CranioSacral Therapy with Caro O'Neill

23/02/2026

CST can be really effective at helping reduce post concussion symptoms. We are going to be running a 5 day intensive therapy programme in Brighton in November this year. If you would like to know more or know someone who might benefit please get in touch.

🧠 Persistent concussion symptoms? There may be a missing piece.

The Concussion Alliance calls CranioSacral Therapy (CST) “one of the most effective therapies… for persistent post-concussion symptoms.”

This article highlights CST as “the missing piece” in concussion and post-concussion recovery. Discover how gentle, precise CranioSacral Therapy can support the brain, nervous system, and whole-body recovery.

🔎 Read the full article here:https://www.iahe.com/storage/docs/articles/CST_to_Address_Post-Concusson_Syndrome_by_Melinda_Roland_MM_Oct_2019_MM281_F4_CST_PostConcussion_1.pdf or Upledger.com Resources Tab.

21/02/2026

Call me if you would like to know more about CST. And if you want to take a step on the CST path yourself and become a therapist yourself, join us in May in lifton when I will be presenting the first class of this amazing curriculum.

What else is possible… when your body finally feels heard?

Most of us get used to a certain level of discomfort - physical, emotional, or otherwise.

We adapt. We work around it. We push through.

Usually, until we just can’t any more.

When people hit this place, (or ideally before they do!) CranioSacral Therapy can help find a way out.

Listening to the body offers new insight.

It knows what it needs.

What needs to shift.

Maybe there’s:
✨ A small release.
😔 A moment of stillness.
☺️ A softening or opening where there used to be tension.

Your body might well do something you didn’t expect.

That’s what CranioSacral Therapy invites.

What else is possible when your system gets the chance to settle, to breathe, to reorganise?

You won’t know until you try.

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Book a session today: at www.craniosacralsociety.co.uk/find-a-therapist

Or if you want to help people to do this themselves, become a CST practitioner! www.upledger.co.uk

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30/01/2026

Concussion is in the news again. And CST has an amazing track record in getting results.

Professional soccer players and American football stars are at much greater risk of developing dementia. What can we do to help them?

30/01/2026

Want to train in CranioSacral Therapy but don't have the anatomy and physiology yet?

You could pick up one of those online courses that give you voice-over videos and slide after slide to plough through on your own. You can hope to figure out which bits matter for actual hands-on work and that it sinks in.

Or...

You could learn it all in a clear framework and context, taught specifically for CST and bodywork. Where it’s explained from the mindset of what your hands and CST techniques will be doing, and with future clients in mind.

Having been doing this for over 25 years I know that what we teach in the Foundation Certificate goes beyond the generic AP&P you’ll need, into what you'll actually use as a therapist.

Plus you get live weekly check-ins, a cohort learning alongside you, homework marked, and ways to learn that don't involve staring blankly at slides wondering what any of it means.

I have to tell you that it is intensive. It’ll be delivered over 5 months. But you'll finish ready for your CST training with solid foundations under your feet.

Starts in 4 days - 2nd February - with a welcome meeting. Then you have the week to dig into the online part of the course before we check in at the next live session, ask questions and do some fun review activities!

Get in touch or find out more from https://www.collegeofbodyscience.com/courses/foundation-certificate.

30/01/2026

Interested in studying CST but know nothing about anatomy right now?

Imagine… in only 5 months you could be confidently talking about ventricles, meninges, neurotransmitters and oh so much more, like they're old friends!

You can start the Foundation Certificate in Body Science any time but most people prefer doing it with the live check ins and with a group. This is what starts again in 3 days. If you've been putting off your CST training because the 'science bit' feels scary, this is your most supported way through.

We'll give you 50+ hours of videos to dig into, play, pause and replay. Quizzes that actually help things stick - at different levels - to match your learning as it grows. Workbooks and slides that help it all make sense. And every Monday there's me - live - to answer your questions, work through the tricky bits, and do some fun review activities with your cohort.

It's intensive, yes. You'll need time each week. But you'll finish with a solid grounding of what you’ll need to know when you treat. That confidence will be worth every hour.

Find out more here: https://www.collegeofbodyscience.com/courses/foundation-certificate

Payment plans available to to make it easier!

