Hello my name is Catherine Daley. When I was little I never dreamt that I could listen with my hands – I just dreamt about ponies. My journey to becoming a Craniosacral Therapist has taken some twists and turns, however at the heart of it was a wish, an urge, a desire in myself to be more…well…more myself. At the age of forty I found myself with chronic lower back pain, a sense of disconnection from myself and others near and dear to me and a wish for the next forty years to be different. Nothing particularly bad, dramatic or traumatic had happened – I had been quietly living life, growing a family and adjusting to motherhood – however the disquiet became more palpable, more noticeable. And with it a growing sense of seeking…some serious desire for connection, for a sense of what is love and how does it feel, and what else could I do about the pain in my lower back. Regular visits to first a chiropractor, then an osteopath helped maintain a pain free life, however I was reliant on their regular administrations … whatever was at the root of the pain was not being addressed, because as soon as I missed a session my back pain returned.
So began the serious business of seeking and exploring…emotional freedom technique, life coaching, counselling, relationship training, SHEN therapy, hypnotherapy, shamanic healing, reiki, changing my diet, exercising more, exercising less, cranial osteopathy, acupuncture, homeopathy, matrix re-imprinting and reading. Amazon must love me as I consumed book after book after book on happiness, loneliness, love, mindset, self-compassion, placebo effect, emotions and self healing. And what I began to notice was the body based work took little notice of emotions, the talking therapies ignored what was going on in the body, and personally I found the energy work felt good however I was always relying on the practitioner’s interpretation of what they could sense of the changes in energy field and aura, rather than knowing it for myself.
A chance conversation with a friend about dolphins and healing led me to John Upledger’s writings on craniosacral therapy. I had heard about craniosacral therapy in a sort of vague way of that’s what babies go for when they cry a lot, but didn’t know much more. And the more I read, the more I learnt that this weirdly named therapy actually works on a deep and profoundly transformational level just using gentle touch. I wanted to know more and within a month of first reading John Upledger’s book, I was signed up to study the work.
Fast forward a few years and now I have a much greater sense of myself and connection with others, great health, no back pain and hands that can listen and sense the subtlest of goings on in the human body. I feel blessed to witness the effects of craniosacral therapy as it taps into the immense power of the body’s inner wisdom to bring about healing and wellbeing. This all-encompassing mind, body, spirit and emotional healing is what I call Wholebeing Wellbeing.
