Daniel Reiher - CranioSacral Therapy


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CranioSacral Therapy^SM Treatments

CranioSacral Therapy^SM is a very safe and gentle style of Table Work done through clothes originating with the research of Dr. William Garland Sutherland D.O. in the early 1900's during his study at Osteopathic College. While looking at the complex joints between the bones of the skull, Dr. Sutherland became convinced that they would only be that way if there was supposed to be movement between the bones. He began experiments and finally came up with the basis for what is known in most medical colleges in the world today, that the bones do move and that their patterns of movement constitute a system and have a vast effect on many body functions and emotions. While the existence of the cardiovascular and respiratory rhythms is not disputed today, a debate concerning their reality raged for centuries around the globe.

The history of the craniosacral system's discovery and it's related research is fairly recent, and was held mainly within the group of researchers following Sutherland for some time. Because so little was known about how it worked, and because results seemed at times to be miraculous, Sutherland's system acquired an understandably esoteric reputation. In 1970, during a surgery on a patient's neck, Dr. John Upledger, D.O. viewed the rhythmical movement of a membranous boundary of what appeared to be a hydraulic system. None of his colleagues nor any of the medical texts had an explanation for his observation that the dura mater (tough mother), the outer layer of the meningeal membrane in the neck, visibly moved in and out 10 cycles per minute. He concluded that the pressure inside the membrane sac was fluctuating rhythmically.

Two years later, Dr. Upledger attended a seminar that explained Sutherland's ideas and taught some of the treatment and evaluation techniques. Coupling his scientific background with a tactile sensitivity, Dr. Upledger was quick to understand the system and refined the techniques. In 1975 he was asked to join the Osteopathic College at Michigan State University as a clinician-researcher and professor in the Department of Biomechanics. He led a multidisciplinary research team of 26 professionals from around the world. The team was able to explain in scientific and practical terms the function of the craniosacral system. They also showed how this system could be used to evaluate and treat malfunctions involving the brain and spinal cord, as well as a myriad of other health problems that previously were misunderstood or poorly understood. Craniosacral dysfunction patterns are NOT remedied by other approaches- that is- without knowledge of the pertinent functional anatomy and dynamic relationships therein.

The craniosacral system is a physiological system that exists not only in humans, but in animals possessing a brain and a spinal cord. It's formation begins in the earliest stages of the fetus and continues until death. The system consists of membranes and the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord extending from the top of the head, cranium, to the tip of the sacrum, or tailbone. Because if its influence on many bodily functions, CranioSacral Therapy is used by a wide variety of healthcare professionals including osteopaths, medical doctors, doctors of chiropractic medicine, psychiatrists, physical therapists, dentists, psychologists, occupational therapists, acupuncturists, and bodyworkers.

Daniel Reiher was the first person from the State of Michigan trained up through Dr. Upledger's Advanced CST training, by Dr. Upledger himself. Daniel has assisted the Upledger Institute as a Training Assistant, actively promoted cranial work widely for two decades, and has been teaching his own Cranial-Sacral Therapy Workshops independently and in Certified Massage Schools with an allied understanding of the healing energy work from Asian cultures and the way that amplifies the therapeutic effects of cranial work.

This light-touch manipulative therapy has been effective in treating poorly understood dysfunctions, chronic pain, injury trauma, birth trauma and defects, chronic head pain syndromes including headache and TMJ, ADD-ADHD, and physiologically based emotional problems. Trained hands palpate the motion in the system looking for restrictions and asymmetry, and patiently apply gentle therapeutic pressures or traction to the areas around the system that generally are equivalent to the weight of a nickel. Besides the functional therapeutic results, craniosacral therapy tends to bring one way back from "the end of one's rope." It is common to experience the depth of one's being, and profound states of relaxation beneficial to all healing, and missing in all chronic stress syndromes. Safe, non-invasive... widely beneficial...