CranioSacral Therapy
“What is CranioSacral Therapy (CST) and how can it help me?”
CranioSacral Therapy is so much more than just structural work, but the structural part is a good place to start in order to understand it. Take a moment to think about restrictions in your muscles and fascia, and how they can create a feeling of imbalance, pain, or tension in your body. Now picture how the same fascia that wraps around your sore back muscles is part of a continuous web of tissue that runs from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. CST is a gentle, hands-on treatment that evaluates and treats restrictions in the deepest layers of your body- including the part of the fascial web that lies inside the CranioSacral system.
The CranioSacral system might not be something you have heard much about, but it is incredibly important for overall health and vitality. This system includes all of the mebranes (which are layers of fascia) that surround the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord); the cranial bones and the sacrum that are directly attached to those membranes; and the cerebrospinal fluid that nourishes your central nervous system. As fresh cerebrospinal fluid is produced and then removed for waste removal, a rhythmic motion known as the CranioSacral Rhythm can be palpated.
A key principle of CST is that every body is capable of healing itself when the conditions are right. Rather than going into a CST session trying to “fix” you, we simply listen and follow as your body shows signs of restrictions. While there are many specific techniques that we learn in our Upledger training, the role of a craniosacral practitioner is to facilitate your body’s natural ability to heal. We do this in a multi-faceted way:
Manually treating any structural restrictions so that fluid can be exchanged in an optimized way.
Helping you to dial down your sympathetic nervous system response. This brings you into a state of deep relaxation that is optimal for self-healing.
Facilitating an experience that allows you to “drop into your inner landscape,” which often gets tuned out during our busy day-to-day lives.
Holding a space for letting go of stored emotional tensions, which can be the surprising contributor to many physical symptoms (I will have more on this in future posts!)
By supporting your innate healing capabilities, and supporting and nourishing your nervous system, there are not many conditions that CranioSacral Therapy cannot benefit! CST can help facilitate healing from headaches, migraines, chronic pain, feeling overly stressed, anxiety, jaw tension, and so much more.
In my practice, I offer stand-alone CST sessions which are performed over comfortable clothing, and I offer a blend of CST integrated into a massage.
