No, it is not. I have many clients who just come to me for one or the oth­er. At some point, I might advise you that both things togeth­er would be ben­e­fi­cial for you; how­ev­er, it is total­ly your choice.

I will always start each ses­sion by check­ing in with you about your areas of ten­sion, your gen­er­al stress lev­el, how you’ve been feel­ing, and your indi­vid­ual pref­er­ences. The ses­sion will be an inte­gra­tion of a vari­ety of modal­i­ties meant to specif­i­cal­ly address your needs.

Because Cran­ioSacral Ther­a­py has such a deep influ­ence on the Cen­tral Ner­vous Sys­tem and through it, on so many oth­er body sys­tems, I have seen it help peo­ple address a diverse range of con­di­tions such as headaches, insom­nia, chron­ic neck and shoul­der pain, TMJ, back pain, sci­at­i­ca, ver­ti­go, irri­ta­ble bow­el syn­drome, PTSD, and the list goes on. Peo­ple are often sur­prised to find that not only has Cran­ioSacral Ther­a­py helped them with the issues that they active­ly want­ed to address but it has also helped them with things that they did not even real­ize could be addressed – such as the seem­ing­ly per­ma­nent effects of injuries sus­tained decades pri­or. How­ev­er, even when peo­ple do not have a spe­cif­ic chal­lenge that they are try­ing to work through, Cran­ioSacral Ther­a­py can be ben­e­fi­cial because it encour­ages the ner­vous sys­tem to per­form at its best and enhances the body’s own nat­ur­al capac­i­ty for self-cor­rec­tion and heal­ing. Many peo­ple report feel­ing gen­er­al­ly stronger, more ener­getic and resilient after receiv­ing ses­sions. Thus, I like to encour­age peo­ple to also think of Cran­ioSacral Ther­a­py as play­ing an impor­tant role in their reg­u­lar self-care regimens.

There is often a mis­con­cep­tion among peo­ple that, by def­i­n­i­tion, Deep Tis­sue mas­sage must be painful. This is not the case. Yes, there are times that you may feel a strong sen­sa­tion that is unfa­mil­iar or even uncom­fort­able, or at times a “hurts-so-good” type of pain; how­ev­er, it should nev­er be the kind of pain that caus­es you to flinch, gri­mace or hold your breath and guard. If done prop­er­ly, Deep Tis­sue work can be very pleas­ant and relax­ing. The key is for the prac­ti­tion­er to move slow­ly and sen­si­tive­ly enough so that the deep­er lay­ers of your mus­cles and con­nec­tive tis­sues have time to let go and release tension.

Please arrive five min­utes ear­ly in order to fill out a brief in-take form detail­ing your phys­i­cal health and his­to­ry. After I look over your form, I will talk with you about your expec­ta­tions for the ses­sion and what your short and long-term goals are. I also will want to look at your pos­ture and how you move, so even if you‘re just receiv­ing body­work and not exer­cis­ing, please bring some com­fort­able clothes (shorts, yoga pants, leg­gings, t‑shirt etc.) that you can change into if nec­es­sary. 

Yes, absolute­ly. I have worked with a num­ber of peo­ple through their clothes and many of the modal­i­ties I prac­tice can be adapt­ed to some­one ful­ly clothed. Just make sure to wear some­thing com­fort­able for mov­ing (shorts, t‑shirt, sweat pants, yoga pants, leg­gings etc. No blue jeans, please!).

Check with your insur­ance com­pa­ny to see if your pol­i­cy cov­ers mas­sage and/or man­u­al ther­a­py and under what con­di­tions. For instance, you may need a pre­scrip­tion from your doc­tor for mas­sage ther­a­py in order to get reim­bursed. If your pol­i­cy does cov­er mas­sage ther­a­py, I can pro­vide you with a prop­er­ly cod­ed invoice and ses­sion notes so you can file for reim­burse­ment. I do not do in-house insur­ance billing.

Check with the admin­is­tra­tor of your FSA or HSA to see if they will cov­er mas­sage and/or man­u­al ther­a­py. In most cas­es, mas­sage and man­u­al ther­a­py are accept­able treat­ments for Flex­i­ble Spend­ing and Health Spend­ing Accounts, and I have a num­ber of clients who pay me direct­ly using their FSA or HSA charge cards. Oth­er­wise, I can pro­vide you with a prop­er­ly cod­ed invoice and ses­sion notes so you can file for reimbursement.

I have had many pos­i­tive results work­ing with peo­ple with:

* Please note that I can help you work with almost any pain or injury; how­ev­er, I do not diag­nose con­di­tions. Giv­en the cir­cum­stances of your indi­vid­ual sit­u­a­tion, I may ask you to con­sult your doc­tor first for a diag­no­sis before com­ing to see me.