Innate Wisdom Craniosacral Therapy

09/12/2025

Craniosacral Therapy: Natural Medicine’s Antidote to Anxiety & Stress
Posted on August 26, 2016
Racing heart. Constricted breathing. Tense shoulders. Shaking hands. Churning stomach. Pounding head.

Anxiety and stress put your mind and body through the wringer. Originally evolved to help us respond to danger, the stress response has become a danger itself when we constantly react to environmental factors that our bodies perceive as threats.

“In our world we are surrounded by chronic stressors,” says osteopathic physician John Upledger, a pioneer of craniosacral therapy as a technique for releasing disruptive energy from the nervous system. “Many [of these stressors] have to do with vibrational frequencies: sounds, lights, colors, aromas, magnetic fields, electrical fields, barometric pressure changes and so on.”

Because we aren’t actually in danger, the stress hormones produced in anticipation of the fight-or-flight response are left swimming in our bloodstream with nowhere to go. As a result, stress becomes trapped inside our bodies. Anxiety, a pathological reaction to chronic or traumatic stress, may set in.

“When people experience anxiety it is an emotional response to various triggers often based in long-rooted beliefs,” says psychotherapist Lynn Louise Wonders. “When we have emotional responses to anxiety-provoking experiences and this emotion cannot be expressed in a way that is healthy, this emotion is remembered or stored in the tissues of the body, the muscles, bones and organs.”

When stress or anxiety lingers in your body, it blazes a path of silent devastation. Cortisol suppresses your immune system, compromising your ability to fight disease. It also increases the rate of tissue damage your body sustains, as all of your available resources are being siphoned off to support the fight-or-flight mechanism. Research suggests stress is responsible for 60 percent of all human disease, and three in four doctor visits are for stress-related problems.

Other health conditions related to stress or anxiety include:

High blood pressure
Heart disease
Increased weight gain
Reduced bone density
Chronic pain
Digestive problems
Depression and mental illness
“Ironically, our own biology—which was designed to insure our survival as hunters and gatherers—is sabotaging our bodies and minds in a sedentary digital age,” says Psychology Today. “What can we do to defuse this time-bomb?”

How Craniosacral Therapy Releases Stored Emotion
MassageTherapyCraniosacralKanaOne of the ways to release stored emotion from your muscles and tissues is to seek bodywork. If you reside in the Portland-metro or surrounding areas, we welcome you to visit our natural medicine clinic. Massage releases muscle tension, which is one of the most common results of stored emotion.

Craniosacral therapy is another type of bodywork that can bring profound healing from stress and anxiety. Your craniosacral system is responsible for circulating the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds your brain and spinal cord. This crucial fluid bathes your brain in nurturing glucose and helps keep your central nervous system fed, clean and stable.

It also transports hormones, neurotransmitters and releasing factors that help govern your body’s reaction to its environment. “The crazier your environment, the harder it has to work,” says craniosacral instructor Paul Brown.

The flow of cerebrospinal fluid has its own subtle tidal rhythm that’s separate from—but influenced by—your heartbeat and breathing. When this tide becomes impeded, often because of physical or emotional trauma, the fluid can stagnate, leading to even more emotional stuckness. Stress, for example, can reduce the production of cerebrospinal fluid by as much as 30 percent.

By gently manipulating the cranium and sacrum (head and pelvis), our Portland natural medicine practitioners can stimulate the flow of fluid and help release blockages that keep emotions trapped in the body. This practice, known as craniosacral therapy, stems from osteopathy, or the ancient art of bone setting. Practitioners are taught to “listen with their hands” for the subtle rhythm and apply gentle manual techniques that increase mobility and circulation within the craniosacral system.

Craniosacral therapy is an important part of natural medical care. Our Portland patients often find it induces a deep state of relaxation in which healing from stress and anxiety can occur. By reducing the body’s stress response, it also helps rebalance the nervous system and optimize the production of precious cerebrospinal fluid.

“When people experience craniosacral therapy, the body relaxes, the brain activities slow down and the ego with its defense mechanisms gets out of the way,” Wonder says. “The stored emotions often will surface for the purpose of release and healing.”

Patients may also experience sensations such as:

Pain relief
Sense of peace
Feeling of expansion in mind or body
Sleepiness or a sleep-like state
Involuntary twitches
Altered state of being
What You Can Do to Release Stress and Anxiety
MassageTherapyCraniosacralIf you’re suffering from chronic stress or anxiety, there are a variety of bodywork techniques you can do at home to interrupt the cycle. One involves inducing the “still point,” a technique taught by our Portland natural medicine practitioners.

