Osteopathy is a varied and holistic form of health care. Although a lot of osteopaths refer to themselves as “cranial osteopaths” in fact, cranial osteopathy is just one form of treatment technique available to an osteopath.

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When using cranial techniques, the osteopath will use a highly trained sense of touch in order to feel small areas of tension or strain within a body’s tissues. These could be acute muscle spasms or old injuries. In old injuries, osteopaths often find that even though the initial injury is not present, the body is still holding a certain posture that helped it compensate for the injury at the time it occurred. We frequently hear things like: “My back has always been a little bit iffy, I’ll have an episode of pain and then it’ll be fine for a few months or years, until the pain returns again.” This is a prime example.

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Once the osteopath has found an area of strain or tension, they will start to apply gentle pressure to allow these structures to relax and therefore help bring the body back into a state of balance and health. During treatment some patients feel sensations of tension disappearing or releasing, some feel warmth and relaxation, others feel nothing at all but afterwards understand that something feels different. Overall cranial treatment should feel calm and relaxing.

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Because cranial techniques are safe and gentle, they are often used when treating new born infants and young children, however it is frequently used for adults too.

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Source: https://scco.ac/osteopathy/what-is-cranial-osteopathy/