The Healing Power of a Gentle Touch

Why is CranioSacral Therapy so Important?

CranioSacral Therapy (CST) is a light-touch approach that can create dramatic improvements in your life. It releases tensions deep in the body to relieve pain and dysfunction and improve whole-body health and performance.

Few body structures have more influence over your health and well-being than your Central Nervous System (CNS). And few body systems have more impact on your CNS than the CS System - the soft tissues and fluid that protect your brain and spinal cord.

Every day you endure stresses and strains and your body absorbs them. But your body can only handle so much tension before the tissues begin to tighten and potentially affect the brain and spinal cord.

Unfortunately, this can compromise the function of the CNS - and the performance of nearly every other system in your body. 

CST releases those tensions to allow the entire body to relax and self-correct. Using a gentle touch - starting with about the weight of a nickel - practitioners evaluate your internal environment. Then, they use distinctive light-touch techniques to release any restrictions they find. 

By freeing the CNS to perform at its best, CST naturally eliminates pain and stress, strengthens your resistance to disease, and enhances your health and well-being. And because it's so gently, CST can be effective for all ages, from newborns to elders.

What Conditions Does CST Address?

CST improves your body's ability to take better care of you. It helps relieve a full spectrum of pain, illness and dysfunction, including:

• Migraines and headaches

• Chronic neck and back pain

• Stress and tension-related disorders

• Motor-coordination impairments

• Infant and childhood disorders

• Brain and spinal cord injuires

• Chronic fatigue

• Fibromyalgia

• TMJ syndrome

• Scoliosis

• CNS disorders

• Learning disabilities

• ADD/ADHD

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• Orthopedic problems

• Many other conditions

What Can I Expect?

A typical CST session takes place in a quiet, private setting. YOu remain fully clothed as you relax on a comfortable, padded table. Your therapist begins by gently touching various body parts to monitor the rhythm of the fluid that is flowing around your CNS. By carefully listening with the hands to locate areas of weak fluid flow or tissue motion, your practitioner can trace those areas of weakness through the body to the original source of dysfunction.

Delicate manual techniques are then used to release those problem areas and improve the form and function of your CNS. A session can last up to an hour or more. It can be used alone or integrated with other therapies to create powerful effects.

What you experience from your own session is highly individual. The sessions are generally deeply relaxing, creating feelings of warmth or gently pulsing in the areas the therapist is working on.

How Was This Therapy Developed?

CST was developed by Dr. John E. Upledger, an osteopathic physician. From 1975 to 1983, Dr. Upledger was a professor of biomechanics at the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University. While there, he led a team of anatomists, physiologists, biophysicists and bioengineers who performed and published the clinical research that formed the basis for the approach he named CranioSacral Therapy.

In 198, Dr. Upledger founded the Upledger Institute to teach people worldwide about the value of this effective approach. Today, nearly 100,00 therapists have been trained in this therapy reaching a wider range of millions of clients who have benefited from this approach.