Craniosacral therapy is a subtle and profound healing form. In a typical craniosacral session, you will usually lie fully-clothed on a treatment couch. The therapist will make contact by placing their hands usually lightly on your body and tuning in. The first thing you will probably notice is a sense of deep relaxation, which will generally last throughout the session. This release of tension often extends into everyday life.
During pregnancy, calcium is an important minerals for mothers and babies, and the amount required goes up quite a bit, and without uploading the intake, the mother is the one that will suffer from the consequences, and if really low, the baby will too. For type of dietary intake and preference the amount is 1200 mg a day. Here is the list of how you can get it. Download it on your phone in pdf so that you have it with you at all time:
Vagal nerve balancing with craniosacral therapy! North London clinics, N15 6HA and Life By Margot The polyvagal nerve is part of the nervous system, and the nervous system is part of the brain that will give signal when things are ok and when they are not. In some cases, adults with childhood trauma can all of the sudden experience stress related episodes with no recollection of when and where that happens. For most people the talking therapy will be good when they know what the problem or issue are, and often they are resolved. But some stress response or trauma will not be reached just by the conscious mind, or it will take months or even years before you can reach it. Often traumas from childhood are stored in our body or even cells, and those unconscious traumas can be triggered at any time in the life of the adults. Quite often with a body injury or illness. Craniosacral therapy allows the body system to feel safe enough to show the trauma, big or small, at the time that the person is ready to deal with, usually when they feel safe enough to share or deal with whatever emotion is attached to that trauma. With mindfulness meditation and heart meditation, the person has a tool to be able to connect with their heart and deal with whatever comes up in a loving space. My work is to connect to my heart and the person heart to reach a stillness where anything is possible, and any healing is allowed to happen in a loving experience. Craniosacral therapy does not force any trauma out without the person being ready. That is the magical part of this wonderful therapy.
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I have also observed people’s lives changing in better, after few sessions of CST. Things such meeting the right person for them, and getting married, or travelling around the world, for a break, or changing a job to a better career, and much more healing! I have seen amazing healing and experience amazing transformation and transmutation of lives, from Heaven and Earth connections of any type of religion or atheism, All in one and one in All healing power together for the greatest good. In my clinics there are only humans and humanity healing!
Tips on how to hold a baby while working through CST workshop online click here to read more
This will be a workshop of showing practical tips to work with babies when holding them, calming them down, before or during small adjustments, latching problems, sleeping problems and resistance to sleeping, mild torticollis tips, when they have reflux and colic and holding them and calming them, positions and more. Showing on a baby doll.
Questions on working with babies, what to do and not to do plus.
Zoom Link for the workshop will be given near the time and only if booked.
Recording link will also be given afterwards with 1 hour and half CPD.
The importance of self-regulation, emotions and attachments since birth
The central nucleus of the amygdala has direct correlations to the hypothalamus and brainstem – areas directly related to fear and anxiety.
Many projection areas of the amygdala are critically involved in specific signs that are used to measure fear and anxiety.
There is a direct relationship between the activation of the amygdala and the level of anxiety the subject feels.
Feelings of anxiety start with a catalyst – an environmental stimulus that provokes stress. This can include various smells, sights, and internal feelings that result in anxiety.
Fear responses can include dizziness, faint, giving up, pleasing others, freeze, startle, high heart rate, etc. (stress cascade response). This can be felt through craniosacral treatment all over their system.
Moderate fear level causes a startle reflex, while a bigger fear does not. The amygdala is thought to be involved in enhancing the startle reflex in the moderate fear reaction (Walker).
Facial expression of fear or acknowledged fear is connected with the right amygdala.
The right amygdala seems to be more connected and activated with the conditional fear, while the left is more connected with the non-conditional fears.
The amygdala in males, is bigger than the female one as the amygdala has got more androgen receptors and therefore testosterone stimulates the amygdala to grow more.
There is also difference in the left and right amygdala for both female and male.
The left full growth is about 1.5 to 2 years before the right full growth.
Right amygdala is connected to the face recognition.
It is thought that the early left amygdala development, is due to giving infants the ability to detect danger (possible connection to primitive brain, the occipital brain).
In childhood, the amygdala is found to react differently to same-sex versus opposite-sex individuals.
This reactivity decreases until a person enters adolescence, where it increases dramatically at puberty.
So, the amygdala is very important during the most difficult times in teenagers! If you have some now, brace yourself and blame it on the amygdala!
Difference in emotional stimulation in men and women have also been found.
A recollection of a horror film in women, would activate more the left amygdala, while same thing for men would activate more the right amygdala.
