Craniosacral Therapy (CST) is a gentle, hands-on method of evaluating and enhancing the Craniosacral System, the environment in which the brain and spinal cord function. Imbalance or dysfunction in the Craniosacral System can cause sensory, motor or neurological disabilities. These problems may include chronic pain, scoliosis, motor coordination impairments and learning disabilities, as well as other physical and psychological problems.
Craniosacral Therapy supports the body’s innate ability to effect deep healing of physical and emotional blockages. These blockages impact – in varying degrees – on systems within the body, including the immune, endocrine (hormonal), skeletal, respiratory, reproductive and digestive systems. Blockages are restrictions in the Craniosacral System, resulting from physical or emotional traumas that have not found appropriate release.
Consider post-operative trauma: despite analgesia, when an incision is made in the body, the unconscious mind registers this as a life-threatening event, causing the body/mind to respond appropriately, with the fight/flight mechanism.
Unable to “escape”, the body sinks into a depression to facilitate an adjustment to an inescapable situation. Rationally, we “know” that the operation was necessary, but the bodily violation remains contained within our cellular memory as a trauma, resulting in emotional stress and potential depression. Depression is the body/mind’s way of saying: Here is a situation to which we need to adjust, and we’re not quite ready to relinquish old beliefs for the new reality. Our response, based on medical “reality”, is that we “shouldn’t” feel this way, and so we suppress our instinctual feelings, and these become trapped within the body, setting up a restrictive fulcrum (blockage), felt by a trained practitioner as either turbulence or lack of movement in the Craniosacral System.
Craniosacral Therapy has its origins in Osteopathy and its application and methods have been refined over the past several decades by many prominent leaders in this field and recognized teaching institutions (worldwide).