Introducing Craniosacral Therapy

Life expresses itself in motion. All living tissues of the body ‘breathe’ with the motions of life, producing subtle, rhythmic impulses which can be felt under the sensitive hands of a trained therapist.

At the core of the body the cerebrosinal fluid, which bathes and cushions the brain and spinal cord, expresses this motion in a tide-like ebb and flow involving all the surrounding tissues and bones. All bones, organs and other structures of the body follow their own particular rhythms. These help to maintain balance and integrity throughout the entire body, distributing the healing and ordering properties of the ‘breath of life’.

U.S. Osteopath Dr. William Sutherland first recognized craniosacral motions and their relevacne to health in the early 1900s. Since then many practitioners including John Upledger, Franklyn Sills and many more have extended and refined craniosacral therapy into the subtle deep healing process which is available today.

What is Craniosacral Therapy?

It is a non-manipulative, gentle whole body therapy usually carried out sitting or lying on a treatment table fully clothed. The practitioner listens with their skilled hands to the body’s intrinsic movement, health, rhythms, pulsations and patterns of congestion and resistance.

Craniosacral therapy is deeply relaxing. It assists the body’s natural healing processes, increasing physical vitality and well-being.

It aids in pain relief and encourages the nervous system, organs and musculoskeletal system to balance and heal. Craniosacral therapy is client-led, allowing the individuals system to set the pace at which the work progresses. In general a series of sessions is advised.

How Does Craniosacral Therapy Work?

The body’s tissues contract in response to all physical and emotional stresses, such as the birth process, injuries, sickness or emotional trauma.

Sometimes, particularly when the shock is severe, tissues remain contracted. This can restrict the body’s functioning and vitality and give rise to problems like chronic pain, migraines, digestive disorders, depression and anxiety.

Restrictions in the body show in the way craniosacral motion is expressed, allowing practitioners to identify problem areas. These are mirrored back to the client through the touch of the practitioner, encouraging self healing and balance in the body.

This releases stress and tension freeing energy previously used to hold restrictions.

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How Can Craniosacral Therapy Help Me?

Craniosacral therapy can be helpful and effective with most conditions and useful in overall health maintenance; enhancing vitality and a general sense of well-being. It is gentle, suitable for all ages, including infants, the elderly and people with delicate, degenerative or painful conditions. It can also uplift those suffering from stress and anxiety.

By engaging the musculoskeletal, central nervous, digestive and fluid systems vital for attaining integrity and balance, craniosacral therapy offers a relaxing and holistic approach to assits the functioning of the body, internally and externally.

Infants

Examining the craniosacral systems of mothers and babies, pre and post natally, is beneficial. Compression and restrictions experienced during the birth process, may lead to common infant problems such as colic, poor feeding, excessive crying and breathing difficulties. Babies respond well to the craniosacral process and parents are encourage to be involved.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy offers a powerful way to connect with the body’s natural wisdom. The body’s own priorities for change are listened for and encouraged to arise creating tangible adjustments that are physiological, energetic and psycho-emotional. The art of the therapist is to connect with the underlying forces of health and facilitate a process of natural reorganisation. These forces express as subtle motion of tissues and fluids that can be felt by sensitive hands.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy takes a whole-person approach to healing and the inter-connectedness of mind, body and spirit are deeply acknowledged. In a typical treatment session the therapist will make contact with a light, receptive touch that produces a spacious relational field. In this space the body will reveal patterns of experience that the sensitive therapist will recognise through an experiential knowledge of the body’s anatomy and bio-energetic forces. The sensations generated by the contact are commonly experienced as an increase in internal and external space, a heightened sense of body tissue movements and a shift to stillness and deep relaxation.

The therapy is efficacious for many conditions and often results in a permanent dissolving of the symptoms. It seems to work particularly well with trauma, facilitating a safe resolution of shock and held experiences that has originated from recent events or much earlier ones. This makes the therapy a powerful way into many conditions that have their origin in trauma: such as birth, accidents, abuse, and illness.