CASE STUDY: SANDY’S EYE
This session was early in my career as a craniosacral therapist. It was a great gift. Sandy came in because her eye wasn’t focusing properly. This was the result of the following accident: She picked up her coach bag and the buckle of the bag somehow came loose
and struck her in the eye.
She went to the emergency room and was treated for lacerations. She got some CST from a mutual friend of ours. The lacerations healed quickly, yet the eye would not focus.
While she is lying on the massage table, and I was palpating her cranial rhythm, she got a sudden pain in her shoulder. She asked, “How come I have this pain in my shoulder, when I didn’t have it before?” I didn’t know why.
The pain continued to get worse. (I couldn’t help but think this would be awful for my reputation if she came in with a focus problem and goes out with a painful shoulder.) I suggested we talk with her shoulder pain and her inner physician. She laughed at the idea, but went along with it. The pain became excruciating. We spoke with the arm pain, who
we called “Arm Twister.”
The way this works is like free association. The therapist asks questions of the body and the client answers whatever comes into their head without editing or thinking “This is crazy.” The client is by that time in the very relaxed state that CST provides and the non-conscious is able to come through to the surface.
When we asked Arm Twister why he was hurting Sandy, he said it was because she was spending such long hours at work. For years she’s been saying she’s going to cut back, spend time with her small children, and take care of herself. But she never does it. She’s
been promising for years, but always reneges. Arm Twister no longer believed her promises and was now insisting that she start taking care of herself and her children NOW.
He was twisting her arm, forcing her to listen. We asked if he would give her another chance. This time she would indeed change. At first he said no, he’d heard it too many times before. Eventually, we were able to make a deal with him, and with the help of her Inner Physician who appeared as a little girl, he agreed to let up on the pain and give her
another chance. He let her have 2 months to institute changes. If she hadn’t made the changes by then, he’d be back. With this arbitration concluded, the pain in her shoulder immediately subsided AND her eye focused.
We asked ARM TWISTER did the shoulder pain have anything to do with the eye focus? He said yes, he had caused the accident to get her to focus on this problem he wanted resolved.
I followed up with Sandy when she came in for and appointment 6 months later. She’d lost weight, was exercising and enjoying spending more time at home. She was only working with the clients she enjoyed the most and we didn’t hear from Arm Twister again.
Lessons Learned:
1. Pain in 2 areas, distant from one another and considered unrelated, may be related.
2. If the Inner Physician doesn’t get your attention one way, he’ll try another. He’ll
NEVER GIVE UP
