Stress can be caused by many things and manifests itself in both physical and mental ways. It affects muscles in the neck, shoulders and back, which can cause headaches and restricted, tight or painful neck movement, and stress can affect the nervous system in the spine, and can cause mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
A sub-par nervous system can affect how some or all your organs operate in a negative way. Stress creates bad chemicals, for a start as part of the fight or flight response, which tells the digestive system to close down to save energy for the fight or flight. We need to calm your system down, which also produces feel good chemicals and enhances your mood. Which is why most clients walk out with a smile on their dial!
The stress caused by the many impacts Covid had on people's lives caused me to be busier in the Covid years than in 2019, for example. Relieving the physical and mental effects of stress is what I do best! Neck and shoulder pain and headaches are usually caused by stress of some kind.
My goal is to do my utmost to relieve your aches, pains, headaches and stress, lengthen tight muscles, increase your range of motion so you can turn your head further, for example, and improve your posture. And, of course, to see you walk out with a smile on your dial and a spring in your step!
I changed career in 2004 after being in pain for many years and only discovered Remedial Massage after exhausting all other avenues.
I have four objectives:
To provide the best quality service in ache, headache and stress relief based on years of study and the experience of treating many thousands of clients.
To make my services accessible to as wide a section of the community as possible by making my prices affordable. (Most practitioners with my skill set and experience charge between 25 and 60 per cent more than I do, and many only offer one hour appointments).
To provide an extremely convenient service
To resolve issues you have in as few visits as possible!
Whilst I welcome and encourage regular clients, I try to deal with a client's problems in one or two visits. Many clients only come when they have a problem. Others choose prevention rather than cure!
The Emergency Department at the hospital is open every day. For many years, I tried to be as accessible as the Emergency Department, so that anyone in pain could get help the same day. Following a vexatious complaint made to council during the Rockingham by election (in which I was a candidate), I am no longer able to open Sundays, (although mobile services are available) but am able to open in the early evenings to see clients after work.
There are a lot of pictures to demonstrate these exercises. They are on a separate page which opens in a new window, as it takes time to load!
There is way more information on the comprehensive website I created in 2004, which is best viewed on a Desktop and is not mobile friendly. Here you can view the desktop version in a new window. (If using your phone, best viewed in landscape!)
I also started a more comprehensive mobile phone version a few years back, which can be viewed in a new tab. More comprehensive mobile phone friendly version
I studied Craniosacral Therapy with the Upledger Institute in 2005. Just as your phone has different features and functions compared to the phone you had in 2005, so I have improved on, modified, added new techniques, changed the focus and desired outcomes of the treatment, and it now bears little resemblance to the original Craniosacral therapy that I learned 18 years ago, that I have renamed it CranioDural Therapy.
Craniosacral refers to the head (cranium), the tailbone ending in the coccyx (the sacrum), and the spine and spinal chord connecting the two. The spinal chord has a hard outer casing, called the Dura Mater (Latin for 'Hard Mother'), but it often abbreviated to dura. I called it CranioDural Therapy, because an important feature is stretching the dura. If you consider a hose pipe. If it has a kink in it, the water doesn't flow well. Likewise the dura can have a kink, if there is one, it is usually in the neck, often as a result of accidents in sport or motor vehicle accidents. The central nerve travels down inside the dura, lubricated by a fluid called Cerebrospinal Fluid, or CSF, which takes nutrients and oxygen for the central nerve and removes the waste. It is created in the brain, and is pumped down to the tailbone (sacrum) around 8 or 9 times a minute. A kink in the dura impedes the flow to the detriment of how well your body functions. I stretch the dura among the many components of the therapy and clients feel the benefits of this and other techniques in the following ways:
Reduced stress, relieves and prevents headaches, enables you to turn your head further and more freely to the right and left and up and down without feelings of tightness or discomfort.
As I have developed these techniques over a long period, since 2005, as the developer and only practitioner in the world of CranioDural Therapy, I think my usage of Your CranioDural Specialist is not a term likely to mislead!
First here is a review posted on Google (November 25, 2022) on the effectiveness of CranioDural Therapy in relieving headaches from Kelly Wright (name used with permission):
'Life changing treatment, kind person, flexible and accommodating.
