Craniosacral Therapy Columbia, MD

What is Craniosacral Therapy?

Craniosacral therapy (CST) a very light-touch manual therapy or bodywork technique that comes out of the osteopathic tradition. It’s typically a lighter touch modality compared with others like visceral manipulation, or myofascial release, and its focus is on helping (usually calming) the nervous system.

While there is an energetic intent any time craniosacral is used, anatomically there is always a concrete, mechanical focus on what’s being done. Here we will describe the hallmarks of this modality.

Therapy For The Nervous System

One of the things that makes CST unique is that it addresses mechanical restrictions of the nervous system. We often forget that the nervous system is a physical structure that takes up space in the body, and needs to be able to move and stretch like muscles, ligaments, and skin do.

We have nerves coursing through our muscles and bodily tissues, and they all branch off a main trunk: the spinal cord. One could think of the nervous system as being physically laid out like an upside-down tree, with the brain being the root ball, the spinal cord as the trunk, and the peripheral nerves (like the sciatic nerve or vagus nerve) as smaller branches.

Of course, we know that this tree of nerves isn’t alone in a vacuum; it’s connected to other parts of the body. The branching nerves of this tree penetrate the rest of the body and are thereby continuous with it.

The nerves also have protective sheets of tissue around them called fascia that act like shrink-wrap as they course through different parts of the body. One can think of this shrink-wrap fascia flowing almost like the bark of the tree on all the branches, except it’s more stretchy than bark. In this model the dural membranes of the skull and spinal cord would be the bark surrounding the trunk and root ball- more on this below.

When there’s tension in a muscle or fascia anywhere in the body, it’s important to appreciate that because of this connection and continuity with the nerve’s fascia (shrink-wrap), the tense area will also tug a little on the branches of the nervous tree and prevent their full freedom of movement. This tension can transmit all the way to the spinal cord and limit its mobility as well.

The tensions and pressures on the physical nervous system will eventually cause symptoms, especially as different ones are accumulated over time. At some point the body can no longer compensate for its areas of restriction or weakness, and it crosses the threshold into being symptomatic.

This is usually due to an accumulation of traumas over the years- both small and large. In particular, they could be old head injuries, falls, sports injuries, etc, which have “healed” by medical standards, but are still being held in the body’s tissues. In addition to mechanical forces or traumas to the system, mental stressors and emotional traumas can also result in tense or restricted areas.

It can be very frustrating for the person dealing with the pain because it’s typically sudden and unexpected. Moreover, because the entire spinal cord is being tugged and tensed, pain can be referred from any part of the nervous system. The symptoms often shift around, or can be completely elsewhere in the body from where the primary causes are.

Craniosacral Therapy (CST) addresses this. By normalizing the physical tensions and pressures in the nervous system, it promotes balance and homeostasis- allowing more normal function. The results are often profound, and holistic. Conditions it helps include:

• Pain and tightness
• Stress levels
• Overall attitude toward oneself and the world
• Anxiety, depression, ADHD
• Past emotional trauma (somatoemotional release)
• Sometimes, even organ function

The nervous system governs everything in the body: our movements, sensations, thoughts, and subconscious systems like sleep or digestion. CST is a non-invasive way to support this.

In this sense, we can think of these sutures as a type of joint. They are the meeting point between two bones, and they allow each bone to move in relation to the other.

This idea that the cranial sutures permit bony motion, like other joints in the body, is revolutionary. Traditionally, British (although not Italian) anatomists taught that these sutures were fused, and no movement between them was possible once the skull matured. Craniosacral therapy rejects this inherited assumption, and finds that in fact, these areas of minute motion can actually be the sites of major dysfunction.

The Skull Is Made of Many Bones – That Move

Another unique concept from craniosacral therapy is the idea that the skull isn’t a completely rigid structure. That is, the bones of the skull are susceptible to tensions and pressures, and can become restricted- causing any number of symptoms throughout the body.

If we remember an infant’s skull, we might recall that it starts out with soft spots, and then becomes all bone after a few years. But what are those soft spots?

