"Restrictions"

Fundamental to the practice of diagnosing and treating disease from a craniosacral perspective is the notion of "restrictions."  Indeed, this is also a hallmark of osteopathic diagnosis and treatment, and underscores craniosacral therapy's osteopathic roots.  Any abnormality in the body tissues can be classified as a restriction, be it in the bones, organs, or soft tissues.  These abnormalities are believed be restrictive to the normal, healthy flow of energy throughout the body, and therefore one localized "restriction" due to an injury can have adverse effects on parts of the body far from the site of injury.  In fact, the injury can affect the individual's overall state of health because the normal, healthy flow of energy is disrupted.

Perhaps a slightly more scientific explanation of how localized restrictions can cause global pathology is by means of fascial planes.  Fascia is another term for connective tissue, which does exactly what it says it does: connect.  Connective tissue is present in virtually all areas of our bodies, and is composed of tough fibers with varying degrees of elasticity.  It covers muscle, bones, and bodily organs, and fills most small gaps between tissues (the meninges covering the brain and spinal cord are made up of connective tissue).  The concept that all fascia in the body is contiguous is absolutely paramount to craniosacral diagnosis.  Very much like the fact that your driveway is ultimately connected to the White House's driveway by means of roads, fascia overlying a muscle in the shoulder is thought to be ultimately connected to fascia overlying the small intestine by means of contiguous fascial planes (according to craniosacral theory).  A restriction in connective tissue is thought to be manifested by a contraction of that tissue, and the force of that contraction is thought to be transmitted along contiguous fascial planes to effect a pulling force on a distant site covered with connective tissue.  For example, a shoulder injury theoretically could cause a contraction of fascia overlying shoulder muscles which ultimately could irritate (by means of a transmitted pulling force) the small intestine and cause gastrointestinal symptoms.

A craniosacral therapist places "listening hands" on the body, most notably at the occiput (behind the head at the base of the skull) and sacrum, and feels for restrictions in the body as they interfere with the CRI as it is transmitted throughout the body tissues.  The therapist is not supposed to be expecting to find anything specific to any given complaint; rather, the hands are placed on the body with an open mind to what may or may not be discovered.  Any disruption of energy flow is taken into account.

Balance and Memory

Another tenet of traditional osteopathy espoused by craniosacral therapy is the understanding that the body will respond to injury of any kind (i.e. physical or emotional) by reorganizing around the site of that injury in order to find a sense of balance.  Once this balance is achieved, the individual is relieved of the pain or feeling that was troubling him or her.  However, the tissues around the area of injury are no longer "normal and healthy," but instead have been afflicted by an insult of some kind and subsequently been reorganized to achieve balance, and are therefore changed.  In this way, it is believed that body tissues hold the memory of injury long after the symptoms have been resolved, and that this altered tissue state is a potential for the start of disorder in the body.  It is theorized that, once the body has reorganized as much as possible and is no longer able to achieve balance or compensate for injury, disease becomes apparent.  And so, it could be that a disease such as fibromyalgia might be explained by craniosacral therapists as the long-term build-up of small, perhaps initially unrecognized injuries.

A Holistic Approach

Craniosacral therapy take the entire person into consideration when diagnosing any form of disease.  For example, if the patient's major complaint is a headache, the therapist will not simply focus his or her attention on that one problem.  Rather, it is recognized that the headache could be the manifestation of something more.  Disruptions in the flow of the cranial rhythmic impulse will be felt for over the entire body, not only the head and neck, and the therapist will have an open mind to the possibility that the symptoms may not be from an injury to that particular area.