top of page

Our soul purpose is to assist you in restoring your innate ability to heal your body, mind, heart and energy system.

"Thank you Isabella, for your profound multi layered qualities of presence and listening.  I felt beautifully unwound and opened after our sessions, with much healing and settling for my travel wearied body and spirit."

Roberta S.

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy® is a form of Natural Medicine that works with the whole person, not just the head, sacrum and lower back.  When a BCST therapist places her hands lightly on you, she is using them to listen to you in much the same way a counsellor might listen to your words.  Your body responds to this sensitive touch by beginning to listen to itself.  A feeling that you have been truly heard is a common experience during and after a session.  Because this treatment is non-invasive and subtle, it is ideal for people going through traumatic illnesses or life experiences.  It supports the body to recuperate and build up lost energy.  People receiving this treatment report they let go of tension and fear and cope better with the difficulties they face.

A BIODYNAMIC CRANIOSACRAL SESSION:

Your practitioner will take a written case history, listening with care to the reasons for your visit.  This part of the session is important, both for gathering information and to establish a good understanding with your practitioner.  The session typically lasts an hour, although this can vary.  You remain clothed and will usually lie face up or on your side, or you may be seated.  The practitioner makes light contact with your head, the base of your spine and other areas of the body, encouraging your body to relax and begin to make the changes it needs.  Because the body functions as a whole, your practitioner may focus on areas other than where your symptoms occur.


After a session, there is occasionally a short period of adjustment, as part of the healing process, where you may become more aware of your symptoms.  Sometimes people report relief after only one or two sessions.  For chronic (deeper) (long-standing) health issues, further sessions may be needed.  Some people find they benefit from regular treatment over an extended period of time and say that, as well as noticing improvement in their physical and  emotional symptoms, they feel they have more awareness of their own needs and strengths, and their quality of life has improved.

For shifts in health to occur, the conditions maintaining the problem have to be ripe for change. Creating ripeness for health is an evolutionary process rather than a specific event.  Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy® treatments can facilitate deep changes in just a few sessions, or may be an on going therapeutic process to achieve and maintain a state of balance.

Every human being lives with trauma, things that have occurred in our lives in the past –be they physical or emotional. Trauma is stored in the cells of the body. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy® works on a cellular level to release trauma from the cells.

 

When a person is no longer able to self regulate within their nervous  system, stress becomes chronic and symptoms begin to arise in many forms.   

  • Chronic Neck and Back Pain

  • Migraines, Headaches and Concussions

  • Stress and Tension

  • Related Discomfort

  • Insomnia Anxiety, Depression, Fear, PTSD 

  • Sports Injuries, Inflammation

  • Post-Dental Procedures

  • Trigeminal Neuralgia, Fibromyalgia

  • TMJ Oncology Treatment Support

  • Pre and Post Natal Support

The Resilient Autonomic Nervous system

The Craniosacral System consists of the meninges, the cerebrospinal fluid, the structures that are producing and reabsorbing this fluid, as well as the bones that are connected to the meninges.  This system surrounds the Central Nervous System.  A smooth flow within the Autonomic Nervous System begins with activating and discharging sympathetic and parasympathetic activity naturally.  In a resilient Autonomic Nervous System the sympathetic branches charges in a reciprocal way and then automatically discharges when the parasympathetic branch activates.  The autonomic nervous system directs all activities of the body that occur without a persons conscious control, such as breathing, organ function and food digestion. It has two modes: sympathetic, which is most active in times of stress, and parasympathetic, which controls maintenance activities and helps conserve the body's energy.

 

As the Therapist places their hands on the head, the sacrum and
other various areas of the body, cerebral spinal fluid gently begins to move through the brain, down the spine and throughout the entire body.  As fluid moves through the Central Nervous System, an immediate calming and release of accumulated stress occurs within the client’s overall system.   When the nervous system is able to access deepening states of stillness, bones, muscles and tissues begin to slowly release and realign themselves. This innate intelligence is always present even in the most adverse conditions. The key is to bring the system to a state of rest long enough to access the inner wisdom of the body and allow it to facilitate health and wholeness. 

