Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy
How gentle touch can help foster relational safety, assist with rewiring the nervous system, and access the body’s innate vitality
Gentle touch for deep nervous system healing
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) offers a unique approach to healing through gentle, therapeutic touch. As a Registered Craniosacral Therapist (RCST®) in Nelson BC, I help your nervous system return to its natural state of balance and vitality.
This subtle yet powerful therapy works beautifully as a stand-alone treatment or as a complement to counselling for deeper integration.
Please Note: Craniosacral therapy is a self-pay service not typically covered by extended health benefits.
A different kind of bodywork
BCST is unlike most other forms of hands-on therapy. Using extremely light touch, I listen to the subtle rhythms of your system and support it in finding greater balance.
Rather than manipulating or adjusting, I offer my regulated nervous system as a resource for yours. Through this gentle contact, your body can:
Release deeply held tension and trauma
Shift out of chronic stress patterns
Access its natural healing wisdom
Remember states of deep rest and vitality
The experience often feels like meditation with supportive touch – profoundly restful yet dynamically healing.
How craniosacral therapy works
When different nervous systems are in proximity, they naturally begin to synchronize – a process called co-regulation. You've likely experienced this when your breathing naturally matches someone else's rhythm, or when your heart rate settles in the presence of someone calm.
Through my hands, I sense where your system holds restriction or overwhelm. By bringing gentle awareness to these areas, your body's innate intelligence can reorganize toward greater health.
Many clients report feeling a profound sense of peace, as if they've come home to themselves.
What craniosacral therapy supports
BCST works on multiple levels simultaneously:
Physical Healing Chronic pain, headaches, TMJ tension, injuries, concussion recovery, digestive issues, and sleep difficulties often improve as your nervous system finds balance.
Emotional Integration Trauma, anxiety, and overwhelm held in the body can gently release without needing to be verbally processed. Your system knows how to heal when given the right conditions.
Nervous System Regulation If you feel stuck in fight, flight, or freeze, craniosacral therapy helps your system remember its full range of responses – from healthy alertness to deep rest.
Spiritual Connection Many experience a sense of wholeness, presence, or connection to something larger. This enhanced perception is simply the recognition of our embeddedness in a larger matrix – an ability to sense our interconnectedness with the ecosystem we're part of.
Who this approach serves best
Craniosacral therapy particularly resonates with those who:
Prefer non-verbal processing – letting the body speak without words
Have "tried everything" for chronic conditions without lasting relief
Feel overwhelmed by talk therapy but know healing is needed
Are highly sensitive and need the gentlest approach possible
Trust the body's wisdom but need support accessing it
Seek nervous system regulation without medication
If you're drawn to subtle work with profound effects, this may be good medicine for you.
The biodynamic approach
What makes Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy unique is its trust in your system's inherent health. Rather than imposing change from outside, I support what your body is already trying to do.
Your body holds its own treatment plan. My role is to listen deeply and create optimal conditions for your system's healing intelligence to emerge. I offer presence, attunement, and a regulated nervous system as resources. Through my training and experience, I can sense subtle restrictions and support your system in finding new pathways toward health.
Integration with counselling
Many clients find that combining craniosacral therapy with counselling creates deeper, more lasting change. While these remain distinct sessions, together in your treatment plan they work synergistically:
Counselling sessions use conversation and somatic awareness to explore patterns and support integration
Craniosacral sessions use therapeutic touch on the table to support your system's regulation
Together, they offer multiple pathways for healing – through words, awareness, and touch
Both approaches help your nervous system integrate and reorganize. The difference is in the method – one works primarily through verbal processing and embodied awareness, the other through hands-on nervous system support.
We can explore whether this integrated treatment approach might serve you in a free consultation.
Ready to experience this work?
If you're seeking a gentle yet profound approach to healing that works directly with your nervous system, craniosacral therapy may be exactly what you need.
Whether addressing physical pain, emotional overwhelm, or simply seeking deeper rest, this work offers a unique path to wholeness.
Learn more about getting started
Questions? Read the FAQ
“Vanessa is such a gifted practitioner; she has such a calm, non-judgmental and professional presence. It’s amazing that such a light touch approach can have such profound effects on the body. I always look forward to my treatments, and cannot recommend Vanessa enough.”