Donna Bettin PT, LMT, CST-T, CMLDT
What is CranioSacral Therapy?
CranioSacral Therapy is a gentle, light-touch therapy that focuses on calming and normalizing your nervous system, via working with your craniosacral system. Your nervous system is the master controller of every other system in your body (musculoskeletal, lymphatic, vascular, endocrine, digestive, and respiratory). It controls your stress responses and your pain levels.
What is the craniosacral system?
The craniosacral system includes the brain, spinal cord, the cerebrospinal fluid, and the surrounding tissues (membranes) which protect them.
The cerebrospinal fluid is vital to our survival and well-being. It brings oxygen and nourishment to our brain and spinal cord, cushions the brain for protection, and removes waste products.
Just as the heart and lungs have their own inherent rhythm, so does the craniosacral system. Your craniosacral rhythm is detected and assessed by a trained CranioSacral Therapist. When restrictions are impacting cerebrospinal fluid flow and fascial movement, your body systems are unable to function optimally. You also may not feel as healthy and vibrant as desired.
Your CranioSacral Therapist will work with your fascial system, as well as your craniosacral system, to facilitate your healing process and help your body to function at a healthier level.
What are restrictions?
Restrictions are areas of tension and tightness in your body. Although people usually equate tightness to muscular tightness, our bodies are much more complex. This tightness, traveling through our connective tissue (fascia), affects the functioning of multiple body systems. Blood vessels (and blood flow), nerves (and nerve function), lymph vessels (and lymph flow), gut function, endocrine function, etc etc are all potentially impacted.
Picture a hammock - if you were to pull a thread on one end of the hammock, and continue to pull, eventually it would affect the entire hammock. It would be distorted from end to end. So it is that restrictions travel in our bodies, distorting affected areas - eventually affecting many interrelated systems. And this is why an injury to one area can eventually cause pain, or seemingly unrelated symptoms, in an entirely different area.
What causes restrictions — and why is this important?
Some of the factors which can cause restrictions are:
- Trauma: physical and emotional
- Accidents
- Injuries
- Surgeries
- Scar tissue
- Inflammation
- Diseases: acute and chronic
- Toxins: environmental and internal
- Muscle strain and tension
- Stress
- Altered posture
- Poor diet
- Sedentary jobs
- Sedentary lifestyles
Our bodies can often self-correct - especially when we're young and healthy.
As we experience some of the issues listed above, and as we get older, our bodies will have to use more and more energy to compensate for these issues, so that we can continue on rather normally in our daily lives.
If our bodies become depleted or overwhelmed with too many issues, and can no longer compensate (perhaps from accumulated stress or multiple injuries), then we may start to experience chronic pain, autoimmune diseases, and/or other issues.
Restrictions can affect the nervous system - the brain, spinal cord, and nerves - as well as the other systems in the body (musculoskeletal, lymphatic, vascular, respiratory, digestive, and endocrine systems).
CranioSacral Therapy is designed to release these restrictions - freeing up all of the affected tissues and systems to restore their normal functioning.
It can be very effective in situations where medical or natural interventions have had a limited effect.
Can CranioSacral Therapy help me?
CranioSacral Therapy, due to resulting changes through the nervous system, can help to relieve a full spectrum of pain, illness, and dysfunction, including:
- migraines and headaches
- back pain, sciatica, neck pain
- peripheral neuropathy symptoms
- post-concussion and head trauma issues
- stress and anxiety-related issues
- PTSD
- post-injury and post-surgical problems
- orthopedic problems
- chronic fatigue syndrome
- long Covid symptoms
- fibromyalgia and other connective tissue disorders
- jaw pain and TMJD issues
- ADD/ADHD
- central nervous system disorders
- motor-coordination impairments
...and many other conditions.