Craniosacral therapy (CST) is an extremely gentle, light touch therapy, facilitating the body’s natural ability to self heal. Within the cranium, sacrum and spinal column is a fluid called cerebral spinal fluid CSF, this fluid surrounds, lubricates and protects the spinal cord, brain, cranial nerves and spinal nerves. Within the CSF, small, subtle, tide like movements are found; a gentle ebbing and flowing of the fluids, creating tiny pulsations and tide like sensations called ‘the breath of life’. It is these minute, very subtle movements that the therapist looks to ‘tune in’, palpating the cranium, spine and sacrum, assessing the tide like movements and assessing their quality. CST is a non-manipulative discipline that has developed from the same roots as cranial osteopathy.

 

 

 

CST is based on the observations of the therapist, checking the quality, strengths and absence of the tides and subtle movements of the CSF. Based on the findings, the therapist will tune into that particular area and start treatment, it is often enough to just listen through palpation, allowing the natural healing process of the body to awaken, encouraging healing at a very subtle level to the affected area . By focusing on the body’s internal rhythms and allowing restrictions to change, therapists help the client to learn, on both a conscious and subconscious personal level, how to recognise and release areas that may be causing illness or hindering recovery.

 

 

 

Before your CST session you will be asked to complete a questionnaire outlining a brief medical history, a few questions to ensure that Craniosacral Therapy is right for you and what you are looking to achieve from the treatment. During your treatment you will remain fully clothed and will be asked to lie down on a couch or sit up, whichever is most appropriate for you and your particular condition or set of circumstances. The therapist will use their hands to ‘tune in’, or listen to the natural rhythms, ebbs and flows of the CSF. The therapists hands may stay focused on one particular area for quite some time, whilst they allow the natural healing, unwinding or adjustments to take place.

Everyone’s experience of CST is different, as the treatment is unique to you. Quite often you may feel heat, cold, tingling, pulsing, twitching, all of the above or nothing at all. Most patients feel a deep sense of relaxation and an almost meditative state of mind.

 

The number of sessions required will vary from person to person; how they respond; what they are looking to achieve or get treated.  

 

 

 

Anyone can benefit, but because it is so gentle, craniosacral therapy is suitable for children and elderly people, as well as those with acutely painful conditions that are difficult to treat with other hands-on therapies. It is also often appropriate when other therapies may be contraindicated, for example, during pregnancy or after an operation.