The reason for all of this pain? Through the 60's and early 70's, I played violin professionally and didn't hold the instrument properly, hunching up my left shoulder and craning my neck to the left and down. After awhile, this contraction of muscles became permanent, throwing my structure out of balance. In 1977, I fell backwards onto a terrazzo floor, "cracking" my skull. For months afterward, I had dizziness and yep, more imbalance. Then in 1986 I had surgery to correct a jaw problem and everything got worse, if that was possible. Within a year of the surgery, my little remaining physical comfort became a thing of the past. My attempts to heal this pain could not include doctors and pain clinics. l simply didn't have the money. I located good Chiropractors, but they gave me only temporary relief. Unfortunately, I was one of those people who could never hold an adjustment. As soon as I'd look up or to the side, "crunch," and I was out of alignment again. I tried massage therapy too, and it helped temporarily, but my body would just return to normal (pain and tension) within two days if not sooner.

Nutrition helped some, especially the Mineral Toddy (colloidal minerals), which alleviated my achy joints. Neuromuscular and Rolfing work (with the "finger up the nose" experience) helped a little, and so did some Upledger (craniosacral) work. They could shift my cranial plates some but not expand them outward to relieve the pressure. My muscle pain remained. Besides researching every alternative health literature source I could find, I knew that there must be a metaphysical reason for all of this suffering. So, I threw myself into years of intensive internal, personal change. My life shifted in glorious, even magical ways, but the pain didn't go away. I prayed for healing every day and asked for something which could help my compressed cranial bones to relax and expand. Laughingly, I would tell everyone that all my problems were "in my head." Then I received a copy of Sam Biser's "Last Chance Newsletter."

In it, he interviewed Dr. Dean Howell of Everett, WA about NeuroCranial Restructuring Therapy. Here was someone who could actually move the cranial plates OUTWARD, expanding the head. He mentioned symptoms which were alleviated by this treatment, and Tada - they matched mine to a tee. An answer to my prayers! Immediately I called, only to find out that Dr. Howell saw patients only in Everett. Anxiously, I awaited the therapy dates. Would it be painful? Would it work? Would it mess me up further? l had my doubts, but they were all put aside because, after all, I'd prayed for this therapy and now it was here. I trusted my gift.

Dr. Dean Howell is a sunny, cherubfaced and charming man. As my husband Francois and I sat down with him the first day of four, he showed us the amazing before and after pictures of people he'd worked on in previous sequences of treatment. He told us that the treatment did not hurt much as there were no nerves inside the sinuses and only some in the 6 nasal passages/chambers (there are 3 chambers to a side).

The procedure required that he insert a balloon (actually, the plastic cover doctors use for fingers) placed over a small handpump into one of the chambers. He would then pump up the balloon, which would open up the locked bones, expanding the head. Depending on how one's structure is balanced, he would do the insertion and pump where the "opening up" was needed more. In places of extra lockdown or resistance, he would use up to 10 balloons, as this gave him extra pressure and power. Each insertion/pump would last between 3 to 8 seconds. At the end of each treatment, whether he used the balloon two times or five times, he would balance the whole structure. This sounded good, even though I was still trepidatious.

Then, it was finally time to experience it. How bizarre it was! It felt like plunging into a swimming pool and getting water up my nose. I felt the pressure, and then I felt the bones inside my head give way. It was almost as if a very soft screwdriver bore a hole into the most private recesses of my head. Nobody had ever been in there before, so at first it felt like a violation of my privacy, my private space. But immediately, I felt an electric energy, as if my whole system was waking up. I breathed a huge, clear breath--amazing! Getting up from the table, I looked at myself in the mirror. My narrow face was wider, rounder. My eyes were set differently and my face was rounder, softer - not so angular. Again, amazing! I had cheekbones I never knew I had. Obviously, they'd been compressed for so very long.

Then Dr. Howell balanced my spine with a mixture of polarity, chiropractic-like adjustments and energy movement. I felt energy moving from my head all the way down my spine. He told me that was the freeing of the meninges, which are the fluid compartments surrounding the brain and spinal cord. They naturally determine where the skull and vertebrae sit and balance, but when the cranium is locked up, they can't fulfill all of their functions. And the energy and freedom I began to feel with this "energy movement" of my meninges brought me, by the end of my first session, tremendous elation. That was the only way to describe what I felt. I had more bright energy than I knew what to do with and danced around like a little girl. For years, I hadn't felt this awake and alert, and I had a hard time going to sleep that night. For the first time, it wasn't because of the pain, but because I was so incredibly awake.

The next day we returned for the second session of four. I told Dr. Howell how I felt, and he said not all people have that, only some of them. This day went like the first day, and from this session, I experienced incredible peace and balance. At least my nervous system allowed me to sleep that night, but the pain gradually came back in my head. I returned disappointed and concerned on the third day. Dr. Howell checked me out and immediate told me that I was still locking up on my right side. So he did extra stuff on my right side. That night, Francois tested my vertebrae with kinesiology and for the first time, my atlasand axis, the top two bones of my neck, were "in". The pain was gone and I slept like a baby - it was wonderful! The fourth day, we found that the right side was still locking up. Dr. Howell told me that my head had been sitting off to the left--all that violin playing! It was now sitting straight on my neck. Dr. Howell got my "head on straight" literally! No wonder that no chiropractic adjustment held! In this final session, he discovered that my right side would move and then, right away, slide back into the "lock." So he brought out six balloons and went in with more pressure. It really took a lot of strength and persistence, but those bones did give. Like the experience of the first day, this one breakthrough opened me up further. I felt energy rippling through my teeth, all over my head, and my brain/mind suddenly feel light and clear.

