Historical
notes about craniosacral and cranial osteopathic
work
Solihin Thom DO DAc
Craniosacral
Therapy is the result of pioneering work by American
Osteopath John Upledger DO FAAC. Upledger, an osteopathic
surgeon, noticed a rhythmical motility of the spinal cord
while observing spinal surgery. He understood that this was
the cranial rhythm that he had heard about in Osteopathic
school. His re-discovery of this movement, prompted him to
inquire into the little understood, and often arcane,
branch of conventional osteopathy known as Osteopathy in
the cranial field.
In the 1950s the
early osteopaths, headed by the founder of Cranial work,
William Sutherland, introduced the extraordinary idea that
the cranial and spinal dura of the body moved in rhythm,
and that the cranial and all other bones reciprocated this
innate movement. All tissue could be palpated as possessing
a very small or minute movement, and that all tiisue –
whether bone, ligament, mucle, viscera – moved, when in
health, at the same time and in various but particular
planes of motion. This movement had its prime origin in the
cranium, originating from a filling and partial emptying of
the fluid spaces (ventricles) within the brain, as well as
the brain tissue itself, and that a reciprocal movement
occurs in all the vertebra and sacrum, as well as all other
bones and tissues, augmented by the transmission of the
rhythm and force of it, through the ubiquitous fascial
network of the body. This summated rhythm was palpable at
the rate of about 10 cycles per minute. They referred to
this process as the Cranial Rhythmic Impulse (CRI) and
believed that this was an innate rhythm which provided a
pump for the circulation of cerebral spinal fluid. The
cerebrospinal fluid was found to flow through the dura,
fascia and the perineural spaces of the spinal nerves. They
maintained that the ventricles were the motive power of
this movement and suggested that this fluid flow augmented
healing, induced homeostasis, altered tissue tensity, and
quieted noxious stimuli in the sympathetic system.
Physical trauma, poor diet, posture, and visceral ptosis
altered the structure of the body, which in turn
disorganized the musculature and its attendant fascia.
These aberrant structures then caused feedback up into the
spinal cord through nerve receptors relaying altered
structural tone and position. The sympathetic plexi also
become altered and they too, send 'noise' up into the
spinal cord. Eventually the combined 'noise' of sub damaged
tissues sends enormous yet often erroneous neurological
information to the brain, which registers this summated
display as pain or certainly as an 'alarm' and
automatically re arranges via the motor cortex, the
intrinsic musculature of the spine and the trunk to try
'silence' the noisy receptors. The Osteopath maxim was to
"find it (the lesion), fix it and then leave it alone." The
lesion, they said, was the disturbed structure which then
altered the function of the system.
John Upledger took this original model and further refined
it, making the dura the initial lynch pin around which his
work would be founded. He called this simplified model
Craniosacral Therapy. Whereas Osteopathy in the Cranial
Field had long been the province only of Osteopaths,
Upledger introduced this extraordinary system to
practitioners of many types of body therapies.
Upledger has developed his training to assist people in
growing their skills. The work is initially taught as a
protocol, whereby the practitioner is taught to induce a
still point, unwind fascia or dura or free the fixations of
the cranial bones. This approach serves people well, and
teaches a very good base of cranial work and understanding.
As student's skills improve the training goes 'beyond the
dura' inferring that their approach touches on the inner
physician (sic) and the innate capacity for healing to
arise spontaneously. This approach moves beyond the simple
unwinding and facilitative protocol initially taught.
Cranial Fluid Dynamics further expands Upledger's work by
introducing the idea that it is human consciousness that
governs structures, and ultimately alters the function of
the human being, creating states of dysfunction and
disease. The use of Ontological Kinesiology enables the
practitioner to "dialogue" with the client at the deepest
levels of subconscious to determine not only the precise
nature of the dysfunction, but also what is needed to begin
to resolve the aberrant state. This revolutionary method
pays tribute to the innate wisdom of the being, enabling
the practitioner to step away form the role of "healer" and
into that of facilitator of the client's own
process.