Cranial Sacral Therapy
A gentle, yet powerful, form of healing
by Linda Sechrist
David Tomlinson is a licensed massage therapist who teaches the first and second levels of Cranial Sacral Therapy (CST) at The Upledger Institute, founded in 1985 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, specifically to teach this innovative approach to health. He believes that given the escalating costs of health insurance, CST can provide an excellent path of preventative maintenance.

Of course, it’s best to have the treatment done on a consistent basis. “It’s the equivalent of regularly maintaining a car,” advises Tomlinson, whose teaching is in demand throughout the world.

“CST works because it empowers people to take their health back into their own hands,” he says. “We are tapping into the body’s internal wisdom, the inherent resource that allows the body to heal itself.”

Osteopathic physician John E. Upledger created this gentle, hands-on therapy based on his research studies at Michigan State University between 1975 and 1983. Intrigued by the slow, pulsating movements within the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord that he first observed while assisting a neurosurgeon with a surgical procedure on the neck, Upledger went on to dedicate his years as a professor of biomechanics at the university to exploring the head, the spine and the body’s fascial tissue.

Upledger worked in concert with a team of anatomists, physiologists, biophysicists and bioengineers and wound up with breakthrough insights into the function of the craniosacral system by focusing his studies on the dural membrane that covers the inside of the cranium and spinal canal. Today, CST practitioners use Upledger’s method to evaluate and treat malfunctions of the brain and spinal cord that generally are poorly understood. More recently, CST has been opened up for those with no medical training because its gentle manipulations do not pose a threat to the body.

Tomlinson reasons that CST can address virtually any problem because, in the body, everything is connected. “We don’t approach the therapy with an agenda,” he notes, “because everyone stores their traumas in the body in different locations, and individuals heal differently.”

For more info on visit Upledger.com.