One of my patients recently asked me this great question I wish to answer.

The reality is that as a patient, there is not much difference; they really do not differ much when it comes to the outcome of the therapy. It is either a good session with resolution or the problem persists.

Both models of treatment are part of natural or w/holistic medicine and therefore are both used to preserve health, and are effective to treat illnesses. They both can be defined as methods that restore health by developing and utilizing the body’s natural potential and self-healing abilities.

CST is one of the most cutting-edge forms of medicine from the Western Model, an offshoot of Osteopathy, while Medical Qigong is one of the most ancient forms of natural medicine from the Eastern traditions of medicine.

The two different models of medicine are both natural and the skills of the practitioner are: the intention, the touch or handling, and verbal or non-verbal dialoguing.

Both are based on the integration of the body-mind and Spirit, and require the participant to become calm and in a deep relaxed state.

They differ according to the “body maps” the practitioner is “navigating” while performing the treatment:

The Medical Qigong practitioner navigates via the organs and the meridian system, while the CranioSacral practitioner navigates via the brain, the nerves and the neurological system.

The meridian system is a complex arrangement of energetic pathways and gates throughout the body relating to the organs, and works with Qi, the energy of the body. If the Qi is blocked somewhere along the path, the corresponding organ will be challenged, and this can affect the balance of the energetic circuits.

The Western model of CranioSacral therapy includes the brain and spinal cord, the surrounding membranes or meninges, the bones around it, the cranium, the spine, and the sacrum, its motion and flows; it looks at the proper motion of the structure and its function and proper cerebro-spinal flow.

The CST road map indicators are that if one of the bones is out of place, the neurological conductions will be affected and can affect the function, and vice versa. This model considers more the importance of how structure and function are interrelated.

The Eastern model looks more at the brain like “bone marrow” and the Western model looks at the brain as the most important part of the person. When working with your body, the trained practitioner will communicate with your body’s energetic system, while the western practitioner will communicate with your neurological system and the facial networks.

Now, does the participant’s entire being care if it is looked at as an energetic being or a neurological being, or would it prefer be looked as a whole?

It is like being bilingual and understanding the communication both in English and in Chinese at the same time without having to translate. The body speaks all these languages and will recognize what language(s) the practitioner is able to speak and properly and will interface with the therapist accordingly. The practitioner will offer skills, but it is the body that will decide if it can trust the validity and the coherence of the process.

The body cannot be fooled, and it will know if the practitioner has valid roadmaps or not, and will respond accordingly.

I believe that all what your body truly cares about is that as a your practitioner,  I am able to facilitate your health process and to be able to locate, identify, address and facilitate the resolution of its dysfunction, not how.

You, as a person, will enjoy the therapeutic relationship much more if you feel that you can trust your practitioner’s skills are acting as your “People Pilot®”. This role will allow you to relax your body and calm your mind even more, therefore allowing your body to move toward self-correction.

From my own training and experience, I found that combining the two roadmaps gives me a navigation system that is most efficient to meet your body’s many intelligences without being “limited” to only one stream of information.

We are progressively learning to better understand how the body-mind in Spirit complex really works.

Thx Scott Zeigler for the great artwork.