On the long list of alternative, if controversial, therapies is one that's less well-known than many others.

But Pat Collins of Vestal is not only a believer in craniosacral therapy; she's a practitioner of it.

She was a computer geek, she says -- a computer analyst at Universal Instruments -- but when she was laid off in 2001, she took the opportunity to launch her life in a new direction.

She became convinced of the efficacy of the gentle, hands-on therapy by watching the unfolding recovery of a man who had received hundreds of pounds of blunt-force trauma to his head, which left him reeling with headaches for years.

After three treatments, with the practitioner's palms and fingertips barely exerting any force on his body, he was relieved of the longstanding headaches.

She has seen similar success with colicky babies whose distress stemmed from unseen injury during childbirth, she says. She became a massage therapist five years ago, then took additional courses in craniosacral therapy. She practices out of an office on Harry L Drive in Johnson City.