To really understand what CranioSacral Therapy is, it’s good to know a bit about how it originated. Here’s a very brief history of how Upledger CranioSacral Therapy came into being. It starts with Andrew Taylor Still.

A.T. Still (1828-1917) was a Civil War surgeon who had three children die from spinal meningitis in 1864. This set Sill on his journey to question medicine and to begin to look at the body for the answers to good health. His studies lead him to many philosophies including:

1. Structure and function are inter-related

2. The body tends toward homeostasis

3. Drugs are a wild card

4. The body should be treated as a whole - not just parts

Still had focused most of his studies on the musculoskeletal system of the human body. He developed a way to address problems in the body’s bony structures, which we now call Osteopathic Manipulation. But he also practiced and preached preventative medicine and treating the whole person, not just the disease. His work lead him to open the first school of osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri in 1892.

One of Still’s students, William Sutherland, D.O. (1873-1954) looked more specifically at the bones of the cranium (or skull). He was struck by the way the temporal bones articulated with the parietal bones. To him this articulation looked like “the gills of a fish, indicating articular mobility.” At this point in American medical history, it was believed that the bones of the skull fused by adulthood and did not move. Studying the sutures in the skull Sutherland felt strongly that the bones in fact do move. (We now know that the sutures have their own nerve and blood supply and do in fact have movement.)

Sutherland’s two major theories were reciprocal tension membrane system (RTM) and primary respiratory mechanism (PRM) and can be summed up in five ideas:

Inherent motility of the central nervous system

A fluctuation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

Mobility and shifting tensions in the cranial and spinal dural membranes

Mobility of the cranial bones

Mobility of the sacrum

Sutherland developed techniques to evaluate and treat the bones of the cranium and the sacrum. His research and work became known as Cranial Osteopathy and is an extension of Still’s principles of osteopathy.

John Upledger, D.O., O.M.M. also graduated from the Kirksville school of Osteopathy and set out to be a physician. Assisting a spinal surgical procedure in 1970, Dr. Upledger and others in the room witnessed the rhythmic rise and fall of CSF within the dural tube. It matched none of the monitor rhythms and no one could explain what it was. This sent Dr. Upledger on his path of researching the craniosacral system.

From 1975 to 1983 Dr. Upledger and a team of anatomists, biophysicists, neurophysiologists, and bioengineers at Michigan State University investigated Sutherland’s theories and the pulse Dr. Upledger felt during the 1970 surgical procedure. All the research confirmed and supported cranial bone movement and craniosacral system rhythm. They also studied the effects of treatment to the craniosacral system. It was through this research that Dr. Upledger developed his CranioSacral Therapy evaluation and treatment techniques. In 1983 Dr. Upledger published his first book that contained the results of this research combined with his treatment suggestions.

In 1985 Dr. Upledger established the Upledger Institute in Florida. The Institute was established as a clinical and educational resource for the public and healthcare practitioners to learn about CranioSacral Therapy. In 1987 The Upledger Foundation was established as a non-profit organization to help those less fortunate with serious health issues. The organization is dedicated to the ongoing research and development of new therapeutic applications, and the establishment of community-outreach programs that enhance total health.

As of this post, the Upledger Institute has trained over 85,000 practitioners world-wide and the number grows every year. Dr. Upledger continues to treat patients, research, write books, and develop new classes in the alternative health field. All of his classes and books support A.T. Stills original theory that the body is self healing and that our role as therapists is to tune into this natural ability and support the client’s healing process.