Craniosacral Fascial Therapy (CFT – Gillespie Approach)

One of the services I provide, for all ages, is CFT, or Craniosacral-Fascial Release Therapy.  This is not to be confused with CST, which is Cranial Sacral Therapy, as it does not address the fascial needs of the body as CFT does.

What is CFT – Gillespie Approach?

Craniosacral Fascial Therapy (CFT – Gillespie Approach) is a gentle and beautiful merging of the foundations of Craniosacral Therapy and Fascial Release work.   Developed by Dr. Barry Gillespie, CFT focuses each technique on both the craniosacral and fascial systems simultaneously.  The fascia is a full-body connective tissue web that can apply tremendous pressure to the nerves, blood, and lymphatic vessels, muscles, organs, and bones.   Releasing the fascial restrictions of the craniosacral system and total body allows for a freely moving brain and body parts, which has tremendous health benefits.  The basic principle of CFT is that the body knows best how to heal itself.  The therapist uses CFT to facilitate the body in healing itself.  The therapist’s role is to notice where the body (specifically the craniosacral fascial system) is tight due to past injuries and trauma.  The human body has layers of fascial tension strain patterns and can be compared to the layers of an onion.  Each session reveals the next layer that is ready to release, which leads you on the path toward better health and physiology. 

Take a look at the image below.  Imagine that the fascial web tension is in the lower leg due to breaking the leg as a child.  As the body healed, there was scarring of the fascial web, creating a downward pull through the pelvis, spinal column, and up into the cranial bones.  This can create a pressure onto the brain.  Later in life, this person may develop headaches and focus on the symptoms in the head versus the original point of strain, at the lower leg.

If you have ever had an injury, your fascial system (which is wrapped around every single structure inside your body) can become restricted and locked into a pattern of dysfunction.  Even starting at birth and accumulating all through life, injuries create tilts and twists in the body that begin to compress soft tissue structures like nerves and vessels that carry blood and lymph.  This is known as a strain pattern.  Over time, strain patterns will overlap and eventually put enough pressure on the soft tissue to change the position of skeletal structures.  Symptoms throughout this process are often scattered because the location of an individual’s strain patterns will be responsible for the effects it has.  This work can be beneficial for anyone who has ever had an injury or trauma.  Techniques used in the Gillespie Approach are intended to address strain patterns in the body, but more importantly, it directly addresses the effect a strain pattern has on the craniosacral system.  Once the craniosacral system is open and flowing, the body is better able to heal and balance itself.

What can CFT help with?  Firstly, it can help optimize brain function for better cognitive abilities.  Here’s more!

To learn more, go to GillespieApproach.com