Tara Silverthorn BCST
Biodynamic
Craniosacral
Therapy
in Bristol
HOMECOMING
It's as if the landscape
gathers you into its arms
and makes you
not just welcome here
but whole.
It has reached out and found
you where you alone
could not. You are never lost
among these contours.
They map your interior.
You are discovered here.
- Rogan Wolf
What is Craniosacral Therapy?
Craniosacral Therapy (CST) evolved from the work of Osteopath William Garner Sutherland (1873-1954). A student of Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of Osteopathy, Sutherland’s work is practised by many osteopaths who refer to it as Cranial Osteopathy.
CST is a subtle but profound hands-on therapy that works with the underlying forces that govern our health. It is a truly holistic approach to bodywork, recognising that the mental, physical and emotional aspects of the body all form an integrated and intelligent whole.
In co-operation with your body's inner wisdom, CST engages your inherent capacity for self-healing, helping to restore balance, vitality and wellbeing.
Your body is quietly seeking health at every moment. The word 'biodynamic' refers to the drive within you to continuously maintain life. This drive is expressed in the tide-like motions of the cerebrospinal fluid. All healthy living tissues of the body breathe with these rhythmic tide-like motions. It's these rhythms that a Craniosacral Therapist 'listens to' with sensitive hands and presence, creating the safety for your body to begin listening to itself.
Throughout our lives our bodies become patterned, shaped and conditioned by how we have been able to cope with life's events. If we have been overwhelmed by illness, stress, injury or trauma, the body's capacity for vital motion and self-repair can become compromised and patterns of inertia and stasis can become held in the body.
CST provides the safe conditions for fluidity and vitality to return to where it has been lost. Long-held issues are then often able to resolve, allowing us to feel resourced and to reconnect with our wholeness.
The body can subtly do what it needs to do, at its own pace, to re-organise and re-balance towards its original state of health.
You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop. - Rumi
What can CST help with?
CST can help to develop a sense of vitality, grounding and resilience, supporting the body's ability to overcome challenges.
Many of my clients find that coming for CST alleviates their symptoms on many levels, whether mental, physical or emotional, and enables them to find a deeper sense of embodiment and connection with themselves. Often people notice improvements with;
- physical aches, pains and restrictions
- acute and chronic illness and injury
- emotional or psychological disturbances
Returning on an on-going basis, even when symptoms have resolved, supports overall health and wellbeing.
If you have a query about whether CST might be right for you, please get in touch with me.
For more information about CST, visit the CSTA website.
CST is not intended as primary healthcare but to work alongside and in co-operation with the relationship you have with your GP.
Photos by Jose Vegas