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy® provides that time to “listen”, facilitates a process to “restore” and allows our bodies to self regulate”.

"I've been seeing Isabella for three years; she is just so good at what she does. Very gentle and effective healing, and she helps you to integrate positive changes into body and spirit. Highly recommended!"

Barbara K.

HISTORY OF THE CRANIOSACRAL APPROACH

The craniosacral approach of working with the body has its roots in the experiments and experience of William Garner Sutherland (1873-1954), an american doctor and osteopath. He practiced osteopathy in the first half of the 20th century and developed the new field of cranial osteopathy. He himself studied with the originator of osteopathy, Andrew Taylor Still. Sutherland developed a theory of how the core system between the cranium and the sacrum and its fluid movements affect the human being, and he ultimately developed a model for this.

DR. SUTHERLAND'S CRANIAL OSTEOPATHY

While a student of osteopathy in the early 1900's, Sutherland was examining the sutures of a disarticulated skull when he was struck by how it appeared to be “bevelled like the gills of a fish, indicating a respiratory mechanism.” He could not get the idea that the skull was not solid out of his mind, and he remained haunted by the notion that the bones of the skull were designed for some kind of movement in relation to each other. He performed experiments on himself using helmet-like devices which put varying degrees of pressure on different parts of his head. As a result, his wife described witnessing significant and irritating personality changes. He also experienced head pains and problems with coordination in response to different applications of pressure.

Sutherland developed a system of examination and treatment for what he called the Primary Respiratory Mechanism (PRM). The discipline involved working with the inherent fluctuation of the cerebrospinal fluid, the motility of the brain and spinal cord, the mobility and motility of the reciprocal tension membrane, the articular mobility of the cranial bones (at their joints, the sutures) and the involuntary movement of the sacrum between the illia of the pelvis.

Sutherland found he was successful in treating patients with all kind of disorders and often had good results in cases where other doctors had failed.Because little was known at that time of how it really worked, and because the results with patients seemed at times to be miraculous, Sutherland's system was looked at as having spiritual overtones.

In the last ten years of his life he started to teach his work with the fluid system. Students needed time to work their way into the system, so he had them start with the outer most layer, the bones. Then, when they had an appreciation for their mobility and motility, they moved on to sensing the membrane system and then he had them working with the fluids, and ultimately with the forces at the core of it all: those forces which move the potencies, fluids and tissues.

AS TIME MOVES ON...

Sutherland failed to get the recognition he deserved in his lifetime and it was left to his students to help cranial osteopathy gain more recognition. Amongst them were H.I. Magoun and Rollin E. Becker (1910-1996).It was Rollin Becker who continued the tradition of enquiry into the fluid system and the Breath of Life concept, and contributed much to our contemporary understanding of the inherent Health within.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s John Upledger and ZviKarni continued the studies of the craniosacral system with more scientific means, so they could actually prove that the cranial bones move in rhythm with the tide of the cerebrospinal fluid.These two also did a highly successful field study on hyperactive and autistic children and children with learning difficulties, and from that experience Upledger began training the teachers, parents and caretakers of these children. Many people who studied his personal approach and practised over decades gained new insights that were shared by everyone who came after them.

Metamorphosis

The study of how one can use the mind - thought process to experience radiant health, raised consciousness and evolution.

"I had such a great experience with Isabella at Craniosacral Therapy Vancouver. I've seen several other Cranial Sacral therapist over the last year and I've never left as pain free and peaceful as I did after just 1 treatment with her. I've felt a lot of physical and emotional freedom since my treatment and some major positive shifts in my mobility and my thinking. She has a wonderful soft and intuitive spirit that makes you feel calm and taken care of. I'm so thankful I found her."

B.Smith

bottom of page