My Approach
Craniosacral therapy (CST) is now extensively practiced around the world. It is a potent way of connecting to the whole person; body, mind, and spirit, to help bring about healing changes.
It is a non- invasive therapy, which utilises your body's own innate ability to balance, restore and heal itself, as well as reduce anxiety and tension.
When I place my hands at your feet at the start of a session, I am listening to your whole system in a similar way that a counsellor might listen to your words.
In CST, the simple gesture of asking the body 'tell me your story" is saying that it's more than just your physical structure, there's more behind the pain.
We are sensitive embodied creatures. Our bodies hold many things; our culture, faith, family, relationships, as well as our past experiences and hopes and fears for the future, these all shape our stress, and are held in our nervous system, faschia and musculature.
Who we are, how we feel in our bodies, all our experiences register in our bodies: Our relationships, our history, our whole lives come in as a sensation.
And our physical pain could be all about emotions that haven't been processed and sit as tension in the tissues, causing pain, waiting to be released:
When information/ sensations are coming in at a slow pace, we are generally able to process these feelings and let them go. However, during a time of crisis or trauma, there is too much information coming in which our bodies are unable to process. Then these stresses get laid down in the tissues as tension. This in turn leads to an imbalance in the way the tissues are held, leading to other parts of the body compensating and becoming tight and out of balance too.
As we go through life, more tension is added, little by little, until eventually, this build-up of tension and misalignment leads to pain and spasm.
On an emotional level, these held emotions can lead to anxiety, stress, and depression.
In CST we connect to the whole person, not just the part that's in pain as in many other disciplines like physiotherapy and osteopathy, we don't just focus on the frozen shoulder. We understand that the shoulder is connected to a whole person and something in their life experiences, possibly sadness, anxiety, hopes and fears, may need to be addressed to allow the shoulder to release.
The body is always working to release tension and improve our health and wellbeing. And will utilise CST to help heal itself. Most problems are repairable, our nervous system is plastic and can improve, given the chance to release and heal. even our genes, it turns out, are not as permanent as we once thought.
This form of deep healing encourages well-being, not only with ease in our bodies, but also improves our confidence in how we engage with the people around us and the different environments we find ourselves in.
We are one being, and nowadays we're seeing increasing awareness of these somatic experiences, with practices such as yoga and mindfulness, and the realisation that every part of ourselves, body, mind, and spirit, is connected.