Craniosacral Therapy
CranioSacral Therapy is a gentle, hands-on technique that empowers and supports your body and mind to restore healthy functioning by releasing tension in the body’s connective tissue, thereby maximizing the functions of the central nervous system. Through this process, I guide you in relaxing and breathing, while listening to your body and asking gentle questions as I offer light touch to open awareness. This allows the body to realign and regain proper functioning. CranioSacral Therapy is a particularly effective treatment for injury, trauma, headaches, sleep, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and anxiety.
I often get the question, “What does CranioSacral Therapy actually look like?”. I included this video to show what a CranioSacral Therapy session can look like. While we all have a slightly unique approach, this is a great overview to show you what the actual session can look like.
What is Craniosacral Therapy
Craniosacral therapy is a holistic healing practice that uses very light touch to balance the craniosacral system in the body, the most core system we know about. It includes the bones, nerves, fluids, and connective tissues of the cranium and spinal area.
The first written reference to the movement of the spinal nerves and its importance in life, clarity, and “bringing quiet to the heart” is found in a 4,000-year-old text from China. Craniosacral work was referred to as “the art of listening.” Bone setters in the Middle Ages also sensed the subtle movements of the body. They used these movements to help reset fractures and dislocations and to treat headaches.
In the early 1900s, the research of Dr. William Sutherland, an American osteopathic physician, detailed the movement of the cranium and pelvis. Before his research it was believed that the cranium was a solid immovable mass. Sutherland reported that the skull is actually made up of 22 separate and movable bones that are connected by layers of tissue. He called his work cranial osteopathy. Nephi Cotton, an American chiropractor and contemporary of Sutherland, called this approach craniology. The graduates of these two disciplines have refined and enhanced these original approaches and renamed their work as sacro-occipital technique, cranial movement therapy, or craniosacral therapy.
Dr. John Upledger, an osteopathic physician, and others at the Department of Biomechanics at Michigan State University, College of Osteopathic Medicine learned of Sutherland’s research and developed it further. He researched the clinical observations of various osteopathic physicians. This research provided the basis for Upledger’s work that he named craniosacral therapy.
Craniosacral therapy addresses the craniosacral system. This system includes the cranium, spine, and sacrum that are connected by a continuous membrane of connective tissue deep inside the body, called the dura mater. The dura mater also encloses the brain and the central nervous system. Sutherland noticed that cerebral spinal fluid rises and falls within the compartment of the dura mata. He called this movement the primary respiratory impulse; today it is known as the craniosacral rhythm (CSR) or the cranial wave.
Craniosacral therapists can most easily feel the CSR in the body by lightly touching the base of the skull or the sacrum. During a session, they feel for disturbances in the rate, amplitude, symmetry, and quality of flow of the CSR. A therapist uses very gentle touch to balance the flow of the CSR. Once the cerebrospinal fluid moves freely, the body’s natural healing responses can function.
Source: Alternative Medicine Encyclopedia
What does a craniosacral therapy session look like? I base my CranioSacral Therapy sessions off the work of Dr. Sutherland, Dr. Upledger, and Dr. Sills. Knowing that these methods have been used for thousands of years, helps guide these sessions.
A craniosacral session generally lasts 30–60 minutes. The client remains fully clothed and lays down on a massage table while I gently assess the flow of the CranioSacral rhythm. Once on the table and comfortable, I hold your ankles for a few minutes to assess the rhythm and look for energy cysts, that can be indicative of blockages, obstructions, or asymmetries.
There are a number of techniques that I may use in order to facilitate your body’s alignment and achieve deep relaxation.
Energy cyst release is a hands-on technique of releasing foreign or disruptive energies from the patient’s body. Energy cysts may cause the disruption of the tissues and organs were they are located.
We focus on the direction of energy and myofascial release. This is a manipulative form of bodywork that releases tension in the fascia or connective tissue of the body. This form of bodywork uses stronger, more pressurized touch.
Position of release involves following the client’s body into positions in which an injury or trauma occurred and holding it there. When the pulse of the CSR suddenly stops the therapist knows that the trauma is being released.
The last technique is Somato Emotional Release. This technique was developed by Dr. Upledger and is an offshoot of craniosacral therapy. It is used to release the mind and body of the residual effects of trauma and injury that are “locked in the tissues.”
Your body directs the process of healing and release. Our hope is that this results in resolution and deep relaxation, and we recognize that for some people this process is followed by a wave of emotional release that can be quite powerful and healing on it’s own accord.