What Is Craniosacral Therapy? A Beginner’s Guide

If you’re new to the world of alternative therapies, or have only just heard of craniosacral therapy (CST), educating yourself on its background, how it works, what it’s used to treat, and how it impacts clients is useful.

Many people return again and again to CST for a variety of ailments. Through understanding this therapeutic approach, you can decide whether it’s suitable for you or someone you care about. It’s often a helpful option when people are looking for something non-invasive, gentle, and relaxing.

What is Craniosacral Therapy?

Craniosacral therapy London is one of the most gentle, yet hands-on alternative therapies around. Practitioners work with the craniosacral system which includes the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. There’s a rhythmic pulse that the specialist identifies and tunes into. This enables them to find blockages.

Practitioners use the lightest of physical contact on patients to ease tension and promote healing. This form of therapy supports the idea that the body has its own power to heal.

After studying Dr William Sutherland and his work in cranial osteopathy, Dr John Upledger developed this therapeutic approach in the 1970s. Through his own research, Dr Upledger discovered energy transfer and electromagnetic changes in the cerebrospinal fluid. From here, he developed ways to treat this system focusing on releasing tension which also supported healing in the bones and fascia.

What can You Expect in a Craniosacral Therapy session? 

Before a session, you’ll have a health consultation where the therapist will gather information about your health history, your reasons for seeking CST, and will also likely ask what hopes you have for treatment. 

You’ll be given advice to follow for after the session (i.e. you might be advised to drink water and to try to maintain a calm energy). It’s also likely that you’ll receive guidance on how many sessions are recommended for your ailment.

On the day of the session, you’ll be welcomed into a comfortable room. It’s the goal of practitioners to ensure clients feel welcome, comfortable, and safe. Quite often there will be ambient lighting and maybe soft, relaxing music.

Usually, the client will lie down on the therapy bed, fully clothed while the therapist stands next to them using the gentlest of touch over the head, neck, back and sacrum.

Many people experience a deep sense of relaxation, fully immersing into a state of inner calm. The therapist locates areas of tension, the rhythmic pulse in the cerebrospinal fluid and uses this to support clients to release unhealthy energies in the body’s connective tissues.

The session will generally last between 30 and 60 minutes. Sometimes, clients fall to sleep during the session. CST promotes relaxation and sleep outside of the room, too, and many people report positive impacts after sessions.

What Conditions does CST support? 

There are many conditions that CST helps with, both psychological and physical. Due to how it impacts the central nervous system and the fascia throughout the body, its healing effects ripple through the various bodily system and are wide and varied.

Conditions that people use CST to for, include…

• Anxiety and stress – CST helps with emotional regulation and shifting emotional blocks
• Back pain
• Bowel problems and constipation – by gently easing tensions around the digestive system, issues are eased
• Chronic pain – studies show CST is an effective tool in pain management
• Colic 
• Emotional release – there are many reports of CST clients experiencing deep emotional release during sessions
• Fibromyalgia
• Migraines – research shows that CST is effective at treating migraines
• Neck pain
• Pregnancy support – this is a brilliant non-invasive approach for mothers with anxiety, constipation etc.
• TSD – during session, people can experience somato-emotional release when the vagus nerve is activated and great emotional shifts occur
• Scoliosis
• Sleep Disturbances – CST is known to activate the parasympathetic nervous system which promote relaxation and sleep
• Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (pain and dysfunction in the jaw) – CST promotes relaxation around the neck and jaw easing tightness and working against stress in this area

The Human Experience of Craniosacral Therapy 

Craniosacral therapy offers a type of experiential healing that works for many people. In terms of approach, it might be likened to other alternative healing approaches, such as reiki and yoga. In the East, people treat illnesses and blockages by working with energy meridians in the body. These types of therapies are similar.

Alternative approaches are known for bringing people to alternative states where the present and being oneself feels more sensory; a person is truly connected to their body in a profound and calm way. 

In an extremely busy world filled with stresses and a 100 mile hour pace from all angles, this approach is an oasis of healing in the storm.

There are many reports across the web of how effective and significant CST has been within both physical and emotional recovery journeys. With this therapy, the anecdotal recommendations speak for themselves.

Have any more Questions?

Craniosacral therapy is very much an approach that needs to be experienced first-hand. Doing this, you experience for yourself the work that the practitioner does, how this feels within your body, and what the after-effects are. 

If you have any questions or want to book in, please call me on 07904 786 888. 

FAQs

1. Is there anything I need to avoid doing after a CST session?

It’s really important to avoid driving if feeling light-headed after a session. Clients are also advised to avoid stressful environments, strenuous activities and vigorous exercise. Doing so allows the ongoing effects of the craniosacral therapy to occur and reach their full effect.

2. Why am I so tired after Craniosacral therapy?

After a session where a therapist has activated your parasympathetic nervous system which leads to relaxation and working with the craniosacral system to ease blockages, it’s very natural to feel tired. Where possible, it’s advisable for clients go home and rest or sleep. 

3. How is CST different to massage?

There are varying types of massage but these approaches work with the muscles in the body. Massage therapists use their hands and arms to apply varying levels of pressure (often deep pressure) to the body. Clients usually remove clothes to receive treatment.

Craniosacral therapy, on the other hand, works with the cerebrospinal fluid and connective tissues surrounding the brain and spine and therapists use gentle touch. Clients keep their clothes on during treatment.

4. What is the Craniosacral still point?

The Craniosacral still point is when the practitioner increasingly slows down the craniosacral rhythm that they’ve employed during the session as connected to the cerebrospinal fluid pulse. The therapist slows down to the point of stopping. This is the still point.