Craniosacral Therapy
CranioSacral Therapy (CST) is a gentle, hands-on therapy developed by Dr. John E. Upledger, an osteopathic physician who, through extensive scientific research conducted between 1975 and 1983 at Michigan State University, explored the therapeutic potential of this unique approach. Dr. Upledger's work laid the foundation for what CST is today—a holistic method that supports the body's natural healing processes.
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CST focuses on the craniosacral system, which consists of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid surrounding and protecting the brain and spinal cord. By applying a light touch, typically no more than 5 grams (about the weight of a nickel), CST practitioners help release restrictions within this system. This gentle technique has been shown to enhance the functioning of the central nervous system and improve the overall health of various body systems, including the digestive, musculoskeletal, respiratory, and circulatory systems.
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CranioSacral Therapy can also address a range of conditions, including temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction, migraines, postpartum recovery, and general stress. It is also effective in supporting those experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and more, offering a compassionate and supportive path to relief and well-being.
Benefits
By facilitating the body's natural and innate healing processes, CST is increasingly used as a preventive health measure for its ability to bolster resistance to disease, and has been shown to be beneficial for people seeking help with a wide range of healthcare challenges and symptoms including:
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Migraines, Headaches
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Chronic Pain
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Motor-Coordination Impairments
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Central Nervous System Disorders
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Orthopedic Problems
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Traumatic Brain Injuries and Concussions
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Alzheimer's
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Spinal Cord Injuries
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Scoliosis
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Conception, Pregnancy, Birth
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Pediatric Challenges
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Learning Differences, ADD, ADHD
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Autism and Sensory Processing
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Chronic Fatigue
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Emotional Difficulties, Depression
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Stress and Tension-Related Problems
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Fibromyalgia and other Connective-Tissue Disorders
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Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ) and Dental Challenges
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Immune Disorders
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
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Post-Surgical Dysfunction
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Sleep Challenges
The Process
There is no need for a client to tell me verbally what’s wrong,” Dr. Upledger says. He prefers to remain open to the body’s own language, although some therapists may want to talk with you first. For the hands-on work to be most effective, you should wear loose, thin clothing. This way, the practitioner can better sense what’s going on in your body. You’ll be asked to lie on your back on a massage table.
By quietly resting the hands on your skull and sacrum, the therapist evaluates your craniosacral rhythms. This in itself can create a shift in energy. Sometimes, the therapist’s hands become aware of places along the column where energy is stuck or heated. She then uses the bones of the sacrum and cranium as “handles” to manipulate the deeper layers of fluid and membranes. No instruments or devices are used.
In sessions lasting 45 – 60 minutes, clients and therapists work closely together. “Ideally,” says Dr. Milne, “the client clears a mental space so something might occur.” The therapist waits and listens. You might feel a quieting down, a sinking in, and a deeper awareness. The whole idea is that the practitioner works with such gentleness and subtleness that the body itself can do the healing and necessary adjustments. “It’s a question of trust,” Dr. Upledger notes. A session can be described as a physically connected meditation, in which hidden information in the craniosacral system reveals itself.
Healing then can occur via the corrective mechanism known as the still point, the spontaneous quiet between waves. Typically, you have one every three to four minutes, and it lasts from five to sixty seconds. It’s a natural pause in the rhythm. Synchronizing and optimizing the waves, still points are like sighs. During sessions, when you’re more sensitive to them, they’re like moments of deep relaxation in which you let go and return to yourself. It’s the moment of insight, when you “get” it.
Post Treatment
just as individual experiences can differ, so can the immediate results. This relaxed state may cause some to sleep for many hours after a session. Others may experience an increase in energy. Some people report that they feel as if somebody had moved things about in their body.
Reduction of pain or an increase in function may occur immediately after the session or it may develop gradually over the next few days. For some there may be a reorganization phase as the body adapts to the release of previously held patterns.
The client will be well capable of driving.
Occasionally, certain CST techniques will dredge up “old pains” that had gone away. This is a good thing!! The old pains hadn’t disappeared; they were simply dormant and waiting to reappear at another time. The dredging up offers an opportunity for total correction of the problem at that time.
Should I get CST?
So should you go for it? Look at it this way. For the most part, you don’t have anything to lose, and you’ll get a healing method that connects the physical, emotional and spiritual. Intuition, insight and the perception of facts are equally important. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Maybe, the mind can’t understand the details – that the body holds the answers if we dare to be still enough to listen to the tide of the cranial wave, our core. That’s what craniosacral therapy aims for.
Amy M. Gray, a certified massage and bodywork therapist at the Complementary Medicine Center in Indianapolis, has no doubt about its profound effects. “In school, I felt the craniosacral rhythm right off, I’ve been hooked ever since,” she says, noting that many of her clients feel 90% better after their first visit. “I always stress how gentle this technique is. How it deals with the whole body. The body is just an amazing creation!”
Your experience of the work will be uniquely yours. “The spectrum exists,” says Christianson. “At minimum, you have a deeply relaxing experience. Most likely, it’ll go beyond that to release holding patterns.”
While craniosacral work is still searching for its due place on the world map of medicine, it’s gaining in popularity fast as a natural, holistic healing approach virtually without risk or side effect. Will we ever be able to measure the mysterious interdependence of mind, body and spirit or understand the mystical nature of who we are? It seems that craniosacral therapy at least gives us a glimpse of a core connection.
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