They are, in fact, the spaces between different growing cranial bones. And once the bones grow together into adolescence, like tectonic plates of the earth, they have little lines demarcating their borders. These lines are called cranial sutures, and they allow a small amount of motion between all the individual bones of the skull.

In this sense, we can think of these sutures as a type of joint. They are the meeting point between two bones, and they allow each bone to move in relation to the other.

This idea that the cranial sutures permit bony motion, like other joints in the body, is revolutionary. Traditionally, British (although not Italian) anatomists taught that these sutures were fused, and no movement between them was possible once the skull matured. Craniosacral therapy rejects this inherited assumption, and finds that in fact, these areas of minute motion can actually be the sites of major dysfunction.

The Skull Bones (And Spine) As A Container For The Central Nervous System

If there is a shift or restriction in one the cranial bones (restrictions in the sutures), it has a mechanical effect on the central nervous system contained within.

A quick overview of anatomy can explain how. The brain, brain stem, and spinal cord are all enclosed in protective sheets of tissue (the meninges). These sheets are a continuation of the fascia shrink-wrap described earlier, and they run the entire length of the nervous system from the brain and down to the end of the spinal cord.

The strongest, outermost layer of these meningeal sheets wrapping the brain/brain stem/spinal cord is the most important. It’s called the dura, as in epidural spinal injection (green in the image).

The dura surrounds the outside of our brain and spinal cord, but is also strongly adhered to the inside of the cranial bones, our neck bones, and our lower spinal bones, aka the pelvic sacrum bone. It runs from the cranium (the head), down to the sacrum (in the pelvis). This is where the term craniosacral comes from.

The Skull Bones (And Spine) As A Container For The Central Nervous System

If there is a shift or restriction in one the cranial bones (restrictions in the sutures), it has a mechanical effect on the central nervous system contained within.

A quick overview of anatomy can explain how. The brain, brain stem, and spinal cord are all enclosed in protective sheets of tissue (the meninges). These sheets are a continuation of the fascia shrink-wrap described earlier, and they run the entire length of the nervous system from the brain and down to the end of the spinal cord.

The strongest, outermost layer of these meningeal sheets wrapping the brain/brain stem/spinal cord is the most important. It’s called the dura, as in epidural spinal injection (green in the image).

The dura surrounds the outside of our brain and spinal cord, but is also strongly adhered to the inside of the cranial bones, our neck bones, and our lower spinal bones, aka the pelvic sacrum bone. It runs from the cranium (the head), down to the sacrum (in the pelvis). This is where the term craniosacral comes from.

Any shift of a cranial bone, therefore, will physically pull on the nervous system because of this fusion of the dural membrane to the inner skull. Further, other bones like the sacrum or the vertebrae can have the same effect if they absorb trauma or otherwise become restricted. These bones comprise the container of the brain/brain stem/spinal cord, and where one goes, the nervous system must follow.

Craniosacral therapy addresses nervous system restrictions coming from these dural attachment sites. For example, if there is a shift or rotation in the right temporal bone that is pulling the entire nerve tree to the right and causing symptoms, a cranial release of the temporal sutures could bring relief.

Here we are talking about the brain/brain stem/spinal cord, which is the central nervous system. But it’s important to keep in mind the peripheral nervous system too- those smaller branches in the tree discussed earlier that penetrate the other tissues of the body- and how restrictions there can tug on the nerve tree and cause problems as well. Everything in the body is connected, and everything counts.

The Power of Light Touch

Craniosacral is also unique in this paradox: With the lightest touch, you can have the most profound effect. With a strong anatomical background, a craniosacral practitioner can know how to very gently release areas of tension in the body in a minimally invasive fashion.

The forces used are rarely more than the weight of a nickel in the palm of your hand. For this reason, it is a wonderful tool for people whose bodies are sensitive.

Craniosacral Therapy is an often overlooked, drug-free therapy for the container of our nervous system. When applied in the right places with the right intention, it can work wonders for the body, mind, and spirit.