Both Don and Cindy Murphy, founders of the Dome Healing Center, have trained extensively in the Upledger CranioSacral therapy Methods. Please take some time to read the information below about the benefits of CST. If you feel that you might benefit from receiving this therapy please call to schedule an appointment.

Upledger CranioSacral Therapy TM

The Therapeutic Value of CranioSacral Therapy

Now for nearly 25 years, osteopathic physician and researcher John E. Upledger, DO., O.M.M., has been a proponent of using the rhythm of another body system, the CranioSacral system, to enhance body functioning, and help alleviate pain and discomfort.

The CranioSacral system consists of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord. It extends from the bones of the skull, face and mouth, which make up the cranium, down to the sacrum, or tailbone area.

Since this vital system influences the development and performance of the brain and spinal cord, an imbalance or restriction in it could potentially cause any number of sensory, motor or neurological disabilities. These problems could include chronic pain, eye difficulties, scoliosis, motor-coordination impairments, learning disabilities and other health challenges.

CranioSacral Therapy is a gentle method of detection and correction that encourages your own natural healing mechanisms to dissipate these negative effects of stress on your central nervous system. You also benefit from better overall health and resistance to disease.

Because of its positive effect on so many body functions, CranioSacral Therapy is practiced today by a wide variety o healthcare professional. They include medical doctors, doctors of chiropractic, nurses, physical therapists and Licensed Massage Therapists.

What Conditions Does CranioSacral Therapy Address?

CranioSacral Therapy strengthens your body’s ability to take better care of you. It helps alleviate a range of illness, pain and dysfunction, including:

• · Migraines and Headaches
• · Chronic Neck and Back Pain
• · Motor-coordination Impairments
• · Stress and Tension-Related Problems
• · Infantile Disorders
• · Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries
• · Chronic Fatigue
• · Scoliosis
• · Central Nervous System Disorders
• · Emotional Difficulties
• · Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome ((TMJ)}
• · Learning Disabilities
• · Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• · Orthopedic Problems

The CranioSacral Therapy practitioner uses a light touch, generally no more than the weight of a nickel, to test for restrictions in the CranioSacral system. This is done by monitoring the rhythm of the cerebrospinal fluid as it flows through the system.

While experienced clinicians can detect this motion anywhere on your body, they can most easily feel it at the skull, sacrum, and coccyx. These bones attach to the membranes that enclose the cerebrospinal fluid.

The positive effects of CranioSacral Therapy rely to a large extent on your body’s natural self-corrective activities. The therapist’s light, hands-on approach simply assists the hydraulic forces inherent in the CranioSacral system to improve your body’s internal environment and strengthen its ability to heal itself.

CranioSacral Therapy is a gentle, hands-on treatment method that focuses on alleviating restrictions to physiological motion of all the bones of the skull, including the face and mouth, as well as the vertebral column, sacrum, coccyx and pelvis. The CranioSacral therapist also focuses on normalizing abnormal tensions and stresses in the meningeal membrane, with special attention to the outermost membrane, the dura mater, and it fascial connections. Attention is paid to alleviating any obstacles to free movement by the cerebrospinal fluid within its membrane compartment and to normalizing and balancing perceived related energy fields. This approach is derived from experiments of DR John Upledger, DO.

As usually practiced, this therapy is a noninvasive treatment process that requires an uninterrupted treatment session of at least 30 minutes. Often the session is extended beyond an hour. Practitioners indicate that successful treatment relies largely on the therapist’s ability to facilitate the patient’s own self-corrective processes within the CranioSacral system.

The most powerful effects of CranioSacral Therapy are considered to be on the function of the central nervous system, the immune system, the endocrine system and the visceral organs via the autonomic nervous system. This therapy has been used with reported success in many cases of brain and spinal cord dysfunction. Although these successes have not been documented in formal studies, both patients and therapist have observed them subjectively or anecdotally. Most prominent among these success reports are cases of brain injury that resulted in symptoms of spastic paralysis and seizure. Other areas of claimed success include: cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, seizure disorders, depressive reactions, menstrual dysfunction, motor dysfunction, vision disorders, Temporomandibular joint problems, various headaches, chronic pain problems, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Energy and CranioSacral

Energy is the fundamental source that drives and allows people to move through life. The more energy one has available, the greater ones tendency toward health. In CranioSacral Therapy, the Therapist tries to optimize the energy within a persons body so that the body’s own ability to heal itself can shine through. When a person gets sick, his or her energy either gets stuck or diminishes, much like the energy from a battery gets depleted. The body then reflects this depletion by an inability to handle the daily stresses of life. Our goal is to get people back in touch with their abilities to recharge those batteries, and to access this energy to help themselves and others.