The right amygdala has been linked to taking action and to negative emotions. This is one of the reasons that men might fight when scared.
This is why men and women also respond differently to stressful stimuli, as the left amygdala allows for the recall of details, but it also results in more thought rather than action.
Amygdala can be affected by meditation, possibly resulting in more compassion and connection towards others, according to a study with Buddha Monks.
Left amygdala has been connected to anxiety in children.
Low activity of the gland in general though, results in more anxiety and depression.
The use of serotonin drugs increases the size of the amygdala (as we have mentioned above because of the receptors 5HT for serotonin).
Some studies also have connected autism to small left amygdala.
It seems that artistic or creative activity would increase the size and activity of the amygdala.
Amygdala also deals with positive emotions, (it could be because of more 5HT receptors in the right amygdala).
Amygdala size is also connected to the social interaction and network. The bigger the activity and size the more social the people were.
Emotional fear as we mentioned above is very much connected to the gland, as damage to both of them leads to having no fears at all, which can be dangerous for the person and people surrounding that person.
The amygdala is an essential part of the connection and social activity and behaviour for later on in life. In babies, any birth trauma, in utero and post-birth can lead to possible unstable social behaviour from the start, they might either sleep too much and not connect or engage with the environment around them or scream their head off. Some babies will need more attention than others, and 1 to 3 or more, sessions of craniosacral therapy might help with balancing up their autonomic nervous system.
For adults it might take 10 or more sessions, but it is worth every single session, it will change their way of perceive life, by balancing the vagal nerve.
Written by Maria Esposito BSc (Hons), therapists, teacher and author.
This article was written in 2021. Still very valid for the situation that is now around us, and not only for therapists, it is essential for each and everyone of us.
The Fulcrum, Issue 84 September 2021 by Maria Esposito
“When I first started working with a heart-centred connection, my practice was transformed. I found that working from the heart enabled me to connect with my higher self and strengthen my intuition. Clients commented on the treatment experience and the more I nurtured my heart connection, the more effective my work became.
Yet, developing heart connection was not easy or straightforward. There were times when the connection was open and grounded, spacious and flowing. Other times I resonated with painful emotions and experiences. Questioning why this could be so led me to recognise my own emotional pain and unconscious fears and accept my need to heal.
The self-healing journey takes many forms and different paths. Each one of us will need to find the best way to acknowledge, recognise and heal from our emotional pain and fear. Here, I will share my own journey, experiences and observations before recommending useful tools and techniques that may support self-healing.
A Healing Dynamic
From personal experience and from talking with others, I believe that quite often therapists attract clients who have experienced similar pain. It seems a case of ‘like attracts like’ and the resulting dynamic seeks resolution for both client and therapist.
Around ten years ago, clients began coming to me with symptoms and experiences rooted in childhood pain and trauma. I found that I often resonated with their emotional pain and, as I began to explore this, I realised that I carried similar experiences. My acknowledgement and awareness of this allowed space for my own early trauma and, as the memories returned, I accepted that I too needed healing.
Acknowledgement was the beginning of my own healing journey and as it unfolded I recognised and accepted the fear that had been part of my life since early childhood.
Freedom From Fear
During the past ten years of treating clients, including babies and parents, and myself, I have become aware that fear is one of the most prevalent emotions, often hiding behind others. Fear can stem from emotional or physical pain that we have suffered in the past. It can be unconscious, buried so deeply that it influences our thoughts, feelings and actions without us really being aware of it.
The more I healed the more my true self emerged
Feelings of anger, deep anxiety, depression and overwhelm, and behaviours like lashing out, withdrawing, addiction and self-harm, can all stem from fear. They can stem from childhood experiences, our early relationships, our upbringing, our education, our society, from the way we were taught to deal or not to deal with emotions, and be triggered by the things we watch, books that we read, from family, friends, colleagues or people we admire.
Expressions of fear are seen now more than ever. For the past year and half of the Covid-19 pandemic, global fear of the unknown and the stress of uncertainty has impacted many lives, including our own. Throughout, fear and worry about the mental and physical health of loved ones and friends, about jobs and finances, have been pervasive. In some, isolation from and/or loss of loved ones have left deep emotional trauma. In others, fear and worry converted into anger and frustration with devastating impact for partners and families. These experiences may impact not just the people directly affected but also future generations.
The Question is How Do We Move Forward, Individually and Collectively?
I grew up with parents who were born at the time of the second world war and fear was a constant factor in their lives; fear of not getting enough food, fear of getting hurt, fear of not having enough money to support the family.
