What is Biodynamic Craniosacral therapy?
Craniosacral therapy is an established healing modality originating in Osteopathy. It is a gentle touch therapy that facilitates the body’s own healing process and allows your body to set the pace and order in which adjustments occur. There is no manipulation or force, and the therapy is done fully clothed on a treatment table. The Craniosacral process creates a safe space for traumatic experiences to emerge and resolve smoothly without being overwhelming or re-stimulating.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is a long name for a simple process. Our bodies hold stresses and tensions as well as the story of our experiences. The tensions may come from accidents, emotional trauma, illness, surgery, or stress. Our body holds these tensions in our connective tissues, nervous system, and muscles. This imbalance then shows up as symptoms, such as migraines, headaches, sleep problems, digestive problems, anxiety, neck pain, jaw pain and more. The craniosacral process addresses where and how these patterns are held.
CST is suitable for everyone, from newly born babies and pregnant mums to the elderly. Conditions treated include both acute and chronic.
When should you seek treatment?
Some of the conditions that may benefit from Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy include:
Anxiety
Trauma/PTSD
Digestive issues
Hormonal issues
Frozen shoulder
Muscular tension
Circulation/energy
Headaches
Pregnancy support
Birth trauma
Chronic fatigue
Chronic conditions that are unresponsive to conventional treatment
Feel better in your body, with hands-on treatments.
What should you expect during a treatment?
First up we’ll discuss your health history and get an understanding of your treatment needs. You’ll then get comfortable on the treatment table fully clothed. I gently hold areas of your body, including feet, cranium, sacrum, or diaphragm. The treatment continues until the body completes the process, usually around 40 minutes.
After treatment, people tend to experience increased energy levels, improved digestion and organ function, reduced stress, pain reduction or deep relaxation and peace. Changes are not always immediate; it can take several days for the body to process. In this time, be gentle with yourself.
The number of treatments you will need is dependent on the nature of your healing process. We will discuss this after treatment and the decision will be up to you. As your body responds there can be less need for regular treatment. However, clients often use craniosacral as a regular part of the maintenance of their ongoing health and nervous system regulation.
How does it work?
People often think “craniosacral therapy” only refers to the head. In fact, CST works with the whole person and changes may occur in any body system. The name refers to the importance of the action of the craniosacral system which has body wide implications.
The Craniosacral System is comprised of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds and protects the brain and spinal cord. It extends from the cranium down to the sacrum. Any restrictions in the membranes of the system can directly affect the nervous system and cause a range of problems. Restrictions also indicate how other systems are functioning.
The Craniosacral process deals directly with the body’s own priorities, not only what therapists cognitively deduce. While all your history and experiences are relevant and essential, the body doesn’t always record and process experiences the way our minds think.
Trauma
There are many ways in which the word trauma is understood and used. To try and simplify it in a craniosacral context, it doesn’t necessarily describe an experience or event as much as the body’s response to it.
Trauma is a physiological experience before a cognitive one. In this context, trauma is any incoming force in the body, kinetic impact, chemical, or emotional that the body does not have the resources to deal with and disperse. So, it contains it and reorganises bodily functions in relation to it. This results in symptoms, mental or physical and different for every individual dependant on their history.
Throughout life, events occur that we cannot deal with, because they are too overwhelming. These impacts, whether emotional or physical, are held in the body as tissue memory and create physiological effects. When a person cannot access their inner healing force on their own, the co-regulatory effect of craniosacral touch ignites the body’s healing process at a cellular level.
The long-term effects of unresolved trauma can lead to stress, a feeling of disconnection, illness, and chronic disease. The core effect of Craniosacral treatment is to support regulation of the autonomic nervous system. The nervous system is foundational to every aspect of our physical, emotional, and psychological functioning. The treatment process creates a safe space for patterns stored in the tissues to emerge and resolve without overwhelming or retraumatizing.
Craniosacral for Babies
Craniosacral therapy is a gentle approach for babies. It encourages the release of tissue strains, stress patterns and traumatic memories held in your baby’s system. These may originate from pregnancy, labour, or birth. Releasing tension in the head and body helps rebalance tension patterns and allows movement. Treatment may result in a calmer baby with better sleep or sociability.
Patterns from post-natal and birth experiences effect our present response to life as adults, the earlier we address them the less the body must adapt and change to manage these patterns.
During treatment, my hands will hold in different places, head, stomach, back or feet. This is done in consideration of baby’s cues and comfort. Treatment may also be done while baby is feeding or lying on their parent.
What can treatment address?
- Release shock and trauma patterns from the birth process.
- Release compression in the cranial bones and tissues tension in the membranes.
- Release joint restrictions in the spine.
- Digestive issues from a dysregulated sympathetic nervous system.
If your baby is dealing with any of these patterns this may present in the body in various ways and produce different symptoms and behaviour. Specific indications to bring your baby to receive a craniosacral treatment include:
- Baby is hard to settle.
- Crying a lot, unsettled or fractious.
- Struggling with digestive issues, colic or reflux.
- Difficulties with breastfeeding.
- Following an operation
- Attachment issues.
- Flat spots on the cranium.
- Torticollis.
Craniosacral also supports the mother throughout pregnancy. It can help the mother prepare physically and mentally for childbirth and the resulting changes.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Explained
Make an appointment today.
If you would like to make an appointment, or if you have any questions about treatments and whether it will be helpful to you, please use the form on my contact page:
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