Craniosacral Therapy is gentle hands on work assisting freedom from the physical holding patterns that the physical and emotional body mind present with. Craniosacral Therapy helps to identify these patterns and by observing and listening to them supports the body to begin a process of change.
We are starting to understand more about how previous trauma's impact the physical body. Rachel Yehuda - professor of psychiatry and neuroscience along with a team carried out a research study at the Mount Sinai hospital in New York into how environmental factors effect the genes of the next generation; specifically trauma. Transmission of trauma to a child via 'epigenetic inheritance' - is the idea that external and environmental influences can effect the genes of your children and possibly even grandchildren.
Rachel Yehuda's work around trauma experience during pregnancy feels relevant to share:
'What were the effects you observed in the children of World Trade Center survivors?
Women who were in the second or third trimester gave birth to babies that had low cortisol if that mother had PTSD. And if the mothers had PTSD, but they were in their first trimester, we didn’t see the low cortisol effect. So, from this we learned that there must be some kind of an in-utero influence that interacts with the biology of PTSD, and a different result occurs. We also learned that mothers who were pregnant and in the World Trade Center towers on 9/11 gave birth to babies that were smaller for their gestational age. So, there are all sorts of effects in utero that can have big effects on offspring. So, we now have a language, we now have a methodology, and we can begin the task of unpacking this.'
This is taken from an excerpt of a response given by Rachel Yehuda whilst being interviewed by David Samuals - Tablet Magazine's literary Editor (2014)
For a more thorough overview read a detailed and enlightening interview with Rachel Yehuda here. Or read further articles about her work on epigenetics: