866. A Day in the Life: What's It Really Like to Be a Craniosacral Therapist?

Tami Goldstein

Tami Goldstein is Diplomate certified in Upledger Craniosacral Therapy (U-CST), Board Certified and an approved continuing education provider through The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork. She is a Wisconsin licensed massage therapist. In 2004 she opened A Therapeutic Touch by Tami, LLC. She offers services as a therapist, advocate, international speaker and educator of bodywork specializing in individuals on the autism spectrum and other neurodevelopment disorders. She’s the international award-winning author of “Coming Through the Fog,” an autism recovery journey, a contributing author in a Cutting-Edge Therapies for Autism, and other books & publications. Ms. Goldstein is a 2018 World Massage Festival Hall of Fame inductee, 2019 Teacher of the Year recipient at World Massage Festival, the founder of Wisconsin for Vaccine Choice and the parent of an individual with functioning recovery from autism.

The Most Impactful Turning Point?

“My daughter was required to be vaccinated at the end of her fifth grade school year at the age of 11 before she could move on to middle school. For the following couple of years, she deteriorated medically, physically, and emotionally at a very frightening level. And in the end, the diagnosis included autism, sensory processing disorder, ADHD, and obsessive compulsive disorder. She had systemic rashes, and severe environmental and food allergies. The sensory processing disorder would make her shut down for up to five days, unable to walk or talk. The list could go on and on, but in the journey to get her to recovery I learned through an occupational therapist about craniosacral therapy and I had never heard of it before. It’s a light touch therapy that improves brain and nervous system functioning. And through that therapy and sensory integration therapy and biomedical supports, my daughter–against all odds–got to a degree of functioning recovery that was literally unheard of.”

The Most Powerful Lessons and Experiences?

1. I was in my early forties when I knew I wanted to practice craniosacral therapy. I was told I was too old, so the research showed me that the fastest way I could be licensed to do that work was to first be licensed as a massage therapist. So that’s what I did.

2. There’s so much diversity in this field, which is nice. Most people go through their basic training and they’re only certified in Swedish massage—one type of massage technique. You can then go on, which is what I highly recommend, into medical, sports, geriatric, or infant massage and many other specialties.

3. I specialize in autism sensory processing disorders. About 65% of my clients are on the autism spectrum, but I work with other people with post-stroke or post-surgery recovery and nervous system disorders. My oldest client is 99. I work with her to help increase her range of motion to reduce her pain and discomfort.

4. Some of the characteristics and skills that are important to have in this occupation include:

– A sense of touch, for obvious reasons
– Compassion and a desire to help others
– Ability to set boundaries because you work at an extremely interpersonal level
– Interest in continuous learning because new discoveries happen regularly
– Communication skills because there is so much information to share and often
it’s quite complex and always personal

5. The first thing anyone interested in exploring this occupation should do is to directly experience a wide variety of body work. When you find the area that interests you, keep exploring and learning as the options are many and diverse.