Harmonizing Your Craniosacral System

Book excerpt: Harmonizing Your Craniosacral System: Self-Treatments fo Improving Your Health offers exercises developed to promote healing, body awareness, and relaxation. The book’s techniques are based on the principles of craniosacral therapy, a hands-on approach that works gently with the spine, skull, sacrum, and connective tissue in the body to release pain and tension. Simple to perform, the exercises can be done either sitting or lying down, and each can be completed separately or as a unit. The book is unique because it is the only one that features selftreatment for craniosacral therapy. The book begins with a description of the craniosacral system and its relationship to other body systems. Awareness and perception exercises cover breathing techniques and methods for sensing the parts of the body and its craniosacral rhythm. The quality of touch and exact finger and hand positions are discussed, and detailed instructions are provided for each self-treatment involving the sacrum, iliosacral joints, connective tissue, head, and facial bones. Illustrated with 105 full-color photographs and 9 black-andwhite anatomical drawings, the book concludes with helpful information about professional craniosacral therapy treatments, terms and definitions, and an alphabetized summary of self-treatments.