Craniosacral Therapy and Our Nervous System

When we rebalance our nervous system, our body has the ability to regulate, repair, and realign its internal systems back into balance and harmony, bringing more ease, health, and vitality to our body, so that we can meet life with more vigor, spunk, and joy.

When we balance our nervous system

our body has the ability to regulate, repair, and realign its internal systems back into balance and harmony, bringing more ease, health, and vitality to our body, so that we can meet life with more vigor, spunk, and joy.

Our nervous system is a complex system classified in 2 parts:

The Central Nervous System is made up of the brain and spinal cord.

The Peripheral Nervous System is made up of nerves that branch off of the spinal cord and extend to all parts of the body.

Each part contains billions of nerve cells called neurons, whose job is to send and receive electrical signals throughout the body that tell it what to do. The nervous system transmits signals between the brain and the rest of the body, including internal organs, muscles, and glands.

We are designed with a system to help keep up alive in the state of danger. This is called the sympathetic system, in which the nervous system alerts the body to shift into fight, flight, or freeze. In this state the circulatory system starts pumping faster, moving blood from the internal organs and brain to the periphery, so that the being can run or fight if necessary (however freeze is an important 3rd option to remember). This state is ultimately desirable in survival situations, however it is not sustainable in day to day life.

The parasympathetic system shift blood and energy back to the core of the body, flooding the internal organs and brain and glands with oxygen and nutrient rich blood. This is known as the rest, digest, and heal state.

Both are necessary in life, as well as a healthy ability to transfer between the two. This means, can you easily get ready to run if needed, and from that state, can you easily come back to a place of calm breathing and settled heart rate?

In today’s society people are often in a mild sympathetic state over a consistent period of time, rather than going back and forth between the two, which is what we are designed to do. This creates dis-ease which leads to disease. A body that cannot actively achieve the parasympathetic state for enough time each day does not have the ability to heal from day to day stresses on the body.

So in order to for a body to heal and to digest well, not only food, but life experiences, as well, one needs to be able to get into the parasympathetic state regularly.

There are many methods of moving into a safe and relaxed state, including deep slow breathing, a pleasurable unhurried walk in nature, qi gong, meditation, yoga, massage, energy work, hypnosis, sauna, bath, or relaxing by the pool, lake, or ocean. Ultimately, anything that makes you feel more peaceful, safe, and relaxed, will create this response, and what that is will be different for each individual.

The practice of Craniosacral Therapy

specifically addresses the nervous system, as it is focused around the Craniosacral system which houses the brain and spinal cord. Through measuring the Cerebral Spinal Fluid Rhythm as is expresses in the body, the therapist is able to make space at specific holds which allow the body to come back into balance and regain symmetry and an even unhindered flow of energy throughout the body. The therapy also allows for multiple “Still Points” to happen throughout the session. A Still Point happens naturally throughout the day in a healthy human, and is the place of balance between the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems. When under stress, we don’t get as many of these Still Points in our day and that leads to more and more imbalance. In a Craniosacral session, multiple Still Points are arrived at, whether they happen throughout the therapist’s coaxing or by themselves. The Still Point can also be likened to a restart button for the system in a given area - similar to restarting a computer after it glitches, or simply as a preventative measure. Restarts are helpful in returning to the initial program and clearing any recent information drags on the system. We all need a good restart, as we can be functioning in the present moment as if we were still stuck in some past experience, especially if it was a trauma that was never fully healed and integrated. Much dis-ease comes from energy that is stuck in a loop and not able to return to its present moment job. More and more energy gets removed from the current system to feed an old paradigm, and less is available for the needs to present life and health.

By offering a safe controlled space for the body to easily regulate, this energy can be returned to its original purpose, that of regeneration and vitality.