Center for Continuing Education of Osteopathy & Manual Therapy

 The Fundamentals of Cranial Osteopathy

Part 1. A Biomechanical Approach to Understanding & Assessing the Cranial Mechanism  

This is a Level I course with no pre-requisites other than being an accredited Osteopath / Manual Osteopathic Practitioner or another accredited Health Practitioner where Manual Therapy is an integral part of your scope of practice, including Athletic Therapists, Physiotherapists, or  Chiropractors. It is a pre-requisite for Treating the Obstetrical Patient Throughout all of the Stages of Pregnancy: an Osteopathic Approach as well as our Pediatric Osteopathy Certification Program .

If you wish to take this course but your  professional designation does not fall under one of the above categories, such as being a Massage Therapist or Cranio-Sacral Therapist, we have created a version of this course tthat contains all of the same course material with additional chapters appropriate for Massage or CranioSacral Therapists.  Click here.

Part 2. Continuing Fundamentals of Cranial Osteopathy: Cranial Patterns of Dysfunction, Compensation Patterns & Postural Adaptations is the next course in this series and will allow you to go further in your understanding of cranial dysfunctions and how to correct them.  Click here.

Please email us at [email protected] if you wish to use an alternate payment method to enroll such as an eTransfer.

This course is the first course in our Cranial Osteopathy online series.   It contains thirty two demonstration videos across eight chapters and is self paced, allowing you watch the videos as many times as you want and review the course material at your own pace. There are hands-on practice assignments to be completed at the end of each chapter.

You can enroll now and start learning immediately, and progress through each chapter at the speed that suits you.  For instance, if you complete one chapter per week, including the weekly practice sessions for each chapter and the weekly homework assignments, you can complete this course in eight weeks.  If you have more free time or need to complete this course as a pre-requisite for one of our more advanced courses, then you can progress more quickly and submit all of your practice homework assignments at the end to achieve Certification.  

Each chapter contains instructional theory and videos, and homework assignments with are due at the end of the course in order to achieve a 30 hour Certificate of Completion.  You get access to the downloadable and printable Workbook immediately upon enrollment, as well as access to the Introductory chapters to help you get organized before starting this course.

The Workbook

In Part 1 of this series, you will learn the important Anatomy, Physiology, and Biomechanics of the Cranial Mechanism.  You will begin to develop your palpation skills to locate each bone, suture, and whether each bone in the Cranial Mechanism has full Amplitude, and how to correct Restricted range of motion . An emphasis on Hand Placement and refining your palpation skills is taught through many instructional videos.  

You will come away from this course having a solid foundation for understanding and assessing the various aspects of the Cranial Mechanism, to prepare you for future courses in this series, or some of our other courses where cranial techniques are an essential part of a treatment protocol.

Please scroll down to read the course curriculum for detailed information.

Certificates of  Completion

Certificates of  Completion are awarded to Participants who complete the course by submitting all of the hands-on homework assignments found at the end of each chapter.  Your Instructor will review all of your homework and send you feedback followed by your Certificate of Completion.  Certificates can be submitted to their respective associations for CPDs / CEUs or can be displayed in their clinics.

This course will entitle you to 30 continuing education hours, with the breakdown of ten theory hours and fifteen practice hours clearly stated on your Certificate, as seen below:

Consulting with your Instructor

If at any time throughout the course you would like to consult with the Instructor Maureen Maher to discuss a subject or aspect of your learning experience where you feel the need for feedback, guidance, or further explanation, you can send an email to her at [email protected] to set up a time to chat live.  You can read Maureen's professional biography by scrolling down on this page after the Course Curriculum.

Who this course is for:

This is the first  introductory course in this series, suitable for  all Osteopaths or Manual Osteopathic Practitioners Therapists with an interest in learning the basics and incorporating A BIOMECHANICAL APPROACH to Cranial Osteopathy into their practice.

