I studied Level 1 from the Upledger Institute, and it's still not an easy therapy to explain. It didn't really come into play until Mom was diagnosed with BPPV and Meniere's disease, which are fancy terms for she can't have her neck in extreme positions without a vertigo attack and she has to be cautious with sodium intake to not trigger an attack. It's very subtle in the technique, but it can produce results with the right therapist. No one therapy works for every one, and it's not a replacement for a therapeutic massage, adjustment, etc. I took me a lot of practice to be sensitive enough to feel the "wave" of the cerebrospinal fluid (it has its own rhythm like the circulatory system and respiratory system). When you first learn it, you're feeling for differences in the right and left sides (ideally it should be even), the pace, and how strong or sluggish. I'm working with the cranial bones that do move, but only millimeters in comparison to a hinge joint or ball and socket joint. It's not so much feeling what's out of place (although that would affect the rhythm), but feeling for restrictions in the tissue underneath. If you do CS on someone with meningitis, it would be very painful. For Mom, every time I do it with her she says she feel ten pounds lighter in the head. I can tell she's "off" when she rocks back and forth when sitting still or when her eyes don't focus. She is disabled and I live with my parents and do regular neck and shoulder massages and CS when she needs it. She's a very independent woman, so the last few years were difficult because she doesn't feel confident to drive solo, however the CS, atlas orthogonal adjustments, and massage improve her quality of life. Sometimes she says she feels like she's dropping even though she's perfectly safe in the bed or massage table. It does have a science to it (read Upledger's two textbooks), and it's because of where the spinal cord attaches to the spine. The myofascial techniques happen to be where you would put your hands for reiki, and that's why it sometimes gets confused with energy therapy. I've had it done do me when my belayer dropped me ten feet on my back and my therapist focused on my sacrum. I did that for a year and it worked for me...it just depends on what your medical history is. Some people will argue it's a very deep therapy even though the techniques are very subtle. For example, if the sphenoid bone is 'off' then everything is off because all of the cranial bones connect to it except the jaw and that might be the cause of your headaches or even tmj because the mandible connects to the temporal bones and the temporal bones are off because the sphenoid bone is off. I hope that helps!
