What is CranioSacral Therapy?

CranioSacral Therapy (CST) is a gentle yet powerful form of bodywork. Many people mistakenly think of it as an energy healing technique, perhaps because the touch is so delicate and the hand placements can resemble those used in Reiki. However, CST is a physical therapy, much like Swedish massage, deep tissue work, or trigger point techniques. The key difference is that while those therapies focus on opening muscles, CranioSacral Therapy works to open the vital flow within our entire system.

How Does It Work?

To simplify it, let's consider how our bodies naturally heal. We all experience minor aches, sudden pains, or just "weird feelings" that often disappear on their own. This happens because our body has an incredible self-healing system, and at its core is the CranioSacral System.

Our bodies are never truly still. There's a constant, subtle, rhythmic movement – a gentle "beat" of inhalation and exhalation. This fundamental rhythm ensures the body is continuously engaged in self-healing. Where there's no beat, there's no life. Each of us typically has between 6 to 12 of these unique "beats" per minute.

When we experience a trauma – big or small, physical or emotional – this natural rhythm can be disrupted. The beat might become too slow, too fast, too silent, unstable, or even stop in certain areas.

As a certified CranioSacral therapist, I "listen" for these subtle rhythms in your body. I'm searching for areas where the CranioSacral beat isn't working properly and gently encourage it to return to its stable, healthy rhythm.

The CranioSacral Fluid: Your Inner Healer

Within all of our cells, fascia, bones, muscles, and diaphragms, there's a vital fluid. The stream of this fluid is what we call the CranioSacral beat. Every stream equals one beat. This incredible liquid is produced in the brain and circulates throughout the entire body.

Consider this: in our very first stages of development as human beings, for the initial six weeks, our system primarily relies on this liquid, before even using DNA and chromosomes. This fluid holds the fundamental "knowledge" to build and form a human body.

This vital liquid continuously travels through your body, maintaining its ideal, healthy state and actively repairing areas of trauma. By trauma, I mean any imbalance or problem, from the smallest ache to more significant issues.

As mentioned, where there's no beat, there's no life. My role as a CranioSacral therapist is to identify those areas where the beat has changed due to trauma and, through gentle encouragement, help it return to its stable rhythm (between 6-12 bpm). This action significantly accelerates your body's innate self-healing process.

A typical CranioSacral session lasts between 45 to 75 minutes. For chronic issues, I usually recommend 3 to 5 sessions. By the end of this process, patients often learn how to listen to their own CranioSacral beat and enter a state of "fulcrum," empowering their self-healing long-term.