Menu
Home » Cranial Osteopathy
Craniosacral osteopathy (also known as cranial osteopathy) is a form of osteopathic therapy developed By Dr. William Garner Sutherland – a student of Dr. A.T. Still. Dr. Sutherland was a student at the America School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri (Dr. Mercuro’s alma mater) when he had a thoughtful revelation when studying the surfaces of the cranial bones. The shape of the bones prompted years of further study and self-experimentation where he developed the principles of osteopathy in the Cranial Field.
Osteopathic Treatment in the Cranial Field is a powerful treatment modality. If you have ever been on a river or in some type of water current, you know that it is much easier to move with the tide than against it. In the same way, cranial osteopathic treatment works with the movement in your body. When we work with the movement within, we need to apply less external force to evoke change. This makes it sometimes seem like there is not a whole lot going on during the treatment sometimes. From the outside observer, the treatment appears very still and quiet as the osteopath moves around the table placing hands in precise positions to find balance within that area and in the whole body. The recipient of the treatment will often feel as if something is happening but is not quite sure what and often the correction happens in between treatments. Every treatment and every person is different so there is not a standard procedure or process.
These motions are felt by the osteopathic doctor and the “osteopathic lesion” describes when there is an abnormality in any of these areas. Then, working with the motion present, the osteopathic doctor reduces or eliminates any tensions and restores proper balance and alignment of the body.
Life as you can imagine can lead to abnormal patterns of movement. It is not just trauma to the head but small or large traumas, acute or chronic events and insults anywhere in the body can set up a pattern of compensation that can lead to abnormal motion. The abnormal motion impairs the individual’s ability to express the healing mechanism that is within all of us. Often people seek out osteopathy due to an area of pain or a specific ailment. During a cranial osteopathic treatment, the osteopath may place hands on seemingly unrelated areas of the body. This is because sometimes the origin of the problem is not the area of the symptoms. The analogy is when a cat’s tail is pulled, the noise indicating a problem comes from the cat’s mouth. The connectivity of all the anatomical body compartments including the bones, fascia, connective tissue, nerves, vascular and lymphatic systems can allow for symptoms to manifest relative to that body’s response to whatever insult created the osteopathic lesion.
There is a place for cranial osteopathic treatment in every patient. The normalization or balancing of these movements can affect the health of the entire body– from the function of the cells of the body to the organ systems and the interconnection of the mind, body and spirit. Because it works on facilitating the healing response and we are all in a constant state of wear, tear and repair there is a role for osteopathic treatment to maintain health in addition to treating symptoms and conditions.
Dr. Mercuro has found working with her patient’s cranial mechanism has a very important clinical impact. Sometimes, she see patients in her practice who have exhausted all conventional and integrative avenues on their health journey and sometimes she sees patients who are overall well but are just trying to optimize their health. Regardless of where on the health continuum the person is, traditional osteopathic treatment, including cranial osteopathy, is beneficial. Why? Because it enlists the patient’s own natural self-healing mechanisms, it is as powerful as nature itself. Dr. Mercuro likes to say that as a functional medicine doctor, one of the most important things that she does is to HEAR the patient’s story. Listen to everything that they have experienced leading up to that moment. As an osteopathic doctor, she also FEEL that patient’s story in their tissue.