R.C.S.T. Thomas Attlee D. O. - Face to Face with the Face

FACE TO FACE
WITH THE FACE

by the same author

Cranio-Sacral Integration Foundation

ISBN 978 1 84819 098 6

eISBN 978 0 85701 078 0

FACE TO FACE
WITH THE FACE

Working with the Face and the Cranial
Nerves through Cranio-Sacral Integration

Thomas Attlee D.O., R.C.S.T.

I LLUSTRATED by S AM
W ILSON P HOTOGRAPHS by L OUISE S AM

LONDON AND PHILADELPHIA

First published in 2016

by Singing Dragon

an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.singingdragon.com

Copyright Thomas Attlee 2016

Illustrations copyright Sam Wilson 2016

Photographs copyright Louise Sam 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84819 279 9

eISBN 978 0 85701 225 8

Contents

Thank you

to my family

Janice, Ashley, Ruskin

to all my students at the

College of Cranio-Sacral Therapy

over the past 30 years

to all the tutors

at the college

to Sam Wilson

for the illustrations

to Louise Sam

for the photographs

to Alice Paton

and Ashley Attlee

for modelling for the photos

to Jessica Kingsley

for publishing this book

to the production team

at Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Part I

Introduction

Chapter 1

Facial Torment and Resolution

Fiona was forty-seven and had suffered a lifetime of countless recurrent ear infections, glue ear, severe deafness, extreme pain, burst ear drums, and inability to travel by air. She had been through countless courses of antibiotics, grommets, operations and other treatments without benefit until she discovered cranio-sacral integration, and her life was transformed. She was able to hear again, was free of pain and was able to fly (by aeroplane, that is, not independently cranio-sacral integration is not quite that miraculous!).

Eighty per cent of babies and children suffer middle ear infections, often leading to glue ear, with potential repercussions on speech and language. Like Fiona, they may receive frequent prescriptions of antibiotics, sometimes grommets and possibly operations, none of which addresses the underlying cause and which may consequently lead to repeated episodes of the condition. Cranio-sacral integration is particularly effective at addressing the root of the issue and enabling dramatic changes, preventing recurrence, and abrogating or reducing the need for antibiotics and medical intervention. Loss of hearing can also arise from many other causes sometimes resolvable through a more comprehensive understanding of the contributory factors.

Trigeminal neuralgia is widely regarded as the most excruciatingly painful condition known to the medical world, with no clearly identified cause and limited means of treatment or management. Bells palsy is a common cause of frustrating facial disturbance. Mnires disease can be severely debilitating, with recurrent vertigo, tinnitus and deafness. Tinnitus itself is an interminable source of irritation, driving many people to distraction. Vertigo and labyrinthitis can be extremely disorientating. In everyday cranio-sacral practice, we repeatedly see that in many cases these conditions can be alleviated and resolved.

Many persistent tooth and jaw pains and temporo-mandibular joint disorders are not resolved through dentistry and orthodontics, but may respond to a cranio-sacral approach. Eyes are subject to squints, astigmatism, lazy eye, infections, and dry eye.

Obscure underlying facial sources can also be the undiagnosed cause of repeated headaches, recurrent migraines, neck pain, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, exhaustion, chronic fatigue and severe debilitation.

So many conditions affecting the face rhinitis, allergy, hypersensitivity, nasal congestion, and the agony of sinusitis are so common that they are often taken for granted, accepted as normal. We live with these conditions, suffer in silence, manage them to some degree through constant medication but they do not need to be merely managed, they can often be relieved to a large extent, and quality of life can be substantially enhanced. Through cranio-sacral integration, we often see profound transformations in so many persistent and apparently intractable conditions.

An integrative approach

For the most part, such conditions are treated locally and symptomatically. Cranio-sacral integration offers a different approach by looking at the whole person, understanding that every part of the body affects and is affected by every other part, that local health is dependent on overall integration and fundamental vitality, and that underlying patterns of trauma arising from birth, childhood injury, accidents and traumatic incidents can predispose to a wide range of disturbances and dysfunctions later in life.

The cranio-sacral approach also recognizes that the body has an inherent potential for resolving health disturbances and restoring health, and engages with this inherent potential in order to help the body to re-establish its natural free mobility and fluent function.

We will be exploring the eyes, ears, nose, sinuses, mouth, teeth, jaw the whole face, in the context of the whole person gaining a clear understanding of each part and, most significantly, providing a practical means of resolving the many conditions affecting these areas in an exceptionally gentle, non-invasive, integrative manner, without the use of medication or surgery.

Dentistry

Dentists are undoubtedly a very valuable and welcome asset to society, saving us from a great deal of tooth pain, but there are also many conditions affecting the teeth and jaw which are not resolved through conventional dentistry and orthodontics. The integration of whole-person dentistry with cranial therapies is a rapidly developing field with major significance for the future of dental health care.

Since this is one of the most common areas of pain and disturbance to the face, we will start by looking at the teeth and jaw, how dentistry and orthodontics approach these disturbances, and how the combination of whole-person dentistry and cranio-sacral integration working together can be profoundly transformative. On this subject, I am very grateful for the two excellent chapters contributed by whole-person dentists Dr Granville Langly-Smith and Dr Wojciech Tarnowski.

Margaret suffered persistent pain in her jaw and in several teeth, often accompanied by severe headaches. Years of extensive dentistry had not helped. Her orthodontist wanted to embark on a comprehensive programme to restructure her jaw. Hoping to find an easier solution, Margaret tried cranio-sacral integration. Her symptoms were relieved very quickly and never recurred. The source of the condition was not in the teeth or jaw at all.