Find out if any of your friends or acquaintances have ever used this therapy and listen to how they describe their experience.

Telephone or email practitioners in your area for more information – a list of local practitioners can be found on www.craniosacral.co.uk.

I suggest the following options in your search for information:

Arrange for a single session and try it out.

Use the free twenty-minute zoom session to ask questions and find out what the practitioner is like and how they work.

In my experience it takes several sessions to discover some of the potential effects of this approach so I would recommend arranging more than one session to fully explore this.

This therapy does not suit everyone. I am very happy to advise you from my experience what to do next.

Generally, the longer you have experienced the symptoms or condition you suffer from, the longer it takes to clear. Each person is a unique individual with a completely different health history and varying levels of vitality. Sometimes a single treatment is all that is required.

Weekly sessions are best for most people, especially initially, as this keeps a level of continuity of treatment which our bodies appreciate. Visits can then be more spread out by agreement. This is not a hard and fast rule. A monthly visit is often satisfactory for clients after the initial series of three or four.

There is no age limit at all. I have worked very successfully with babies to people in their eighties. Because the treatment is so gentle, it is a good form of therapy for people at both ends of their lives.

There are very few contraindications if the practitioner is following the needs of the client’s body. However, the practitioner practises caution where there has been:

• a recent fracture or a current injury, particularly to the head area
• where there is a tendency to internal bleeding especially in the head and brain
• when there is very high blood pressure or increased fluid pressure in the head
• certain techniques are avoided during the first three months of pregnancy.

It is important to check your condition out with your practitioner so that adverse effects of treatment are avoided

The following stages are arranged to take place predominantly during a Zoom Video session or alternatively on the telephone:

• Your reasons for requesting the treatment are discussed such as why you have come for a session.
• Your case history will be written down, and any questions arising are dealt with.

The main treatment usually takes place with you lying fully clothed on a treatment couch.

Shoes and spectacles and possibly a belt if you are wearing one, can be removed for comfort.

I will make light contact using my hands, mainly on your head, feet, spine, and the back of your pelvis. Other areas of the body may be contacted depending on the treatment required.

I will communicate with you about this as we go along.

You remain in full charge during the session, and you can request to change your position or report any discomforts arising.

Experience varies – the therapy approach is very gentle. Some people feel very little at the time but then feel the therapeutic effects over the succeeding few days. Most people feel relaxation, an easing of old tensions and pains, a settling in their body and warmth and feeling of lightness. Sometimes people feel a short intensification of symptoms or discomfort; but then this settles after one or two days.

Usually people feel relaxed, refreshed and lighter than when they came in. You are likely to experience an ongoing improvement in your condition and energy levels over a course of treatments.

The body is made up of a highly integrated system, and sometimes discomfort experienced in one part of the body may have its origins in another part altogether.

One of the reported outcomes of craniosacral therapy is that people become more aware of how their bodies are functioning, and this ‘whole body approach’ begins to make more sense.

A large range of conditions are encountered during client sessions: Headaches; Sinusitis; Complications following childbirth; Temporomandibular Joint Problems; Post- operative pain; Insomnia; Anxiety states /Stress; Trauma; Back and Neck Problems and Pain following Dental Treatment are a few examples.

I often see people who are simply trying to improve their health. All through our lives we experience conditions which have taxed our bodies including stress, accidents, operations, difficult births (either affecting the child or the mother) or we may be dealing with difficult situations or circumstances with either social, mental or emotional impact.

Craniosacral treatment can help us reduce the ongoing burden of carrying the resulting physical compensations in our bodies. These compensations are actively maintained by our bodies, and  a lot of our vital energy is taken up in doing so. When this vitality is freed up by CST it is then more available to us for our current lifestyles.

Craniosacral therapists are trained to feel subtle motion in the body known as cranial rhythm or respiration and can use it to find where there is congestion or restriction.  In response to physical knocks or emotional stress, the body’s tissues contract. Sometimes, particularly when the shock is severe or accompanied by strong emotions, the tissue stays contracted.  Any trauma, stresses, strains, or tensions which remain in the body restrict the body’s functioning and may give rise to problems over the years.  The effects may be both physical (such as back pain, migraine, or digestive disorders) and emotional (such as anxiety or depression).  Restrictions in the body’s functioning show up in the way that craniosacral motion is expressed.

Using their hands to amplify the pattern the body is holding, the therapist provides an opportunity for the body to let go of its restriction and return to an easier way of functioning.  This frees the energy which the body was previously using to hold itself in contraction. The resulting changes can bring greater ease on a mental or emotional level as well as to the body. A quote from the words of a colleague: ‘It’s as if Craniosacral Therapy speaks the body’s own language and it helps the body to loosen the grip of old stresses and traumas that are no longer relevant’

What’s the explanation of the term Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and how does it differ from the more commonly used term of Craniosacral Therapy (CST)?

There is a difference between “the therapist evaluating what needs to change in the client and making those changes” and “the therapist listening deeply to the client’s body, appreciating its inherent ability to make the required changes itself and facilitating a therapeutic environment which helps those changes to take place”. Different craniosacral therapists incorporate different approaches according to their training.

Both types of practitioner work with what has been called the “cranial concept”. A Craniosacral Therapist belonging to the Craniosacral Therapy Association, has undergone a minimum of one year’s postgraduate training specifically in cranial work. Being postgraduates, they will already have been a health care practitioner with knowledge of anatomy and physiology. A Cranial Osteopath is someone who has had an Osteopathic training with some additional training in the cranial approach. You might want to ask about your practitioner’s training.

A typical treatment session takes a “therapeutic hour”. In practical terms this means about 45 minutes total time, allowing for greetings, farewells and writing up notes.

Where a half-session has been arranged, the total attendance time is 30 minutes with 15 to 20 minutes treatment time. The short time can be very effective as cranial work is powerful as well as gentle.

An hour is sufficient for most people, but everyone’s pacing is different. Shorter or longer treatment times can be arranged by agreement.

I charge £25.00 per half-hour or £45 per hour for adults.

A baby or child’s treatment takes place with the parent present and therefore the same rate applies – if frequent baby sessions are required for an urgent post-birth problem, a different rate can be negotiated.