What Exactly is Craniosacral Therapy?

I am often asked what is Craniosacral Therapy? I have seen more than a few definitions over the years, some brilliant and some well...you know. As a Craniosacral Therapist I feel that I should be able to at least create my own definition/explanation based solely on my own professional and personal experiences. Now I am not claiming in any way that other explanations will be eclipsed or trumped by this one, not at all. This is however my contribution, straight from my heart and head, towards helping people understand this amazing form of therapy. So here goes.
​Craniosacral Therapy (CST) is a gentle, sensitive touch treatment method that relieves tension and disturbances deep within the body, thereby helping resolve illness, pain and dysfunction. Major areas of release are the brain, spinal cord, skull, cerebral spinal fluid and surrounding membranes. This enhances central nervous system function and performance allowing the body to relax and self-correct. CST helps to strengthen the body's natural healing processes and helps correct brain to body connection, immune function and overall health. It is a therapy that has been gradually developed over the past 10 decades, by specialists known as Osteopaths, but is now taught to many types of health care professionals worldwide. 
CST skill level and effectiveness can vary greatly between therapists, and is not as easily mastered as many students and therapists would like to believe. Competence depends upon many hours of practice and often hundreds of treatments.The therapist must themselves receive multiple sessions and go through their own healing and release experiences personally to fully grasp what is actually occurring. Given sufficient practice and experience, "listening hands" are developed, meaning, sensitive enough to detect very small amplitude movements and restrictions within the body. Feeling and following the subtle clues revealed by the body is absolutely fundamental. Therapists must develop their touch, pressure and contact with precision in order to detect minute barriers to movement and assist without being disruptive to the body's own guidance and response. The patient's body corrects and heals internally in response to CST. The therapist is merely the assistant. This is a foundational truth at the core of CST learning. CST aids the body and it's intelligence to release, reboot and recalibrate, mounting a healing response and facilitating the return to optimal function throughout the entire body.
Clinically it has been demonstrated, in thousands of patients, to assist with an extremely wide variety of conditions, greatly improving many health concerns, especially those causing pain and movement dysfunction. In addition improvements in energy levels, sleep quality and mental and emotional wellbeing are frequently reported. 

                                                                                                                                                                   MC