Let’s go back to the ancient understanding that our bodies are water, blood, spirit. Yes, modern medicine and medical science has its place and we’d certainly be lost without it, but the ancient wisdom passed down through generations of the Mayan people has gifted us with a hands-on therapy that not only is beneficial to bring fresh blood flow to your digestive and reproductive organs, but is also incredibly centering and grounding.

Maya massage helps improve blood flow as well as lymphatic flow and optimize nerve supply to the abdominal and pelvic organs. It supports regulating menstruation, decreasing pain associated with menses or digestion, softening scar tissue, and relaxing tension in the abdomen that may be contributing to pain. It also helps to regulate hormonal balance by optimizing blood flow to the ovaries, likely optimizing ovulation and production of progesterone. During this therapy, the abdominal and pelvic organs are massaged externally in order to optimize positioning of the uterus as well as digestive organs. Additionally, a lymph massage is performed to increase circulation in the lower body and abdomen. In the posterior portion of the massage, sacral positioning is assessed and massage is used to loosen affected ligaments and fascia and soften tense muscles in the low back. A component of this therapy is teaching self-care, which can add to the overall benefit. A handout is provided with instructions on how to perform the massage at home. You will be instructed on how to perform this with proper position, oil, pressure and depth. This continues to increase blood and lymphatic flow to the abdomen and pelvis on a more frequent basis and can help with reduction of pain.

The bioactive constituents in plants are incredibly powerful! We are talking polyphenols, phytosterols, biogenic amines, and carotenoids. If you’re lost: think antioxidants and other compounds that are anticarcinogenic, antiallergenic, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial. Dr. Rikoon utilizes herbal medicine often with her patients to gently stimulate the body’s own inherent ability to heal. There is something magical about the way herbs help heal the body without being harsh or overpowering. Dr. Rikoon is well trained in providing safe herbal formulas for many health conditions.

When medically necessary, Dr. Rikoon uses pharmaceutical medications in her treatment plans. She prescribes all medications except for opioids, benzodiazepines, and stimulants.

Dr. Rikoon uses bioidentical hormone replacement therapy in her perimenopausal and postmenopausal patients to support long term bone, heart, cognitive, and vaginal health as well as manage hot flashes, vaginal dryness and brain fog.

For fertility care, Dr. Rikoon may prescribe ovulation induction medications to help increase the chances of conceptions and thyroid medications to balance the endocrine system.

Supplements

The supplements you find on the shelf at your local grocery store are not the same as physician-grade supplements that are third party tested for purity and quality. It is important that you are taking exactly what the company claims is in the bottle instead of a filler or bulking agent or something worse! Dr. Rikoon recognizes that supplements are expensive and taking a large amount of pills each day can be taxing on the body. She often finds that patients are taking too many supplements and sometimes supplements can even be causing problems instead of helping! The supplements Dr. Rikoon recommends are well researched, clinically effective, and of the highest quality.

Nutrition

Food is medicine! We are what we eat! You’ve heard it all before, but yes, it’s true! Unfortunately, what a carrot was 100 years ago is not what a carrot is today; our soils are depleted and our food lacks the nutrients they had prior to the monocropping and wide spread use of pesticides and herbicides. Yet there is hope! Dr. Rikoon teaches her patients how to navigate all the diet fads, food choices, and labels that exist in today’s world.

Craniosacral therapy is a subtle yet profound hands on technique that the Cherokee and Shawnee tribes in North America have been using for centuries, and honoring the therapy’s origins is vital to understand its depth. Craniosacral therapy was adopted by the osteopathic medical community and is now taught to practitioners as a tool to work with the body’s nervous system, particularly the vagus nerve. Have you ever stood with your eyes closed and felt your body swaying ever so slightly? That is your cranial rhythm. Without getting too technical: our bodies have a fluid called cerebral spinal fluid that is vital to our health and well being. It circulates up and down our spinal cord and into the ventricles (or empty chambers) in our skull. It bathes the pituitary and pineal glands along with our entire central nervous system with fresh nutrients. Just as the joints in our knees or hips can become stiff and stuck, so can the small joints or “sutures” in our skulls. This therapy helps free the movement of the small bones in our head and sacrum so that our cerebral spinal fluid can flow more freely.

During a Craniosacral session, the patient lies down on the treatment table fully clothed. Patients will often drift off to sleep during the session as gives the body a chance to fully relax. Gentle handholds around the bones in the head (the cranial bones) and at the end of the spinal cord (the sacrum) are utilized.

In Dr. Rikoon’s practice, craniosacral therapy has been helpful in treating anxiety, insomnia, back pain, neck pain, jaw pain, and other chronic pain. Because our nervous systems are often out of balance in today’s overstimulated world, this gentle therapy is incredibly effective at modulating the stress response both emotionally and physically. This therapy helps complete the stress cycle (shout out to Emily and Amelia Nagoski’s book “Burnout: The secret to solving the stress cycle”): after we encounter an upsetting or stressful situation, instead of staying in that heightened state, we need to return to a place of safety, and out of the stress reaction. Craniosacral therapy is incredibly effective for completing the stress cycle.