Exams & Qualifications
Two opportunities to showcase your skills and understanding
Upledger courses are postgraduate. This means that most people taking them are already qualified in other disciplines. So there is not a requirement to get qualified to incorporate the techniques into your practice. (Even though it is obviously better to!)
If you are doing our Training from Scratch you will need to do the Techniques Exam as part of the completion of the programme.
If you want to call yourself a CranioSacral Therapist and be seen as qualified, alongside any other modalities, then this is your route.
There is huge value in going through this process and we believe it is also really good for the profession generally. The more qualified practitioner we have, the better we can represent the work.
2 levels of qualification
Assessment and qualification is available in two stages, called Techniques and Diplomate.
Techniques Certification
The Techniques Certification is given after examination on the information presented in CST1 and CST2. This exam consists of 12 written essays, which are completed in your own time. Once marked and successfully passed, you are invited to arrange a practical assessment with one of the Institute’s examiners. In this session you complete a 10-step protocol, during which you are expected to demonstrate:
There is also a 40-question multiple choice test at the start of the practical exam.
Successful completion of these three sections will mean you are Techniques Certified and can use the letters ‘CST-T’ after your name.
Calling yourself qualified in the UK.
Want to put yourself out there as an Upledger trained CranioSacral Therapist? Getting Techniques Certified, successfully completing the 5 classes up to the Advanced CST 1 and maintaining membership of the Cranio Sacral Society, means you can.
However, if you love this work and want to get even better at it and even more recognised for your skills, why stop there…?!
“‘After receiving my essay titles I picked one that seemed straight-forward, got my books out and started typing… 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 made it very clear in my own mind, and I re-remembered things I had learned seven years previously on my first CST course.’”
Alison Williamson CST-T
Diplomate Certification
The second exam is the Diplomate Certification, which tests your understanding and practical application of the SER approach. This really is the unique piece of Dr Upledger’s work, so we are very keen to support people through this process as it’s so important!
The prerequisite is Advanced 1.
It requires written essays as well as a practical exam, just like the Techniques, this time focused on fluency and competence in the imagery and dialogue techniques of the SER approach. You’ll also show you can use meridians, chakras and vectors as learned in SER1.
In addition, you need to:
The work and practice required to pass these exams is very thorough, and we fully support and encourage anyone willing to go the distance. As we said, these steps are not obligatory for most as the Upledger courses are postgraduate, therefore most people practice under the guidelines and insurance of their core therapies.
However, we love that more and more that people wish to gain the depth of knowledge, experience and confidence that comes from going through the exam process. Call us to apply!
It was a very interesting process for me as for each question, I found 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.’
Caro O’Neill, CST-D MCSS
