I just did a bodywork trade with my friend Holly. I gave her a session, and then she worked on me. [Note: I got her OK to talk about this. The professional ethics of a massage therapist require strict confidentiality, unless express permission is given.]
So, Holly gave me a nearly two hour craniosacral therapy session. It was my first craniosacral experience, and I found it relaxing, subtle, and profound. Craniosacral work is exceptionally gentle: Holly rarely applied more than 5 grams of pressure on me (about the weight of a nickel), and yet I was deeply impacted again and again by what she was doing. I was frequently torn between being in my head, fascinated by what she was doing to me, and being in my body, and simply receiving it.
The most interesting part of the session started when Holly put on latex gloves (snap!)...and spent the next twenty minutes with her hands in my mouth. Usually one hand, actually, or just a couple of fingers. Mouthwork is surprisingly relaxing: gentle pressure up behind the cheekbones and in the floor of the mouth around the jaw can be quite pacifying.
When she worked on a spot deep beneath my tongue, on the left side, I got the most exquisite sensation - warm and wonderful - throughout the entire left side of my body, while my right side remained unaffected. When she then repeated the move on my right side, my reaction was very different: I had vertigo strong enough to elicit an adrenalyn rush, which mellowed into a lovely flying sensation. She spent several minutes holding it on each side, giving me time to fully take it all in. Not everything she did had such impact, but it was certainly all good.
Holly really knows what she's doing. And craniosacral? Magnificent stuff.