Craniopathy is a specialty within chiropractic focused on cranial subluxations. You analyze for restriction and use specific adjustments to correct it, so the body can grow instead of defend.
The short definition: a specific correction of a specific subluxation, in a specific vector, with a specific force, at a specific time.
Every word in that definition is doing work
Specific subluxation. Knowing which pattern is the primary one.
Specific vector. Your listing: the direction of what needs to be corrected.
Specific force. Knowing what level of force this correction needs.
That is what separates a correction from facilitation. Facilitation helps things move. It is not a specific vector and it is not a specific adjustment. A correction is both.
Four levels of force
Cranial work uses four distinct levels of force, and you match the level to the subluxation you are correcting:
- Lightest, under five grams, for CSF flow.
- Mild, for dural and meningeal tension.
- Moderate, for secondary respiratory motion.
- Heaviest, for suture mobility and specific corrections.
Mobilizing CSF in a system that is already moving is so light the patient barely feels you touching them. A sphenomaxillary correction, working within the maxilla to unhook the vomer and sphenoid, takes a much greater level of force, and people really feel it. Work at only one level and you are not being complete.
It is never one spot
If one area of the cranium is involved, every area is involved. The dura is continuous. So you always have a primary pattern and compensation around it, and the exam is how you tell them apart.
What to do on Monday
Before you correct anything, name all three: which subluxation, which vector, which force. If you cannot name the vector, you are facilitating, which has its place. Just know which one you are doing.
Heard on the podcast: Ep 37 – Stop Guessing How Hard to Push on the Cranium