Leandra has been dealing with fibromyalgia for 10 years, but was only formally diagnosed in 2024. It’s been a long journey, and a difficult one.
“It was so elusive,” she says. “The symptoms come and go. One month, you might get crazy headaches and then the next month, muscle tension, fatigue. Sometimes, you don’t feel sick, and sometimes you think you’re a fraud.”
Lee says this decade has been a health journey for her, and that journey has finally found her with some relief, due in part to discovering craniosacral therapy.
“The cranial has done absolute wonders for my fibro,” says Lee. “After so long, it’s almost weird to not be in pain, but that’s what craniosacral does for me. It feels like she’s doing years’ worth of deep pain work in every session.”
Fibromyalgia is difficult all around - difficult to get diagnosed, difficult to deal with, difficult to treat. If you’re dealing with fibro, you don’t need any more difficulty in your life! Fortunately, craniosacral therapy can offer a gentle treatment for fibromyalgia that doesn’t cause pain or have frustrating side effects. In fact, it’s been shown to improve quality of life for those with fibro by improving their sleep and lowering anxiety and depression. Read on for more about how craniosacral can help support patients with fibromyalgia.
What is Fibromyalgia and How Does it Affect the Nervous System?
For years, fibromyalgia was treated as a mystery illness, with many patients being told that their symptoms were made up or the disorder didn’t exist. For someone experiencing the chronic widespread pain of fibro, how frustrating to be dismissed and belittled! Over the last 30 years, the diagnosis of fibromyalgia has gotten more precise, although doctors are still discovering more. The most common symptoms include:
Widespread pain - a constant dull ache in the body on both sides and both above and below the waist, existing for at least three months
Fatigue - chronic tiredness and difficult sleeping
Mental fog - difficulty concentrating or thinking clearly
People with fibromyalgia often have other conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, chronic fatigue, TMJ, as well as others.
The cause of fibromyalgia is not completely understood, but is thought to be related to an over-stimulation of the nervous system, causing the brain to over-release chemicals related to pain. This over-release also creates a memory in the brain's pain receptors, causing them to be more sensitive than normal to stimulation. Researchers think that both genetics and environment can play a role, with the disease sometimes being brought on by a specific traumatic event or long-term stress.
It’s easy to understand how living with chronic pain can make it difficult to sleep and also increase levels of anxiety and depression. Unfortunately, these side effects often become a feedback loop in patients dealing with fibro — lack of sleep worsens their pain, fatigue and mental fog, and the increase in symptoms leads to sadness, frustration and stress over being able to accomplish everyday tasks. It can be difficult for folks suffering from fibro to exit this pain—stress cycle, and that’s where craniosacral therapy can really play a role in improving conditions and helping fibro patients manage their symptoms.
Lee says she has experienced all of these symptoms at different times in her fibro journey.
“Fibro affects the day to day because it causes chronic muscle tension and pain almost everywhere, but mainly in the upper arms, abdomen and upper legs. I have so much muscle weakness or fatigue,” she says.
But in addition to dealing with physical symptoms, the anxiety and stress fibro causes, especially when patients are just being told it’s all in their heads.
“The physical has its own effects but not being believed and not knowing what is wrong with you is almost more frustrating at times,” says Lee.
Craniosacral Therapy for Fibromyalgia: Improving Sleep, Reducing Stress
In 2010 and 2011, researchers did two double-blind controlled studies of craniosacral therapy for fibromyalgia patients. Eighty to ninety diagnosed with fibro received either 25 weeks of craniosacral therapy or a sham treatment. Researchers studied their symptoms directly post treatment, as well as following up both six months and a year post-treatment. One study looked at the effects on pain and heart rate variability, and the other on anxiety, depression and quality of life.
What happened? In both studies, patients who received actual craniosacral therapy had significantly lower levels of pain and tenderness, depression and anxiety, and were experiencing better quality sleep. That better quality of sleep even stayed with them a year post treatment. What amazing results for a difficult to treat condition!
Why does craniosacral therapy work for fibromyalgia? While scientists are still debating the way craniosacral therapy works, we know that craniosacral therapy improves the function of the nervous system in several ways.
Activating the Rest and Digest State: One, it helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, or the part of the nervous system that calms us down after a stressful event. For folks whose fibromyalgia was triggered by a traumatic event, short or long term, this can be extremely helpful, as their nervous systems can get stuck in that stress reaction and stay there, due to the chronic pain.
Helping the Nervous System Clear Waste: Craniosacral therapy helps the cerebrospinal fluid flow more effectively through the body. For a long time, scientists thought this fluid was just an insulating layer, protecting the brain and spinal cord. What craniosacral therapists have known for a long time, and doctors are just beginning to discover, is that the CSF has its own role in cleaning and discarding waste from the nervous system. Build up of waste in the CSF is strongly related to maladies of the nervous system, such as long Covid, Alzheimer's, brain injuries and more. By allowing the cerebrospinal fluid to flow more effectively and do its job, we can help the nervous system function better.
