Discover Craniosacral Therapy for Chronic Pain Relief

Do you ever get this experince where your phone won’t stop buzzing, notifications keep piling up and eventually you just want to throw it across the room? Well your nervous system can experience something similar.

When you are dealing with chronic pain the body alarm system becomes a little too good at its job. Even though an injury may be healed, the nervous system may still be on high alert making everyday movements feel uncomfortable or even painful. So, where does Craniosacral Therapy come into the picture? Craniosacral Therapy is a gentle way of helping your nervous system take a chill pill and realize it doesn’t need to be on high alert.

What is craniosacral Therapy?

Craniosacral Therapy is a gentle hands-on technique that has its roots from osteopathy. It is a form of treatment that focuses on the craniosacral system, which includes the cranial (skull) bones and the sacrum (triangular bone at the base of your spine, between your hip bones). It also includes the membranes, fluid cushioning the brain and the spinal cord, as well as the fascia (connective tissue surrounding your bones, muscles and organs). It helps to bring your nervous system out of that pesky fight-or-flight state into a more rest-and-relax state to bring the body back to safety.

What happens in the body with chronic pain?

Chronic pain causes disruptions to the nervous system by changing its sensitivity and lowering its threshold. Instead of turning off once the injury has healed, the nervous system remains in fight or flight mode. This keeps the body’s alarm systems on high alert, turning normal day to day movements into painful triggers. Imagine a home alarm system that goes off from a gentle breeze. A little dramatic? Maybe…But that’s essentially what can happen when the nervous system becomes overly sensitive.

How does Craniosacral therapy help chronic pain?

Because chronic pain keeps the nervous system stuck in a constant high stress mode, Craniosacral Therapy helps the body shift gears. It helps calm the sympathetic nervous system, allowing the body to rest and relax. This in turn facilitates improved fascial mobility and encourages optimal fluid flow. It eases the tension throughout the system and decreases the persistent pain signals that are being sent to the brain, which ultimately helps restore normal pain thresholds throughout the body.

How does Craniosacral Therapy integrate in an Athletic Therapy Session?

Seamlessly! An Athletic Therapy session that integrates Craniosacral Therapy is no different than any other sessions, just with the addition of a slightly different approach that takes the whole body into consideration and keeps it holistic. Because Craniosacral Therapy is very gentle and involves light touch techniques, it is typically applied at the beginning of the treatment session to down-regulate the nervous system and help improve the effectiveness of other manual techniques. Alternatively it is also used at the end to help integrate structural adjustments before moving on to exercise prescription.

Ready to try a gentler technique? Click the button below to request to Speak with one of our Injury Specialists.