43. Balancing the Body: Exploring Craniosacral Therapy with Hilary Bilkis

In this conversation, Renata Nehme and Hilary Bilkis discuss craniosacral therapy and its benefits. Hilary explains that craniosacral therapy is a gentle hands-on technique that helps balance the bones, membranes, and fluids in the skull, spinal cord, and connective tissue system of the body. 

The training for craniosacral therapy is usually a series of four-day workshops, and practitioners often have a background in massage therapy or other touch-based professions. The therapy can be beneficial for people of all ages, from babies to adults, and can help with a variety of issues such as breastfeeding difficulties, torticollis, anxiety, unregulated emotions, and chronic pain. 

The therapy works by quieting and regulating the nervous system, releasing tension in the body, and promoting overall well-being. It is not a massage and is performed with the client fully clothed. The frequency of sessions varies but is typically weekly for a few weeks, followed by less frequent sessions.

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Hilary D. Bilkis, LMT, MS  is a Gifted Healer and Intuitive, with 25 years experience. She is the owner of  Awakening Wellness, a light touch, hands on healing practice located in Savannah, GA. She works with you in a way that is gentle, compassionate and supportive.
https://awakening4wellness.com/

To find a CST Practioner go to: 
www.IAHP.com
or to find many airway practioners go to:
www.airwaycircle.com/directory

Chapters

• 0:00 Exploring Craniosacral Therapy and Myofunctionalism
• 19:44 Understanding Craniosacral Therapy Practice
• 25:22 Benefits of Craniosacral Therapy Explained
• 32:04 Embracing Airway Health Journey

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:42

Welcome to the Beauty of Breathing podcast, where we explore the wonders of optimal breathing. I'm Renata Nami, a dedicated mom, entrepreneur and myofunctional therapist committed to embodying the principles I advocate. Having recently undergone a tongue-tie release and palatal expansion, I'm thrilled to guide you through the transformative journey of embracing the beauty of breathing Effortlessly and through your nose you through the transformative journey of embracing the beauty of breathing effortlessly and through your nose. Let us know how much you enjoy the show by leaving us a review. All right, welcome everybody to the beauty of breathing. I have an incredible practitioner with us today. Her name is Hillary Bilkus and she is going to tell us a little bit about her and what she does. Hey, Hillary, Sure.

Speaker 2: 1:39

Thank you so much, renata. I'm really happy to be here. My name is Hillary Bilkus. I'm a licensed massage therapist. I have been practicing for over 20 years. I started off doing regular massage, but then I fell in love with cranial sacral therapy, which is a very gentle, hands-on technique that helps to balance the bones of the skull, the membranes, the fluids in the skull, the membranes and fluids in the spinal cord and then, essentially, the connective tissue system of the body. My very first class I felt it all where other people were struggling, and I felt like the universe opened up into my hands and God was saying this is what you're meant to be doing. And then, over the years, I've taken additional cranial sacral classes, as well as some visceral mobilization and myofascial release, and I uniquely combine all of them to give my clients the best possible treatment suitable for whatever is going on in their body.

Speaker 1: 2:46

So how does it work exactly? If somebody wants to become a craniosacral therapist, what are the backgrounds educational-wise that are allowed to go into this?

Speaker 2: 2:57

So most people that come to the classes are usually a massage therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, speech language pathologists, there are some doctors, there are some dentists. So you usually have to have some kind of background or license to touch to be able to take classes, and I've done all of my training through the Uledger institute. Dr john upledger was a doctor of osteopathy and he's the one that discovered that this, our nervous system, the dural tube, actually moves. Like he was at a surgery and assisting and and all he had to do was hold it still and he couldn't hold it still. And you know, things just started progressing from there with, you know, research and um coming up with how to be able to treat people.

Speaker 1: 3:56

And what is the training like?

