Considerations and limitations.
Explore Conditions
A history of head or facial injury — a concussion, a fall, a car accident, a sports impact — is one of the things I pay closest attention to when I take a history, even if the injury happened decades earlier.
Why I ask about old injuries
The body can compensate for an old injury for a long time before something becomes noticeable. That’s why I ask about head and facial trauma from any point in someone’s life, not just recent events.
Important: Cranial adjusting is not a treatment for acute traumatic brain injury, concussion in its acute phase, or suspected skull fracture. Anyone with a recent head injury and symptoms such as confusion, loss of consciousness, repeated vomiting, worsening headache, or neurological changes needs prompt medical evaluation — not cranial adjusting. I will refer for appropriate medical care when that’s indicated.
Where cranial evaluation may fit in
Once acute injury has been appropriately managed and medically cleared, some patients continue to have longstanding effects they associate with an old head or facial injury. In those cases, I evaluate whether cranial findings appear relevant — as part of a broader picture, not a replacement for medical follow-up.
Concussions specifically
Concussion recovery in athletes is an area I’m especially interested in, using Nasal Release Technique (NRT) and CFR alongside the rest of my assessment. See cranial adjusting and concussion recovery for more on how I approach that population specifically.
What I’ve observed clinically
I’ve worked with patients whose longstanding symptoms followed an old head injury and who reported changes after cranial evaluation and adjustment. I present these as individual clinical experiences, not evidence that cranial adjusting treats the effects of head injury generally.
Related reading
See safety and considerations, or read about cranial adjusting and headaches.