Whenever I use the word "energy" in my description of what craniosacral treatment (CST) includes, I can sense my listener backing away. I get it! The allopathic medical model treats energy work as 'flaky', as an outlier. And yet, our bodies are pulsing with energy...
Energy in your body
The nerves in my nervous system conduct electricity, and that gives me an electromagnetic field. You have one too. Your heart generates an electromagnetic field, and an electrocardiogram detects the electrical impulses. Biochemical reactions such as those in our digestive tract and brain rearrange charged particles creating electromagnetic energy. My craniosacral training taught me how to perceive this energy. At first, I was very skeptical too!
You can sense it too...
During a treatment session, I may invite you to notice these fields. When I stand on one side of you as you lay on the table, and then I move to the other side, and ask you which side you prefer me to work from, you know "intuitively" which one feels better. You are aware at some level, an intuitive level, of something that's real - an electromagnetic field. When I am treating you, I am inviting you to create safety for yourself by telling me on which side of your body you want me to be.
Is Craniosacral like Reiki?
According to the International Centre for Reiki Training, Reiki is "a non-physical healing energy made up of life force energy that is guided by the Higher Intelligence, or spiritually guided life force energy." During 2 or 3 day courses, a student is given the ability to use Reiki via an "attunement or initiation" to this spiritual energy. In some explanations, the energy is channelled from the top of the head and out the practitioner's hands into the client.
Holistic Approach
Craniosacral therapy is also interested in energy - as well as in tissues, fluids, emotions - in the whole human body. CST is a holistic approach. The 2 year Body Intelligence training that I graduated from includes medical anatomy and physiology, working safely with trauma, and how to be in a therapeutic relationship that is safe and supportive. It explores birth and embryology and how these patterns show up in the adult (or child's) body. Through many hands-on supervised sessions with clients, key skills are practiced. Using our hands, we listen to what is going on in your body and work with its inherent health and wisdom - with its natural ability to repair and heal itself.
Ultralight Touch
The form of Craniosacral Therapy called Biodynamic employs a touch that is gentle and non-invasive. There is no intentional or mechanical manipulation of your tissues. Some clients say it feels like my hands are moving! Yes, they do move a little. However, they are following - not leading - the rhythms of your bones, organs, tissues, fluids - and energy. This therapy is safe and comfortable even for babies and those who are frail.