Speaker 2: 4:00

Um, so it's usually like four day classes that happen a Thursday through Sunday, all around the country, all around the world. There's different levels of classwork. There's cranial, sacral level one and two. Then there's something called emotional release, which is really important because we store memories, emotion and trauma in our connective tissues in our body, so we learn how to help people release that. There are classes for pediatrics, um, and, and so much more. You know for the immune response, for you know there's classes just regarding the brain, but it's always like a four-day weekend workshop and then you bring it back to your practice and you practice. The more hands you get your body, the more bodies you get your hands on, the more proficient you can become as a practitioner.

Speaker 1: 4:58

So is the somatic portion of it part of craniosacral. Should every craniosacral therapist know a little bit of that?

Speaker 2: 5:10

I don't like shoulds. Some people take level one and two and that's all they want. I feel like the somato-emotional release. Certain people are not comfortable doing it, they have trouble holding the space for it, they have trouble with the dialoguing. For me, I kind of feel like that's one of my zones of genius really being able to hold the space for that and tune in and connect to people and where they are and what they're feeling and what's being held in their tissues.

Speaker 1: 5:46

You know, I have had a couple different people do craniosacral therapy on me and I remember that the first time I walked away and I'm like I didn't feel anything and I know some of you guys listening have had those experiences before. And then I went to Hillary and after the first session I'm like, oh, this is what it's supposed to be like, so how do we know if we're going to?

Speaker 2: 6:12

somebody who's really good? That's a really good question. I know. My own personal experience is that practitioners who are more intuitive, I feel like, do a better job than the people that are very clinical. I don't go into sessions with any agenda Like you don't tell me what's going on and I'm like well there's, I have a formula and I do this, this, this and this. No, that's not the way I work. I listen to your body. I listen to your body, wisdom. It knows what's going on. It shows me where I need to start. And you can come in with right shoulder pain and your body might want me working in your left hip, because your body knows where that pain started. The places where we're hurting aren't always the places where the injury came from or what needs to be treated, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 7:09

Very good. So we have some questions coming in from our audience and everybody on Instagram. You guys are welcome to send us more questions right here in the comments. When to refer for craniosacral therapy.

Speaker 2: 7:23

So when should who refer to craniosacral therapy? Do you know who sent that question? Is it like a myofunctional?

Speaker 1: 7:31

therapist.

Speaker 2: 7:32

Um, it could be a myofunctional therapist well, I feel like that's more of a question for you, don't you?

Speaker 1: 7:41

when should I refer? So if I have a patient, what are some symptoms that I'm looking for that I might say? I think the craniosacral therapy will help this patient. Um.

Speaker 2: 7:54

Yeah, so they could be doing all the exercises, they could have gotten the release. The release is done and they're still having trouble. You may notice a torticollis, you know, really rigid, and they're always arching backwards. Discomfort in the body, poor sleep, poor bowel movements those are all things that their little bodies are struggling.

Speaker 1: 8:30

So you were saying that craniosacral therapy is good for babies all the way to adults?

Speaker 2: 8:35

Oh yes, it's good for like from birth till you're ready to leave the planet.

Speaker 1: 8:40

So let's say that I have a baby and the baby's having a really difficult time breastfeeding. You know, what I think a lot of people don't realize is that babies were inside the womb for nine months, all crunched up in there. You know, the muscles are tense, the muscles are tight, and then they come out and they're supposed to move and to, you know, to be able to, to nurse really well, and sometimes they just can't. And you just mentioned torticollis. What are some other things that I'm watching on a baby that I might say, yes, let's do some craniosacral.

Speaker 2: 9:15

Definitely. You know problems turning the head. There are babies that don't like to be laid on their back.

Speaker 2: 9:21

Babies that don't like the like tummy time. Um, if you see like tightness, you know tightness in their face, tightness in their shoulders, cause, yeah, people forget they're in there for a long time and those last three months they can be really scrunched up and they can be in one position and not moving. And so, just like you know, if we're in a car for 14 hours and we never get out of the car to pee right and we're always sitting in one position by the time we get out, whatever side we're crunched up into is going to be tight and it's going to hurt. And unfortunately, everybody's swaddling their babies really tightly which then means that they can't move themselves. Like babies will want to move to be able to work some of that tension out themselves.