23/01/2026

I love this analogy. The body doesn’t always know when to stop protecting from something that is no longer there. Time and trauma work in a different dimension.

Understanding Trauma - The Two Wolves

I remember the first time I heard the story of the two wolves. An elder tells a child that inside every person live two wolves, one driven by fear, anger, grief, and pain, and the other shaped by love, calm, connection, and trust. The child asks which wolf wins, and the elder answers, “The one you feed.”

For a long time, I thought this story was about choice and willpower. About deciding to be better, calmer, a more healed version of myself. But years of working with bodies, including my own, taught me something gentler and far more honest. Sometimes the wolf that rises is not the one we chose to feed; it is the one that was fed for us, in moments when survival mattered more than understanding.

Trauma changes the way the body feeds those wolves.

When something overwhelming happens, the body does not pause to consult our values or our hopes for who we want to be. It reacts. The nervous system floods with stress chemistry. Cortisol and adrenaline sharpen focus, narrow awareness, and prioritize survival over reflection. The vagus nerve shifts out of its regulating role and sensation becomes louder in some places and quieter in others. The body feeds the wolf that knows how to keep us alive.

Our emotions often lag behind this process. They arrive later, or all at once, or in waves that feel out of proportion to the present moment. Grief may surface years after the loss. Anger may ignite when safety finally appears. Fear may linger long after the danger has passed. From the outside, this can look confusing. From the inside, it feels like being pulled by forces that do not agree with one another.

This is where many people begin to judge themselves. Why am I reacting this way? Why can’t I calm down? Why does my body keep doing this when I know better? But trauma is not a failure of insight; it is a mismatch between what the body learned in survival and what the heart longs for in safety.

The body feeds the wolf it knows will protect us.

The emotional system feeds the wolf that needs to be felt.

Neither is wrong. They are simply out of sync.

Over time, this dissonance can embody the tissues. Fascia holds these patterns like a memory that never learned language. The body is not stuck in the past, it is simply repeating what once worked.

Healing is not about starving one wolf and forcing another to behave. It is about changing the environment inside the body so different nourishment becomes possible. Safety feeds regulation while presence feeds integration. Slow, respectful touch feeds the part of the nervous system that knows how to rest, and when the body begins to feel supported, the emotional system no longer has to shout to be heard.

This is where touch changes the conversation. It meets the body where learning first happened, beneath language and logic. The wolf that once guarded every moment can soften its watch, as the wolf that carries love, curiosity, and connection does not have to fight to survive; it is simply fed.

Holding onto trauma does not mean the wrong wolf won. It means the body did exactly what it was designed to do when safety disappeared. And healing is not a moral victory; it is a biological one. When the body learns that the threat has passed, both wolves can finally rest, and the system no longer has to choose between survival and feeling.

20/01/2026

Coming soon to a place near you! We are hosting CST 1 here in Lifton in May. A very rare opportunity to have this training offered so close to home. If you’ve been thinking about starting something new this year this could be it. A student on our last class in her 30s said she was planning ahead and wanted to learn a skill that would carry her gently into her 60s! And Upledger CranioSacral Therapy UK is that therapy. It evolves with you, not only help guide your clients to better health but you grow along side them. Win win!

Why train in CST? What will it bring to your practice, your clients, YOU?

It will give you new techniques, new tools, a new way of working with clients. Which is great.

But that's only part of it ...

What it also brings, one step at a time, is a shift in how you think about helping people. You'll start to change from doing to listening, fixing to following.

Imagine trusting that your client's body already knows what it needs and you don't have to figure it out for them, you're more there to help them figure it out for themselves.

For your clients? They get someone who's not trying to override what their body is telling them. Someone who's creating the conditions for their own inner wisdom to emerge and do what it needs to do. That's powerful. And quite rare, actually.

For you? Well... this is work that doesn't get boring. Every session is different because every body has its own story, its own tangles, its own way of showing you what it needs. You might be working with fascia one moment, fluid the next, or something more subtle that you can't quite name but can definitely feel.

It keeps you curious, you HAVE to be present and this in itself brings its own reward.

And your practice? CST fits alongside whatever else you do - massage, osteopathy, physiotherapy, energy work. It will adds layers of depth to what you already do and ways of working that your clients will notice. ('Could you do some of that funny stuff you do to my head' is a literal quote from a client!)

