Tim Wightman
CST MCSS, ACSTA CSTC - CranioSacral Therapy Certification
CST1, CST2, SER1, SER2, ADV, ADV2, CSP (Peads),
My earliest recollection of severe back pain was as a young child seeing my father on his hands and knees crawling around. Being in Jersey he had to, eventually after many months of pain, attend an osteopath in the UK for over a year.
When I met Gillian I was also introduced to her grandfather, Dave Redpath who ran a successful practice in St Andrews as a Remedial Masseur. He had learnt his trade and 'trade secrets' from his father before the War and his work was almost legend. He relieved extreme pain in my leg in one session and it intrigued me. How could this be so effective when it took my dad a year to recover?
In 1989 whilst working as a Surveyor for a scaffolding firm Gillians grandad announced he was thinking of retiring (although that didn't actually happen until 2004) and invited me to leave Jersey and come and train and work with him in St Andrews where, he to my gratitude, willingly passed on his wisdom and experience. It was a wonderful and, in retrospect, life changing opportunity and I was supported in this by my Great Aunt who was a retired chartered physio. She was delighted that I was choosing this work as my new career and helped me attend the Northern Institute of Massage for my formal training.
I had wanted to go on and do training as a Manipulative Therapist but many clients had come to see me because I didn't manipulate in the traditional way. In 1995 a client returned from America with John Upledgers first book on CranioSacral therapy. That was when I knew I had found the way I wanted to work.
For me Craniosacral Therapy is a very soft, gentle but powerful way of assisting the human body to realign and rebalance itself structurally and if necessary emotionally.
Today there are so many claims of healers, shamanism, special powers handed down by deities or Goddesses and often I am asked 'are you a healer or a shaman, or a miracle worker?' I am none of those things. I believe I have been well trained, have now been working for over 18 years and gained much experience and have worked with and learnt from some amazing practitioners but I am not a healer. YOUR body is the one that does the healing, I merely assist it. A miracle worker? Sometimes the results may seem miraculous, but again I feel its down to the miracle that is the wonderfully designed human body.
Whilst for many years my practice has been grounded in general pain and disability I find myself increasingly drawn to working in the peadiatric field with CranioSacral therapy for I strongly feel that many of our future ailments, pain and disfunction can originate within the our early years. I also find myself being involved in more complex health issues, chronic long standing pain, post operative complications, neurological defects and auto immune system issues. In this field I tend to expect the patient to be working with other health professionals closely as regards diet, exercise and possibly also counselling, the combination of which achieves sometimes amazing results. Ultimately our own personal health is our own personal responsibility so I don't 'fix' you but I can assist your healing and recovery process.