathy. She graduated from the University College of Osteopathy and has undertaken post graduate training with the Sutherland Cranial College of Osteopathy.