Slow Healing

In an era of fast food, fast cars and instant communication, we have also come to expect fast medicine: antibiotics have given us the illusion of miraculous healing, pain killers do just that and a lot of emphasis is on diagnosis – give this malaise a name and an identity that separates it from my wholeness and then cure the named disease.

(In passing, let us give a nod to the fact that the other way in which the word “cure” is used is in the preservation of animal skins and meat.)

But now there is a counter move towards Slow Cooking, Slow Food, walking pilgrimages and even, for those who are feeling very radical, hand written letters sent by snail mail.

Into this change of emphasis, I would like to claim a place for Slow Healing. I am often asked “how many sessions will it take to fix my ——back ache, —– indigestion, —— sore knee, —– panic attacks?” As though the ubiquitous concept of a short course of pills can be transferred wholesale to the more subtle workings of Craniosacral Therapy. 

But this process is in the other camp, with the Slow Cooking and the Long Walk.

When a client and I meet for the first time in my little practice room, we are embarking on a journey together. The planned destination may be the healing of that sore back —- that sore knee, but the Body has its own itinerary and may well have important visits to make on the way: old forgotten hurts or heartaches, half forgotten stories from birth or early childhood, insults and upsets that have had no comfort or redress. Often these stories are without words, perhaps from before words were a part of the journey. 

As those early hurts are comforted, the journey becomes lighter, more joyful, the glory of daily life is revealed and the energy of health is renewed. Then, that backache, that sore knee can heal.

So how long will it take?

Slow Healing takes the time it needs to allow deep changes to occur.

Now, I know that, in reality, both time and money are always at a premium, but because this is Slow Healing, we can spread the treatment sessions to fit each person’s schedule and budget, secure in the knowledge that the seeds we sow in each session will undergo some sort of transformation before we meet again.

For most of my clients, the symptoms that prompt them to visit me, unless they are very convoluted, are the first to subside, but, by continuing the process and allowing for Slow Healing to have time to occur, we can do a great favour to the beautiful Body that we inhabit and free ourselves to savour our unique and glorious lives.