Speaker 1: 10:15

And since we mentioned a little bit about tongue ties, I have a question over here that says my daughter had tongue and lip tie release at two months. She is nine months now.

Speaker 2: 10:30

Is it too late for craniosacral therapy? No, it's never too late. It's never too late because her tissues still want to go back into a state of balance and the craniosacral therapy is a gentle way to assist her body to release. Because what we're seeing under the tongue and in the upper lip is just a visible visible. I need some myofunctional. It's just a visible sign of deeper tensions in the body.

Speaker 2: 10:57

I worked on a little one two weeks ago and she preferred to just turn to the right and that tension went all the way down to her hip Wow, all the way down. And as it relaxed she was very still and her eyebrows just went like this. And then she smiled at me. It was like what's that? I didn't know that that could go away. Eight weeks old, eight weeks old that was her pattern. She was used to that discomfort. And then it melted and she looked at I almost started crying. I mean, she looked at me with like such gratitude, gratitude. And then she turned her head to the left and she fell asleep oh yeah, good stuff, oh adorable.

Speaker 1: 11:47

Um could cranial sacral therapy correct facial asymmetry Any teenager?

Speaker 2: 11:57

Yes, and it may take some treatments. I remember hearing a story of a senior citizen who had consistent cranial work and it changed the shape of her face. Medical doctors in this country are taught that the bones of the skull fuse in adolescence. They don't fuse, they move. It's very gentle, but there's an expansion and a contraction. We've got joints here. We've got joints around the ears. There's a whole bunch of joints all around here and sometimes they can get hitched up. And when they get hitched up here, and sometimes they can get hitched up and when they get hitched up, then they're not moving as well and that can create some distortion. So if we can get the bones to move the way God intended them to move, the body can help reshape and restructure itself. It's not a quick fix.

Speaker 2: 12:55

I wouldn't say, oh, you just need two sessions. They may need some, you know a series of sessions, but the body self corrects, even with, like, the little kids, with the with the flat head. I had a little boy that I worked on and the mom sent pictures of before cranial, sacral and like after two sessions right, so he's, he he's little, he's much more malleable. Malleable, he has a lot less tension in his body, but just those two sessions and him being able to go through full range of movement, be able to push himself up, be able to turn, started shifting the shape of his skull.

Speaker 1: 13:38

So there are some physical things and mechanical things that could kind of lock our body in place. Could emotional trauma or emotional issues do the same?

Speaker 2: 13:52

150%.

Speaker 1: 13:56

I don't think we talk about it enough, can you? No, we don't talk about it enough.

Speaker 2: 14:00

We store memory, emotion, trauma in the body, and trauma could be somebody making fun of your sneakers or your lunch when you're five years old. Trauma doesn't have to be gunpoint or physical. We store it in the body. The body essentially walls it off, it encapsulates it and it gets held in places and we work around it, we compensate and then over time our body's like I'm tired, I've had enough, and then suddenly we have, we have pain, right.

Speaker 2: 14:37

So the work that I do, this somatoemotional release, can help get that stored trauma and tension out of the body in a way that's very gentle, in a way where we don't have to keep talking about it over and over again. Sometimes the body just needs to know hey, it's not 1980 anymore, you're not six years old anymore, you know it's 2024. You're a grown up, you survive, like it's okay to let this go. And then there'll be heat and pulsing and sometimes people get hot, sometimes people get cold, like all these sorts of things happen as the body releases and people often get up at the end of the session. They'll be like oh, like, I feel a little wobbly. I feel 10 pounds lighter. Like people said, I feel 10 pounds lighter just by getting rid of this emotional stuff that they've been carrying.

