About - Angela Pater

I didn’t know what a difference having trained as a craniosacral practitioner would make the night I went into labor.

I began applying craniosacral therapy (CST) for healing in 1997 while a pre-med student at the University of Texas, Austin. I was drawn to CST because the touch is light and intended to optimize the motility of the intricate web of bones, muscles, soft tissues and fluid that makes us who we are. The techniques resonated with the mindfulness mediation practice I was enjoying at Austin’s newly opened (San Francisco’s branch) Zen Center.

And, I always had a strong sense that I’d study craniosacral therapy for the pediatric community when I became a mom. After 18 joyful years of marriage, travel and moving to the San Francisco Bay area, my partner and I wanted to welcome in a new journey. After 6 months of actively trying to become pregnant in 2013, I got the positive pregnancy test. The synchronicity of receiving that test a few days before my first Upledger CST Pediatric series began meant to me that I was on the right track. I work now with the pediatric community because parenthood is an intricate dance of welcoming what the present moment has to offer. I want to help create a world for our little ones where as individuals they are in relationship with their own essence and what it means to be self-regulated.

Upon the birth of my child at home, I personally experienced the profound benefit of this work. When the midwife informed us that our baby had water in her lungs and we’d need to be transferred to the hospital, I applied CST and the crisis unequivocally shifted. Our nurse midwife’s statement, ”Whatever you just did, she’s now 100% clear.” We all exhaled. I am eternally grateful for having the skillset and capacity to act swiftly, clearly and turn things around that night. CST has become an embodied tool that I look forward to offering to you because I have faith in the easeful difference it can make.