The CranioSacral System

The CranioSacral system is a recently discovered physiological system. It is a semi-closed hydraulic system contained within a tough, waterproof membrane (the dura mater) that envelopes the brain and the spinal cord. An important function of this system is the production, circulation and reabsorption of cerebrospinal fluid (CFS). Cerebrospinal fluid is produced within the CranioSacral system and maintains the physiological environment in which your brain and nervous system develop, live, and function.

Normally, the production and reabsorption of CFS within the dura mater produces a continuous rise and fall of fluid pressure within the CranioSacral system. The semi-closed hydraulic system expands and contracts to some extent with this rhythmical pressure fluctuation. These volume changes prevent pressure from building up too much within the CranioSacral system. If for some reason your body is unable to accommodate these pressure changes, the subsequent buildup of pressure can contribute to dysfunction and ill health, especially in the central nervous system, which is enclosed within the boundaries of the CranioSacral system.

Primarily osteopaths and chiropractors who formed societies to investigate and teach cranial methods performed early exploration of cranial manipulation. These pioneers where at odds with the larger scientific community, and often with their own peers, over one central aspect of the cranial system: the movement of the cranial bones. Conventional anatomical wisdom taught that cranial bones were moveable only in young infants and were solidly fused in adulthood. The controversy raged until quite recently.

In the early 1970’s, the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University sought to resolve this controversy. It brought together a team of researchers with the objective of proving or disproving the basic tenets of cranial manipulative techniques. Of course, the major premise involved the movement of cranial bones.

By studying fresh cranial bone specimens rather than the chemically preserved specimens that were studied by previous researchers, the Michigan State University team demonstrated the potential for cranial bone movement. Optical and electron microscopy showed the existence of blood vessels, nerve fibers, collagen, and elastic fibers within cranial sutures. There was little evidence of sutural ossification, which would prevent movement of cranial bones in relation to each other.

With the existence of cranial bone motion established, the Michigan State University research influenced the therapeutic application of cranial techniques. Previous techniques were primarily based on the movement of cranial bones. It was now known that the dura mater, the protective layer surrounding the spinal cord, plays a key role in cranial bone movement. Dr. John Upledger, DO., largely developed these techniques for evaluating and treating the dural membranes.

Inner Physician and Biological Wisdom

CranioSacral Therapy is based on the concept that the body the power to heal itself. This ability is driven by a “mind,” a non conscious intelligence that we call the “Inner Physician.” By getting to know this aspect of ourselves, we can develop a source of guidance to help us direct our energy toward optimal wellness.

The Inner Physician is the name that we have applied to that part of the unconscious that knows all about our bodily functions and conditions. It also knows why things are as they are, and what must be done to enhance/improve these functions and conditions. The Inner physician knows about the messages from the psychoemotional and spiritual selves that these bodily conditions may be trying to represent. The Inner Physician is usually most willing to assist in the interpretation of these messages, and to assist by providing the necessary wisdom to resolve deep problems of deep self-healing can begin.

The dialogue with the Inner Physician is often best begun in the presence of a helping, caring person who will assist in the achievement of a proper receptive state of mind, and the establishment of dialogue between the conscious awareness of the subject and the Inner Physician (unconscious mind) of the person. The helping person is therefore assisting in the establishment of lines of vertical communication between the subject’s various levels of conscious and unconscious awareness.

It is also our feeling that, when two persons touch in a caring/helping way, the Inner Physician (unconscious) of these two persons are automatically in communication. The task is then to develop vertical communication for each of these persons between their Inner Physicians and their conscious awareness. It is well for the helping person to simply request of his/her own Inner Physician to be used as the recipient’s Inner Physician sees fit. Too often, the helping person tries to impose his/her opinion of what is best upon the subject/recipient. This may not be best in the judgment of the subject’s Inner Physician. This specifically tagged, well intentioned, supposedly healing energy may then be rejected. This rejection may then be misinterpreted as a failure. Not so. It represents an improper use by intrusion of the natural ability that we all possess.

The Inner Physician manufactures combatants to fight viruses, cancer and AIDS. Endorphins are manufactured to fight pain. They create the “runner’s high.” For the Inner Physician to function, it needs food, water, vitamins, minerals, psychological, and physical space. (Not enough physical space causes restriction in the low of nutrients and blood.) Minor aches and pains can be a signal, so you should pay attention to them.

It only takes a few minutes every day to benefit yourself and others around you.

(The above was excerpted from the book Inner Physician and You by DR John Upledger, DO.)

To Schedule an Appointment

If you feel that you might benefit from receiving this therapy please call or e-mail to schedule an appointment.

Contact Us

To Contact Us with questions or to schedule an appointment Click on the Following Link. It will take you to the Contact Page Contact Us

Contact Don or Cindy Murphy, LMT at the Dome Healing Center:

e-mail: dome@net-magic.net

phone: local 904-277-3663 or toll-free 1-800-520-8514