In myself, I believe that this legacy of fear manifested primarily as self-reliance. I became a ‘doer’, generally resilient and solutions oriented when dealing with my worries, and proactive about controlling my life and pursuing my interests in health and healing without dependence on others. However, as I shared in my previous article “Transformation’ (Issue 82), it wasn’t until I started my CST training that I realised how ungrounded I was, and how easily fears and worries unbalanced me.
So, part of my healing journey has been to free myself of inherited and acquired fears, unconscious and conscious. The more I healed the more my true self emerged – a more grounded and positive individual, searching for ways to deal with life and emotions. I supported this new self-awareness with personal craniosacral sessions, energy healing, and meditation, ultimately leading to a different level of being that has enabled me to move forward with a greater sense of energy, direction and focus.
As I continued to develop my craniosacral and intuitive practice, and practised grounding and heart-connection, I appreciated how much better and happier I felt without anxiety. I noticed that the more I healed, the less drama, in the form of books, films or news, appealed to me and I decided to stop drawing fears from outside sources to myself.
Now, after fearful or worrying situations arise, it takes less time to get back to feeling balanced and centred. Read the entire article on the Fulcrum here
This is an online workshop starting on 2nd of November 2025
6 to 7 hours of CPD personal development
Starts at 9.30am finishes about 4.30pm
We are humans, before being therapists, and as human, we have our own internal battle, or little conflict for something or another. We also need some inner resources, at times, at home or with our clients, during whatever therapy we do.
I know that I found myself at times, with small internal conflict, and even though I have the answer, sometimes I need the help from the another person perspective. And sometimes, it does not have anything to do with therapy at all.
I am a Nutritionist, Craniosacral Therapist NLP health coach and practitioner, and I love going to the NLP top ups, as a reminder that we all have an inner wisdom within us, we just need a bit of guidance to find it! And we are our best guide, if we listen carefully to our inner Therapist.
Hence, after another long day of practising few simple tools with the NLP group, I decided to pass on some of the wisdom for other therapist, who need at times, reconnect to their inner wisdom, for themselves and for their client.
Specifically, I work with craniosacral therapists, but this particular workshop, can be expanded to other therapists. And as you may know, the more internal peace we have within ourselves, the better listener we will be for our clients, including babies and children if you work with them with craniosacral therapy!
In this workshop, we will use few NLP tools for particular issues, and other NLP tools might be used as well if appropriate.
1st one, will be the internal conflict tool (any internal conflict, small or big). This is an amazing discovery of how the internal conflict can create a little internal war within ourselves, if not addressed. Even for small decision, such as choosing to do something or not do it, or choosing a pair of shoes, over another.
2nd tool, will be looking at goals/dreams that we have, and how our unconscious things we deal with them. Few NLP questioning of tools to trick our mind into our real thoughts and bloackages.
3rd tool will be anchoring good positive feelings and state of mind, that we can recall at any time.
4th is to get motivated for something that we want to do
Grounding meditations and others from mindfulness tool meditation
Clearing our aura and space meditation
Possible other NLP tools will be added to the list
Price for the workshop is 85 pounds, paid at booking via bank transfer. The receipt will be emailed to you after.
Maria Esposito TSB code 308472 account 24603860. Email me if you make this payment to gandgmariaesp@yahoo.c.uk
As Nutritionist, we have known for a long time, and at least I have since my University training more than 26 years ago. The health of the gut is very much an essential part of all our health, including the brain, hence the mental health of a person. It starts from birth, from picking up your mum’s bacteria, if it was a natural birth, and if not, from being breastfed, and if not from all around you. Obviously, from a natural birth (not water birth as such, as still is a doubt if the bacteria gets washed out with the water). In natural birth though again, depends on your mum’s vaginal bacteria. Sometimes I recommend to give friendly bacteria to babies, when mum’s might not have supported their friendly bacteria through the diet, or if they have taken antibiotics for any reason or another while pregnant.
Now, we all have our unique microbiome and hence that is what it will grow from the start. And the we know that the first 1000 days of life (Swansey study), are the most important for populating your babies and toddler microbiome. If for any reason, such as antibiotics have been given or taken during pregnancy or lactation, your baby has been born through a C-section, then, it is possible that instead of the good bacteria, the more non-commensal bacteria that could do more harm than go, will thrive.
So the best next thing that you can do for your baby is giving some Bifidus baby infantis to support the proliferation of their good microbiome, and stop the growth of yeast or other non commensal bacteria.
Babies have more Bifidus bacteria, which feed on either the mother’s breastmilk or bottle fed milk. From 6 months, after you start adding more food, the Bifidus that feeds on milk, start to go down and more of the lactobacillus and other good bacteria start to grow. Now, it depends on how you start your baby diet, if you start on more sugary foods, such as fruits, then, the yeast bacteria can overgrow, and your baby might start getting the taste buds for sweet. If you start on more vegetables, than, the bacteria that feeds on vegetables grow and are better. Also in this way, your baby will not crave more of the sugary foods later on.
