Notes from the Lab, Part IV: Looking in the Cranium
Published about 2 months ago • 2 min read
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Craniosacral Therapy
Upcoming Dates & Deadlines
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Head's Up! CST Earlybird for Fall Foundations I in Portland was extended to Monday 9/7. There's one spot left!
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CST Clinical Mentorship + Certification: Begins 9/15 with an in-person kick off meeting and class time! We made some small but substantive improvements to our CST Certification program, offering clinical mentorship opportunities along with a deeper dive into the CST anatomy and techniques. This is a unique program within the CST landscape.
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On Your Cranial Radar: We're offering CST Foundations I in 3 locations this year: Portland; Revelstoke, British Columbia; and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Woohoo!
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Portland – February 5–7 + March 12–14, 2027
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Revelstoke – February 19–21 + April 16–18, 2027
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Minneapolis – June 18–20 + September 10–12, 2027
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CST Foundations II is happening in Portland: April 23–25 + June 4–6, 2027.
Pro tip: If you completed Foundations I last year and were not able to take Foundations II, snag your spot now. We anticipate selling out this year. Also, take advantage of a lil extra savings with the new Priority Registration discount.
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NEW BLOG POST
Following Circles: from the Lab to the Books to the Clinic, Exploring the Circle of Willis
Below are excerpts from a longer blog post about studying cranial anatomy in the lab and how it can enhance our abilities to connect with the craniosacral system. This is a super geeky but totally relatable deep dive into the arterial circulation of the brain inspired by the dissection I witnessed. The discussion ends with some ways to think clinically about this anatomy, one of which is cases of dysautonomia or POTTS, where oxygenated blood is an issue.
But why bother with cranial anatomy? Aren’t we just touching the bones, why does it all matter? These are good questions. It has been my experience that bodies can tell when hands and their imaginations are aligned with an image world of the tissues, the awareness of tissue relationships and realities seeps into our hands from our imagination and bodies can feel this. I think it creates a wordless trust. This empowers our touch in interesting ways and helps us to meet the always unique and unpredictable expressions of people’s bodies.
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It’s so wild to have the saw come out and cut the cranium so we can peer into the mystery. In an unembalmed cadaver, the brain tissue itself is decomposed and pretty squishy and not super interesting. In an embalmed cadaver the brain tissue is intact and available for exploration. I have had the opportunity to study both.
Every dissection contains its own teaching, it’s parallel to doing listening based bodywork. You might start with an idea and then the body has something much different it wants to do. So, we follow that and learn together.
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Michael
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Moving Mountain Institute
Integrative massage therapy and advanced bodywork training in Portland, Oregon.
Thanks for trusting us with a little space in your inbox. We share periodic updates from Moving Mountain Institute and Michael McMahon—upcoming courses and registration dates, new writing, and reflections from teaching and clinical practice.
