Headaches and neck pain have the tendency to make an already stressful day even more stressful. Thankfully, there is a type of therapy available that is drug-free while being effective. Today, we are going to talk about craniosacral therapy, which is a lesser-known type of therapy that addresses a wide variety of pains.
Developed in the 1970s by osteopathy doctor John Upledger, Craniosacral therapy (CST, also referred to as Cranial sacral therapy) makes use of gentle touch to relieve pain. This gentle touch is used on the cranium’s/skull’s joints, as well as the spin and some parts of the pelvis. And the touch is as gentle as can be: the Upledger Institute states that the touch used with CST is under 5 grams.
The end goal of Craniosacral therapy is to relieve the compression that is trapped in the head’s bones as well as the spin and the sacrum, which is a triangle-ish-shaped bone found in your lower back. Craniosacral therapy is usually practiced by chiropractors, physical therapists, massage therapists, and osteopaths to treat people dealing with pain in the aforementioned areas as well as other things. CST is best used in tandem with other medical therapies.
What’s great about CST is that is 100% non-invasive and drug-free. But how does it work? CST actually works to boost your body’s natural healing capabilities, in particular by releasing the craniosacral system’s restrictions and enhancing the central nervous system’s ability to function in the process. With the goal of pain relief and dysfunction repair, CST effectively boosts the circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid, which is the fluid that surrounds your brain and spinal cord. When these blockages are removed, your body’s ability to heal itself is thus heightened.
Another great thing about Craniosacral therapy is that it addresses a wide variety of concerns for persons of all ages and both of the physical and the psychological kind. It is great for treating back pain, Alzheimer’s disease, immune disorders, dementia, an array of central nervous system disorders, anxiety, colic, fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), constipation, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), ear infections, chronic or severe migraines, neck pain, stress, spinal cord injuries, and many more.
So how many sessions do you need in order to benefit from CST? It depends on a person-by-person basis, like many therapies. Some people might only need about 3 to 10, while others might find CST highly beneficial as maintenance therapy. You’ll work with your healthcare provider to plot this out.
As with almost all kinds of therapies, there are some risks to keep in mind before you seek out CST. Only employ CST with a licensed practitioner, as they will be working on your nervous system. While it doesn’t always happen, you can probably expect some very mild discomfort after your treatment. This discomfort will fade in just 24 hours. People who have severe bleeding disorders are diagnosed with aneurysms of any kind, or have a recent history of traumatic head histories (such as skull fractures or bleeding in the brain) ought to keep away from Craniosacral therapy as well.