Speaker 1: 15:38

And I will share a little bit of a session that I had with you. Hillary was working right on my chest and before she said anything and it's funny, actually, before she goes to an area, I feel where she's already going to go, and I always tell her you're going to go there but whenever she was on my chest, I felt as if I had a steel armor. And before she mentioned that, that's exactly what I felt. And then, as I'm sitting there, I'm realizing that as a child, because of the way that my father spoke to me and I love my dad, but the way that he was very strict and very, you know, he never said I love you, and he was just um, anyways, very strong, I love you. And he was just um, anyways, very strong. And but the way that he spoke to me, I created this steel armor around my chest. What's right in your chest? It is your heart. So I've been protecting my heart for the longest time, not letting anybody in, not letting anything, you know, get to it. And whenever she was working on that, I just felt honey, I just felt all of a sudden, this armor going away and she's telling me, you know, to release all of this and I just busted out crying. So this happens a couple of times already when I'm doing sessions with her that I just start crying. But it's such a good release I'm sorry if you guys can hear Benny, he's here with me.

Speaker 1: 17:03

So this Instagram post said when you realize that you had to become the adult that your child needed because that, to me, just blew my mind.

Speaker 1: 17:20

For example, I think that the post had something about pretend you're walking into a room and you see yourself as a kid, you know, in this room staring at a window and think about all the things that you would say to yourself as a six, seven year old girl and I just again, I cry a lot, y'all, I'm a cancer. I just busted out crying. Because that's when it just it was a turnkey moment for me, because a lot of times after we've been through emotional trauma, we keep thinking that, like my parents should have done better or my whoever should have. You know, we were always in that place of a victim, but they should have treated me differently, they should have been better to me, until I realized that I had to go through, that I had to heal to become the adult that can go back and give my inner child, you know, my, my young self, all the love and all the care that I needed. Oh, my goodness, I get goosebumps everywhere when I think about this. And you?

Speaker 2: 18:17

know, and also the other side of that is, what kind of trauma did our parents have? That was never talked about and they did the best they knew how to do right. Without the resources that we have available to us now, which I think can give us a lot more compassion for our parents and our younger self A hundred percent.

Speaker 1: 18:42

Oh, my goodness, they did the best they could. First of all, you know they are in a position where they are bigger than us. They came here first. It's the only relationship on earth, y'all, that we did not enter the relationship at the same time. So whenever you meet a friend, whenever you meet a partner, you always enter the relationship at the same time, so you're always in the same level. This is a little bit of family consolations for those who know this, but your parents are the only ones that that relationship it's never going to be equal, because they gave you something that you're never going to be able to repay, and that was life. So it doesn't matter if they dropped you off on the side of the road, it doesn't matter if they could not raise you, whatever it was that they, how they treated you. Like Hillary said, we have to remember that we are all flawed individuals and we are just over here full of trauma, but we're doing our best you know.

Speaker 1: 19:36

But it's, it's up to us to go find healing and, um, you know, stop the generational trauma right here. Somebody asked but what does this craniosacral therapy actually look like? Is it a massage?

Speaker 2: 19:52

No, it's not a massage. You're fully dressed, you're laying on a massage table and it's often just gentle holding. Let me get my hands up, gentle holding top and bottom of the body, connecting with the tissues with a light touch, until the body draws me in a little bit deeper and then it's literally listening and following with with my hands on the body, on the head. It's a little bit different. Still you know it's a. It's a gentle touch in different places. Um, still you know it's a. It's a gentle touch in different places.

Speaker 1: 20:28

Working to um create more space, like decompress the skull. It is fantastic. It doesn't look like they're doing much, but whenever you're in there and you're in tune, there's so much changing in your body. There's so much movement. It is absolutely incredible yeah, there's a.

Speaker 2: 20:42

there's a lot of internal changes. It's sort of like watching paint dry you don't really see much happening, but there's so much that goes on inside the body.

Speaker 1: 20:53

Can osteopaths do CST?

Speaker 2: 20:57

I'm sure they can. It depends what kind of training they've had. A lot of DOs aren't really DOs anymore. They're more like family doctors. So you know, do they do assay adjusting? That would be a question you would have to ask.

