My journey to craniosacral therapy

Early in 1997, almost three decades ago, our youngest son was born in our home.  Great was the joy since it really was a picture-book birth, with siblings, friends, candles, tea and quietness all around us.  It then came as more than a shock when several weeks later he was crying for most of his waking hours.  One infection (mainly in the sensory organs in the head) followed another.  I had noticed, but not deeply acknowledged, that his head slightly bulged out on one side of the frontal eminence and was depressed diagonally opposite on the occipital bone at the back of the head.  We took him from one consultant and doctor to another with no real success in curing his condition.  Five months later a friend mentioned about cranial treatments to me.

Initially he had weekly sessions which were later spaced out and during the next six months we could see this happy baby emerging.  The result was truly amazing.  Friends, by passers and everyone wanted to stroke his now perfectly round head!  He slept, he ate well, and throughout his childhood the treatments had benefited him.  This more than inspired me to qualify in the art of Craniosacral Therapy (CST).  Working with people of different ages, attitudes and ideas, various health issues and also receiving CST myself, I have often wondered what the crucial healing factor is in the treatment. 

CST is extremely gentle and uses no manipulation.  Consciously, caring and gently directed touch with good knowledge in anatomy and physiology of our bodies as well as having a compassionate intention are the main ingredients.  Working as a therapists, it is always present in my mind that when I touch a client I am not only in contact with the physical body, but that the area I am palpating is a gateway or access point to the inherent person with all her hopes, aspiration, pain and meaning.  In his book, “The Heart of Listening”, Hugh Milne, a third-generation cranial practitioner, has written how trauma experienced on different levels affects the whole body, but that the focal point of an injury locates in a weaker part.  The faulting may manifest as pain, dysfunction, loss of energy or confusion within the system.  Untreated trauma, he continues, hangs in the body and has the capacity to change our body’s normal function.  Trauma to the body can be of a physical nature as knocks and strains, or emotional nature as stresses and upsets.  In some cases ailments can culminate in a child when hereditary patterns are passed down through generations.  In our son’s case the therapist suggested this might have been the reason for his condition.

Thinking 28 years back I am still grateful to my friend for suggesting cranial treatment.  I do not want to contemplate how our son’s life would have panned out otherwise.  He now uses his head as a first class engineer working out complicated mathematical systems for renewable energy and water purifying systems.