By temporarily restricting the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, known as the still point, you can cause a buildup that, when released, gently flushes out the system as the fluid starts to flow again. You can self-induce the still point using two tennis balls packed tightly into an athletic sock that’s knotted on the open end—or buy a specialized device online.

Place the still point inducer under your head, in line with your ears, and relax, letting the full weight of your head settle on the device for 10 to 20 minutes. Most people can use this technique up to four times a day. It’s perfectly safe except in cases of internal bleeding in the head, acute stroke, acute head trauma or a brain stem tumor.

For additional help managing stress and anxiety in your life, visit Heart Spring Health’s Portland natural medicine clinic for a craniosacral therapy appointment. Your visit will begin with a brief face-to-face conversation about what’s ailing you. Then you’ll lie on a massage table, either fully or lightly clothed, while your provider performs manual massage techniques primarily on your head, pelvis and chest.

If strong emotions or memories surface during the bodywork, it means the therapy is working on a deep level. Telling your practitioner what you’re experiencing during treatment can help support the process. Our massage therapists are trained to hold a safe space for you to explore what’s being released as you journey toward long-term healing.

PortlandMassageTherapistTalula Kana, LMT

08/12/2025

The subtle power of fascia seems to finally be getting the media attention it deserves! Our skilled therapists will be able to feel and feedback on your body's 'holding patterns', helping you release aches and pains, even from injuries received decades earlier.

'Fascia, the connective tissue that holds together the body’s internal structure, really hasn’t spent all that long in the limelight. Anatomists have known about its existence since before the Hippocratic oath was a thing, but until the 1980s it was routinely tossed in the bin during human dissections, regarded as little more than the wrapping that gets in the way of studying everything else. - Physically, it’s made up of collagen, though 70% of it is actually water – and it hydrates through compressive movement, which pumps fluid through the fascial layers, keeping them supple and gliding smoothly. It also contains nerve endings that allow it to sense movement, pressure and temperature – and can influence posture, movement and proprioception. “It’s constantly talking to the brain about what the body feels,” says Kilian. “It’s not a thin layer – it’s a massive, functional sensory organ system that holds us together.”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/nov/24/secrets-of-the-body-what-is-fascia-health-foam-roller

01/12/2025

25/11/2025

Relaxation has long been valued for its healing and restorative effects on the body and encouraging deep states of relaxation in the body is easily facilitated by Craniosacral therapy. Make your booking today - Bee - 0721530930

14/11/2025

Beliefs and thoughts alter cells in your body.

10/11/2025

College of Cranio-Sacral Therapy (CCST)

When we talk about health, most people focus on the physical: posture, digestion, or even stress management. But Cranio-sacral Therapy(CST) invites us to listen more deeply—to the emotional imprints held in the body’s tissues and organs.
Eastern medicine teaches that every organ resonates with specific emotions. CST helps us connect with these subtle patterns and release what’s been held beneath the surface.
Take the lungs, for example: grief and sadness can lodge here, restricting movement and vitality. In a CST session, you might feel a softening in this area—not just physically, but emotionally. The body begins to let go.
Did you know your emotions can deeply impact your organs? 👀
▪️In Chinese medicine, each organ is linked to a core emotion:
🫁 Lungs — Grief and sadness. Unprocessed grief can weaken lung Qi and interrupt the natural rhythm of release.
🫀 Heart — Joy and love. Imbalance here—too much or too little emotion—can cause inner dissonance.
⚡️ Liver — Anger and frustration. Held anger can stagnate liver Qi, affecting both emotional and physical flow.
🤒 Spleen — Worry and overthinking. Chronic worry depletes energy and can show up as fatigue or digestive issues.
⚠️ Kidneys — Fear and anxiety. Fear drains kidney Qi, reducing resilience and grounding.
In Cranio-sacral Therapy, we gently contact the body’s intelligence, offering it the chance to release what it no longer needs—physically, emotionally, and energetically.
So if you’re feeling tightness, fatigue, or imbalance, it may not just be structural. Ask yourself:
What emotion might this area be holding onto?
Find out more about our upcoming courses and unique integrated biodynamic approach with Cranio-sacral therapy at ccst.co.uk ♥️
Post with appreciation to 🙏🏼

03/11/2025

Craniosacral therapy (CST) is a gentle hands on therapy technique that helps to release tensions deep within the body to relieve pain, dysfunction, and stored emotion from our cells. Everyday we encounter stress and strains in our body through activity, poor posture, inflammation, emotional trauma and stress. Our body tries to compensate in numerous ways. This often causes our body tissues to tighten, which can distort the craniosacral system (our brain, spine and cerebral spinal fluid that runs through it) and result in restrictions to health performance. The tightening of our body tissues affects our bones and muscles, organs, nerves, blood and lymph flow, by pulling on the fascia that surrounds them, creating blockages and misalignments.

