We are proud to be able to provide cranial therapy to our patients.
Cranio-therapy is the movement or stretching of the cranial (skull) bones to allow micro-movement, increase mobility and decrease stress.
The first use of cranial manipulation as a therapeutic modality, according to Cottam and Smith (1981), was by Willard Carver, D.C., who reportedly used a technique on the head in 1906 for treating hydrocephalus. Cottam and Smith stated that Carver (1909), in his book Chiropractic Analysis, made two statements that seemed to refer to cranial manipulation for the treatment of hydrocephalus and ‘Brain Fever'. However, he did not describe the technique in writing. During the teens and early twenties the discovery and use of cranial manipulative techniques was limited to a few isolated osteopaths and chiropractors using a variety of procedures, such as pressure, vibration, and manual thrusting. Many osteopaths and chiropractors shared knowledge in those early days, leaving the origin of different techniques open to debate. However, records are available to show that two doctors - first Nephi Cottam, D.C. and later William Sutherland, D.O. - emerged as the principal developers of cranial techniques (Cottam and Smith, 1981). Both men developed comprehensive systems of cranial techniques, but systems with notably different characteristics. Cottam's very direct osseous manipulation of cranial bones became associated with the chiropractic profession. Sutherland's approach, which conceptually and functionally involves the primary respiratory mechanism (now known as the craniosacral mechanism), became associated with the osteopathic profession.
Cranial osteopathy, a forerunner of CST, was originated by osteopath William Sutherland (1873–1954) in 1898–1900. While looking at a disarticulated skull, Sutherland was struck by the idea that the cranial sutures of the temporal bones where they meet the parietal bones were "beveled, like the gills of a fish, indicating articular mobility for a respiratory mechanism."
John Upledger devised CST. Comparing it to cranial osteopathy he wrote: "Dr. Sutherland's discovery regarding the flexibility of skull sutures led to the early research behind CranioSacral Therapy – and both approaches affect the cranium, sacrum and coccyx – the similarities end there."