Cranialsacral therapy has been described as magic, and certainly the healing can be profound. 

In this gentle light touch therapy, the body’s rhythms and healing responses are witnessed by the craniosacral therapist. 

The term craniosacral therapy was coined by Dr. William Garner Sutherland (1873–1954), a pioneering osteopathic physician. Dr. Sutherland proposed that the subtle movement of skull bones was crucial for health, and influence on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This concept has emerged into a broader practice focusing on the body’s inherent rhythms and healing. There is a mysterious intelligence and wisdom in the body that carries the inherent blueprint of health. These inherent, vital, rhythmic life force potencies carry a basic intelligence, and intrinsic force, which are effectively employed by the Craniosacral Therapist (CT) for supporting health. The aims of craniosacral therapy treatment are to support health at the foundation of our being, as essential forces of health are never actually lost.

Health then needs to be re-organized and balanced to create wholeness in life. The craniosacral therapist relies on the client’s force of health to create the change, and is merely a facilitator witnessing the client’s healing process.

Nevertheless the skill level of the practitioner (CT) is important in this support of the healing resources of the client, and is tailored to individual needs. Although treatment and techniques are broad, ultimately it is the priorities of the client’s life force itself in which a dis-harmonious energy pattern can be unlocked to match the condition, and needs, of the client at that time.

Working with birth trauma, or going back to conception, and information of embryology, where the beginning of our lives start, continuing throughout our lifespan, offer a great source of health restoration and healing.
The body is in a constant state of creation, maintenance, and repair, and the highly organized forces that created us during embryological development, continue to maintain and heal us throughout our lives. Consequently, even so-called incurable diseases can sometimes be healed, if the conditions that allow this can be established.

From the moment of conception and primary design, creating an original matrix, the ordering and organization of our early formation is not primarily the result of genetics operating through our DNA, but occurs through forces expressed within the fluids of the embryo. Apparently genetic influences do not fully operate until six weeks after conception, and even then are considered to modify the process of cellular development.

About the Tides—Craniosacral Rhythms 

Life is motion, and it is expressed in the three rhythm expressions, or tides, through all these phases of inhalation and exhalation.

Like the rhythms of the heart and the breath, there is a rhythm of the craniosacral system (CSS), which is comprised of the dural membrane cerebral containing the cerebral spinal fluid, the brain spinal cord, and nerves exiting to the whole body.

The primary rhythm is the craniosacral rhythm, or cranial response impulse (CRI), which is 6 to 12 cycles per minute. CRI is primarily an expression of how individual parts of the body suddenly move in relationship to each other, in a bio-mechanical style of assessment, and can reflect where session focuses on release of disharmonic energy patterns that affect health. There is a cycle of flexion/external rotation and extension/internal rotation. Mid-tide is a slower rhythm that also expresses rhythmic motion in cycle, and is sometimes considered to carry the driving power underlying the CRI. The cycle is expressed mid-line at an average of approximately 2 1/2 cycles per minute. As a field phenomenon, mid-tide, the bio energy, or life force potency, vitalizes the body, enhancing the fundamental expression of our health. A sense of unity and well-being permeating the body bring a feeling of wholeness; often this is alternated with stillness, or still point.

Long-tide emerges from the ground of our being with very deep and slow rhythmic impulse. The subtle radiance of this essential tide is a wider field phenomenon that may be perceived within, as well as around the body. This is a transpersonal force, yet individualized and often perceived as rhythmic spinal motions within a huge field of action, that extends on the way to the horizons, and then orients around the midline of the body at a fundamental level.

There is also the still point when the rhythms come to a stop, so the cranial therapy rhythms are much different than the heart and the breathing rhythms. During the still point, the body intelligence is re-organizing and gathering life force potency to take healing to the next level. 

There is also healing in stillness, when the CSS comes into still point. This state of settling and stillness principle provides essential healing where the life force, or the potency, can be liberated and free to move, and so re-organize the tissues and fluids.

A holistic shift occurs in the client’s physiology, as essentially a state of letting go that signifies a re-orientation from a condition pattern of motion to a connection with the inherent health. This may be considered that the will of the client is surrendering to the essential blueprint of healing and optimum health. The presence of full and balanced rhythms signify a healthy system.

Our health is determined by the ability of the life force potency to play freely throughout the body—and understanding that has a direct connection to the pioneering insights of Dr. Sutherland.

Janice Zubin, ND, RMT, CST-D brings 30+ years of experience in holistic health. She has taught Craniosacral Therapy full-time since presenting Align Alive Academy’s 2-day Craniosacral Therapy Therapeutic Process Techniques—Level 1 training at the NHPC Conference in 2023. Craniosacral Therapy Therapeutic Process Techniques – Level 2, introduction of the three Tidal Craniosacral Rhythms is taught in Montréal, Edmonton, and Manitou Beach, SK, in 2026. Saskatoon hosts her in March 2026 for Craniosacral Therapy Foundations and Techniques, and Craniosacral Therapy Techniques for Manual Therapists. Training is approved for CECs, for RMTs, and MOTs, and holistic practitioners are welcome to register. For more information, see Align Alive Academy, www.drzubin.com, TEXT 403-899-4308.