What is Craniosacral Therapy?

Craniosacral therapy is a gentle and subtle form of bodywork that helps your body to reorganize patterns of contraction so that your whole system can recover energy, efficiency, ease, communication and awareness. It works with the natural circulatory rhythm of the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes your brain and spinal chord. Because it is so directly tapped in to your central nervous system, this work can access deeply held structural patterns – patterns that organize around old injuries, patterns of tension that arise in response to stress, patterns that hold us back from our full strength and potential.

Receiving craniosacral therapy is deeply relaxing. It will bring you back into connection with yourself and help you build a wellspring of health and stability, because it unwinds stresses and soothes the physical and mental triggers that initiate contraction. You can receive craniosacral therapy with your clothes on, lying back on a comfortable massage table as a practicioner holds your head, your feet, your shoulders. Here is a lovely description of the experience by Orthopedic Doctor Michael Kern, from his book Wisdom in the Body:

The thing that I most remember about those first appointments was how I felt heard. This was not because of any verbal reassurance or a sympathetic ear – although I’m sure that helped – but because I had never been touched in that way before. My therapist put his hands on my head, hardly making contact, and waited there in silence. I had never experienced such a light and yet penetrating touch, or been in such close and yet spacious contact with another person. Within that contact it was as if the whole of me was being held – mind, body and heart.

Furthermore, this was not just a passive or static process, as I could sense a powerful reorganization taking place inside me. There was a clear and dynamic communication going on between the practitioner’s hands and my body. His hand contacts had a precision and appropriateness, as if some primal part of me was being acknowledged. Slowly, I began to notice that there was something else, apart from my own confusion and the tightness my body had been carrying. I began to be aware of a depth of presence and healing and started to let go.

Craniosacral therapy can be used to treat a full range of musculoskeletal concerns – any of the aches and pains you might consult a massage therapist or a physical therapist about. In addition, it can be especially helpful in working with headaches, jaw tension, issues in the sacrum, hips, low back or spine, chronic pain, nagging old injuries. It also can be an extremely potent treatment for stress, depression, anxiety, endocrine imbalance, and recovery from physical or other forms of trauma.