Craniosacral Therapy
What can it help me with?
Because Craniosacral Therapy works directly with the nervous system and encompasses the entire body, the possible benefits from this therapy are endless. Some of the more common complaints I see come through my door are – persistent and/or recurring pain, digestive complaints, anxiety / nervous system overwhelm, emotional / hormonal imbalance, adrenal fatigue and respiratory problems.
Babies and children are very receptive to this work. The birthing process and the exponential growth and development that occurs in the early years of life, can create discomfort for the child affecting feeding, sleeping, digestion and bonding. A Cranialsacral Therapy treatment can help resolve these issues, calm the nervous system, and may help prevent pain syndromes occurring later on in life.
How does Craniosacral Therapy work?
Craniosacral Therapy works on a physical level in a similar way to how counselling works on a mental / emotional level. The therapist has a highly attuned sense of perception through their touch, which they have developed through hundreds of hours of practice. This can be likened to how a blind person can read brail clearly with their fingers, whereas a person who can still see finds it difficult to feel the raised bumps. Through this highly attuned sense, the therapist can feel patterns being expressed through the client’s connective tissue in a full body context. The client’s nervous system can sense on a subconscious level that the therapist can feel this pattern, and this feedsback to the client’s system that this is a pattern that is not part of their original health and can be re-organised. This all happens through the frontal lobes of the brain in some specialised neurons called mirror neurons:
What happens during a Craniosacral Therapy session?
The session is 50 minutes long in duration, and will start with a consultation to establish an overview of your health, and what you would like to get out of your session (for example, reduce pain in shoulder from old rotator cuff injury). You will then lie down on a comfortable table, fully clothed, while the treatment is carried out. The therapist will most likely start by holding your feet to get an overview of the patterns being expressed in your connective tissue, and then she/he may move to another part of your body, for example the shoulder. The touch is very neutral and no manipulation is carried out. All changes in the body are a result of the changes in the client’s nervous system. Throughout the Craniosacral Therapy treatment, there will be a dialogue around what is happening within the client’s system, and this can be a very educational and therapeutic experience for the client about what is going on in their body as the body resolves held patterns.