Craniosacral therapy
A gentle treatment for a nervous system that never switches off
Plain answers to the questions people ask before their first session: what it is, what it feels like, what it can and cannot do.
The idea
The body has its own intelligence
Your brain and spinal cord float in cerebrospinal fluid, wrapped in membranes that run from the skull down to the sacrum at the base of the spine. Craniosacral practitioners pay attention to the subtle, slow movement in this system and in the tissues around it.
When we are under strain for a long time, the body braces. Muscles stay guarded, sleep turns shallow, digestion tightens, and pain becomes easier to trigger. Through very light, steady contact I help the body notice where it is holding, and give it the conditions to let go.
I don't diagnose, and I don't push tissue into place. The work is to support your system's own movement towards health. My clients often describe it as being listened to by someone's hands.
What it feels like
Most people are surprised by how deeply they rest
During
Warmth under the hands, a sense of heaviness or spreading, gentle pulsing, small twitches as muscles release. Many people sleep. Some feel emotion come up and pass.
Straight after
Calm, light and a little slow. Rest for a few minutes before getting up, and give yourself up to twenty minutes before you drive.
The next few days
Deeper sleep is the change people report most often. Occasionally there is a day of tiredness or tenderness while the body adjusts.
The holds
A vocabulary of touch
Every session is shaped by what your body shows on the day, but these are holds you may meet. You will see them named in the client case studies.
Foot hold
Where most sessions begin and end. Hands cupped around the feet and ankles, settling the whole body and showing me how it is organised.
Sacrum hold
A palm beneath the base of the spine. Often deeply relaxing for the lower back and pelvis.
Cranial holds
The head resting in my hands, sometimes with the CV4 hold at the base of the skull, which tends to quiet the mind quickly.
Organ holds
Light contact over the liver, lungs, heart or the belly, for digestion, breathing and the emotional load we carry in the torso.
Vagus nerve protocol
A sequence for the nerve that governs rest and digestion. I use it often for stress, grief and anxiety.
Fascial unwinding
Following the subtle movements of arms or legs as connective tissue releases old patterns of strain.
Spotlight: migraine
Why I work so often with headaches
Migraine affects around a billion people worldwide, and roughly twice as many women as men. Stress is reported as a trigger in about four out of five cases, followed by poor sleep, skipped meals and bright light.
Medicines can stop an attack or reduce how often they come. What they rarely touch is the background state of a nervous system that is always braced. That is where craniosacral work can help, alongside your doctor's care.
I also share a simple framework with clients between sessions, known as SEEDS:
- SSleep at regular times, and enough of it
- EEat on time. Don't skip meals or let yourself go hungry
- EExercise gently and regularly
- DDiary: note attacks, triggers and what helped
- SStress: a daily practice, like pranayama or meditation
The evidence
What the research says, honestly
Craniosacral therapy is a young field of research. The most thorough review so far, published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, pooled ten randomised controlled trials with 681 people living with neck and back pain, migraine, headache, fibromyalgia, tennis elbow and pelvic girdle pain.
People who received CST had less pain and less disability than those given usual care, other hands-on treatments, or a sham (pretend) treatment. Against sham, the benefit was still there six months later. No serious side effects occurred. The authors call the effects significant and robust, and still ask for more, stricter trials. That seems fair to me.
Separately, sleep research in mice has shown that during deep sleep the brain's fluid spaces open up and cerebrospinal fluid flushes waste away more efficiently. That is no proof that CST works, but it is a good reason to take rest seriously, and deep rest is what most people find on the table.
- Haller H, Lauche R, Sundberg T, Dobos G, Cramer H. Craniosacral therapy for chronic pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2020;21:1. doi.org/10.1186/s12891-019-3017-y
- Xie L, Kang H, Xu Q, et al. Sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain. Science 2013;342:373–377. doi.org/10.1126/science.1241224
- The Migraine Trust. Common triggers. migrainetrust.org
Safety
When CST is not the right choice
The touch is very gentle, so craniosacral therapy suits most people, including the elderly and those who cannot tolerate massage. Please tell me before booking if any of these apply, and we may wait or ask your doctor first:
- A recent head injury, skull fracture or bleeding on the brain
- A known aneurysm or raised pressure inside the skull
- Recent spinal surgery or an unstable spinal condition
- Any condition your doctor has asked you to avoid bodywork for
CST works alongside medicine, not instead of it. Keep taking any medicines you have been prescribed and keep your doctor informed. If your symptoms change suddenly, or you have a new severe headache, see a doctor first.
Many of my clients combine sessions with Ayurvedic care, yoga, kriya and meditation, and do well with that.
Questions before you book?
Send me a message about what you are dealing with, and I will tell you honestly whether I think craniosacral therapy can help.