Will it transform everything overnight? Probably not.

But over time? It will gently change how you work, how you listen, how you think about healing. And that... well, that tends to change a lot.

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Interested?
CST1 is our entry level course and we have them coming up in Leeds, Lifton & London. Get in touch for details.

www.upledger.co.uk

18/01/2026

17/01/2026

Have you read The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman? It’s a very old favourite of mine too. But this quote really says it all about CST. Thanks for sharing Upledger CranioSacral Therapy UK. We have a CST 1 class coming to lifton in May. Yah! So exciting. 👏👏👏

There's an intelligence in your body that doesn't need to work from a diagnosis or an explanation.

It remembers *exactly* what happened every time you fell, every time you held your breath, every moment of bracing. And it knows, when we give it the chance, how to unwind, release, and reorganise itself towards health.

Dr John Upledger wasn't the first or the only clinician to reach this conclusion.

(Though he might have been the first to call it the Inner Physician! Personally, I prefer 'inner wisdom' but hey - it's the same thing.)

Healers and therapists across traditions and centuries have understood this as a fundamental truth. Your body knows.

In CranioSacral Therapy we do our best to tune into that intelligence. We learn not to come from a place of deciding what we need to do to 'fix' someone (although of course we want a good outcome for our clients); more that we deeply recognise that the body knows the best way, the pace, the resources needed to fix itself.

Often a big piece of the puzzle can be the physical relief when it (the body) actually gets the support of being held at a certain precise angle for a moment to let some tension release, or is able to let go of an emotion that felt too scary to express before to, just to be respected and followed when it leads the way.

And if we were to take it a step further... what other secrets might it know if only we thought to ask?

Your body has the answers.

We're just here to help you access them.

What might your cells have to tell you today?

What does your body know that you haven't stopped to listen to yet?

(And yes, this is something you can learn to do - for yourself and for others.)

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Our practitioners are all over the country.
Our entry level class is CST1.
The sooner you start, the more time you'll have to learn your body's own secrets!
www.upledger.co.uk

17/01/2026

If you’ve done an intro to CST with me and are thinking of joining us in May for CST 1 jn lifton then the “what’s under your hands 1” would be a great way to review some of the material. Go to www.upledger.co.uk to find out more.

You know that feeling in a class where you're really excited about the things you're learning and 'get' it - but then you're back in clinic, treating, and you can't quite remember all of everything that was taught?

Last year during a class, a student asked if I could do a short class to review the anatomy we were covering - she knew most of it, but from a long time ago and it was rusty.

Although I regularly offer an introductory Foundational level class, as well as advanced and more in depth ones, I couldn't believe I'd never thought of this! To re-cover just the anatomy you need for what we teach (the 10 step protocol) in Upledger's CST1 - at a bit of a slower pace.

I did it. It was called 'What's Under Your Hands' (I know... but hey - what it says on the tin and all that!)

And then people asked for version 2, to cover the anatomy that's in CST2 and SER1.

So it's coming up!

It'll be live via zoom for about 3 hours (with a break) and after that it will be edited and ongoingly available online.

So if you're rusty, need a bit more clarity or just want to really nail the things you need to know for CST2 and SER1 techniques, then come along!

We'll go over the bones of the face, the floor of the mouth, the hyoid and all its attachments, the Avenue of Expression structures... and anything else that you might ask about relating to this area, in the live sessions Q&A.

We'll learn interactively with workbooks, diagrams and visuals, and some practical application so you build a better understanding of the 3-d structures under your hands.

Yes, you can get all this from the study guides, the books, anatomy atlases. Of course, they're excellent.

But sometimes it's just nice to have a guide, a helping hand, and a faster route to confidence.

This is what's available.

(I wish I'd had it when I was starting out!)

If you realise this might be just what you need then go here to reserve a spot and get ongoing access to the edited recording.

https://www.collegeofbodyscience.com/courses/whats-under-your-hands-2

PS if you haven't done Upledger courses but still need to know the anatomy of this area it will still be useful.

PPS The first What's Under Your Hands? is still available, edited and to cover each step of the 10 Step Protocol. For anyone who's done the Upledger CST1 course.

