Adam Miller experiences stress in his everyday life, both on and off the mat. As a longtime wrestler and wrestling coach, one wrong move can mean serious physical harm. And as a small business owner, a mistake could majorly impact his ability to make a living. But recently, he’s found a new tool to combat the stress: craniosacral therapy.
“It’s sort of like an underground tool that I wish people were more aware of,” says Adam. “When you’re in a really stressed out state and then one little thing happens, it can feel like the end of the world. But with craniosacral, my baseline is lower, and I can just kind of take it in stride.”
This lower baseline of stress has helped both his business and his sport. With his business, he’s less reactive and more able to find solutions. And on the mat, he’s making wiser decisions, less impacted by his ego. He credits craniosacral with helping with both.
He’s not alone. Studies show that consistent craniosacral therapy can help even those with high-demand jobs and lifestyles find relief from stress and bring down their levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.
Because of the relentless nature of modern life, many of our bodies are stuck with our cortisol “faucets” on high nearly all the time. This constant flow of stress hormones can make it hard to respond calmly, even if we want to.
Getting our body and brain out of this cycle can be tricky, but craniosacral offers relief. Read on to hear more of Adam’s story and find out how craniosacral can help you find relief from stress.
What is Cortisol and Why Does Our Body Make It?
Cortisol is a natural hormone that our body produces during times of stress. While we often view it as a bad thing, cortisol is a necessary part of our dynamic human system. Cortisol helps us navigate times of stress, giving us the energy and helping us respond appropriately to threats. Usually, our body releases cortisol at times of more activity, like waking up, or to respond to a stressor, and afterwards, ramps it back down.
It’s when cortisol gets out of whack that it can cause problems. Although this can be due to an underlying genetic disorder or other malfunction, many in our modern society have chronically-high levels of cortisol due to a stressful lifestyle. Instead of turning on and off like it should, chronic stress can leave the cortisol response stuck in the “on” position.
Often, this problem creates a feedback loop in our lives. Cortisol ramps up in response to stress, but when it’s constantly on, we respond to any tiny stress as if it were a real threat. The minor tantrum that your toddler throws or the last-minute request from your boss can push you to respond swiftly and harshly. That response creates more drama in your life, thus creating more stress.
Chronically high levels of cortisol can produce symptoms such as:
Weight gain
Acne
Thinning skin
Easy bruising
Flushed face
Fatigue
Irritability
Difficulty concentrating
High blood pressure
Headache
Long term, high cortisol levels can damage your body’s systems. According to Heathline, chronically-high cortisol levels “can increase your risk of health issues such as heart disease, lung issues, obesity, anxiety, depression, and more.” These symptoms and health issues can, in turn, cause more stress in our lives.
How do we get off the cortisol rollercoaster? Craniosacral therapy can help lower cortisol
If you have a high-demand job or lifestyle, it might seem like high-cortisol levels and all the problems they bring are inevitable. But that’s not the case! There are ways to interrupt this cycle and help our body better regulate its stress response.
If you’re already aware of your high stress levels, you are probably familiar with the typical advice for lowering your cortisol levels: get more sleep, exercise, deep breathing, spending time with those you love. Those are all wonderful things to do, but sometimes, they are easier said than done! Cortisol keeps us awake, so sleeping can be hard. If you’re already pushed to the max, finding time for exercise or deep breathing might be hard.
A 2023 study of male firefighter cadets showed the effect that craniosacral therapy can have on cortisol levels. As you can imagine, firefighting is a demanding, stressful job. And training for any new job, especially one that is dangerous, can increase our stress response.
Fifty-seven firefighting cadets aged 18–24 years participated in the study. Before the study began, each cadet underwent blood testing to assess their current levels of cortisol and other stress-related hormones.
Participants received 5 treatments, 20 minutes each, once a week for five weeks. Those in the test group received craniosacral therapy treatments. Those in the control group also went for “treatment” but a therapist simply held their head during their 20-minute session. At the end of the study, their levels of stress hormones were tested again.
