What is craniosacral?
Generally craniosacral is a very gentle “hands on” treatment with light touch and no manipulation. The practitioner listens via the hands to what is going on in the body, identifying and relieving tensions held there. Sessions are led by the client’s body, not their mind, so it is the body’s natural pace and priorities that are followed so that you stay comfortable and are able to integrate the changes easily.
Craniosacral works with your self as an interconnected whole – physical, mental and emotional – for example it may be that when an emotional symptom is treated a physical one disappears. Similarly, distortion and pain in one part of the body may compensate for imbalance in another – such as migraine headaches which may arise from tension in the sacrum.
Cranio works on many different levels and influences many different structures within the body, including the musculo-skeletal system, nervous system, cardio-vascular system, immune system, organs, connective tissues, fluids, and the energy systems of the body.
Because cranio treats the whole person it can influence many conditions to reduce or eliminate painful sypmtoms, disease and dysfunction by working on resolving the underlying cause. Craniosacral session therefore have a very wide range of applications.
The science behind Craniosacral Therapy (CST) developed from the work of an American osteopath, Dr William Sutherland in the early 1900s. He discovered intrinsic movements of the bones in the head and his further research revealed a seperate, subtle rhythm (Craniosacral rhythm) in the body, generated by cerebro-spinal fluid. As a result of detailed clinical observation it has become clear that these movements, which can be measured with delicate scientific instruments, are a direct expression of health and offer a way of working with the physical as well as the more subtle aspects of life. The Craniosacral rhythm is also known as the Breath of Life, and flows in tide-like waves up and down the body. It is very subtle. Before having a session, most people have never noticed it. These findings have been further developed and CST now has several branches…
A biodynamic (less structural, more energy focused) practitioner might talk about craniosacral as listening to the waves of energy or fluid within the system from a place of stillness. And about training the system to connect with the underlying stillness beneath the ocean (like in Vipasana meditation) and watching the ripples on the surface. The ripples can be likened to our emotions that come and go, and the dramas and repeated patterns that unfold in our lives. Once the river unblocks and flows freely, life may take a different, freer and easier course, bypassing earlier obstacles.
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy… from Moving Water by Rumi In a client’s words: “My experience with Mira was characterised by the feeling of the most enormous ‘space’ in which my system was simply able to find its own state of interconnectedness. Mira’s touch and presence is non-judgemental and never invasive, – that’s unusual in bodywork which was why I had never had any before. Mira created an environment of safety and trust that made it possible for deep realignment and delicate integration to happen. Perhaps most importantly, she embodies an intuitive understanding of the balance between space and boundary which enables creative regeneration to emerge from a still, stable centre. I felt to be in the presence of an ally whose own continued and uncompromising exploration of bodywork and energy dynamics has evolved a consciousness which can facilitate integrative healing at its most profound.” Nick Prideaux-Brune, Psychologist, London How does it work?-
- Whenever we knock our bodies or feel emotional stress, the body’s tissues contract.
- Sometimes if a shock is severe, or involves an emotional situation, the tissuses stay contracted. The brain seems to hold a pattern that keeps things in place. Over time stored stresses, tension and trauma may give rise to restricted body functioning as the experiences pile up.
- The effects may be both physical (such as back pain, migraine or gut problems) and emotional (such as depression and anxiety).
Craniosacral is like a form of buddhist meditation or awareness practice that uses stillness and detailed listening to the body’s anatomy (between the cranium and sacrum) to take the client into a state of deep peace and heightened inner body awareness, where the body is naturally stimulated to heal itself. Sinking deep beneath thought and emotion there is a well of natural intelligence that can observe the client’s bones and tissues, nervous system, and track brain functions, allowing the client’s system to work out what is blocked or malfunctioning so that it can self-correct. It is way more effective than the thinking mind. As the practitioner uses their hands and awareness to reflect the holding pattern back to the body it lets go. The body lets go at a deep unconscious level as soon as it realizes that it is holding, and the core energy begins to flow freely once more.
In a sense craniosacral works back to front – it begins by connecting with the your “health” or reservoir of life force to allow it to sort out any “problems” in the most efficient way, by taking your whole system into account.
Any effective healing is basically about the container, the quality of awareness of the practitioner holding the space. When space feels safe, the body’s self-healing potential is activated. So best to choose a practitioner that the most frightened, vulnerable part of you feels totally comfortable with.
