Biodynamic Craniosacral therapy (BCST) is a gentle non-invasive modality that works with the fluid system of the body to optimize health and heal injury.  Performed on a massage table, the client is fully clothed and the practitioner touch is light and still.  The practitioner gently holds any number of places on the body with permission (usually the feet, cranium, and sacrum).  Safety and resource are important aspects of the work.  The session focus is to support the inherent health of the whole being, especially the nervous system.  The nervous system dictates all of the body’s functioning, constantly sending and receiving information.  Craniosacral encourages slowing down into stillness, which holds the key to our beautiful self-healing system.  We are all quantum beings, holding and managing a vibratory energy that, when accessed, identifies and releases the blocks and compressions in our system.  Biodynamic Craniosacral practitioners are trained for years on how to use acute perceptual skills to perceive subtle physiological changes.  Practitioners can identify parts of the nervous system that are not functioning optimally and uses the awareness of the “always available health” in the body to assist the system in bringing itself back into balance.  This supports greater ease and helps the body decrease symptoms.

Conditions Craniosacral Therapy May Help:

• Migraines

• Chronic Neck and Back Pain

• Stress and Tension Disorders

• Motor-Coordination Impairments

• Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries

• Chronic Fatigue

• Fibromyalgia

• TMJ Syndrome

• Scoliosis

• Central Nervous System Disorders

• Learning Disabilities

• ADD/ADHD

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

• Orthopedic Problems

Dr. Sutherland and the Cranial Concept

William Garner Sutherland, D.O. discovered the Cranial Concept while examining the bones of the human skull in osteopathic college at the turn of the century.  He spend the next fifty years furthering his understanding of the phenomena.  In brief, the Cranial Concept refers to how the cranium and its contents are designed for respiratory motion.  He called this respiratory motion the Primary Respiration Mechanism (later called the Primary Respiration System).  To have a respiration-like motion in the cranium, there must exist beveled sutures to allow movement between cranial bones, as well as some force underneath the bones to make them move.  This belief bucked the convention that cranial sutures ossified and, hence, were rigid and immovable.  He spent the early years of his study mapping out the articulations and range of motion for each cranial bone.

At first, the Cranial Concept had an osseous (bony) orientation.  Over time, Dr. Sutherland recognized the next layer of the Primary Respiration System.  He sensed movement in the falx cerebri and the tentorium cerebelli of the brain.  These are parts of the dura mater-the interosseous membranes of the cranium (also called the meninges).  He noticed that these tissues had an inherent movement of contraction and expansion.  Then, he started perceiving that the neural tissue also had an intrinsic movement.  His explorations took him deeper and deeper.  Soon, he was noticing the inherent fluctuation of the cerebrospinal fluid as the source for all the motions previously observed in the neural tissue, the membranes, and the bones.

As Dr. Sutherland progressed in his understanding of the Cranial Concept, he realized that gentleness was the key in sensing the subtle movement of the fluid in the body.  By 1948, Dr. Sutherland began to diagnose and treat what he called The Tide.  He noticed that there was a healing power inherent in the system that was more effective than the practitioner at reducing strain patterns.  He completely stopped motion testing with bones and membranes.  Instead, the role of the practitioner became to be a witness to the manifestation of potency that is within the fluid of each being.  He called this potency and intelligence the Breath of Life-the source of life and Divine Intelligence in the human body.  Dr. Sutherland began to believe that reverence of this self-correction system was a vital part of the therapeutic treatment.