You may never have heard of craniosacral therapy, let alone understand why it may be of benefit or what a treatment involves. The idea of this page is to give you a brief insight into what a therapist works with during a treatment. I hope you find it as fascinating & amazing as I do.
The craniosacral system broadly consists of the following:
- The cranium (bones of the head)
- The sacrum (tailbone)
- Membranes extending between the two & enveloping the spinal cord
- Cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) which is contained within the membranes and continuously bathes the brain and spinal cord.
Conventional anatomy books stated that bones fused in adults. William Sutherland, an Osteopath, was the first person to look at a skull and notice that in fact the bones moved. He discovered that when he placed his hands on a skull, he could feel a very subtle rhythmic motion of expansion and contraction of the bones of the head & body. As if the whole body was breathing, not just the lungs. However, there is much more to it than that …………
When a craniosacral therapist is treating a client we tune in to the whole body & engage with much more than hard bone. We are aware of something much softer – the membranes that line the bones and envelop the central nervous system. It doesn’t stop there though, as going deeper still into a person’s system we notice a fluidity that cannot be membrane because they are soft, not fluidic. This fluidity is the cerebral spinal fluid that’s contained in the membranes. Even all of that isn’t everything we are feeling. Fluidic fluctuating sensations connect us even deeper still, to the soft tissues and fluids throughout the whole body not just the bones of the brain & spinal cord, not just membranes and CSF. We feel everything within the body, head to toe and everything in between.
A cranialsacral treatment goes further still because a craniosacral therapist doesn’t always have to have their hands on the physical body to treat a patient. With barely a touch, we can still feel these movements, qualities and asymmetries so what else are we tuning in to if it isn’t bone, membrane or fluid? We are tuning in to a universal force which pervades all the tissues of the body but extends beyond the tissues. We are tuning in to what is known as the energetic matrix.
This matrix is present in early embryonic life forming an energetic field or blueprint into which the physical body grows and develops. Throughout life, our matrix is present as a force field in which we exist, sometimes known as an aura. It can be palpated as a cushion of energy. Each persons individual matrix blends into the matrix of the world around us. Through this continuous matrix flows the fundamental natural forces of the universe – the breath of life.
A craniosacral therapist works at this deep level during a treatment. It is at this deep level that the most profound healing can take place.