I first met Arthur a year after a head on collision, I had been suffering daily headaches and severe whip lash to my neck and pelvis. My physio had helped as much as she could and general massage had very limited and temporary effects.
It was during covid when I couldn't get a general massage that I met Arthur. I was permanently on the verge of tears and suicidal due to the constant pain.
Arthur performed pressure point therapy on the base of my skull and pinpoint therepy on my back and pelvis. After 4 or 5 treatments my headaches had entirely stopped. I was completely amazed. I saw Arthur twice a week initially, on the few occasions I couldn't afford to see Arthur he allowed me to have session without payment because he is a good and kind man.
I have been seeing Arthur now on a by weekly sometimes monthly basis for 2 years, he has aided me in recovery and now during body condition and strengthening at the gym. He is a wonder and a must have in your life if you are suffering headaches or body pains.
Thank you Arthur, I am truly grateful for you skill and kindness ??'
Here is my response:
"Hi Kelly, Thanks for your kind review. I feel a bit embarrassed, TBH! It is a resounding endorsement of CrandioDural Therapy and its ability to relieve headaches and neck pain,
so thank you for that. One reason I will never retire, is that I have so far been fortunate not to have a devastating life changing event befall me, when you are cruising one minute and all hell breaks loose the next. I am here to help people pick up the pieces when that happens to the best of my ability. Not many therapists, for example, take on MVA and WC work because of the admin overhead and difficulty getting paid by insurance companies who don't like to recognise Remedial Massage as an option for rehabilitating injuries. I can't help everyone, it depends on the severity of the injuries. However, when WE (practitioner and client working together) are able to achieve really good results, it comes down to THREE FACTORS. One is my skill level and the experience of working with thousands of clients, but really that is a minor part. The second is my desire to make a difference and produce a positive outcome, which is equally if not more important. But the THIRD and most significant factor BY FAR, is the desire of the client to want to achieve a great result and their faith and confidence that the practitioner they have chosen is going to get them their life back. It is this third factor which was mainly instrumental in you achieving the results you were looking for. You have such an enormous life force, vitality, energy and desire to overcome all obstacles, call it determination if you will, and it is THAT which produced the results you were looking for. I simply played a minor role, but I am very happy to have played that part, and I think I did it quite well. Apart from paid adverts, I come up top if people google 'Remedial Massage Rockingham'. I believe that is due to reviews such as yours. Google doesn't go by the number of reviews and the star ratings any more, these days it reads and interprets the reviews as well, making up its own mind about the quality of service!
And someone just alerted me that I come up on the map if people simply google 'Rockingham', so now it appears I am a local landmark as well! I notice that none of the three chiropractors in the area are listed, not sure what Google is saying here..."
There is an important link between pain/stress and anxiety/depression.
Over the course of many years, on subsequent visits, following Craniodural Therapy, clients have reported feeling less stressed, less anxious and depressed, and, very importantly, feeling more clear headed and making better decisions.
I have many clients with fibromyalgia who benefit from craniodural therapy and find it reduces brain fog among many other benefits. Unfortunately, most people with fibromyalgia (those that DON'T see me) are on too many drugs and that INCREASES brain fog!
Craniodural Therapy and Massage:
Reduces levels of bad chemicals such as cortisol
Increases levels of Happy Chemicals!
Stress can play a part in problems such as headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, arthritis, depression, and anxiety.
Craniodural therapy and massage, then, helps with anxiety, depression and panic attacks by calming your central nervous system, stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and reducing bad chemicals such as cortisol. Cortisol curbs functions that would be nonessential or harmful in a fight-or-flight situation. For example, it impairs the efficiency of the digestive system. It doesn't matter how good your diet is, if you are not digesting your food properly! Excess cortisol also increases your heart rate and blood pressure and over time can lead to heart failure and strokes.
Massage also promotes good chemicals:
"Increased levels of Happy chemicals: Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin and Endorphins. This quartet is responsible for our happiness and many studies have shown that Massage leads to increased levels of these neurotransmitters in our systems."
And BTW, if your tummy starts rumbling on the massage table, please don't be embarrassed in any way. It's a good thing! It means you are relaxed, unstressed, and your digestive system is working properly. It has a medical name, too: BORBORYGMUS.