Speaker 1: 21:15

Perfect. Somebody asked I had a feeling done and after my face just drooped and I guess on one side keep getting headaches on that side also. Is my bite under or overfilled?

Speaker 2: 21:30

My dentist doesn't know, I'm not sure I don't know, but if she's drooping they could have nicked a facial nerve.

Speaker 1: 21:38

That sounds right. Can craniosacral therapy help with that?

Speaker 2: 21:41

It might, you know, it can't, it certainly can't hurt.

Speaker 1: 21:49

CSC. Where does she practice? Can you tell us a little bit about where you practice and where do you see patients?

Speaker 2: 21:55

Oh sure, I'm in Savannah, georgia, in the medical arts district. I'm not really going to put out my address over here. The name of my practice, though, is awakening wellness healing services. So, um, you can easily google that perfect.

Speaker 1: 22:13

If anybody's trying to find a craniosacral therapist around them, go to wwwairwaycirclecom slash directory. We have a global directory of professionals. Over there. You're going to find my functional therapist, dentist, orthodontist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, chiropractors and everybody that's on there is. You know they have airway as their focus and they're always trying to find the root cause of the issue. So go over to our directory and look for somebody. And as I'm here talking about the directory, do you have to thank the Area Circle members? There are several professionals who are actually paid for a membership on Area Circle and they are the ones who allow that directory to be out there for you guys. So thank you for every, every circle member.

Speaker 2: 23:05

There is one other website, because before I met you I had no idea about airway circle. There's another website that lists cranial sac A as an apple, h as in happy, p as in petercom, iahpcom, and you can search for practitioners there by your zip code.

Speaker 1: 23:35

Perfect, thank you for that, and we're going to put everything also on the show notes, guys. As far as somebody who is about to get a phrenectomy, a tongue tie release, usually as a myofunctional therapist I'm recommending craniosacral therapy before and after. Do you have a protocol you follow? Is it different for every patient? What do you usually recommend as far as therapy before and after the release?

Speaker 2: 24:02

I think it's very important to have the therapy before and after the release Because, as you well know, like the tongue is connected to all of this tissue here, right, and everything in the body is connected and goes deeper. So as a cranial sacral therapist, I work on releasing all of this connective tissue so that hopefully there's less tension when they go to do the release and then afterwards we're working on releasing the residual tension that was there Also, you know, helping soften the tension in the face, being able to get into the mouth, see how the tongue is moving differently. So it's important yeah, it's just important to do before and after, because sometimes the baby is still has tension in the body even though they were released, whether it's tongue, lip, buccal.

Speaker 1: 25:05

Perfect. Do you usually have a protocol, even for adults? How many sessions before the release?

Speaker 2: 25:19

before the release. You know it's interesting Parents with kids with ties are often a little more frenetic. You know they've been struggling. The baby's not feeding well, if they can get in once or twice before the release and then get in once or twice after, those that are really in tune with their baby may know okay, they, we've had two sessions, but the baby still has tension. We need some more. So you know, I rely also on mama's instincts as how, as how things are progressing, Somebody asked how can this therapy help kids, specifically kids with anxiety and unregulated emotions?

Speaker 2: 25:57

That's a really great question. It helps to. Craniosacral therapy can help to quiet and regulate your nervous system. So if we have a lot of tension in the nervous system, it's going to put more tension into our physical body, into our physical body, into our emotional body, and so as we go to unwind the the tension that's in the body, very often people wind up feeling less anxious.

Speaker 2: 26:25

The other piece of that is a lot of people that have anxiety are also chest breathers and they're really restricted in their diaphragm. So the visceral work that I do can help free up the diaphragm so they can actually take a full breath which gets all the tension out of the chest. Because when we're chest breathing we're using secondary breathing muscles, which creates more tension, and then that just creates anxiety. And also with anxiety there's usually compression up in the skull. There's compression at the base of the skull and there's compression at the end of the spinal cord, at the top of the sacrum, the triangular bone that's in the back. There's like compression here. So when we can release all those areas of compression, that can also help with anxiety and even depression too.