Although the basic treatment of four days in a row was finished, the changes in my system had just begun. This is not something to be done frequently. Obviously there are a lot of changes to go through before experiencing a second round of NCR. As of now, four weeks after the treatment, my head remains centered on my neck. My Chiropractor commented on how she had no adjustments to make above the 3rd lumbar. Previously, she'd had fifteen or twenty adjustments to make in a session. This time it was three! She was amazed. She'd really like to learn the system herself, and I hope she will, for all of South Florida's benefit. After all, there is only one "miracle master" right now, and he's going to get spread really thin around the country as people discover what NCR can do! Other therapists were excited too. My massage therapist was delighted. A specialist in deep tissue work, she had to really sweat and strain to get into the tissue. Not now! My body let her in, down into deeper layers she'd never gotten into before. All the tension gave way quickly, which was extraordinary too. Finally, she cleaned all the knots out of my neck and commented "your neck is perfect, like a seven-year-old's. This is the way a neck should be!" I realized that my body was reflecting my move into a safer reality. After all, all the "armoring" disappeared! And the muscles, which had been in spasm for almost 20 years, no longer held tension. But were they exhausted and weak from all that holding! I could barely do anything for awhile without tiring quickly. Now that was a strange feeling, because I had so much physical energy too!

Now I'm sleeping better than in years - no pain! Even around the occipital ridge! And I can sleep in any position comfortably! The only pain I've been having has come from my structure overhauling itself. Pain comes in for a while in one area, then the next day moves to another spot. Both Francois and I notice that if we hold our bodies in certain off-balanced ways, the pain temporarily returns. This is training us to keep better posture and to pay attention to our bodies' messages! After all, from the metaphysical standpoint, our old imbalanced postures were the physical expression of our negative agendas - our martyrhood, control trips, defensiveness, compromises and resignations. The pressure behind and above my eyes has abated, so it is more comfortable to fully open my eyes. Every day has brought some new discovery about my change as my posture shifts to more balance. My muscles, tired or not, show new tone - I feel younger than ever in my 47 years. I even got something of a facelift as my cheekbones pulled up some saggy skin as they came out! My self-image has improved, and my personality is stronger and more confident. Previously, I'd gone to parties and waited to be introduced, playing shy. In the first party I went to after NCR, I fearlessly held out my hand and introduced myself and met everybody. I didn't realize the difference until afterwards - it had seemed so natural.

My brain function has improved. Before, I had been so scatterbrained that, if I were interrupted, I would forget where I was. Then there would be such a struggle to reorient myself and remember what I had been doing and thinking before that my life was just hard. There are lots of interruptions in life! Now if I'm interrupted, I can simply return to what I was doing and thinking easily, no problem. My concentration and short term memory is better - I'm remembering people's names and getting more organized! My brain wakes up easily in the morning. I even feel bright and cheery! Any of you who knew me before would find a groggy person until the afternoon. I returned to get a "fine tuning" from my Upledger practitioner. In the Upledger method, one monitors the rhythm, the pulse or breathing of the meninges. And, by placing the hands on particular points, like light bodywork, the flow of the meninges, of the structural energy can be redirected into balance. She was as amazed as the others. "Your head bones are moving 300% more than before ... even better than someone who has not had the head damage of jaw surgery as you've had!" This session reinforced the sense of inner peace I've had since NCR.

The changes were not without the accompanying emotional or trauma releases. I'd prepared by having spiritual, emotional, and physical healing work before the NCR. This minimized the resistance to healing as afterwards, I faced the negative agendas my new openness brought up. Others weren't as prepared as I. One woman, who'd had a car accident three years earlier, had to relive the trauma of that event as well as all the emotional "garbage" that had preceded and triggered it. Another woman I didn't know, but who'd had the "spot" with Dr. Howell just ahead of mine, had to go through emotional trauma relating to her identity as a woman and her relationships with men. Not easy stuff! But for some others, the experience was much easier. Francois experienced a healing of his internal parental drive to please and succeed. His sight improved, and he had an instant loss of his dyslexia. Now he doesn't have to think about "right" or "left," and he just responds instinctively to the correct way. He doesn't even transpose numbers anymore. It certainly helps to have the correct numbers if you want to call people back! It saves him the time of listening to his phone messages three and four times just to make sure he got the numbers right. Life is easier for him now!

Our meditations improved as well. We feel it has something to do with the cranial allowance given the temporal lobes, which are in the process of evolving and expanding their functions. The new quality and intensity of our visualizations and dreams has been very rewarding. A sense of electricity, of magic, has seeped into our daily consciousness. Of course, the temporal lobes are involved with emotions and emotional or psychic perceptions, and so some consciousness change is to be hoped for. This is probably also the reason why old emotional traumas release so quickly as well. In order to learn more about why some patients have fantastic experiences and others must go through interminable emotional releases to get theirhealing/realignments, Dr. Howell travels around the country visiting other doctors, learning their approaches too, looking for insights. It is my feeling that in the future, traumatic responses won't be necessary due to the exploding numbers of new techniques, concepts and methodologies becoming available. Integration of these new approaches will give us more elegant ways to heal and change, and Dr. Howell is one of those who is already creating a synergistic path. Believe me! Once you have experienced NCR, you will be able to integrate your life more quickly.

Conclusion:

This is perhaps the most extraordinary and fast healing method available which realigns the body and its energies. I hope that our MDs, dentists, chiropractors, naturopaths, osteopaths and other structural healers will embrace a technique as elegant, pain-free and inexpensive as NCR. It will take a willingness to learn and also a willingness to see people healed quickly and not as invasively as through surgery. Of course, this may be seen as an economic loss to a doctor. But it can also be seen as a spiritual gain and as an access to a gentler, less stressed and freer lifestyle for all.