Bodywork.

What is the work exactly?

Let's begin with Fascia
Fascia (fash´e-ah) is a continuous web of connective tissue that binds, connects, and supports every other part of the body. It's the same stuff as the slippery silver substance that covers and divides the sections of muscle in a raw chicken breast.

In a healthy system, fascia provides mobility to allow both for tiny physiological process as well as gross movement. It serves to heal and protect our wounds. It has been thought to conduct the energetic pathways in acupuncture. It provides structure around our organs, connects muscles to bones, and delicately supports blood and fluid pathways throughout the body. It is the immediate environment of the cells.

When there is a pattern of unhealthy repetitive use, the system lays down structural fibers in the fascia to reduce the work required from muscles. That's why, for example, the "muscles" across some people's shoulders feel like rocks. It's not the muscle at all — it's the fascia becoming dense to support the muscle. This may also result from a repeated stress pattern playing out in the muscles.

Fortunately, fascia also responds to gentle work to release strain patterns. In the context of structural or myofascial work, the therapist introduces a mechanical force into the system — and in craniosacral therapy, the amount of force used is only as much as is needed for change.

CranioSacral Therapy
CranioSacral Therapy works with fascia, too, but the approach is different than that of most other structural work. In the context of CranioSacral Therapy, change in the fascia happens spontaneously as the therapist supports the impulses toward balance in the body.

In the deepest most original parts of the fascial network is the dura mater, the tough sac covering the Central Nervous System. Within this meningeal sac, the cerebrospinal fluid nourishes and protects the brain and spinal cord. In one model of the craniosacral system, the cyclical production and draining of this fluid is thought to create the core rhythm used in CranioSacral Therapy assessment and treatment. Other models suggest that the rhythm is the result of biorhythms that begin in brain tissue itself. Although its genesis is not yet understood, hundreds of thousands of practitioners worldwide rely on this rhythm.

A CranioSacral practitioner is trained to focus on this rhythm throughout the body and to facilitate the release of structural and energetic restrictions affecting the whole body. They gently support the body's innate (and non-conscious) impulses toward balance and health. CranioSacral Therapy counters the negative effects of disease, dysfunction or distress on your central nervous system, giving it great potential to affect every system in the body and facilitate healing in the whole person.

CranioSacral Therapy gracefully promotes cognitive, emotional and spiritual understanding in the context of structural bodywork. It supports the system in flux, kindly attending to physiological reactions induced by life's adventures.