Craniosacral Therapy is an alternative medicine procedure where a practitioner basically uses his or her hands to feel the fluid from the central nervous system flowing through certain parts of the body to help diagnose and correct problems that may have arisen. The eventual outcome is to bring peace and relaxation to the patient.
This is a hands on therapy approach that consists of tracking the fluid through 10 spots in the body running from the base of the neck to the hips. A patient will keep their clothes on throughout the entire procedure. It’s not supposed to be like a massage or like chiropractic treatments, because there’s not supposed to be any true manipulation on the body. What happens instead is a practitioner supposedly feels the rhythm of the fluid and just by laying hands on it, somehow changes the patterns as necessary to help people feel better.
Therein, of course, lies the problem with this type of treatment. Critics say that nothing is happening and thus the therapy is a sham. There have been no real studies testing whether this treatment works or not, although many people swear by it. Saying how much better and relaxed they feel after having procedure done. However, that is explained away by the fact that often people get relaxed when someone else is touching them in some fashion if they trust that person.
There’s also the question as to whether or not people are actually able to feel someone’s spinal fluid or rhythms running through the body. Practitioners will tell their patients to lie very still and be very quiet, and critics say, that what a practitioner might be feeling is the blood flow and not really the spinal fluid. The few studies that have been done regarding this have shown this ability to be nonexistent.
The treatments go anywhere from $50 to $150, depending on where you live, and it is as safe as you can get. It’s probably another treatment of faith as to whether you’ll get anything out of it or not.
Dr. Michael J. Murphy has been serving the East Valley communities of Mesa, Gilbert, and Chandler at 2 locations since relocating from Wisconsin in the spring of 2006. Dr. Murphy graduated Magna Cum Laude from the prestigious Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport Iowa and practiced for over 20 years in the Madison area.