CranioSacral Therapy (CST) is a light touch approach that releases tensions deep in the body to relieve pain and dysfunction and improve whole-body health and performance (Upledger Institue).
CranioSacral Therapy provides an opportunity for the body to relax and heal itself. The human body is always naturally trying to maintain balance and homeostasis. Throughout life, each one of us sustains countless traumas which may be either physical or emotional in nature. Regardless of whether these traumas are big or small in magnitude, the body has to figure out how to deal with them. Most of the time, the body is able to handle these insults and restore balance. If the trauma is too big, or if there are multiple traumas that accumulate, the body is overloaded and unable to restore balance on it's own. Without help, the body has to figure out how to cope with all that it has sustained. It is at this time when physical and or emotional ailments manifest because the coping mechanisms that the body chooses are not always beneficial for the overall wellness of both the body and mind.. The job of a CranioSacral Therapy practitioner is to locate these often "hidden" areas and to treat them by relaxing the body, releasing restrictions using a light touch, and restoring balance by providing an opportunity for the body to self-correct. I said "hidden" areas because it is very common that the area presenting with pain or dysfunction is not the primary problem, but just the end result of the body's coping mechanism. Often times the source of the problem is located elsewhere in the body. Although it may appear unrelated, the truth is that everything in the human body is related and is connected through the CranioSacral system as well as the facial system. This is why a craniosacral therapist treats the entire person, both body and mind.
You may come in complaining of a specific area of pain or report a specific dysfunction and the practitioner must determine the order of what needs to be addressed in each session. Using gentle hands-on listening skills, the CranialSacral Therapy practitioner determines if the chief complaint is the primary problem or if the primary problem is located elsewhere. Just addressing the client's chief complaint may lead to some relief, but ultimately, unless the primary source is addressed, true healing will not occur and dysfunction and disease will persist. The CranioSacral Therapy practitioner has no agenda of her own, but follows the agenda of each client's body to assist in true self-healing by getting to the source of the problem and getting the client back on the road to recovery.
