About

Craniosacral Therapy

Craniosacral therapy is a subtle form of hands-on healing that involves sensing and manipulating the bio-rhythms of the body such as the craniosacral fluid, the minute motion of our organs as well as our lymph. The role of treatment is to enable the body’s self-healing and self-regulating capabilities. Acute and chronic cases of pathologies benefit well from this gentle and life-giving modality.

The Craniosacral Session

The work is very gentle and non-invasive. Subtle suggestions are introduced through the practitioner’s hands to help restore balance in areas of congestion, stagnation, and inertia. With skillful touch, the practitioner can assist the body to resolve patterns of disorder thereby encouraging a revitalization of tissues with the healing forces of the Breath of Life. Craniosacral therapy is a whole-person approach to healing. The inter-connections of mind, body, and spirit are acknowledged, as well as how the body reflects experiences and retains the memory of trauma. It is an effective form of treatment for a wide range of acute and chronic illnesses, helping to create the optimal conditions for health, encouraging vitality, and facilitating a sense of well-being.

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• Asthma
• Back and neck pain
• Chronic fatigue
• Depression
• Digestive problems
• Dizziness
• Emotional problems/stress
• Facial pain
• Frozen shoulder
• Headaches and migraines
• Hearing problems/tinnitus
• Hormonal imbalances
• Hyperactivity
• Infertility
• Insomnia
• Menstrual pain
• Muscular aches and pains
• Neck pain
• Sciatica and low back pain
• Sinusitis TMJ/jaw problems
• Visual disturbances/eye strain

Life and Movement

About 100 years ago, the presence of these subtle rhythmic motions in the body was discovered by a man named William Garner Sutherland, D.O., who postulated that this motion must exist in the skull after observing disarticulated cranial bones. Through a lifetime of exploration and research, he concluded that this motion is produced by the body’s inherent life force, which he called the ‘Breath of Life’. Dr. Sutherland further realized that the motion of the cranial bones is closely connected to an integrated network of tissues and fluids at the core of the body that includes the cerebrospinal fluid, the brain and spinal cord, the membranes surrounding the central nervous system and the sacrum (the triangular bone at the back of the pelvis).

Speed and gravity affect the rhythms and motions of our organs, blood flow, lymph, and flow of cerebrospinal fluid. These natural rhythms can become stuck with injury, stress, and simple daily living. At a fundamental level all healthy living tissue “breathes” with a motion of life as quarks and quasars and other tiny particles spark into existence creating the building blocks for our bodies. Life may express itself as the subtle flicker of motion. We are moving through space on this planet at speeds up to 67,000 miles per hour!

Patterning and Inertia

However, our body becomes repatterned according to how our intrinsic resources are able to deal with any stresses that we may experience. Common stressors include physical injury, emotional and psychological stresses, birth traumas, and environmental toxicity. Any unresolved stresses, strains, and traumas create sites of inertia or “body memories” which may accumulate over time. These memories of our stresses and traumas remain in our body system, affecting our ability to function and perpetuating ill health until resolved. Constrictions in muscles and bones, for example, can compromise organ and nervous system functioning, leading to chronic pain and illness. The body thus becomes a unique expression of our health, history, and conditioning.

Through the development of subtle palpatory skills, the craniosacral practitioner can read the history of the body by sensing the patterns and qualities of primary respiratory motion. The intention in craniosacral therapy is to help free any areas of inertia so that the ordering forces of the Breath of Life find expression in the tissues. This is done physically, through manipulation and realignment of cranial and sacral bones and muscle fascia, as well as through energetic suggestions made to the body’s inner intelligence through the tissues. When the constrictions in the tissues and sites of inertia are resolved, it is marked by the restoration of balance and symmetry in primary respiratory motion and a return to normal functioning.