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deleterious effects. It was he who fi rst developed a course of study in what he called cranial osteopathy. Fast-forward several decades and we come to Upledger. "Dr. John," as his students and patients knew him, studied osteopathy at A. T. Still's school in Kirksville, Missouri. It wasn't until he was in practice—assisting a neurosurgeon by attempting to hold the dura mater still and realizing it had inherent motion—that his imagination was captured. He went back to Kirksville and studied cranial osteopathy, and then began systematically proving its concepts. Upledger proved the bones of the skull continue to move throughout life rather than fusing, and he proved the existence of the craniosacral system as a functioning body system. He also documented the movement of that system, the craniosacral rhythm. He coined the term "craniosacral" and developed CST. In addition to his research and teaching, Upledger had a very active practice for several decades. You can read many of his early case studies and learn about the development of CST in his books Your Inner Physician and You (North Atlantic Books, 1997) and Craniosacral Therapy: Touchstone for Health (North Atlantic Books, 2001). While doing research at a school for children with autism in the 1980s, Upledger and his graduate students documented excellent outcomes. But without follow-up treatment, many of the children's gains were lost over time. It was then Upledger realized that with training, well-meaning caregivers could help these children. He taught the school's teachers some basic hand positions and gentle movements that allowed the children to continue improving. This put him at odds with the osteopathic community, which maintained that only doctors should be taught this information. But what Upledger was teaching was not cranial osteopathy, but a safe, therapeutic touch that didn't require the level of training to diagnose or treat illness. THE DIFFERENCE OF CST Most hands-on therapies are technique-oriented: the function of the therapist is to apply expertise to discover the problem in the tissue, and then apply techniques to resolve that problem. In contrast, at its core, CST is process-oriented. CST practitioners � Photo by Elena Ray.