Improving Sleep: One of the most important outcomes that our clients share with us, regardless of why they come in for craniosacral therapy, is how much it improves their sleep. So many patients fall asleep during their session and wake feeling deeply rested. From babies and toddlers to older adults, craniosacral seems to vastly improve the ability to fall asleep, stay asleep and sleep quality. For clients that can’t sleep due to the chronic aches of fibromyalgia, sleeping better improves their quality of life immediately and in the long term, by interrupting the pain-stress cycle that often takes over.
Like most complex conditions, craniosacral is often used in conjunction with other natural therapies or with traditional medical treatment. Leandra sees her chiropractor frequently and has also benefited from homeopathy to manage pain. But craniosacral has been an amazing source of relief for her, she says.
“It’s an immediate relaxation for my body. I don’t get to feel that even from a massage, anything else. After craniosacral, I really do feel like I’ve gotten a renewed source of energy.”
No Pain, Lots of Gain: The Gentleness of Craniosacral for Fibro
As you can imagine, if you have a constant dull ache over your entire body, going for physical therapy, a massage or chiropractic can often feel like a punishment, rather than a treatment! Even though these modalities can help people suffering from fibro, getting treated can trigger more of the pain-stress response, meaning the overall effect can be a zero-sum game.
That’s why craniosacral is so amazing for people with fibromyalgia. It is an incredibly gentle treatment using less than five grams of pressure, or the weight of a nickel, on the body. No squeezing, twisting, compression or force! In fact, our therapists are often self-conscious about what they know is a highly-effective treatment because it can look like they’re doing almost nothing. Yet their clients report amazing results!
Lee confirms that this gentleness is an important aspect of treatment for her. Usually, if she goes for treatment elsewhere, she has to fully explain her condition and repeatedly emphasize how light and gentle the pressure needs to be for her not to be in more pain.
“There’s nothing invasive. It’s completely working with your body,” says Leandra. “It can be such a weird experience because you can barely feel what they’re doing, but then the effects of it are so great.”
In addition to being very gentle, craniosacral therapists work with the body in the direction of ease, rather than trying to force the body into a place it’s not ready to go to. Although a therapist can tell that pain may be radiating from dysfunction in one body part - for example, hip joint - they often start further away, such as with a foot or ankle. Just like a deeply twisted knot, where going at the center will get you nowhere, they find a “loose end” and work toward the center as they are able and the body allows.
Craniosacral therapists also use a model of trust, treatment and assimilation. They know that a body that’s in a state of fight-or-flight won’t be receptive to deep treatment, yet. They work first to build trust, both with the client and their body and nervous system, and then treat what’s ready to be treated. Then they allow the body to assimilate that treatment into its own patterns before moving on to address something closer to the root of the pain.
Our clients who come in for fibro report to us that this style of treatment is extremely effective for them because they don’t have to grin and bear it. They don’t have to grimace and hold their breath. Instead, they find themselves relaxing into treatment and letting their guard down, allowing the body to find its own healing patterns.
The Importance of Continued, Regular Treatment
One thing that new clients often ask is, “How long before I see results?” It’s a complicated question, because it depends on what you mean by results. We often see immediate results, but the body can’t sustain those results without continued support. And for clients with fibro, their bodies need consistent support to find relief.
In the short term, after one or two treatments, our clients with fibromyalgia often find that they sleep better, especially the night of their treatment. They may find the intensity of pain is a bit lower or a specific area hurts less than usual. Coming out of a session, they may feel more grounded and feel less anxious or depressed.
These short term results are real, but they often don’t last very long. Why? It's simply because the body needs more support to create lasting change. Think of the body like a paper map, folded with deep creases. We may be able to smooth the map out on the table, but it wants to fold back up again. It’s easier to go back to old patterns and requires consistent support to change them.
Just like the people in the study, consistent treatment is necessary to change the physical and neurological patterns in a client with fibro. The body needs more support to find healing and needs to be reminded regularly of the new patterns that are available.
In addition to a period of several months with consistent treatment, our clients with fibro find that it’s important to continue with regular check-in appointments, such as once a month or so, to keep supporting their body. These treatments help keep the body on track and help our clients respond to new symptoms or challenges they may experience, such as a stressful period in their life, an illness or other change.
Overall, you will see results right away. But if you’re looking for a consistently better quality of life, it will take time and commitment to see results, especially for our clients with fibromyalgia.
Finding Support for Fibromyalgia through Craniosacral Therapy
When asked if she recommends craniosacral for folks with fibromyalgia, Leandra replied with an enthusiastic yes.
“Go! Go and get it. I feel like it is such a game changer with fibro. It’s amazing!” says Lee.
If you or a loved one is dealing with fibromyalgia and considering craniosacral therapy, we’d love to talk with you and answer your questions. Feel free to book a discovery call with us or reach out to us via email with questions at hello@craniosacralgr.com. You’re welcome to book with us directly on our website for an initial consultation or text or call us for an appointment at (616) 433-3003.