10/01/2026

Interesting new research about the Craniosacral rhythm if you’re interested in finding out more about what drives what we feel in the body.

📣 Evolving the Legacy of CranioSacral Therapy
We’re excited to share a new paper from Upledger’s Science Team:
“The CranioSacral Rhythm—From Clinical Observation to Pacemaker Theory.”

This article honors Dr. John E. Upledger’s original clinical observations while bringing forward new research that supports the CranioSacral Rhythm as a measurable physiological phenomenon—and explores the emerging Pacemaker Theory as a model for understanding its origins.

When you train directly with the source, you’re not just learning CST—you’re advancing with the leaders continuing to shape the field.

📖 Read the article:https://www.iahe.com/storage/docs/articles/6YW3M8CmwFMOl2LkJMg4u9721pASRUnv9qar9sqC.pdf or Upledger.com Research Article Database Tab

14/12/2025

The fascia is the vehicle we use to ‘travel’ around the body. It enables pain to show up in seemingly unrelated places. The trauma from a fall off a horse may show up months later as persistent headaches. We ‘listen’ to the body with our hands and use the fascia to guide us. It is an endless, amazing, intelligent web.

I once heard a doctor refer to fascia as nothing more than packing peanuts, a kind of filler material with little significance beyond holding things in place. For a long time, that belief shaped how fascia was taught and understood. It was treated as background material, passive and forgettable. Yet science, when given the chance to look closely, has a way of revealing quiet miracles hiding in plain sight.

As imaging technology improved and researchers began to study fascia in greater detail, an entirely different picture emerged. Through the work of scientists such as Robert Schleip, Carla Stecco, Helene Langevin, and others, fascia revealed itself not as inert wrapping, but as living, responsive tissue deeply integrated with the nervous system. Under the microscope, fascia appeared less like packing material and more like a finely tuned communication network. In some regions, it was found to be even more richly innervated than the muscle itself, filled with sensory nerve endings constantly reporting back to the brain.

Rather than sitting neatly around muscles, fascia behaves more like a three-dimensional spiderweb or a continuous fabric woven throughout the body. Tug on one corner, and the tension is felt elsewhere. Stretch one area and the entire system responds. Fascia blends into muscle fibers, connects across joints, and wraps organs, transmitting force, sensation, and information in every direction. It senses pressure, stretch, and movement the way a musical instrument senses vibration, responding instantly to changes in tone and tension.

This understanding transformed how we view the mind–body connection. Fascia does not simply move the body; it informs it. When emotional stress or trauma occurs, fascia adapts alongside the nervous system. Like a seatbelt locking during sudden braking, it tightens to protect. Like fabric repeatedly folded the same way, it begins to hold familiar creases. These changes are intelligent, protective responses shaped by survival, even when they persist long after the original danger has passed.

Research helped clarify why this happens. Helene Langevin demonstrated that fascia responds to mechanical input and hydration, showing that gentle, sustained touch can influence its structure, much like warm wax can then be reshaped. Carla Stecco’s anatomical mapping revealed the continuity and precision of fascial planes, helping us understand why pain often follows predictable pathways rather than remaining in a single isolated spot. Robert Schleip’s work highlighted fascia’s role as a sensory organ, deeply involved in proprioception and autonomic regulation, explaining why changes in fascia can influence how safe, grounded, or connected a person feels.

Within the Body Artisan approach, this science feels less mechanical and more poetic. Working with fascia is like learning the language of a living landscape. Touch becomes a conversation rather than a command. Pressure is an invitation, not a demand. When safety is present, fascia responds the way frozen ground responds to spring, slowly thawing, rehydrating, and allowing movement where there was once rigidity. Breath deepens, awareness settles, and patterns that felt permanent begin to loosen.

Seeing fascia for what it truly is invites both humility and wonder. The body is not a machine padded with filler. It is a living system of extraordinary intelligence, where structure, sensation, and emotion are woven together like threads in a tapestry. Fascia is one of the primary fibers holding that tapestry intact, carrying both strength and memory.

When we honor this, healing shifts from fixing something broken to supporting something profoundly wise. Given the right conditions, the body does not need to be forced to change. It already knows how to soften, adapt, and return toward balance. Our role is to listen, to support, and to trust the design that has been there all along.