Rather than prescribing a drug or an operation, craniosacral practice connects the client’s awareness with the internal system of bones, muscles and connective tissue that make up the human body. The practitioner listens to the movement of fluid or energy within these physical structures. As described above, the system can release its own constrictions in a highly intelligent manner, based on an underlying blueprint of health, found in each cell. Most importantly the client experiences all these sensations directly within their own body, and so inner body awareness increases, as does insight into their own self-healing nature. We all have bodies but most people spend their time thinking; few people actually really feel their body or experience their emotions with awareness and so remain at the mercy of media manipulation and childhood conditioning, and struggle with a sense of emptiness and lack of purpose. Awareness of the body sensations gives us true information – it is a crucial step in finding our authenticity and sorting out those bits of our lives that are less than satisfactory.
It is also the key factor in intuition and the ability to decide for ourselves what is right for us. In this way cranio healing is a powerful practice that combines science with spirit in a way that is gives individuals vital self-knowledge, that can help them live the lives they yearn for. Since Cranio Healing brings individuals into alignment with the natural creative energythat underlies the whole of existence, every person who opens to this experience is contributing to both personal and global peace, and an evolutionary shift for humanity. That is why people are often deeply surprised at what they feel during their first session, and feel grateful that they have finally found this information.
What happens in a session?
A laughter rippled through my soul as
I gave up what I should do and be
And saw I am already me.
All I need to do is be.
Usually we will either talk and take a brief case history and then you will receive bodywork fully clothed and lying down. Whilst talking may help you become more aware, bodywork is a more direct tool. By stimulating your and energetic core adn essential self, you get out of your head and into your being (even hardcore worriers are guaranteed to relax!) You may experience deep relaxation and peace, as well as tingling sensations, heat, pulsing, twitching and letting go, in response to very light touch. Sometimes I will ask a question to bring things into conscious awareness, but mostly just silence. I work from presence, focused on responding to your deepest self’s needs in the moment. Your state determines what happens first, as i follow your queues.
No matter how you arrive, you will to leave feeling better, calmer, more like yourself (or your money back!). Often each treatment will feel very different. The emphasis is on teaching you to self-regulate your own states to empower yourself. You may be given simple awareness excercises to do in your own time if you are interested.
If we work online, we may visualise, breathe or meditate to help reconnect your inner body awareness, and sometimes use somatic experiencing to release trauma.
Is it “Therapy”?
Mira practices craniosacral in a way that primarily gives you a direct and gentle way to reconnect with your essential nature, whether you have experienced it before consciously or not. Mira does not view her craniosacral sessions as therapy – therapy focuses on looking at “issues”. Quite the opposite. Her sessions are a tool for evolution, in the sense that they shift your awareness of yourself and your “problems” into a whole new frame from which profound healing and awakening occur. Gone are the days when it was necessary to do years of therapy. Current global conditions are enabling people to break out of their emotional and physical patterns in a matter often of days or weeks. Mira has expertise in working with the fear that can arise during the awakening process, and will teach you to self-regulate your nervous system so you can cope with the changes that are taking place. She will also provide calm reassurance that you are not going nuts! Mia has found that it often works well for people to do short periods of daily work so they have continuous support to stabilize in a new way of functioning. 6-10 days is often enough, though this is highly individual.
As you connect with an experience of yourself that is more permanent than any of the problems you experience in life, you learn to trust and draw on this experience of being. Resting in the inner space that opens up in you as the result of the session, you can begin to trust a more fundamental place within yourself that is not only clear and open and free of problems, but form which all positivie qualities are spontaneously available as you encoutner the challenges of your life.
How is Craniosacral with Mira different?
If youtouch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Cranio Healing™ is more than craniosacral. Mira works from presence, with a focus on stimulating your awareness of all you really are, and within that space she often uses cranio as a tool to enable you to connect with your inner body sensations and get out of your mind. She works with a strong scientific mind-body foundation but beyond the confines of the “rational” mind. She does not focus on “fixing” your “problems” as that is not the solution. Rather she works with present awareness, which brings about any necessary changes.
Mira works with the biodynamic craniosacral method of listening to the fluid motion in the body through light touch to free up the life force. She has found that working directly with the brain and nervous system is essential for deprogramming conditioned emotional and behavioural patterns, including trauma, so that shifts in conscious awareness can happen that enable healing. As appropriate she incorporates trauma resolution work from Somatic Experiencing into the session. She works with direct contact with your nervous system to regulate its activity to restore balance and optimal functioning and drastically reduce fear and anxiety. Her particular interest is in resolving emotional disturbances and trauma – this includes relieving depression, anxiety, shyness, anger etc.
