Cranial Osteopathy is a technique that studies and aims to correct any disturbance in this fluid flow. We believe that the flow of this life-giving fluid around the body is the most important factor in life and as such we refer to it as the primary respiratory axis. The fluid passes as a wave up and down the body between (on average) 14-21 times a minute and can be felt by a trained hand. It is very similar to feeling a persons pulse at their wrist but the flow is much more subtle than that so very gentle touch and pressure is used. As the fluid moves up and down the body it gentle pushes on the tissues and bones of the body causing them to move, just like a wave will cause a boat to bob up and down in the sea. The state of the tissues of the body will determine how the fluid will flow. If the tissues are tight or twisted the fluid will find it harder to move through the area. As seen above, poor fluid flow will result in an area starting to suffer, and this can be the seat of tissue damage, of poor tissue healing and of disease.

The technique is called Cranial Osteopathy since we see the body as essentially being “slung” between the head (the cranium) and the pelvis (a part of which is a bone called the sacrum). All bone is plastic in nature, it has flexibility due to its high water content. The joints of the skull aren’t fixed solid, they allow for a small amount of movement. As the fluid moves up into the head it causes a very subtle movement in the skull, just as it does in the pelvis and the rest of the body. If the head and/or the pelvis are restricted this can hugely affect the fluid flow around the body, and thus the person’s health. Imagine that your body is a skipping rope and that your head and pelvis are the handles and your body is the rope. If you put the rope on the ground with the handles too close together the rope would lie twisted limply on the ground. If you pulled on the handles hard, the rope would straighten, become too tight and then snap. Much better to have the handles just the right distance apart so that the rope is nice and straight but not over-tight. I often talk of the skull being a plastic ball to which a pump has been attached. If the pressure in the ball is increased it will expand. If you then let the pressure out of the ball it will re-coil and contract under its own elasticity/plasticity. The amount of expansion/contraction in the ball will depend on the pressure change and the plasticity of the ball. The greater the pressure and the softer the plastic, the more movement! From this you can see that if the skull is tight due to mechanics restrictions, or the fluid drive is poor the movement in the skull will be impaired. Cranial Osteopaths can feel this change.