Therapy / Osteopathy in the CranioSacral setting

Edited by Massimo Armeni

We owe the discovery of this very important branch of natural medicine to Dr. WG Sutherland DO, who was a direct pupil, towards the end of the 19th century, of the founder of Osteopathy, Dr.Still DO

Dr. Sutherland, an American, was not a doctor, but a printer first and then a journalist, and just as a journalist in 1897 he went to the Osteopathy school of Dr. Still to write an article on this science ... he was so impressed by what he saw then decided to abandon everything and become an osteopath

He himself recounts: "... Reflecting on a skull, my attention was drawn to the sphenoid, cut like the scales of a fish, to fulfill movement functions, indicative of the possibility of a respiratory movement .."

Dr. Sutherland, still a student, tried to get the idea out of his mind that he himself called mad, so he graduated and for 20 years he worked as an osteopath, but that idea never left him so much that he was convinced to follow his own inclinations and began to perform studies first on disarticulated skulls and then on his own skull, with results sometimes not quite brilliant and above all not completely rested, as he reproduced on his skull mechanical injuries induced by considerable stresses.

Little by little he developed an understanding and a mechanical model that allowed him to realize his intuitions, the "Primary Respiratory Mechanism": "corresponds to the fluctuation of the cerebrospinal fluid, to the motility of the brain and marrow and to the mobility of the bones of the skull and of the sacrum between the iliac bones "will say ..." the bones of the skull and the sacrum function as a functional unit that possesses an involuntary mobility in the phases of the MRP (primary respiratory mechanism) ".

Such ideas met with indifference and hostility in osteopathic colleagues for many years, during which time the Cranial Osteopathy spread also outside of Osteopathy and was also taught to non-osteopaths, and the CranioSacral Therapy was born, an ethically exquisite etymological difference to distinguish it from Osteopathy in the Cranial area.

This method consists of manipulations of the cranial sphere, of the extremely soft bands and pelvis, in the wake of the philosophy of Osteopathy of Dr. Still, but skillfully dosed, administered and above all performed by operators who have a deep knowledge of neuroanatomy and biomechanics and biodynamics Craniosacral.

So many times today I hear of "craniosacral massage" or stuff like that; here is always distrust of these improvised charlatans and contact osteopathic members of the ROI or craniosacral therapists members of the AITECS - ROCS in case you need.

The benefits of the cranial approach to the newborn and the adult are nowadays widely documented and demonstrated.

Today both Osteopaths and Craniosacral Therapists practice this discipline, even though in a study a few years ago on the practice of Osteopathy in America it is estimated that out of 36, 000 osteopaths with a license to practice the profession, less than 500 exercised cranial osteopathy.

In Italy this discipline has not yet been officially associated with traditional medicine as opposed to many other European, Anglo-Saxon and American countries, and, in addition to some schools of osteopathy, there are very few schools that teach it in serious schooling, in accordance with the inheritance leave us by Dr. Sutherland.

Here are the disorders that can be normalized by performing Craniosacral Therapy:

PROBLEMS OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

ENDOCRINE DISORDERS

JOINT DISORDERS

GYNECOLOGICAL DISORDERS

HEART DISORDERS AND BLOOD VESSELS

SLEEP DISORDERS

DIZZINESS

DIGESTIVE DISORDERS

DISORDERS OF THE STOMATOGNATIC APPARATUS

DISTURBANCES OF VISCERAL FUNCTIONS

CHRONIC PAIN