It is true one of my favorite things in the world is CranioSacral Therapy. I love receiving it as well as being a practitioner offering CranioSacral Therapy. The pressure, movement, and speed of this work is very gentle. What is actually happening is, with the pressure of the touch being so light, the body puts up no defenses and so you can work extremely deep into the body’s system. You can read a little more about CranioSacral therapy on my site here.
Now that I am officially a blogger (a long time in the works) I will share with you different aspects of this amazing healing modality. Yes, it is very complex in its totality of studying the craniosacral system, and yet also very simple because after it is all said, it is just about following the body and releasing unwanted tension.
Today I would like to share with you a little about the reciprocal tension membrane. This is a membrane similar to cellophane wrapping or a balloon. It encompasses the cranium and spinal cord down to the sacrum. Its job is to keep the spinal fluid in the spine until it is released in to the system via the nervous system.
It is supportive, and protective of this whole system. It helps the spinal bones to stay in place enhancing the overall strength of the spinal cord. When someone has reoccurring spinal cord issues it is likely the craniosacral connective tissue has been effective.
Connective tissue is everywhere in the body. From the top of our head to the tip of the toe, all bones, muscles, ligament, tendons, and organs are surrounded and made of connective tissue. It was an amazing discovery when we realized that connective tissue has memory. If you stub your toe and pull it up very tight and hold it that way you may eventually put it down and forget about it, but there is a good chance the memory in the connective tissue holds that pattern. It will then create compensated patterns throughout the body twisting, turning, and tightening in many places as your body now is organizing around this disorganized pattern.
The reciprocal tension membrane is connective tissue. Part of it is located as mentioned earlier around all the bones in the cranium, down the spinal cord, around each vertebra, and sacrum. That is why you can bump your head and you may throw your sacrum out of alignment. With all the stressors that we have through or lives we can see why we have layers of restricted connective tissue patterns throughout our whole body. This is also why sometimes we find tightness and pain patterns return again and again in the same location.
CranioSacral Therapy can use the vertebra as “handles” to unwind the restrictive patterns though the spinal cord and related restrictive patterns. If you have not tried CranioSacral Therapy yet, keep it in mind as an effective healing modality.