Speaker 1: 27:22

Wow, that's incredible. What does it look like if I find a craniosacral therapist and I start treatment? How often usually should I be seen?

Speaker 2: 27:34

How often usually should I be seen? I think that may vary by practitioners, but usually we like to see people weekly for about three or four weeks. Remember, we're peeling away layers, sometimes our, you know even though our body wants to move towards balance, it may take a step back. So we want to be consistent for a few weeks to make sure we're in a good, stable place and then we can space them out. Some people come once a month, some people have a little more time in between.

Speaker 1: 28:07

Fantastic. And then I wanted to touch a little bit on the supplements that you talk about, the one with the glutathione. Somebody sent a question about those supplements that you recommend.

Speaker 2: 28:22

Oh, yes, I know who did that. So it's not a supplement, it's actually a cellular activator. A cellular activator it's a blend of five herbs in a very special ratio and formula all subtherapeutic. The combination that they're in actually turns on a cellular protein pathway in the body to help your body make more of three master antioxidants Gl, glutathione, something called SOD superoxide dismutase. Once again, I need some myofunctional therapy and catalase. So these three master antioxidants help your body reduce oxidative stress. Another word for that is inflammation, so it helps your body make it instead of taking glutathione. Not everybody can process glutathione and I've heard it can taste really bad, too Good to know.

Speaker 1: 29:26

So let's do a quick recap. Yes, what is this therapy like cat? Yes, what is this therapy like One?

Speaker 2: 29:34

just quickly, what is it like? It's very gentle, it's deeply relaxing, like those are like. The two big things I would say is that it's gentle. It's gentle enough for babies, it's gentle enough for elderly and, if nothing else, people come out of the session feeling deeply, deeply relaxed, often more grounded and centered and calm. Perfect Second who is this therapy for?

Speaker 1: 30:08

Everybody and perfect.

Speaker 2: 30:12

Number three what are the benefits of craniosacral therapy? What are the benefits of craniosacral therapy? What are the benefits Um more relaxed nervous system, better sleep, less body pain. Um helps your gut work better, less anxiety, fewer headaches I see a lot of people for chronic headaches and, I think, just in general, an overall sense of well-being.

Speaker 1: 30:40

That is perfect. I think we got several of our questions answered today. Thank you, Hilary, so much for joining us and hanging out with us this afternoon on the Beauty of Breathing and hanging out with us this afternoon on the beauty of breathing. This episode should be released soon. Hilary's information is going to be on the show notes and would you share with everybody who's listening over here live on Instagram. Also, what is your Instagram handle so they can run and follow you?

Speaker 2: 31:11

Sure, it's at Serafina Rising S-E-R-F-I-N-A-R-I-S-I-N-G.

Speaker 1: 31:19

Any last words they would like people to know.

Speaker 2: 31:22

If you've never tried cranial sacral therapy, go find a practitioner. It's really a wonderful gentle modality that is very light but very powerful and works deeply and often if you've been having some sort of chronic pain that massage or chiropractic or acupuncture is just not sustaining, like it's just you know, it's just not. The relief is not sustained. I think you need to look deeper And's probably a connective tissue, nervous system or emotional thing that you have trapped in your tissue that needs support.

Speaker 1: 32:02

Well, thank you, thank you, Thank you everybody. Have a wonderful day and we'll see you all next week. Thank you so much. Bye, bye, bye. Thank you for joining us on another insightful episode of the Beauty of Breathing podcast. Make sure to join the conversation on our Instagram page, maya Moves, and continue exploring the fascinating world of airway health with us. Until next time, let's breathe deeper, live fuller and discover the beauty in each breath. Let's breathe deeper, live fuller and discover the beauty in each breath. Quick disclaimer the Beauty of Breathing podcast has been produced for entertainment, educational and informational purposes only. All of the content, views and opinions shared by our hosts and guests should not be a substitute for medical advice. No-transcript.