Craniosacral Therapy: It Might Not Be What You Think

So you’ve heard about Craniosacral Therapy (CST). Maybe a friend described it as a miraculously gentle massage that left them feeling profoundly relaxed. You’ve probably read the standard explanation: it’s all about the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and its rhythm.

But what if that explanation is a little… outdated? Or at least, not the whole story?

Let’s have a nerdy, slightly heretical chat about what might really be going on during a CST session, at least as I see it. Buckle up, because we’re trading plumbing for something closer to Wi-Fi.

First, let’s cover the traditional view. The classic explanation goes like this: the cerebrospinal fluid that cushions your brain and spinal cord has a subtle, rhythmic pulse. It’s separate from your heartbeat or breathing. Practitioners are trained to feel this "cranial rhythm" with their hands.

The idea is that trauma, stress, or tension can restrict this flow, and by using feather-light touch, the practitioner can help release these restrictions and restore the natural rhythm. It’s a beautiful, hydraulic model. There’s just one problem: from a strictly anatomical standpoint, the CSF pulse is driven by blood flow into the brain, and the skull bones don't actually move in the way the original theory suggested.

This has led many to write off CST as pure pseudoscience. But what if the explanation is wrong, while the experience and benefits are very, very real?

What if the practitioner isn’t feeling a literal fluid pulse? What if they’re tuning into something even more fundamental: your body’s own bio-electric field?

This is the conclusion I came to from personal experience for various reasons. If CST is about cerebral spinal fluid, why are therapists taught to "tune in" at the patient's feet? Why is it possible to work without direct physical contact? Why could I (and others I've spoken to) never feel these cranial rhythms or tides, but still have a profound effect on patients with positive results? When I trained one of my fellow trainees had previously done an "Energy Healing" course, and was adamant that he wasn't actually doing anything different in CST, but the tutors were perfectly happy with his progress.

As coincidence would have it, I had an Electrical Engineering degree, and started to consider that electrical inductance or coupling might be in play, whereby two (or more) electric fields (actually electromagnetic fields) interreact with each other.

Your entire nervous system is a massive, complex network of electrical impulses. Your heart, your brain, your muscles, even cells, they all communicate via electricity. This activity creates a measurable electrical field around your body.

This then, might be where the work actually happens.

Craniosacral Therapy, seen through this lens, isn't about manipulating fluid. It's about bio-electric induction and entrainment.

In simple terms: 

• Your body's bioelectric-field is like a unique, personal Wi-Fi signal, broadcasting your state of being; calm, stressed, injured, or balanced.
• The practitioner's trained hands aren't just listening for a pulse; they’re acting like highly sensitive antennas, tuning into the frequency of your nervous system. The practitioner can sense changes in the patients nervous system through a change in sensations in their own, as well as tactile changes.
• The engagement creates a feedback loop. The practitioner’s own calm, focused state, their coherent bioelectric-field, can gently influence and "entrain" your system towards a more regulated, relaxed state. It’s like a calm friend quietly sitting with you; their calmness becomes your calmness, without a word being spoken.

I'm not part of a larger CST professional community, so I've not had much of an opportunity to discuss this idea at length, and gain feedback. However, not long after finishing my training, one of my fellow trainees I discussed this with did mention another well known practitioner who had come to the same conclusion many years before hand. So my views aren't original, nor do they need to be, but I was pleased to have one potential ally at least, and I'm sure there are others.

This shift from a fluid model to a bio-electric one actually makes a lot of sense of the reported experiences: 

• The "Release" Feeling: Those waves of warmth, subtle twitches, or deep sighs of relief? That sounds a lot like the nervous system downshifting from "fight-or-flight" (sympathetic) to "rest-and-digest" (parasympathetic) mode. This is an electrical and chemical shift in the body.
• The Light Touch: You don’t need deep pressure to influence an energy field. A gentle hand is a perfect conductor for this kind of subtle interaction, and explains why it's possible to work effectively without direct contact.
• Emotional Releases: We store trauma and stress not just in our tissues, but in our nervous system. Working with the body's electrical network can often access and release these held patterns in a way that feels emotional or psychological. In a non-verbal way, you feel truly heard.
• The Whole-Body Effect: If it’s about the nervous system’s electrical network, it makes perfect sense that work on the head (the brain’s command centre) can affect pain and tension in your lower back or digestive system. But equally true of engaging with any part of the nervous system, especially where there are nerve plexuses (like a junction box for nerves)

For you on the therapy table, maybe not. The experience is what matters: profound relaxation, pain relief, and a sense of inner quiet.

But for the critics and the curious, this bio-electric model offers a more plausible, science-adjacent framework. It moves CST out of the questionable realm of "moving skull bones" and into the emerging world of biofield science and nervous system regulation.

It aligns CST more closely with other modalities like Reiki or Energy Healing, but with a more anatomical. It's improbable to me that these different modalities are leveraging different natural phenomenal with no obvious difference in the way practitioners work other than what they personally believe. The irony is, before training in CST I would have run to the hills at the thought of "Energy" work, considering to to be complete woo-woo. But now I consider it a more honest take on the phenomenon, even if the practitioner isn't aware of the underlying mechanisms. You don't need to understand how a transistor works to use you smartphone.

If you're intrigued by this bio-electric model,  I can recommend Sally Addee's book We Are Electric, which is a scientific look at what she calls the Electrome, the bodies electric environment. CST and similar modalities aren't mentioned, but it does help you understand the context better.

The bottom line? You can let go of the need to believe in a literal "cranial rhythm." Instead, think of a CST practitioner as a facilitator of nervous system harmony. They’re using their trained presence and touch to help your body’s own electrical system remember what balance feels like.

And sometimes, that’s all the explanation you need. The feeling of deep peace afterwards is its own best argument.