Cranial Osteopathy, also known as Craniosacral Osteopathy follows all the principles of osteopathy but focused more on the anatomy and physiology of the head. Osteopaths use a highly trained sense of touch to palpate and feel subtle changes in tension and tissue quality. The head is not like the other joints in our body, you cannot do big motions or deep tissue techniques. The bones of your scalp are ossified and they are covered by fascia and tissue that requires high anatomy knowledge and soft touch for the osteopath to listen to the body and treat it.
A cranial treatment can be compared with watching someone read a book. From the outside, nothing appears to happen, but if you are the one who read the book, you are transported into a world full of emotions, colours, depth and structure. As long as you read the book, the story unfolds.
The treatment includes gently applying pressure along the head and spine. The purpose is to balance obstructions in your nervous and musculoskeletal systems. Cranial osteopathic techniques are used to help release tension by gently moving the bones of your skull.
Cranial Osteopathy is not only for adults. Those types of techniques are widely known for the treatment of babies. Birth is a quite traumatic experience, which sometimes can lead to the bones of the scalp of the baby being slightly squeezed. As a consequence, the babies can regularly cry due to discomfort that they have and they can not explain to us.
