What is Craniosacral therapy?

Craniosacral therapy is a gentle hands-on therapy with a profound effect on the body.   It is not painful, but very relaxing, in a meditative way, as the therapist’s hands gently finds its way to “blend” with the patient’s body, and once “blended”, follows and supports the body’s need to self-correct.   The therapist acts a facilitator to the body’s “inner physician”, and the body’s ability to self-correct, or self-heal.

The Craniosacral system comprises of:
1. your cranial bones (i.e. the bones in your skull)
2. the meninges (the membrane system surrounding your brain and spinal cord)
3. the sacrum (the bone at the base of your back where the spinal cord ends).

These structures create something of a hydraulic system that pumps cerebral spinal fluid throughout the body, which also creates a rhythm felt throughout the body that differs from the heart beat and breathing.  By palpating the cranial rhythm at different parts of the body it can be used as an assessment tool as well as a treatment technique.

It is not massage therapy but it is a hands on therapy developed by an osteopath, Dr. John Upledger. The membrane system plays a vital role in the system because not only does it anchor onto the bones at each end of the body, but it’s three layer membrane that encase the brain and spinal cord, allows the torso to move.

 

Posted in: Massage Therapy