Mira focuses on subtly guiding you towards the inner wisdomthat Cranio Healing uncovers in the body – your intuition, discrimination, sensing your own truth, and self-regulating your nervous system (technical speak for learning how to calm yourself down and get a perspective). She enables you to have your own embodied experience of life principles or thruths that you can then apply and practice like tools. Over just a few sessions you will begin to get a sense of your inner compass and how to allow it to guide you to the vast potential that your life has. If you want to, you can learn to let life live you. Feelings of lostness, emptiness and fear will dissolve as you learn to allow the joy, freedom and aliveness of being yourself, and all the opportunities it brings.
You will feel safe with Mira because she has a rare ability to “be with” you. Her capacity to hold space and deep sensitivity to boundaries, unconscious emotion and presence make this possible. You will feel seen and heard, yet not invaded or pushed.
During the session you are likely to experience unconscious patterns held in the mind and body coming into conscious awareness as the mind and body integrate, and unresolved past issues dissolve.(However as it’s unconscious, all you have to do is relax!) This is rather like drops of psyche or soul that have become split off from the whole by life’s traumatic events, that rejoin the central pool and start to flow with the river again, instead of creating resistances and friction. In traditionalpsychotherapy this is referred to as integrating the childhood developmental levels – or stages in development that were not completed at the time. By focusing on present body awareness and sensation, Cranio Healing bypasses circular thinking about stories of the past (although stories are addressed as they arise in the session), and does the job of developmental integration much faster, simply by feeling the previously unfelt energies directly. It facilitates increased grounding and embodiment, and clearer focus in life. This deep level of listening to the whole being dissolves physical and emotional issues at the root cause – often effective where other methods are not. Nevertheless the whole process remains totally determined by the client and their natural progression. This sensitive approach is an extrememly effective method precisely because its subtlty allows delicate core issues to surface and integrate that would not be accessible to more invasive methods.
Treating Trauma
What is trauma? The symptoms are anxiety, suddenly going numb or feeling like you shut down or freeze for no reason, repeated nightmares, getting a far-away look in the eyes, disconnecting from sensation in the body. Shocking physical or emotional events like accidents and surgery may overwhelm the nervous system, so that in order to self-protect some of the energy gets stored in either outside the body or in specific body parts for later processing. That is why cranio can be especially effective for accessing and integrating long-forgotten difficult events that keep on surfacing as inexplicable symptoms.
Treating trauma requires extreme care, a lot of awareness and skill, and patience. The good news is that in Mira’s experience everything can be healed. Mira is highly sensitive and is particularly effective with frightened and traumatized adults and children.
She works with an extremely high degree of sensitivity which makes it possible to “hear” different aspects of the nervous system, brain and neural patterns, so that trauma stored in the body as emotional energy can be safely discharged. In Somatic Experiencing this is referred to as the trauma cycle – fear, anger, pain and tingling sensations in the hand and feet follow each other and allow the body to integrate unprocessed energy and experiences.
Over time, with precise and present accompaniment, the brain can learn new neural connections to regulate itself and levels of anxiety/panic/distress can decrease drastically or disappear altogether. Making new neural pathways in the brain occurs through the empathetic connection and exchange in the relationship between the practitioner and client. Its as if the brain of one hears the brain of the other and downloads information that enables new growth. This happens at the level of “being with” another at a feeling level which is why physical contact is not strictly necessary. Current developments in neuroscience are providing empirical evidence of brain functioning which support the way craniosacral practitioners work with the brain and the nervous system to release trauma and create health.
How will I benefit?
• resolve trauma without retraumatisation
• resolve longstanding emotional and relational patterns
• eradicate physical pain
• and boost the being into a state where it regulates itself and stays well
• expand your creativity, joy and level of fulfillment
• give you confidence to make life changes
• create easier relationships with people
When the body’s energy is unblocked life can express itself freely and brilliantly through each of us.
Although the client seems passive, sessions result in embodiment, increased inner body sensation and knowledge, emotional balance and new awareness, that often leads to new more authentic ways living.
Meditation/awareness practice: by giving you a direct experience of inner body sensation, and showing you which
parts of your body you can and cannot feel, a session teaches the basics requirements of any form of meditation practice.
Yoga: inner body awareness is the foundation of yoga and cranio will enhance your practice – since the popularization of yoga many modern yoga teachers don’t actually have this ability because it takes much more than a month’s training to learn…
Conditions Treated
Cranio treats the whole person, and many conditions can be relieved or dissolved.
If you have a specific query for yourself and are not sure if I can help, please get in touch.