There are lots of weaning thoughts and diet out there, just remember, that your baby does not have teeth and the digestive system is not fully developed till the age of 14 years! Yes 14 years, for the liver, the kidney and the entire intestinal tract is formed. So make sure that more of the good food is ingested than the rubbish food. It starts from you and when they are weaning as well. Click here to read what I suggests, and you can make up your mind of what is the best for your baby as well. Ask your mum, if you turned out really healthy, what she weaned you first!
To feed more of the good microbiome, such as the acidophilus and Bifidus bacteria, they need to feed on food that they can eat. The by product or the elimination of their feeding, is fuel for the repair of the intestinal tract.
The intestinal tract, needs repairing every 3 days or so. So they need food every day, to do you a lot of good.
And as we know the healthier the intestinal tract is, the healthier your mental status! Lots and lots of research on this now.
What food does increase the short chain fatty acid (SCFA), which is the food that the bacteria eat to repair your intestinal tract. The SCFA are essential for the repair of the intestinal tract, as well as, reducing inflammation, support the integration of the gut barrier, preventing undigested food to enter the blood stream and hence reducing the chance of allergic reaction to normal food, and much more.
All in fermented food:
Butyrate in oils, butters and fats, beans, legumes, fruits and vegetables, milk, onion, garlic, avocadoes etc, whole grain fibers increase short chain fatty acids, such as brown rice, quinoa, apples, bananas, broccoli, carrots, spinach kale, kiwi, mushrooms, any green leafy vegetables, dandelion greens, endive and more. (and yes, some foods are off in the Fodmap diet)
Acetate, all fibers, but more with apples, pineapples, strawberries, berries, grapes oranges
Propionate in all the above plus pears, oat and barley, brown rice, legumes, chia seeds, chicory root, asparagus.
Whenever you or your baby, toddler, child, teenager, needs to take antibiotics for any reason, take some really good friendly bacteria, such as Bifidus and a combination of lactobacillus, so that they fill the gap that has been left by your good dead bacteria, till your own good microbiome, grows back again. The probiotics that you buy might stop growing after two months, but they saved the seat for your own microbiome to regrow after the antibiotics.
If you are taking any medication, is possible that you need to support your intestinal bacteria with the bacteria that you buy or you can make your own kefir, if you are good at doing that. If you are an Athlete, you need to support your gut microbiome with extra microbiome, as excessive exercise will cause inflammation and leads to a reduce good microbiome.
If you frequently need to take anti-inflammatory, also you need to support your intestinal tract, as well as if you take steroids for any reasons, or extra hormones, such as in HRT.
Always promote your good bacteria with the food that contain the SCFA above and you will feel much better than anybody else that does not support their intestinal microbiome!
Read my Book, “Clinical experience of IBS” by Maria Esposito BSc (Hons) find it on amazon.co.uk
Teaching a combination of craniosacral therapy and NLP for therapists working with mothers and babies.
I am available to teach in courses of therapists and midwives, doula, a combination of holding the baby in a gentle and calm way, and supporting mothers who are anxious and worried about the baby. Mothers who are overwhelmed about being 1st time mother. Teaching mindfulness meditation and heart-math meditation to calm themselves down enough to calm the baby and support the calming nervous system of the baby.
This will help mothers to be and mothers to calm themselves down and also to calm their babies while having colic and to sleep better. Understand their baby cry and more.
If you run a course with babies and mothers and or anything related to mothers and babies and support for mothers and babies, contact me for a possible collaboration and teaching.
There are a lot of ways to be presents, through mindfulness meditation, through breathwork, through normal breathing, through exercise of any kind, including walking. All of them, do not align you into who you are and what your purpose in life is. I found that in the past 14 years, thanks to craniosacral therapy/healing, that I have been doing and having it myself, that I found that alignment and healing your inner self, and get back to yourself, is more than just being present.
Being present is the first step of many. I found that with craniosacral therapy/healing, for myself and the many hundreds of people I have had the honour to support through their journey of getting to connect to their inner self and healing themselves through the craniosacral therapy, is doing a lot of hundreds steps!
Being aligned with yourself, is getting rid of other people expectation of yourself, as well as the social expectation and what other people think you need to be and do, and get to your own way of wanted to be and do. This is a journey, starting from getting rid of the past pain, possible trauma, and much more. Understanding who you are and change yourself towards what your potential is! Start your journey now, taking 1 step at the time towards your inner self!
