A professional way is chosen by each person independently and contributes to different factors. In some people’s lives it happens in occasional circumstances, someone uses an example of others, third part realize a long-ago childhood dream. Our story tells us the craniosacral therapist Olha Mykhalchenko. And it doesn’t matter how we treat new and completely unclear things, but the fact of their existence is difficult to deny

“At first I was known as a massage therapist. And since the sixth year they come to me with different problems … I’m not a doctor by education. When I was at college, my friends went to the massage courses at the medical school, and I was for the company. And then realized that immediately, when I came from the courses, I told my mom: “Let’s try.” Then I realized that my hands are so working and  so helping that I wanted to go further in this area and began to help my relatives. So it started to work»

“People began to appeal, and for some reason immediately went with small children. And all this outstripped the profession I had for a diploma. My friends and acquaintances said that having two professions in my hands I have to determine and decide for myself that it’s not a joke, that it’s all my life. I worked a bit on a specialty, I had the opportunity to develop in this sphere. But after the end of the working day, at six o’clock in the evening, I went to work as a massage therapist. And I had a great desire for that! I could not explain why from 6 to 12 I’m doing something else when you can come home and rest comfortably. Since then, came the understanding that you need to make a choice. I quitted and fully devoted myself to the profession. I began to study, to develop my skills, because I constantly needed to raise my level of knowledge»

“I regret that after graduating from school I did not go to a medical school. Unfortunately, then there was no financial opportunity. Medical is more focused on paid education, rather than on a budget. That’s why it turned out ”

“In my childhood, I never thought about medical education, well, maybe a psychologist wanted to be. I always have medicine associated with a white robe, a stethoscope. But I do not work in a dressing gown, why the entourage? When little children come and see a man in a white robe, they can cry, scare, and often hear about my colleagues. Parents do not warn in advance that the baby is afraid of a white robe, and the child comes in, sees a white robe and begins to cry. Why do you once again expose your child to stress? A child who is ill, and it is so difficult to bring a stranger who will look and touch ”

“The youngest baby I worked with was three days. There was a tribal trauma, parents knew about me and brought me to look. And they started to work. As a rule, when I bring children, I work with my mother quite a bit. The condition of the mother is very much reflected on the child: a mother is going through a baby and wearing it in her own right. The more mom experiences, the deeper her stress, the more it reflects on the condition of the child, and even the best treatment will give the proper effect. When you work with mom, literally 10-15 minutes – and the child calms down, ceases to cry, eyes become others. Then I can work with the child, touch it ”

“Osteopathy and craniosacral therapy are not the same. Craniosacral therapy is a separate direction of osteopathy. To become a good osteopathic or craniosacral therapist, you need to learn a lot and constantly. For the basic training, after which I began to practice as a craniosacral therapist, I studied for two years. And then – continuous education. Now, thanks to God, there is access to knowledge, there are many seminars and workshops with the participation of world-renowned specialists. But this is not expensive. And if I now calculate the cost of studying in a medical college and my current education, then I’ve already closed the medical block with my head “(Laughs)

“I support relationships with doctors. Many of them now know both osteopathy and craniosacral therapy. Sometimes they advise patients to contact us. There were moments when I came to the hospital and worked there with the patient. And although doctors have their own opinions, they give their recommendations, but tell the patients that there are other treatments and advise us to address. And when they show the child to the doctor and there are no symptoms, for example, there is no vegetative-vascular dystonia, then the doctor asks: “What did you do?” It is learned that the patients were in a craniosacral therapist, and they say: “Well, keep going well”. So far. But at the moment, official craniosacral therapy and osteopathy have not been recognized by us. Now they promise that osteopathy will become the official treatment method from 2020, but osteopaths work as doctors in EU countries. In some countries, for example, in the UK, craniosacral medicine is even covered by insurance. Somehow my patients told their relatives in France about this, they turned to the appropriate structures there, and it turned out that there was indeed an insurance case. We have so far only in our dreams and plans ”

“In 1991 in Ukraine, the method of craniosacral therapy was brought by the Swiss. After the Chernobyl explosion, they arrived as volunteers, restoring the condition of sick children. One of the doctors who supported their volunteering saw good results and offered to train specialists in Ukraine. Training began in 1995. It was the Swiss who were preparing the first craniosacral therapists, even created their own association. And then schools of osteopathy began to open, Ukraine tried to support and develop such methods of treatment in various ways. However, you know, the quality of education, about the schools itself, is still not enough, and this is an open market and opportunities for earning. Of course, not very well when thinking not so much about the treatment of people, as about the possibilities of earnings. It is not always in good faith ”

