My Personal Journey With Craniosacral Therapy
​​Craniosacral therapy can be hard to explain. We might talk about the nervous system, bones of the skull, or cerebral spinal fluid. And yet inspite of this, in treatment, we seem to sit with our hands in a few places, apparently not doing very much at all.
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After many years of practice, enquiry, treating clients and my own personal treatment, I feel more passionate than ever about Craniosacral Therapy and the profound changes and experiences it can facilitate.
It seems to me now, that it may be interesting to hear about what craniosacral therapy really feels like and how it has benefited people as opposed to the dry explanations and theories.
So, as a client of craniosacral therapy as well as a practitioner, here are a few words about my own personal journey with craniosacral therapy as a treatment that has supported me personally through a great deal of my adult life, rather than from my perspective as a practitioner. On the following pages, there are some words very kindly shared by clients bout their craniosacral experiences.
The first time I experienced Craniosacral, the practitioner was chatting to me as he began. I couldn’t feel a thing and honestly laughed when he said that the treatment had started!
It’s not unusual to not immediately connect with the treatment and sensations. Many people however can sense either “things” moving within their body or just instantly connect with a very deep sense of relaxation and wellbeing. Either is absolutely fine and in no way changes the outcome of the treatment. Usually, for people who may not feel anything immediately, after a few sessions, they will begin to connect more with their body and sense the process.
It might then seem strange that after my first experience, that I still felt drawn to train in Craniosacral therapy. I was already a massage therapist and I wanted to expand my abilities to help people in greater depth.
A family member had Craniosacral Therapy treatment for headaches, had found it really beneficial and felt I would really connect with it.
So, spontaneously, I enrolled on an introductory course. Straightaway, I put my hands on someone’s head and from an entirely different perspective knew that I was feeling something very different than the skull and scalp that I might normally massage. The learning continued about the physical structures as I embarked on full training. Yet, why were so many emotions also surfacing?
At this point, I had been much more physically based in my work, even though a great deal of it was in supporting people with emotional difficulties, anxiety or stress. I found the idea that we were working with energy a little challenging, but I could I see that unquestionably, something other than the physical was happening.
Through my training and all the treatment I had myself during that time, it truly was the beginning of a journey. Alongside great relaxation and benefits to my nervous system, old memories resurfaced, some from childhood, some important, some insignificant. Memories of breaking an ankle or things that happened in my family or at school. Incredibly, memories also of infancy. Sometimes a euphoria or huge rushes of energy would arise. Other times sadness or challenges.
More importantly perhaps, there was also a remembering of some personal strengths and some forgotten aspects of my personality.
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In my experience as both a practitioner and client, Craniosacral can heal long standing issues in an extremely gentle manner- even those we may not have understood to be problems when we come for treatment.
Sometimes I believe the healing occurs without our awareness; sometimes the emotions or memories will come into consciousness, but in a way that is manageable and only with what we personally are ready for. We don’t dig looking for things, or force issues. Nothing seems to arise in any potentially re-traumatising way.
Equally, whatever the issue, it seems to be met within such a deep healing space that it will soften, if not disappear completely without any need to process mentally or verbally.
By the end of the training, I felt all aspects of myself and past selves that I’d forgotten became integrated. Some hurts were healed. I felt stronger, more empowered, inspired and whole. Like the fullest, best version of myself.
Over the years, I have continued to have Craniosacral for many different reasons and sometimes just because it can be such a pleasant experience!
I had weekly treatment when I was a busy massage therapist to help me stay fit and rebalance the tensions that would arise from such a physical job, avoiding any injuries or repetitive strain issues inspite of my busy practice.
It helped me when I had fertility issues with polycystic ovaries. Combined with homoeopathy and nutrition, I have no doubt that Craniosacral contributed to rebalancing my endocrine system and balancing my hormones so that I cleared my polycystic ovaries and had a regular menstrual cycle for the first time in my adult life. Happily, I fell pregnant, had regular treatment throughout pregnancy which I am sure supported me in flourishing throughout as well as helping me to prepare for three wonderful natural births.
I now have three teenage & young adult children, all of whom benefitted as babies and throughout early childhood from Craniosacral Therapy.
Some time after my first baby was born I returned to Craniosacral Therapy to help with rebalancing my pelvis. Immediately when we began the session, I felt nausea and fear which seemed to come from nowhere and was an unusual reaction for me. I could happily have run away but stayed with the feeling, breathing my way through. I began to recognise the feeling I’d had when I took a tiny bit of gas & air in birth, feeling afraid, but also not reacting well to the gas and air either. Realising this, I stayed with the sensation, it cleared, and alongside it, I felt more empowered. This certainly wasn't in my mind when I went for treatment, but it really helped to eradicate some of the fear I had about becoming pregnant again alongside rebalancing my pelvis!
Similarly, some time after a major bereavement, at the beginning of the session, I experienced feelings that were deep, difficult and quite well hidden- I didn’t even know if I wanted to feel them. But slowly, gently the feelings passed. I was able to process some of the grief and pain that I hadn’t yet felt able to face.
More recently, Craniosacral Therapy has supported me in a natural transition through menopause, especially in dealing with some anxiety that cropped up unexpectedly with the hormonal changes.
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Mostly, I find sessions blissful, drifting, relaxing. Sometimes I can’t believe I’ve fallen asleep. Sometimes I hover in the perfect in-between sleep and awake while random images or thoughts fleet through my mind.
Sometimes a part of my body can twitch or feel like it wants to readjust into a different position. Almost certainly, my tummy will rumble- this is always a good sign that my body is deepening into relaxation.
I may be aware of where my body is holding tension or emotions. I will certainly feel more connected to my nervous system and my breathing.
Occasionally tears may flow with or without knowing why, but equally joy and laughter.
Sometimes I might chat or share my experiences, other times I'm in perfect stillness within my own world. I could be on an inner journey of understanding or sometimes transcending my body or my issues altogether.
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I may come up with answers to problems. Or find myself afterwards naturally wanting to eat more healthily or take a different approach to something.
In general, it feels like a fairly effortless healing process. Though sometimes a session may touch on a difficult sensation or emotion, there is nothing I need to try to do or any work to be done. Just allow the process and in particular allow my nervous system to return to a state of rest and deep relaxation.
I always return to Craniosacral Therapy when I have either physical issues or am facing emotional issues or anxiety at a difficult time in my life.
I often say that Craniosacral is like psychotherapy without talking. Because although we can be working to eliminate a physical issue, its greatest depth for me personally has always been in the emotional level and in its ability to touch and heal so much without needing to mentally process or discuss .
Though of course, sometimes we do talk and that can be helpful, sometimes the issues are too difficult or painful to discuss. Or sometimes we don’t even know what the problem is. Many times the issues clear without even being aware that we have been tapping into them at all, but there’s simply a feeling of being lighter or stronger or reacting differently.
I have been exceptionally fortunate to have the same amazing practitioner to see me and my family through all these phases of life. I feel equally privileged to be a practitioner supporting my clients on their own journeys through life.