How Does Cranciosacral Therapy Work?
Craniosacral Therapy can help with a wide range of conditions because it works at a very fundamental level
All of our physical and psychological systems and also the stories that we have come to believe about ourselves, are not fixed. Everything about us changes all the time.
Craniosacral therapy provides a context in which to do the work and practice to intentionally change the way that those systems express themselves - which in turn changes the way that we experience our lives. This is how we can learn to heal.
The natural impulse to heal
We all want to heal, there is a constant drive within us to seek a way to become whole and well and balanced. There is an argument to say life force and health are the same thing – it’s always calling us and there is always the opportunity to step back onto the path.
Stories our bodies tell us
So in a session we just sit and listen to the stories that the body wants to tell us.
The stories come in all sorts of ways – through physical sensations, emotions, images and feelings. In the context of witnessing these stories together with a safe other, the meaning of them will often arise; so we can start to make sense of them.
This is a process that allows the stories to be integrated properly into the whole of the person that you are now. Old and deep patterns of reaction and defence loosen their grip, and just become memories without the physical and emotional burden.
A safe therapeutic framework
One of the hallmarks of the therapy is that it is deeply relational.
This is important to consider because many persistent health problems arise because the nervous system has become contracted around fearful beliefs and behaviours as a consequence of difficult relationship experiences in the past.
So being held in a safe therapeutic framework is an essential part of gently relearning how to open up to life and connection rather than habitually having to stay closed and protected.
Why do self limiting beliefs cause symptoms?
Very briefly, the deep stories we hold about ourselves, other people and the world, inform the nervous system and the immune system how to organise themselves to meet the world. These beliefs are usually established when we are very young.
If those stories have a dominant theme of defence or fear i.e. I am no good or nobody can be trusted or the world is a dangerous place, then the body’s systems learn to operate in defence mode a lot of the time. These outdated patterns of belief constrict us terribly and severely restrict our capacity to be well and happy.
Moving from ‘Protection’ to ‘Thriving’
This means that the body’s resources are always directed towards protection rather than to thrive.
Also, if we habitually position ourselves in a context of separation or disconnection, the psychology of that can confuse the immune system which may start to recognise the self as ‘other’, and we see the beginnings of all kinds of autoimmune problems.
Changing the stories
Changing the story to one with a theme of connection, flexibility and creativity, restores integrity to the system – this is what we experience as health.
‘The goal is to keep information flowing, feedback systems working, and natural balance maintained - all of which we can achieve by a conscious decision to enter into the bodymind’s conversation’ - Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion.