Lisa
Upledger

How Lisa came to craniosacral therapy

Lisa’s interest in healing began in her early twenties, at her first appointment with a chiropractor — Dr Hervé Lafleur in Quebec, Canada. He introduced her to Dr George Goodheart’s applied kinesiology, the method best known today as muscle testing. What struck her was that one could hold a dialogue with the body.

In 1981 she graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. There, studying the sacro-occipital technique (SOT), she first learned of the primary respiratory mechanism, which she later encountered in craniosacral therapy as the craniosacral system. Lisa then completed a 300-hour programme in applied kinesiology and attended seminars with Dr Goodheart himself.

In 1986 she took her first craniosacral therapy class and knew she had found her path. She completed the entire CST programme at the Upledger Institute with John Upledger — the founder and creator of the method.

D.C. — Doctor of Chiropractic, a professional degree in the United States. FIAMA — Fellowship of the International Academy of Medical Acupuncture.

The clinic, the intensive programmes and teaching

In 1991 Lisa began practising at the Upledger Institute’s UI Healthplex clinic. She was the lead therapist of the Institute’s intensive programmes — programmes for children with autism and intensives for Vietnam veterans with one hundred per cent disability.

To make the method easier for students to absorb, she created the Clinical Applications classes: four participants at a time, with individual work at every CST level. Lisa ran them for ten years.

She taught at the Upledger Institute and served as a certified examiner for CST techniques and for diplomate certification, as executive co-director and clinical director of the Healthplex clinic, and as a member of the Institute’s board of directors.

Life and work beside the author of the method

In 1996 Lisa and John Upledger married. Lisa is grateful to him both as a husband and as a teacher: he taught her to think outside the usual frameworks, to draw on different fields of medicine and science, and to see endless possibilities — as he did with his own patients and students.

Together they taught classes and ran workshops in the United States, England and Europe, and held clinical symposia where they worked with patients in front of an audience of therapists. John Upledger died in 2012.

In 2014 Lisa founded a centre for integrative therapy in memory of John and of their work together. There she practises craniosacral therapy within an integrative approach — alongside chiropractic, visceral manipulation and medical acupuncture — and remains open to new paths of healing.

Blending — the essence of craniosacral therapy

Lisa’s central theme is blending: touch with intention, a fine and responsive capacity of the hands that serves both to assess the state of the tissue and to treat it. Together with a deep knowledge of anatomy and a sensitivity to the connection between body and mind, this skill gives the therapist an understanding of how to help a person.

Lisa teaches and mentors craniosacral therapists, from beginners to experienced practitioners. Her classes are built on hands-on work, with respect both for the material and for the participants; practice on one another is an essential part of every class.

What craniosacral therapy (CST) is — as Lisa describes it

Craniosacral therapy, or CST, is a set of gentle manual techniques for working with the body, grown out of the method of John Upledger. The touch is very light, and the work runs along the whole axis from the skull to the sacrum.

The craniosacral system surrounds the brain and the spinal cord. It is formed by membranes containing cerebrospinal fluid; the movement of that fluid is produced by a hydraulic system inside the skull, and through the bones, the structures of the brain and the membranes it circulates through the central nervous system.

That movement shows itself not only in the head but in all the tissues of the body — which is why any restriction in the tissue reduces craniosacral mobility. Hence the central thought Lisa repeats in class: the body keeps its inner balance exactly as long as the currents of life and fluid flow freely everywhere.

The touch in this method is very light. The therapist does not adjust or force: they assess the rhythm and the freedom of movement of the tissue across the whole body, find restrictions and work with them, relying on the body’s own rhythm and its self-correcting mechanisms.

How Lisa teaches you to read the system

In her blending class she sets out four signs by which the therapist reads the feedback of the craniosacral system: symmetry, quality, amplitude and rate — SQAR. To that she adds approaches to working with the meningeal system, the spinal cord and facilitation, as well as work with the images that arrive through the hands: how to notice them, how to trust them and how to tell the essential from the accidental.

The prerequisite for her blending class is SER 1 or equivalent training. For the December masterclass in Moscow the requirement is different: craniosacral therapists of any level are welcome.

Where the method is applied

Her website lists a wide range of conditions that craniosacral therapists work with, from chronic pain and sports injuries to the after-effects of stroke and neurological disorders. An important note from us: craniosacral therapy is a form of bodywork; it does not replace medical diagnosis and treatment and is used alongside them, not instead of them.

The centre in Florida and nine classes

In 2014, two years after John Upledger’s death, Lisa founded the Upledger Center for Integrative Therapy in Florida, where she continues his work. In her practice she combines craniosacral therapy with chiropractic, visceral manipulation and medical acupuncture.

She still teaches — nine classes she wrote herself, plus mentoring and programmes put together for an individual practitioner:

• Integration of CranioSacral Therapy — Level 1
• Integration of the Cranium — Level 2
• Integration of the Orofacial Structures — Level 3
• Blending: Accessing the Power of CranioSacral Therapy
• SER — Deepening the SomatoEmotional Release Process
• CST Assessment and Applications
• Integrating CranioSacral Therapy and Chiropractic
• Integrating Meridians with Body Work
• CST Treatment Symposium

Her classes are accredited as continuing professional education: Lisa is an approved continuing education provider for NCBTMB and for the Florida Board of Massage Therapy.

Key dates

• 1981 — Palmer College of Chiropractic, Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.)
• 1982–1983 — private practice in Colorado
• from 1983 — private practice in Florida
• 1986 — first craniosacral therapy class
• 1991 — Upledger Healthplex clinic: lead therapist of the programmes for children with autism and the intensives for Vietnam veterans
• 1996 — married John Upledger; taught together in the USA, England and Europe
• 2012 — John Upledger died
• 2014 — founded Upledger Center for Integrative Therapy

For accuracy, in the words of her website: the CST-D designation is awarded by a private organisation that is unaffiliated with and unrecognised by the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine.

Education, experience and speaking

Education

• Palmer College of Chiropractic
• Sacro-occipital technique (SOT)
• Applied kinesiology with Dr George Goodheart — 300 hours
• The craniosacral therapy programme and other classes of the Upledger Institute
• Visceral manipulation
• Fellowship of the International Academy of Medical Acupuncture
• Nutrition

Experience

• Private practice: Colorado (1982–1983), Florida (from 1983 to the present)
• Teacher and certified examiner of the Upledger Institute (former role)
• Director and co-director of the Upledger Healthplex clinic (former role)
• Member of the board of directors of the Upledger Institute (former role)
• Author and developer of curricula
• NCBTMB continuing education provider (USA)

Speaking

• Florida Chiropractic Convention
• FSMTA — Florida State Massage Therapy Association
• Chiropractic congress in Panama
• Dr Andrew Weil’s integrative medicine programme, University of Arizona
• CST Alliance

Member of the Florida Chiropractic Association. More than 30 years in practice.

Seminars with Lisa

We invite craniosacral therapists of any level of training to study with Lisa and deepen their practice.

CST Review, Moscow, 4–6 December 2026 →

The School of Applied and Body Psychology is an educational project of Oksana Aulchenkova for practitioners in the helping professions.

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