The results were clear: for those who received the sham treatment, their cortisol levels didn’t change at all. For those who received actual craniosacral therapy, their stress hormones went down, indicating that their body responded to craniosacral by producing less cortisol.
Stories From Our Clients: Demanding Jobs, Healing from Abuse, Fertility Challenges
As a craniosacral therapy clinic, we were thrilled by these study results, but not surprised. Regularly, our clients tell us how much more relaxed they feel after receiving craniosacral therapy. Often, our clients come in with a physical ailment they would like to address - migraines, seizures, chronic pain, etc. If they come regularly, we see their condition improve, but it doesn’t mean they stop coming. Our clients report positive “side effects” like sleeping better, being more able to respond to the stresses of the day and more able to prioritize what’s important to them. Once their body has gotten off the stress roller-coaster, they feel the difference and want to keep experiencing this new-found calm.
Adam experienced this craniosacral bliss. Although he initially came for some neck pain he was experiencing as result of a wrestling injury, he said the feeling after his first treatment was hard to describe.
“I just felt lighter. I felt a sense of ease,” said Adam. “The next day, I had actually forgotten that I had gone to get craniosacral, but I was feeling just lighter, with less tension. I genuinely felt different.”
After a few treatments, Adam noticed that his neck pain, which had plagued him for years, had also disappeared. But despite his issue being resolved, he’s come back for the grounded, calm feeling he experiences from craniosacral. Recently, a problem arose with his business, where the cost of a project was going to be way higher than initially anticipated.
“I had an initial freak out because this was a bit more of an extreme case, but then almost immediately I was like, “This is what it is, and we can work through it. There's other solutions.” Whereas before that might derail my whole day or my whole week, I came out on the other side unscathed within 10 minutes.”
One of our clients had been urging her husband, a lawyer with a demanding job, to come in for months. He initially came in for head and neck pain, but kept coming even when the pain had resolved. He was a quiet fellow who didn’t tend to talk much during his sessions, so one day, Kelly asked him about his experience. He told her that craniosacral had been hugely beneficial for him, especially for his stress levels. He stated that even his family had noticed a difference — that he was both less stressed and more emotionally available.
Scientists have also found that changing cortisol levels over time actually re-wires our brain to respond differently to stress. A study of foster children showed high levels of cortisol in response to stress and that those levels remained high long after the stress was over. However, when those children were paired with loving caregivers, after three months of consistent, calm care, their cortisol responses changed. No longer did the levels spike so high in response to stress, and when they did momentarily spike, they went down quickly afterwards. This meant that their brain had re-wired itself to respond to stress differently. What an amazing difference!
We’ve also seen clients who have come to us for high cortisol levels that were impacting their fertility. Cortisol is known to make it difficult to conceive a child, and women with higher levels of cortisol were more likely to be unable to conceive. Craniosacral therapy is a natural, drug-free way to bring down cortisol levels and make your body better able to conceive naturally or to complement other fertility treatments. With craniosacral, our clients have been able to bring down their cortisol levels and successfully conceive a child, supporting their pregnancy with craniosacral therapy as well along the way.
One client recently summed it up in a way that we loved, “It’s not just calm. It’s clarity.” When we’re stressed, not only are we physically and mentally rattled, but it can be hard to think straight and see the possibilities. Craniosacral brings us to a state of calm so that we can then find clarity, making better decisions, responding more from a place of wisdom, rather than reaction.
Finding your Calm: Experiencing Craniosacral Therapy For Yourself
If you’re experiencing a period of heightened stress or want to create new stress response patterns in your daily life, craniosacral therapy is a wonderful way to begin. Our new clients experience these benefits from their very first treatment. However, just like the studies above, it takes time and consistency to create long-term change.
We would love to talk to you about how craniosacral therapy can help you find peace and calm within your body’s systems and feel more connected and grounded. Book a discovery call to learn more or schedule your appointment using our online system or through call or text - (616) 433-3003.