A Brief History Although the
professional training and practice of CranioSacral Therapy per se has barely emerged in many parts
of the world, it has ancient roots in diverse cultures and healing practises;
for example, traditional midwives once knew how to gently reshape neonate
heads to help release sutural overlap and compression problems. The gentle ‘holding and shaping’ way of
bodywork has very likely been part of Buddhist and Native American medicine
for thousands of years. One suspects
that many famous healers in history were holding heads in this ‘cranio way.’ As
a distinct discipline CST began over 100 years ago with the pioneering work
of the osteopath William Garner
Sutherland. His research suggested that the cranium is designed to
move; that it was not the rigid ‘brain box’ portrayed in Western anatomy
books. Though everyone accepted the need for ‘pliability’ in the baby’s
head during birth, few anatomists before Sutherland entertained the
possibility of cranial mobility in the child or adult. None had
realised the importance of it. Experimenting
mainly on himself, Dr Sutherland found that indeed the head does accommodate
movement. He could sense and palpate a slow regular pulse of
contraction/expansion rolling through it—like a mini tidal wave. He knew that the brain and spinal cord are
contained and nourished in a pressurised sac of water (cerebrospinal
fluid). He envisaged the tide rolling
through the water and moving the cranial bones in turn. He went on to
discribe how this primal motion worked its way through the body as a whole, focusing
on the bony and fascial aspects. Sutherland
called this water breathing ‘primary respiration’ to distinguish it from air
breathing or ‘secondary respiration.’
He likened the tidal motion in the temporal bones (at the sides of the
head) to the action of ‘the gills of a fish.’
And he discovered that inhibiting its action (e.g. tightening a helmet
around his head) produced a host of ill effects on his health and
energy. For Sutherland this was the
very breath of life made sensate in the medium of water. Over
time Sutherland’s model has been modified and enriched with insights from
many fields. With tools now available
it is possible to see primal breathing in an embryo and measure it in an
adult cranium. Every cell and every whole body pulses in a slow and
regular rhythm, from conception onward.
Primal breathing has been found to persist long after air breathing
and heart beat have ceased in death process.
“To understand water is to understand the cosmos, the marvels of
nature, and life itself” Masaru Emoto “All that life around us was really water, modelled according to its
own laws, vitalized by each fresh venture, striving to rise into
consciousness” Jacques Cousteau The
Practice of CST Tuning
into primal breathing in a compact living body is an enlightening
experience. The realisation of a deep,
fundamental tide rolling through the body has led to the adoption of
craniosacral therapy in many healing and medical disciplines. Teachers and researchers from these various
fields are in turn developing CST into a broad but coherent approach to
trauma.
Drawing by Ray Lacey
The sensitised hands of the cranio therapist act as conformable mirrors
or sounding boards, taking up and shaping around turbulence and frozen areas,
but not pushing, pulling or manipulating in any fashion. The healing comes with time and increasing
trust in the holding relationship, with layers of compensation and protection
peeling away. This approach avoids
re-traumatisation but encourages effective action toward the completion of
survival responses.
The cranio way of touching and holding helps to build tidal
potency. One method is to take up
specific holds that encourage and support the system toward stillness.
This is called ‘stillpointing’ and it indicates a turning point in systemic
behaviour. A healthy body does this
naturally at least twice per day—once in falling asleep and again before
waking. It can happen at other times, such as when going into or coming
out of meditation or dreaming. It
tends to happen often or not at all when vital organs are clogged or out of
synch. A stillpoint is like a dam
holding back the water until it has reached full volume and density.
Once released, the tide can roll with its full range and velocity into the
system.
The
therapist will also pump with the tide, and roll with tissues and organs
through their tidal range, all in an effort to improve intrinsic motion
through the area. Reflective holding
combined with an interactive biodynamic vision gives the therapist access to
the tide as it works into frozen or turbulent areas so that they may be
smoothed and entrained into the whole body rhythm. Releases
take many forms, ranging from stubtle tremors and realignments through to
whole body vigorous unwindings, bursts of emotion
and healing crises. All of this is
supported, contained and made safe in cranio hands. Working creatively and safely
with the tide of another person (or animal) takes considerable training and
experience. It’s not something to
tinker with, or to be diagnosed and fixed. It requires great skill and
centeredness to follow and understand the workings of the tide. As the layers of compensation peel away,
things get stirred up and need to be followed up. One needs to know as
much as possible about the total milieu of the client, and every client is
unique. The practitioner also needs to understand the process in terms
that make sense to clients, colleagues and professionals in allied fields. Applications The
craniosacral way of therapeutic holding has wide applications in trauma
recovery. It can help get to the root
disconnection in learning and behavioural disorders, in tonic disorders, in
immune system recovery, and in several developmental disorders. It has
found a big role in dental and craniofacial trauma. CST can be the
treatment of choice for complex whiplash and repetitive strain syndromes, and
especially for problems in pregnancy and birthing.
Around
the world in recent decades increasing numbers of holistically inclined
health care professionals and teachers have studied and integrated CST into
their work. The majority have arrived
from massage, physiotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic, but with
substantial numbers from mother & baby care and movement therapies. There are a few cranio dentists,
veterinarians, child psychologists and midwives among them. Cranio has been made available in hospitals
in the The
artist and scientist, the healer and the physician come together in the
cranial way, to the benefit of themselves and especially their clients. |
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African Institute of Cranial Studies 2009