“I was at many seminars, observed, appreciated, and created for myself a base, a kind of” bag of knowledge “, which now allows me to draw conclusions about the quality of training specialists”

“I had the oldest patients at the age of 60-70, but I do not ask about age. Usually, women trust more, come themselves, and then lead men. Most often they say: “I do not know what you are doing there, but I’m better off.” Certain diseases, such as hypertension, for example, cannot be cured, but, to improve the state of health, to prevent the development of heavier processes, of course, it is possible. Mostly, they deal with diseases of the musculoskeletal system, vegetative-vascular dystonia, problems of the gastrointestinal tract, more precisely with symptoms: a headache, insomnia, depressive states, weakness, fatigue”

“There is such a thing as psychosomatics when a situation is created on a psychological level, which is then reflected on the physical level. People often do not combine these things. For example, a person quarreled with someone and then gets sick. Everyone has heard that the disease is from the nerves. It all starts with external influence, from how the central nervous system perceives certain situations. From the treatment after methods of craniosacral therapy, people most often say: “You know, Olya, yesterday was such a meeting, after which I usually three days came to my senses and retired. And now everything is well, I calmly perceive everything ”

“Now, not only in Zhytomyr but already in Kiev, I work for about two years. There is such a thing among our colleagues when we do not work with our relatives. My colleagues from Kiev are asked to look at their relatives, and I already have my patients there ”

“People in big cities are different, they are a bit different: tenser, usually come with specific requests, with a clear wording of their own needs. Probably, in big cities more informed, they know more about craniosacral therapy. To a certain extent, they are “pampered” because they have a choice of specialists and can appreciate my work, and sometimes even adjust ”

“It is impossible to lead a person to an osteopath or a craniosacral therapist. Often they say: “Olya, write down my mom.” In such cases, I ask that my mother calls me, we talk, and then she decides if she wants to come. The person has to decide what exactly she needs. I am not a herbalist, I do not bald, I do not tell people tales and I do not say that I cure right away. And I do not lead people over my nose. My work is usually only 30%, all the rest – the work of the patient. This implementation of the recommendations I give is counseling in the way of nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, and breathing. And exercise – this does not mean, for example, 30 times sit down and 20 times pressed. Especially when a person can not even bend. And they have the right to banish: it may be proper breathing or the same squat with such an amplitude and in the comfort that the patient is capable of now. Even raising a hand on the bed is already improving blood circulation. Even the advice not to watch serials or news that shapes your attitude towards the world also helps”

“Different people come, sometimes there are those who put up a rather skeptical one. They are interested in asking a lot of questions. I do not diagnose a diagnosis, but I can determine how different organs of a person work, which organ is deformed, and I know how to fix it ”

“I want to develop. Craniosacral therapy is a method by which you can show how you can live, how powerful a person is. It would be desirable not to say: “Oh, heal, help me.” People themselves should work with their bodies, and craniosacral therapy is just a small step towards a healthy life. I do not need a man once to come, and then all my life depended on me. That should not be so. A person needs to realize his own abilities, and I have to show how to work with him, to realize that healthy state and independently to support him, to move independently, to feel healthy ”
“In fact, 60-70 years is a blessing of forces, just work. I have a colleague with whom we study, it’s about six dozen, but she has so much fire in her eyes! And she feels the need to learn, to improve herself. Chargers exercises she performs on a level with young ones. We just have to work on ourselves ”

“It would be desirable for our people to have less envy, so that people learn to love and appreciate each of us as we are, without evaluation, because we are all different. I really like the “internal policy” of the craniosacral therapist, who helps in life: we are absolutely calm to send to colleagues, perhaps this particular specialist will be better suited to the patient. We can not say that someone is beautiful, and someone is bad. Unity and cooperation should be the norm. All in all, enough! ”

“I love our park since childhood. I was driven by horses, and then unreal memories. Picture of Zhytomyr – I’m on a horse. And ice cream! (Laughs). Now Zhytomyr is like a flower: it blossoms out slowly. He wants to strive to develop. There are a lot of interesting people. More precisely, such people have always been, just now they finally began to feel support, they began to hear not only in their surroundings but in a much larger circle of people. It is desirable that Zhytomyr develop as it is now. So I think everything is ahead. The main thing is not slipping anywhere! ”

Translated by Aliona Matushevich