BodyWise Physiotherapy and Acupuncture Clinic is a highly innovative multi-disciplinary practice based in Adelaide. By combining Physiotherapy, Chinese Medicine and Cranio-Sacral therapy, your BodyWise practitioner takes a whole person approach to your health and wellness. We pride ourselves on being able to integrate modern scientific research with traditional medical wisdom to provide you with the best care possible.

Cranio-Sacral - Bodywise Physiotherapy and Acupuncture Clinic

Cranio-Sacral Therapy

Cranio-sacral therapy identifies and treats restrictions within your cranium (head), spine and pelvis. Such restrictions may impair your normal body function and could present as a multitude of symptoms including headache, migraine and neck pain, or even lethargy and poor sleep. Your therapist at BodyWise has a great interest in treating women’s health issues such as menstrual dysfunction and infertility.

Cranio- Sacral Therapy was developed over 100 years ago by William G Sutherland, an Osteopathic physician who observed that there was a minute amount of movement that occurred between the bones of the skull. Through further study and experiment, Sutherland showed that this movement influenced other areas of the body. Therefore, if the bones of the skull were not moving freely, this could lead to restrictions and dysfunction (including pain) both within the cranium (head) and in other areas of the body. 

The movement that is felt in Cranio-Sacral work is called the Cranio-Sacral Rhythm (CSR). Of the three rhythms in the body, the CSR is the most subtle to detect. The Respiratory rate (or breath) is the most obvious one. The heartbeat is another, slightly less obvious rhythm, but can be felt by everyone. The CSR can be observed by those who have a finely developed sense of palpation, but most people are unaware of its presence.

Cranio-Sacral Therapy is entrenched in the study of anatomy and physiology. A full knowledge of the bones of the skull and its sutures (joints), structures within the cranium, the spine and sacrum (tail bone) are required in order to identify “lesions” or areas of restriction. These areas of restriction can have an effect on the functioning of the nervous system, and can therefore have an effect on local and systemic mechanisms of the body. By identifying these areas of restriction, your therapist can work to free these lesions, and therefore allow your body return to a state of overall health. Once your body is in this state of balance, the body’s inherent capacity for self-healing and self-regulating is at its optimum, and the body’s physiological processes return to normal.

Cranio-sacral work is a very gentle form of treatment that can be used to treat conditions in anyone, from the newborn through to the elderly. A multitude of conditions can be treated with this method including menstrual pain, colic and reflux in babies, headaches and migraines, stress, poor sleep, digestive disturbances and sinus congestion.