CST eases pain, helps the patient to heal

Julie Painter

Midwest HealthStrategies

Q. What is CranioSacral Therapy?
A. CranioSacral Therapy (CST) is a hands on technique that is used to decrease pain. It is a passive, gentle technique in which the patient lays down, fully clothed, while the therapist applies light touch to release tissue restrictions. The amount of pressure is generally five grams, which is about the weight of a nickel.

Q. How does CranioSacral Therapy work?
A. There are two main ideas behind how CST works. One is that your body knows how to heal itself. Your therapist will facilitate your body’s natural healing response by assessing and treating your CranioSacral rhythm with gentle touch.

The other theory is that your CranioSacral rhythm, which is the flow of your cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), needs to be able to flow normally for your body to be in a standard, pain free, peaceful state. CSF is the fluid that is produced in your brain and surrounds and protects your brain and spinal cord. If there are restrictions in the connective tissue preventing the flow of CSF from being normal, you may have pain. When your therapist releases these restrictions in your connective tissues the CSF is able to flow normally and pain may decrease.

Q. What is a CranioSacral Session Like?
A. An average session will last about one hour. The patient is typically in a relaxing, semi-dark room lying on a table. The therapist starts out by feeling for the CranioSacral Rhythm, which is the rhythm produced in your body as the brain produces CSF. The therapist will then begin to assess and treat “diaphragms” throughout the patient by placing one hand under and one hand over the patient. Once those are released, the therapist will work at the patient’s head, applying light touch to the skull.

Treatments are usually initiated and ended with a still point, which is a relaxation technique. There are advanced techniques to CST, which the therapist may initiate based on the individual patient’s tissue symptoms and needs.

Q. What should I expect from CranioSacral Therapy?
A. Some people are able to feel therapeutic responses during treatment, others are unable feel a response within their own bodies. A therapeutic response may be warmth, pulse, deep sigh, stomach gurgling or a simple relaxation. Your therapist will be able to feel these responses within you. Some times, following treatment, there is an immediate effect of pain relief and relaxation; other times, it takes up to 72 hours for your body to fully adapt to the changes in the connective tissues that were made during the session. Sessions usually are scheduled one to two times per week.

Q. Who may benefit from CranioSacral Therapy?
A. Migraines and headaches, chronic neck and back pain, stress and tension related problems, traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, chronic fatigue, central nervous system disorders, temporomandibular joint syndrome, and fibromyalgia are a few of the diagnoses that may respond to CST.

Julie Painter is a physical therapist at Midwest HealthStrategies. For more information on CranioSacral Therapy, send an email to info@chsmail.org.

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