You'll arrive at the beautiful, comfortable, waiting room of Natural Health Associates on El Camino Way, in Palo Alto, where you can relax until your scheduled appointment. Once inside the treatment room, you and I will chat -for a -few minutes, giving you the opportunity to describe what ails you. After you've removed your shoes, you'll lie on your back on the treatment table, a comfortable, sheet-covered massage table. There'll be a bolster placed under your knees, if you'd like one, and soft music and lights, allowing you to relax completely. There are blankets if you're feeling chilly, or a fan or air conditioning if you're feeling warm.

I'll touch you gently at specific points of your body - at your ankles, your thighs, your hips, lower rib cage, shoulders, and head, listening to your craniosacral rhythm, and learning what it can tell me about energy restrictions and energy flows. All of the touch of CST is gentle and slow. Bones have the

By holding your head in my hands in a very specific way, I'll put you into a still point. A still point is a deep, healing space for your body to enter. A still point can last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Your body will decide how long to stay in still point. You will find it deeply relaxing and wonderfully grounding.

Next, I'll move to the side of the treatment table and release your diaphragms. Diaphragms are simply those areas in your body where the tissues are aligned across your body, from one side to the other. Everywhere else, your body tissues are, for the most part, aligned tip-to-toe, or up and down your body. The four main diaphragms that I'll release are the pelvic floor, the breathing diaphragm, the top of the lung cavity, and the base of your mouth, just behind your tongue. Releasing diaphragms helps the energy moving along those tissues to flow more evenly and productively.

Once this is set up, the rest of the treatment will be more effective, since the tip-to-toe energy adjustments won't become disorganized upon running into a disorganized diaphragm.

To release a diaphragm, I'll slip one hand under your body, and place the other hand gently on top of your body, sandwiching the diaphragm. Then I'll tune into the energy patterns of the diaphragm, and make adjustments as needed. Again, adjustments are slow and gentle.

Then I'll move to your head for a series of checks and adjustments. I'll make sure that the neck vertebrae are moving freely inside the base of your skull, and that all of the cranial bones can move freely in relation to their neighbors. Any restrictions are slowly and gently released, moving the body back toward normal function.

I'll also check and release your dural tube, the three-layered membrane surrounding your spinal column. The three layers can become stuck to one another, like lasagna noodles. Restrictions of this type also interfere with the craniosacral rhythm, and can cause an impressive list of ailments. Happily, the restrictions can be released, and the craniosacral rhythm then returns to normal. I'll treat your dural tube by gently holding your head and releasing toward your feet, and then by gently holding your sacrum, and releasing toward your head.

Depending on your ailments, I may do some work inside your mouth. By focusing on your upper teeth, I can check for restrictions deeper inside your cranium, as well as your nasal sinuses.

Along the way, I'm continually listening to your cranial sacral rhythm, your inner physician, tuning in to what it has to say. Whenever your inner physician says, “Wait, check this out”, I do just that.

I'll end the session with another still point, allowing your body to integrate and ground, incorporating the changes that have been introduced, and finally a dural tube rock and glide, wonderfully soothing. You'll have a few minutes to relax into your new energy patterns, and then, off you go, back into the world, the new, calm, centered, relaxed, healthier you.

Background of CST
Indications for CST