pg_0001

Medical data is for informational purposes only. You should always consult your family physician, or one of our referral physicians prior to treatment

Medical data is for informational purposes only. You should always consult your family physician, or one of our referral physicians prior to treatment.

CranioSacral Therapy 21 years on

by John Page

listed in craniosacral therapy

originally published in issue 13 - July/Aug 1996

http://www.positivehealth.com/articles.asp?i=486

Permission granted for reprint

Why are such a variety of healthcare practitioners excited about

the tadpole-shaped bag that lines our skulls and spinal columns?

The excited healthcare practitioners include massage therapists,

doctors, nurses, osteopaths, dentists, physiotherapists, chiroprac-

tors, psychotherapists and – yes – vets. The tadpole-shaped bag is

the dural membrane whose three layers surround, protect and con-

nect our central nervous system, bathed and nourished in its own

special liquid environment, cerebrospinal fluid.

The answer is that the insights, skill and determination of an

American osteopathic physician led to a specialised and somewhat

mysterious manipulative system that had been strictly reserved for

osteopaths being developed and taught in ways that brought it safely

within the scope of any healthcare professional with good inten-

tion and sensitivity of touch.

A new direction emerges.

In the early 1970s Dr John E. Upledger discovered for him-

self, in a most tangible way, the cranio-sacral rhythm or cranial

rhythmic impulse. This impulse was evident in causing a section of

cervical dural tube, which he was attempting to stabilise during a

delicate surgical procedure, to move with a frequency that was nei-

ther cardiac nor respiratory. Furthermore the rhythmic movement

was so persistent as to prevent Dr Upledger from being able to

keep the dural tube still. His curiosity aroused he went on to learn

about the pioneering work of Dr W.G. Sutherland who formulated

Cranial Osteopathy. Impressed by the effectiveness of Cranial Os-

teopathy, and following his 1975 appointment as a clinician re-

searcher and Professor of Biomechanics at Michigan State Univer-

sity, Dr Upledger employed extensive research facilities to help

understand how the phenomena that Dr Sutherland had discovered

actually worked. This research began the formulation of

CranioSacral Therapy. 21 years on, it has placed profoundly effec-

tive light-touch techniques in the hands of tens of thousands of

practitioners.

Dr John Upledger demonstrating technique

Dr Sutherland had been a pupil of A.T. Still, father of Oste-

opathy. Sutherland’s cranial work was not only effective with vari-

ous cases of pain that had failed to respond to osteopathic treat-

ment, but was also helpful in restoring good metabolic function

and assisting recovery from endogenous depression and respira-

tory disorders.

Despite Dr Sutherland’s experiments including work with the

human energy field and the use of very light touch, sometimes

working off the body, Cranial Osteopathy was to develop very much

as an extension of osteopathy, albeit with light contact, where the

bones are seen as all important and the practitioner focuses on re-

storing to proper mobility the joints or sutures between the bones

that make up the cranium. However, Dr Upledger’s research and

his consideration of how cranial suture restrictions tend to be main-

tained by structures outside the head caused him to deduce that it is

within the body’s membranes or fascia that the astonishing effects

of Cranial Osteopathy are explained. It is interesting that A.T. Still

also regarded the fascia as being of primary importance.

So now back to that tadpole-shaped envelope that contains the

brain and spinal cord. Why is it so important? Apart from the obvi-

ous (that it contains and protects some rather vital equipment) it is

from within this dural membrane that the cranio-sacral rhythm is

generated. Also the dural membrane is centrally placed within the

whole of the fascial system in such a way that it can influence, and

be affected by, the condition of any and every other part of the

body.

All-important membranes

The term fascia is the collective name for the membrane mate-

rial that would remain were our hair, blood vessels, viscera, bones,

nerves, muscle fibres and fluids to be removed. It includes our liga-

ments and all the membranous sheaths that surround and connect

all our organs, bones and muscles. The tendency of restriction in

one part of the body to transmit dysfunction to other parts is ac-

counted for by the characteristics of fascial material and the con-

struction of the whole fascial system. So fundamental are these

aspects to a proper understanding of CranioSacral Therapy that

they are worth going into in some detail.

First let’s take a simplified look at the components of fascia.

There are three basic components. Variations in their proportions

account for the huge range of qualities and functions that fascia

exhibit. They are collagen, a fibrous material that provides tensile

strength, elastin which when tension is removed causes fascia to

return to its original dimensions, thereby providing ‘elastic

memory’, and ground substance which, as it were, fills in the spaces.

Ground substance is wet and proteinous, and provides passage for

dissolved nutrients and waste compounds. Fascia also contains sen-

sory and motor nerves and has blood supply. It is capable of con-

traction. From the electrical perspective relaxed fascia carries nega-

tive electrical potential that supports healthy tissue metabolism.

When under stretch the potential changes to positive. Fascia that is

under continual tension will therefore suffer local metabolic dete-

rioration and begin to lose some of its qualities.

Second we should consider the all-pervasive design of the fas-

cial system. In the embryo, fascia forms from a single fold at a very

early stage of development. Rather than being lots of different struc-

tures that have grown together, fascia is a single structure, holding

together in functional relationship every part of the body. We can

travel from any point on or in the body to any other without leaving

fascia. In fact, it is so pervasive that it not only connects every cell

but actually penetrates right into the nuclei, providing a framework

for the chromosomes.