Craniosacral Therapy
Craniosacral Therapy (CST) is a light touch form of bodywork that is designed to release physical and energetic restrictions from the soft tissue. A light touch and directed intention are used to release restrictions and improve the function of the body. Restrictions can be caused by physical or emotional trauma, including accidents, injuries, surgery, and the birthing process. Physical and emotional trauma is intertwined. It is impossible to completely unravel physical issues (suck, swallow, breathe, for instance) from the emotional trauma that came with the physical issue (imagine how scary it would be if you could not swallow properly). Conversely, craniosacral therapy to work on the physical effects of emotions is a wonderful way to fully resolve the issue, like the chest tightness that can result from anxiety. Treating them as separate issues is ignoring an essential part of equation, and will either lead to incomplete healing, or a healing process that is drawn out and extended longer than necessary.
People of all ages can receive CST. Adults generally receive CST treatments while lying on a table, fully clothed. Infants can receive treatment while feeding, either breast or bottle, during quiet alert time, or while sleeping. Children who are too young to lay relatively still on a table can receive CST while quietly playing (or not so quietly playing if they are like my children!).
Sessions are typically one hour long. The number of sessions needed is dependent on the age of the problem, the extent and severity of the issue, the emotional involvement, the stress level of the client's life, and the experience level of the therapist.
CST can help resolve a variety of issues
- Infant sucking problems: breast or bottle fed babies
- Breastfeeding problems: mothers or babies
- Tongue tie
- Recovery from the birthing process: mothers or babies
- Recovery from vacuum extraction, forceps, cesarean section, or breech births
- Sleep issues
- Injury
- Pain: headaches, migraines, back pain, neck pain, joint pain, etc
- Vertigo
- Sinus issues
- Stress and/or anxiety
- Behavioral issues - it's hard to behave if your body isn't working the way it should or things hurt