Conventional wisdom has it that women are more in touch with their emotions than are men. Nature endows women with oxytocin, the bonding hormone, stronger social networks and more neurological ability to process and express their emotions via the corpus callosum—the nerve system connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain—and the ability to have emotions and verbally communicate them.

However, where men might be reluctant to acknowledge the role of “emotions” in their lives, change that word to “stress,” and they instantly connect with the idea. Most everyone has stress; no one likes it, and most people would like to be able to control it batter.

Biochemically, stress is the body’s response to internal and external pressures. It is the primitive, hardwired response to an external threat—fight-or-flight. But what if the “attacker” is the boss or the customer, the teacher or the policeman? We must then exercise a third option, which is to freeze. Our muscles are bunched to spring into action, but we never get to exercise that impulse.

We lock tension seemingly permanently into our muscles, as cortisol and adrenaline shoot through our bloodstream, raising our blood pressure and wreaking havoc on our general health, well-being and coping ability. When this response becomes repetitive or chronic, we can suffer all kinds of health consequences, from weight gain to high cholesterol, high blood pressure and eventually strokes, heart attacks and cancer. But it all begins with an emotion—an event that prompts a feeling, which prompts a reaction or a frozen inaction.

To alleviate this “stuck energy” of emotions or stress in the body, exercise and deep breathing, yoga and meditation are all wonderful ways to slow down our sense of the world, increase our mind/body awareness and lower the tone and reactivity of the nervous system. But sometimes we can’t do it alone, and in those cases, craniosacral therapy provides a unique way of releasing the stress at its source—addressing how the body locks stress into the tissues.

By mobilizing the connective fascia tissuethat surrounds every muscle and often binds it down so relaxation becomes impossible, even impervious to massage, ease can be brought back into the entiremuscular, nervous and emotional system. Craniosacral is a warming, fully clothed treatment that is profoundly relaxing and allows the system to reboot at a deep level. It’s also effective for women, no strangers to stress themselves.

Sandy Hanne, LMT, is an advanced craniosacral therapist, trained by founder John Upledger, DO, practicing for 14 years and specializing in stress, neurological conditions, and musculoskeletal problems. Contact her at 469-438-8634 or HealingDallas.com.