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Osteopaths are taught a variety of methods and techniques, ranging from the well known manipulations with their dramatic clicks, to the very gently applied methods used by so called 'cranial osteopaths'.
Osteopaths vary their treatment methods, depending on an individual patients’ problems.
Cranial Osteopath is the name by which osteopaths who work at the gentler, subtle end of the spectrum of different treatment approaches have become known. Osteopaths may have different specialties including sports injuries, paediatrics, visceral (treating the internal organs of the body). Cranial Osteopathy embraces all of these.
Cranial Osteopaths are trained to feel a rhythmical expansion and contraction in all body tissues, including the head. This is called involuntary motion.
The skull is not simply a solid container for the brain. It is made up of 26 bones which are intricately joined in such a way that during the rhythmical cycle of involuntary motion, the skull can actually change shape very slightly to accommodate the normal involuntary motion of the brain inside.
This involuntary motion is necessary for the healthy movement of fluids such as blood, cerebral spinal fluid and lymph not just in and out of the head but every where in the body. This movement is present in all parts of the body.
Injuries and tensions in and around the head and neck can block or disrupt this movement. This can cause a very wide variety of problems both in the head and elsewhere in the body.
Using involuntary motion in the tissues, osteopaths can feel whether a person is working in the best way and they are in an optimum state of health, or whether there is something preventing healthy movement of the tissues from occurring.