What is Craniosacral Therapy?
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BCST is a gentle, yet profound, light touch healing therapy that focuses on restoring and enhancing the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Although it is not a manipulative therapy, it has evolved from Osteopathy and includes knowledge from research in neuroscience, somatic experiencing and trauma resolution.The therapy centres around the craniosacral system which includes the brain, the spinal column, and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that bathes and protects the whole craniosacral system. The craniosacral system plays a vital role in our bodies’ health and function, and has a close relationship with our autonomic nervous system and immune system.
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BCST works by regulating the client’s nervous system, bringing it back into a parasympathetic state where conditions resulting from stress, overwhelm and injury can be resolved. From a place of stillness, the practitioner listens to the movement and fluctuations of the craniosacral fluid, which carries its own life force and potency, facilitating the client’s system to begin accessing its own inner resources.The biodynamic craniosacral therapist learns to listen deeply to the system, tapping into its inherent intelligence, while focusing on the system remembering its original blueprint for health.
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In the first session I like to listen to you and hear the reasons for your visit; so, the first session is longer than the follow up sessions. Then, when you feel ready, we proceed to the treatment bed where you lie down fully clothed.I do everything I can to ensure that you feel physically comfortable and that you feel safe.
Then, I talk you through a short meditation to help you feel into your body, helping to quieten your mind.
The session normally lasts 50 minutes during which I maintain a gentle touch on various parts of your body particularly your head, spine and sacrum.
As a therapist, I listen intently to the movement and flow of the CSF fluid and to the subtle rhythms and movements in your bodies system. In order to do this, I need to become very still in myself, and this inner stillness acts like an invitation to you to drop into stillness too. It is like we become “one in stillness”.
My touch is always present throughout the session , encouraging the release of physical and emotional blockages, and, with my voice helps you to experience a profound sense of relaxation and well-being.
The session is a journey into deep relaxation during which you may relax so deeply that you fall asleep, or you may feel that you have entered a meditative like state, or you might even feel you are dreaming while awake. You might experience memories or insights into past experiences. Very often people experience a sense of warmth, softening, widening or floating. At times you might experience other kinds of sensations as energy that has been held in the body is released.
The session quite often involves a process of letting go of patterns that inhibit your health and vitality. Once these patterns begin to shift, you may experience a sense of integration in your body, mind and spirit.
At the end of the session, you might:
Find yourself breathing more fully and deeply
Standing taller and straighter
Experience less pain
Feel more comfortable in your body
You may be surprised to feel a new sense of peace and ease
You have more clarity in your thoughts
You notice an improvement in your sleep patterns
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When we are worried, anxious or don’t feel safe, we live in a state of "sympathetic arousal" You have most likely heard of this condition/state as:“Fight and flight”.
Sadly, in the fast pace of modern-day living, we are often forced to operate in “sympathetic survival mode.” While our nervous system is designed to deal with stress, heightened and /or continuous arousal can lead to our nervous system being unable to reset and rebalance itself, and this leads to many health and wellbeing challenges.
The emphasis on creating a feeling of safety in a cranio session allows us to enter the opposite of the “fight and flight” state, and that is “rest and repair” or “rest and digest”. Then we say that the nervous system is in a “parasympathetic state”. In this state our bodies hold huge possibilities for recovery and regeneration.
This internal ability we have to recover and reorganise our structure is best tapped into through the relationship with another human being who is wholly present, open and non-judgemental.
In this way patterns of emotion and mental states emerge and can resolve and with them the physiological changes that produce holistic reorganisation.
Skeletal joints that are painful and distorted become more at ease and mobile, tissues that are inflamed repair, organs that are restricted and overloaded begin to function smoothly and body systems that are out of sync. begin to communicate and work together again.
I look forward to meeting you and helping you on your journey
Contact : Laura Sexton Mob: (00 353) 86 823 9679
Email: frommyhandsandheart@gmail.com
Laura’s practise is based in Clontarf, Dublin 3, Ireland.