  If you are a Registered Massage Therapists (RMT)  we have a version of this course that has been tailored to your unique professional needs, including a chapter on how to incorporate Cranial Manual therapy into your Bodywork treatments.    Please scroll down to the bottom of this page to view that option or click here.

If you are an Osteopath who has never studied the tangible, BIOMECHANICAL MODEL of Cranial Osteopathy, and wish to take a more structured, anatomical approach to understanding the Cranial Mechanism and your clinical assessments, this course is also for you.  Practitioners who had only a cursory or brief overview of Cranial Osteopathy during their training would also benefit from taking this course  series.

For those Practitioners who have experience with the more energetic forms of Cranio-Sacral Treatment, such as Uppledger's Cranio-Sacral Model, or the Biodynamic Model, we respect your prior training because these models are  indeed useful when you desire a more energetic approach to healing.  

But  when you encounter specific conditions such as Congestion Headaches, Vertigo, Sinusitis, Trigeminal Neuralgia, or Upper Cervical Misalignments related to dysfunctions within the anatomical functioning of the Cranial Mechanism, learning how to treat the Cranium from a more concrete, biomechanical perspective will provide more tangible and predictable results within your treatments.  

Students who have trained and even mastered these more energetic approaches will benefit greatly from this course, as it will round out and complete your education and understanding of the Cranium.

This course is a pre-requisite for:

This course is a pre-requisite for students who do not have a minimum of 30 classroom hours of training in a biomechanical model of Cranial Osteopathy who wish to enroll in  the following online courses:   

Pediatric Osteopathy Certification Program

Treating the Obstetrical Patient Throughout All Of The Stages of Pregnancy: an Osteopathic Approach 

If you are unsure if your prior training exempts you from taking this pre-lease review the course curriculum below.

What you will learn:

Through this course, you will learn to identify & treat all the major components of the Cranial Mechanism.  You will learn the outline and relative positioning of each cranial bone, the location of each suture, how the cranial mechanism works, how the venous sinus system drains, and more.  You will learn how to treat and correct the cranial mechanism,  how to balance its rhythms in order to be able to provide relief for your patient using a very tangible, scientific, anatomically based approach 

Although this is Part I and designed to give the anatomical and functional basics, you will come away with sufficient knowledge to treat basic conditions such as congestion headaches, fatigue, and includes cranial osteopathy into your treatments where full body alignments is crucial for symptom relief.  

What this course contains:

Each chapter contains audio explanations with images as well as video demonstrations of the concepts and palpation techniques for each chapter, as well as homework practice assignments.  The course in total is awarded twenty course hours, which include both online theory learning as well as your own practice time and homework submissions.

Unique Assessment Sheets and Clinical Practice Sheets for beginners, all designed by the Instructor are included, and more.  These tools help you learn how to palpate for and diagnose each component of the Cranial Mechanism in a step by step manner that takes the guesswork out of palpation and diagnosis.  This learning approach was designed by Maureen Hannah Maher, the course Instructor, and Cranial Osteopath for over fifteen years. 

 Maureen is also the author and instructor of Cranial Osteopathy Part 2 Continuing Fundamentals, which will be available online in 202, and the complete Advanced Cranial Pathologies series that she teaches in live seminars and workshops to learners who wish to build on the fundamentals of this course and go on to effectively treatment more complex but common cranial pathologies.  But to do this, one needs to start with the fundamentals, which you will acquire in this course.

What you will need:

Access to a printer to print the Workbook and Worksheets for your hands-on practice homework assignments.

You will also need to order a practice doll like the one you see in the image above.  

What you get:

A download able and printable version of the Workbook is available immediately  upon enrollment as well as the Introductory chapter.

Certificates of  Completion are awarded to Participants who complete the course.  Certificates can be submitted to their respective associations for CPDs / CEUs or can be displayed in their clinics. 

Join us online and learn how Cranial Osteopathy can be incorporated into your Bodywork practice today!

Have a question about this course ?  Did you read the course curriculum?  If you still have a question, please feel free to email the Instructor at [email protected]