Cranial Sacral therapy and Beyond
Posted in Biochemical, Biomechanical, Four Poles, Spiritual Healing on 10/07/2009 01:23 pm by admin
Guest: Walter Blick
Today we want to speak about one of the poles of the four pole model that I generally don’t touch on enough. For new listeners these four poles are spiritual/consciousness, emotional, biochemical, and biomechanical. Anything that you can think of diagnostically or therapeutically is going to fall into one of these four poles. Today we are going to speak about the biomechanical pole of this model. This includes everything from surgery and physical therapy, to chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation, to cranio sacral therapy and massage, and much more. In general the public is unaware of the wide variety of structural techniques and practices and their application to a variety of problems.
Massage therapy is generally considered to be on the lowest wrung of biomechanical therapies. Moving flesh can be quite taxing and America has more flesh to move. But as I have always said the defining aspect of health is relationship. There is more to the flesh than meets the eye. The body’s connective tissues and muscles play a pivotal role in the body’s electromagnetic field. Even the role of fascia, the connective tissue that envelopes muscle, has been shown to be profoundly affected by both mechanical and non mechanical stresses ie emotions and traumatic experiences. How many of us have had emotional releases as we have had tight areas of body tissue released. And while many of us can tune into the rhythm of our heart and breathing are we aware that the body has many different cyclic rhythms that characterize its function. This has not gone unnoticed among people who have had conscious contact with the body for the purpose of healing
and detecting imbalances.
Take the case of John Upledger the osteopathic physician and founder of his own system of cranial sacral therapy. He was assisting in an operation on the spine one day and noticed that the spinal chord had it own unique pulsation which he later recognized as the cranial sacral rhythm caused by the movement of cerebral spinal fluid around the brain and spinal chord. This rhythm is totally separate from the circulatory and respiratory rhythm and can be perceived directly by the trained hand touching any part of the body. Anything disrupting the flow of CSF can be detected in this manner and the source of the disruption can be discerned as well. I have seen Dr Upledger come up with a diagnostic assessment after putting his hands on someone’s body for less than five seconds. But we do the same thing when we drive a car. The car becomes a direct extension of our bodies. We are aware of our bumpers and routinely can park and maneuver through the most
narrowest of spaces with split second adjustments in our steering and
speed.
Through the hands of a craniosacral therapist the sense of touch is highly developed. So for those of you who like to work with your hands I think you’ll be inspired from hearing our guest speak about any number of therapies where healing hands are needed. This is more the sense of a fine artist as opposed to the mechanical skill and dexterity employed by a surgeon or the coordinated hand eye movement of a carpenter.
The rhythms of the body spring from the myriad number of highways that course through our bodies: nerves, blood vessels, lymphatics, and connective tissue superhighways. While many of us associate chiropractic care with high speed adjustments and the popping sound that goes with this in cranial sacral therapy and other energetic systems of body work there is very little perceptible movement on the part of the practitioner but the release experienced by the client is palpable.
There are other forms of this kind of hands on biomechanical work that relates to releasing the fascia and around muscles ..or myofascial release therapy. A lot of physiologic energy is bound up in different holding patterns that our body will contort into and having these released can be sublime to orgasmic. Again subtle manipulations can lead to major changes. The same is true when working with neurovascular points on the skull which thru simple touch can affect the blood flow to various parts of the body. Or neurolymphatic areas which thru vigorous massage can restore muscle functioning and relieve pain, when indicated.
Understanding the body’s topography and all the hidden control points is a few steps beyond traditional massage therapy. Today we are blessed to have a practitioner who is making this journey and can share with us what he has found along the way.