I work with a combination of NLP to find your way of support that you have in you to deal with different emotions and feelings!
Now I am not sure if anyone has heard of the term Dysautonomia. This is not a medical term, but the problems do exist. Now when withing a year a term comes up from two different people, than I think is something. So, I researched it a bit and the following are what I found out. Now, some of the symptoms can be related to many things, so do not take this as the bible, but if you have some of the symptoms, and the doctors cannot find anything at all, it is worth to see a neurologist and see what they say. Also, there might be a solution, of having high B vitamins, and particularly the B1 of the fat-soluble form, which is synthetic but has worked for a colleague. I would also try the high dosage of water soluble one to see if it helps. The Vagal nerve is part of the ANS and it is connected to the major organs, such as the heart, lungs, digestive system and more. The vagal nerve when is working well, allows the person to breathe, properly, the heart rate is at a normal relaxing rate, the digestive system works well and the person can sleep well as well. When the Vagal Nerve which is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is in turn part of the ANS, is turned off, due to his counter part the Sympathetic Nervous System, which is the one that makes you run from your danger, or in this case Stress of everyday life, than you might have a constant high heart rate, sleep poorly, have many problems of the digestive system, either constipation as the stools dry up more, or diarrhoea as the body is trying to empty itself before running.
Dysautonomia seems to have connections with the some of the Vagal Nerve malfunctions. It seems that can also occur after a virus, and it seems to be connected to COVID or any other major viruses.
If the person immune system has been down, due to possible deficiency of B vitamins or other nutrients, than everything else will not work well. If you do not know B vitamins are the water-soluble vitamins that are essential for making the energy in your body to make everything, including compounds and proteins for the immune system, proteins to create enzymes for digestions and repair of the body, organs, muscles and nerves. B vitamins are not the only essential nutrient needed, our body also need minerals fat and amino acid.
Now in a time that is a trend to do some two days fasting, with 12 fasting or more every day.
With a time that our soil has less minerals, our food contains even less of the nutrients that we need, with a time that there is more crap available to buy with the click of the button and so on, well no wonder that our body is shutting down.
I hear teenagers that skip their breakfast as they are too tired to eat in the morning, they skip their lunch, as they do not have time for that at school, and they sometimes skip dinner, as they do not feel well enough to eat. So, sugar for the energy, fizzy drinks, coca cola, red bull, chips for quick fix of the body requesting some food for the organs and the brain.
For some kids and people, they take vitamins and minerals to help them cope, their parents cook well and are conscious of good healthy foods. For many that is not the case, so they are tired at school, they are tired at home, they are tired when they wake up in the morning after a 10-hour sleep!
Coming back to dysautonomia, where part of the ANS shuts down, without having any prior genetic disorder, what are the symptoms?
Just bear in mind that the following symptoms could be caused by other reasons:
Drop in blood pressure, causing dizziness or fainting
Fast or slow heart rate or both at the times in the same day
Heat like you are having a menopausal flush, and then cold all of the sudden without being in menopause or being a woman!
Nausea or gastrointestinal problems
Trouble breathing or swallowing
Urinary dysfunction
Vision problems
General weakness
The breathing problems seems to be on movement, rather than standing still, even when moving in bed when laying down.
How do you get to Dysautonomia without being genetic?
Drinking too much
Undiagnosed celiac disease
Diabetes or pre diabetes
Mast cell activation Disorder (I stand to correct the prior statement, I have now seen 4 people with dysautonomia since the pandemic)
Mitochondrial diseases
Toxicity from chemotherapy or heavy metal poisoning
to name some of the possible lead to dysautonomia.
Well, the conventional scientific method has no cure or treatment for non-genetic dysautonomia, apart for physical exercise recommendation, which at times it is not possible, especially if you cannot breathe when you move even an inch, increase in sodium intake, which might or might not help. Obviously, you do need to see a neurologist in severe cases or symptoms.
The non-conventional way but most natural way is a High dosage of B vitamins with other minerals and vitamins essential to nourish the neurones on your nervous system. Craniosacral therapy to rebalance the vagal nerve if it is the one that is causing the problem. Mindfulness meditation or any kind of meditation and rests with, when possible, a gentle movement of the body, even if it is on the spot.
It is essential and important that you get a diagnosis of dysautonomia, or have checked all the possible genetic problems and causes of your symptoms before you read and more of what you can do with dysautonomia. And a possible collaboration of medical and non-medical or looking for both sides of the health practitioner the medical and non-medical even without holding hands with each other!
This is not a medical diagnoses and any suggestions are only suggestions, anything that you take or do needs to be checked by a professional practitioner for your own issues!
