Witten by Caroline Barrow CST-D MCSS
Director of Upledger Institute UK | CranioSacral Therapy Instructor | 30+ Years as a hands-on therapist | Founder of College of Body Science 25+ years developing courses and teaching anatomy, physiology and pathology for complementary practitioners | Passionate about and committed to bringing CST to the world’s awareness and helping people find their own inner wisdom.
Published November 2025
One of the questions I get asked fairly often is about certification. Do you need it? What does it involve? And honestly, is it worth the effort?
The short answer is: it depends where you’re starting from and what you want to do with CST. But let me walk you through how it actually works.
If you’re wondering how to get certified in Upledger CranioSacral Therapy, this guide explains the different certification routes and what to expect.
Do you even need to be certified?
Here’s the thing: Upledger courses are postgraduate, which means most people taking them already have qualifications in other therapies. If that’s you, you can absolutely learn CST and use it with your clients under your existing insurance and professional guidelines. You don’t have to get certified to incorporate the techniques into your practice (though obviously it’s better if you do!).
But if you’re training from scratch – meaning you’re coming to CST without a background in hands-on therapy – then certification becomes part of your journey. And if you want to call yourself a CranioSacral Therapist specifically then qualification is your route. Otherwise you’re a massage therapist who uses CST or a physio who’s incorporating CST techniques, etc. (which is still amazing!)
There’s real value in going through the process either way. The learning that happens when you sit down to write essays and prepare for practical exams goes surprisingly deep. As one student put it after her Techniques exam. “If you are wondering why you would want to put yourself through the exam process, here’s a good reason: you learn so much! Sitting down and being very lucid about the what, why and how we do what we do? It made it very clear in my own mind.”
How to Get Certified in Upledger CranioSacral Therapy
The Techniques Certification (CST-T)
This is the first level. To get Techniques Certified, you need to have completed, and will be tested on, the material in CST1 and CST2. This doesn’t mean you have to do it before you do the next level classes (SER1 & 2). In fact it’s usually better to have done a few more classes too. Then you do an examination that has three parts:
First, you write 12 essays in your own time. These test your understanding of the information from those first two courses. Then, on the same day as the practical there’s a 40-question multiple choice test. And finally, a practical assessment with one of our examiners where you demonstrate the 10-step protocol. You’ll show you can palpate accurately, understand what you’re feeling, and apply the techniques appropriately.
Once you’ve passed all three sections, you’re Techniques Certified and can use the letters CST-T after your name.
If you want to present yourself as a qualified Upledger-trained CranioSacral Therapist in the UK, you need the Techniques Certification plus completion of the five core classes (up to Advanced CST 1), and you’ll want to maintain membership with the Cranio Sacral Society. Their directory lists member who have taken courses. Thay can be qualified members, network members (people already qualified in other disciplines using CST), and those who are training from scratch.
The Diplomate Certification (CST-D)
But why stop at Techniques when there’s more to learn? The Diplomate level is all about SomatoEmotional Release – which is really the unique piece of Dr Upledger’s work. We’re quite keen on supporting people through this process because it’s so important.
The prerequisite is Advanced 1. This means that so you will have already been working with CST for a while by the time your ready. The exam involves written essays again, but this time focused on SER. The practical exam tests your fluency with the imagery and dialogue techniques, your ability to use meridians, chakras and vectors as taught in SER1, and your overall competence in facilitating an SER process.
You also need to submit case studies and documentation of your practice hours. It’s thorough. But the people who go through it consistently say how much they learn in the process.
One Diplomate wrote: “It was a very interesting process for me as for each question, I ended up getting side tracked into re-reading all of Dr John’s wonderful books to pick out the relevant details. I learned so much more going over the material again, some of which I hadn’t read in years. His story, the work he put into research, the evolution of the therapy itself all came back to me with renewed excitement for the work.”
So should you do it?
The work and practice required to pass these exams is very thorough. We fully support and encourage anyone willing to go the distance. As we said, these steps aren’t obligatory for most people since the Upledger courses are postgraduate and most people practice under their existing professional qualifications.
But we’re seeing more and more people who want to gain the depth of knowledge, experience and confidence that comes from going through the exam process. And honestly? The profession benefits from having more qualified practitioners who can represent the work well.
If you’re curious about how to get certified in Upledger CranioSacral Therapy, or want to explore which training route is right for you, give us a call or check out the calendar to see when the next CST1 is running. That’s where it all begins.
We’d be delighted to support you on this path.
P.S. Why is it CranioSacral Therapy and not sacrocranial / sacro cranial massage / sacral cranial or other variations?!
Just so you know, CranioSacral Therapy is spelt like that: CranioSacral Therapy. There’s a capital S in the middle to make the CST acronym a bit clearer.
It refers to the head – cranium – and the sacrum – the bone at the bottom of the back. These are key parts of the craniosacral system (I know – that one’s not capitalised… because it’s a system, like the cardiovascular system… sorry!)
You might also see it called maniputaion or massage – with a version of the sacro / sacral and cranio / cranial – but none of these are accurate.
Prior to Dr John Upledger’s first book where he called what he was doing CranioSacral Therapy, those working with this system typically referred to what they did as cranial techniques, working with the craniosacral mechanism or working in the cranial field. So he was the first to use the term and give it a form and function, so to speak.
Other branches of CST (like biodynamic) are also called CST because they work with the same system, although they do so in a different way.
That does get confusing, I agree, because they can feel quite different to receive. That’s why we sometimes call what we do Upledger CranioSacral Therapy. It also incorporates SomatoEmotional Release… but we’ll come back to that another day…
