Cranialsacral Work

I’ve just returned from a treatment with my cranialsacral person, Andrew, so this will be a good time to describe this alternative therapy.

Following the path I’ve taken with other alternatives I begin with the Wikipedia definition:

Craniosacral therapy (also called CST, cranial osteopathy, also spelled CranioSacral bodywork or therapy) is a method of Complementary and alternative medicine used by physical therapists, massage therapists, naturopaths, chiropractors and osteopaths. A craniosacral therapy session involves the therapist placing their hands on the patient, which they state allows them to tune into what they call the craniosacral system. By gently working with the spine, the skull and its cranial sutures, diaphragms, and fascia, the restrictions of nerve passages are said to be eased, the movement of CSF through the spinal cord can be optimized, and misaligned bones are said to be restored to their proper position. Craniosacral therapists use the therapy to treat mental stress, neck and back pain, migraines, TMJ Syndrome, and for chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia.

If that sounds tentative and doubtful to you try this quote from a website with the title “Why Cranialsacral Therapy is Silly," written by one Stephen Barrett, M.D.

I do not believe that craniosacral therapy has any therapeutic value. Its underlying theory is false because the bones of the skull fuse by the end of adolescence and no research has ever demonstrated that manual manipulation can move the individual cranial bones [10]. Nor do I believe that "the rhythms of the craniosacral system can be felt as clearly as the rhythms of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems," as is claimed by another Upledger Institute brochure [11]. The brain does pulsate, but this is exclusively related to the cardiovascular system [12], and no relationship between brain pulsation and general health has been demonstrated.

A few years ago, three physical therapists who examined the same 12 patients diagnosed significantly different "craniosacral rates," which is the expected outcome of measuring a nonexistent phenomenon [13]. Another study compared the "craniosacral rate" measured at the head and feet of 28 adults by two examiners and found that the results were highly inconsistent [14].

In 1999, after doing a comprehensive review of published studies, the British Columbia Office of Health Technology Assessment (BCOHTA) concluded that the theory is invalid and that practitioners cannot reliably measure what they claim to be modifying. The 68-page report concludes that "there is insufficient evidence to recommend craniosacral therapy to patients, practitioners, or third party payers." [15]

In 2002, two basic science professors at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine concluded:

Our own and previously published findings suggest that the proposed mechanism for cranial osteopathy is invalid and that interexaminer (and, therefore, diagnostic) reliability is approximately zero. Since no properly randomized, blinded, and placebo-controlled outcome studies have been published, we conclude that cranial osteopathy should be removed from curricula of colleges of osteopathic medicine and from osteopathic licensing examinations [10].

I certainly agree! In fact, I believe that most practitioners of craniosacral therapy have such poor judgment that they should be delicensed.

Notice that this M.D. would forbid the teaching of craniosacral therapy and that anyone who practices it should be delicensed. He would, in effect, make it impossible for me to choose to spend my money for such therapy. Now for my experience with the modality.

I’ve had craniosacral therapy on and off for approximately four years. I’ve experienced enough benefits that I continue to avail myself of it on a fairly regular basis. I’m sure that my experiences would be labeled as placebo effect by the scientific establishment, but I don’t really care how they label my experiences, only that they are not successful in outlawing all alternative therapies and forcing all of us to come only to them to spend our money for health care.

Today I showed up at Andrew’s office and, after some brief conversation about my proposed exercise program based on the methods of Pete Egoscue (another alternative), which Andrew had recommended to me for consideration, I lay on his table and he began to hold and gently manipulate my head. The effect is quite soporific and I drifted near sleep. After some time, Andrew left the room and I continued to lie there. After several minutes he returned and said that he had detected a marked increase in the activity of my right brain and he wondered what I had done to effect this change. I described my completion of my little book, Pebbles, and my beginning of this blog. It is clear to me that my excitement about these events had, indeed, made a significant change in my functioning and I believe that Andrew had detected the changes. When I left Andrew’s office I experienced some feelings of disassociation and I am taking it easy for the rest of the day. This is the usual result of an appointment with Andrew.

Is this some kind of “double-blind” study that will prove scientifically that I had a change in brain functioning and that Andrew had detected it? Not at all. I am simply reporting my experience and I am quite satisfied with spending some of my money in this way. My hope is that the scientific turf watchers won’t be successful in trying to shut all my alternative therapies down.

REMEMBER: the medical establishment and the drug companies are NOT in business to sustain our health.