CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY, ITS FUNDAMENTALS AND ITS POTENTIAL
Anthony P. Arnold, PhD 2001

In recent years, craniosacral therapy has become very popular. Therapists using many different modalities have studied it and found it useful. It may dramatically assist in the relief of pain and the restoration of range of motion. It often brings relief to chronic conditions that have reached a plateau in the healing process. Working with the natural capacity of the body for health and healing, it enhances other forms of therapy, helping the body to utilize more effectively all that is available for its wellbeing. Even the beginner may aid in this process, through gentle and respectful use of the basic protocol.

From a beginning perspective, craniosacral therapy is a set of therapeutic techniques, which release constriction among the bones of the pelvis, spine and the cranium.

These are gentle techniques. The touch used in working with the spine and the head is light. This touch often takes the form of a suggestion to the bones and tissues, or a subliminal response to the movement of the bones, rather than a pushing force.
Craniosacral techniques originally grew out of osteopathic medical practice, addressing parts of the body where pain and restriction are frequently experienced. Based on careful consideration of human anatomical organization they follow a sequence that builds upward along the human structure, from tail to head.

Yet, though it was founded on osteopathic techniques, craniosacral therapy has developed a special attitude and approach to the healing process.

The attitude is respectful attentiveness to the messages of the non-verbal body.

The approach is gentle cooperation with the movements and directions the body/mind takes as it seeks to release the effects of trauma.

Body/mind. An inadequate concept, yet more comprehensive concepts tend to be clumsy: Such as body/spirit/mind/emotional being. Through the course of history, through philosophy, theology, and all the sciences we have had a tendency to differentiate and define aspects of the human being as if they were discrete parts. We have developed concepts of spirituality, which distinguish higher and lower, base and noble, proper and improper, worthy and unworthy. Certainly this way of thinking has helped many on the spiritual path, as in the twelve-step programs modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous.

Yet, this way of viewing the self also puts the self at war within. It grows out of the pietism of the turn of the nineteenth century: polarities of good and evil, sin and virtue, dark and light. These polarities seem less appropriate and helpful for us at this time.
We deal with the whole being, experienced as a unity. Perhaps there is a soul essence that leaves the body at the end of life. The saying, "I am not my body," is true. But in this life, we function as a unity. The body expresses the total individual. Many of our weaknesses, injuries, illnesses are the outcome of being at war with ourselves, of behaving in such a way that we do not respond to the messages of the total being that we are.

Craniosacral therapy provides a structured context for experiencing and rediscovering that unity. It is a method that helps us to proceed free of doctrine, belief systems, and statistical probability. We listen, beyond science, religion, and our own conditioning, to the message of the flesh and bone we touch in the here and now.
More experience with craniosacral therapy gives the practitioner greater capacity to be present within the session, and to attend to the multilevel signals from the client.

It fosters an environment in which an evolving self-awareness within the therapist is as important a tool as are the procedures. Without self awareness, the therapist merely goes through the steps of a technique (often helpful), or repeatedly faces a wall trying to solve his or her personal dilemmas through the body/being of the client.

As I look at a client's body, I notice: Is there harmony or disharmony; Is there flow or blockage? Areas of intense energy and areas of emptiness or low energy often manifest blockage. Is energy seen as separate, in focal points scattered on one side and the other, or central within the longitudinal axis of the body? These are my major concerns.

Posture may be out of balance. A shoulder or hip may be higher or lower. A leg longer or shorter. The head to one side. I note these things, but seldom attempt directly to correct them. The complex interrelation of forces, imbalances, tensions and restrictions that lead to a certain posture or chief complaint probably often does not respond to direct work with the chief symptom. I note the symptom, I may hold the part that hurts or is restricted. But I am seeking relationships, patterns. And I deal with the entire system of the body rather than concentrate on the symptomatic area.

Thus, craniosacral therapy is a set of gentle but effective techniques, embedded within an attitude and approach to the therapeutic process. It can lead through and beyond the proven techniques, to a broader stance of effectiveness and cooperation in the healing process.