Cranial Sacral Therapy & Osteopathic based Orthobionomy

Cranial Sacral Therapy and Orthobionmy orginate from osteopathy. Osteopathy in its classical form involves a type of  kinisthetic "listening". With one's hands, a practitioner can feel where there is tension and restriction.  What might seem counter intuitive, the practitioner then goes with the strain, following it with very slight changes in hand positioning.  When the body senses something else is holding that tension, it tends to "let go" and unwind. At risk of sounding prententious, Sometimes this unwinding feels akin to riding a dragon through the clouds (full disclosure: I've never actually ridden a dragon).

For example, if I were to release the trapezoid muscle with Orthobionomy - a place where many people hold their stress that pulls their shoulders up to their ears - I actually would accentuate that position and hold it.  Slowly but surely, the muscle releases.  This works much faster than digging into the muscle with a deep tissue technique (not to say that there isn't a place for that").  It's also a fantastic option for individuals for which deep work would not be appropriate.  A similar technique can be done with joints to gently create a bit of space which is sometimes all you need to create smooth pain free movement in an area that was previously problematic.

Similarly with Cranial Sacral Therapy (CST), the practitoner listens to what feels like waves flowing through the connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is a continuous sheath of connective tissue surrounding every bone, muscle, and organ.   CST uses very light touch to connect and influence the body's fascial network. When fascia gets bound up, the tension extends far beyond the original fixation. Just like if you slightly twist the center of a piece of fabric and then observe the vast surrounding area that is affected. CST unwinds restricted fascia allowing it to move fluidly and freely. CST is particularly effective with TMJ, headaches, joint pain, and other complex conditions where relieving the source of painful dysfunction requires precise but subtle contact.