Fascia is the connective tissue surrounding our whole body. Think of the clear coating around the meat of chicken. This is the fascia. When we get tightness or limited functioning in one area of our fascia, it pulls on the whole sheet, like a wrinkle, creating blockages throughout the body. This also contributes to misalignment in the skeletal system by pulling the muscles in one direction or another, which creates a ripple effect throughout the entire body, and ultimately pain and dysfunction. Craniosacral therapy (CST) works by using a gentle touch to allow the body, with its own inner wisdom to correct itself of dysfunction, to undo the ripples to help the muscles, fascia and bones come into correct alignment and function.

We all know that when we have an accident or fall, or have some kind of misalignment, we feel physical pain. However, chronic physical pain can also be caused by stored emotions. These can be emotions from everyday stress, emotional abuse, or emotions one was feeling during an accident or event, such as the fear in a car crash. Over time if our emotions are ignored or are not fully released, they get stored in the cellular memory of our body and can end up showing up as pain. In yoga, when stretching the hips, they often warn of emotions or tears that may come up for no reason. This is from releasing somatic emotional memory. Neck, back, jaw and hip pain often have emotional components to it, as do chronic headaches or organ dysfunction. Negative emotions run through our bodies causing tightness. Positive emotions run through our body causing lightness. When our bodies are continually tight or lacking energy, there is usually an underlying emotional component such as stress, frustration, difficulty letting go, sadness or anger.

CST works to relieve emotions from the body as well as physical pain through somatic emotional release. This is a therapeutic process that helps rid the mind and body of residual past trauma associated with negative experiences. Joint research efforts by Dr. John Upledger (the founder of CST) and biophysicist Dr. Zvi Karni led to the discovery that the body often retains (rather than dissipates) physical forces, and often the accompanying emotional energy, triggered by physiological, psychological, emotional or spiritual trauma.

As the body heals, it can isolate or wall off this energy into what is called an “energy cyst”. Although the body can initially adapt to the presence of energy cysts, eventually the body weakens or tires of this accommodation and can develop symptoms of pain, dysfunction or emotional stress. So lets say, for example, you were injured in an accident and had a fall or blow to your head and/or shoulder. Or you got emotionally hurt from hearing something or from an argument. The energy from the impact or situation can get lodged in your body. So while you went through therapy and maybe surgery, you are still left with continual pain. This could be from the energy of the impact, or energy cyst, that did not get released. And because we are dealing with fascia, which connects everything in the body through one sheet, a blow to the knee could ripple its way up to caus shoulder pain. CST works to relieve the wrinkles throughout the body and relieve the energy trapped in the cells for better emotions and decreased pain.

Stress works the same way. Often times stress comes from our nervous system being on high alert. This leads to parts of our brain being on high alert, causing our cranial nerves to be on high alert, which then impacts jaw clenching, tight neck muscles, shallow breathing and possibly digestive issues – all from cranial nerves sending the wrong message. CST works on these neural components, allowing the body to feel a new story of ease and rewire to calm so the organs and muscles can let go of dysfunction and begin to function with proper health again.

CST helps alleviate pain from the body, the mind, and the spirit, therefore helping to restore balance to mind-body-spirit and helping to create a new story of health.

Releasing Emotions and Pain
2016-07-21 | Mindy Wolff, MA, OT/L

24/10/2025

Who you surround yourself with can be just as healing as what you eat or how you move.

The people in your life have the power to regulate - or dysregulate - your nervous system. When you’re around those who bring calm, encouragement, and authenticity, your body feels safe enough to rest, repair, and rebalance.

But constant exposure to stress or negativity keeps your system stuck in survival mode, no matter how clean your diet or how dialed in your supplements are.

Healing isn’t just about protocols, it’s about connection. The right people don’t just lift your mood; they help your biology remember what safety feels like 💙