Anatomy for CranioSacral Therapists

Thanks so much for your interest! The first course, covering the intracranial membranes, venous sinuses and ventricles, had a successful first run as a webinar. It’s in the process of being re-released as an online course. If you’d like to be in the know when it’s available and also receive information about upcoming CST Anatomy Courses, please enter your name and email address in the box to the right.

Keep reading to learn why I’m so passionate about anatomy and the details of what was covered in the first course.

When anatomy is fuzzy

You gently cradle your client’s occiput in your hands and settle in, listening to the details, the conversation, the body is ready to share with you. You feel a sense of a pull inferiorly and a bit of compression on the left but you’re not exactly sure if it’s from a suture or the membranes, the brain or the dural tube. It’s all rather fuzzy and vague and because it’s fuzzy and vague you’re not exactly sure what the occiput really needs from you. Should you focus on the thing on the left or should you focus on the thing pulling down or….. what? This undermines your confidence, frustration creeps in and you start to doubt your ability to really be of help to your clients the way that you long to be.

If you knew what you were really feeling under your hands and if you were clear about what the body needed from you, you’d be more than happy to help but there’s a language barrier of sorts. As if someone is asking you where the nearest gas station is, but you only speak English and he only speaks Spanish and if only your Spanish vocabulary were broader than “Sí” and “¡Hola!”, you’d be more than happy to let him know there’s one right around the corner.

What if the structures under your hands were no longer vague, fuzzy, black and white images but instead were vivid, clear, full color images? You’d feel confident about what you perceive and your ability to understand what the body most needs from you.

What if you had an anatomical vocabulary that was detailed and sophisticated?

You’re not limited by generalities – you can hold the broader focus of a kidney when needed as well as get more specific and hone in the adrenal gland if called to do so. You can move beyond the basic, surface, “small talk” conversations with the body and instead have rich, in-depth, more meaningful conversations. Conversations that allow you to be far more effective in your work and get better results with your clients.

Those in-depth conversations are able to happen when you have a clearer picture in your mind’s eye of what’s under your hands. You can support the tissues much more effectively and get better results more quickly instead of kind of, sort of, maybe it’s membrane, maybe it’s brain, maybe it’s bone, or the lateral ventrical, fumbling around in limbo land, unsure of yourself and feeling like you’re missing some key information that would really help the body unlock the pattern that’s going on.

Knowing your anatomy inside out, backwards forwards, is critical.

Anatomy makes up the vocabulary building blocks for communicating with the body. Of course it’s not the only thing you need to know to be a really skilled craniosacral therapist, but if that’s missing from your knowledge bank, you’re missing out on some really important conversations the body would like to have with you. And to be completely frank, you’re selling your clients short because you’re not able to help them as much as you could if you had really solid, detailed anatomy maps in your mind’s eye to work off of. Maps that allow you to know where you are, what the body’s showing you and where you need to be to best support the body.

I love anatomy and I love teaching anatomy in a clear and understandable way. (You can read more about my teaching background and 16 years of craniosacral experience here). It amazes and fascinates me how the body is put together. I love getting new perspectives and insights on anatomy because what I learn deepens the conversation I’m able to have with the tissues at the table. I want you to have that experience too and I’ve designed this course to support you in getting that clarity under your hand.

Here’s how this course will help you:

• Anatomy from a craniosacral perspective – not just a pieces parts perspective that so many anatomical texts are really good at, but an integrated perspective that is far more relevant when working with the body
• Models – you’ll actually get to see some of the structures I’ll be talking about, up close and personal
• Internal awareness -you’ll develop your own internal awareness of the structures and create a frame of reference from within yourself
• Clinical relevance – we’ll connect the dots between what you learn during this course and how it’s relevant to specific clinical situations which means you go back to your table with information you can start to use immediately with your clients

The anatomy explored during this course:

the intracranial membranes (falx & tent)

• their relationship to the dural membranes
• the structures that they connect and communicate with
• how best to access them

the ventricles

• orienting you to their location so that you can connect with them
• embryological history and development
• path of fluid flow
• the different areas of the brain that they feed, nourish and communicate with
• developing your awareness of them within your own body
• exploring different holds that give you access to them and orienting you to their location from those different holds
• reviewing the fluid flow of cerebrospinal fluid through the ventricles

deepening your understanding of just how does the CSF find its way out of the cranium

• exploring the venous sinuses and their relationship with the falx and tent

Throughout the course I weave in the clinical significance of this information and how it’s relevant to your work at the table with your clients.

If you know now is the time to increase your anatomy vocabulary and you’re ready to develop a whole new clarity under your hands when it comes to the intracranial membranes, the ventricles and the inflow and outflow of the CSF, enter your name and email address in the box on the right and you’ll be able to claim your seat as soon as the course is re-released and available for purchase!

See you in class!

much love,