Southside Osteopathy
Cranial Osteopathy
Cranial Osteopathy
Cranial Osteopathy is a specialist field which encompasses and extends all the principals of osteopathic medicine. Cranial Osteopathy was originally used to treat the head (hence the name), whereas today it is used to contact and treat all parts of the body. During a cranial treatment, your osteopath uses very gentle touch to encourage your tissues to gently relax and unwind. This in turn, allows your body’s own natural healing ability to flourish. During a treatment, you may experience a sense of deep relaxation, tingling, fluid flow or relief from your pain. You may even have an emotional release. You may experience these changes immediately during treatment or later on after the treatment. On the other hand, you may not notice anything other than the fact that your previous level of pain has diminished some hours or days following your treatment. At Southside Osteopathy we may not always utilise cranial technique during your treatment, however if we do, it is utilised either as a part, or sometimes all, of your osteopathic treatment session, depending on your presenting complaint.
Cranial Osteopathy was discovered by Dr William Garner Sutherland (1873-1954) who was a student of the founder of osteopathy, Dr Andrew Taylor Still. Dr Sutherland, through observation, experiment, research and practice, has shown us that the bony cranium (skull) is capable of respiratory motion or breath. As research and practice of cranial osteopathy has developed over the past 100 years, we now know that this motion is in fact present in all body tissues. Cranial osteopaths are trained to feel this very subtle, rhythmical motion. It is called Involuntary Motion, The Cranial Rhythm or Primary Respiration. The movement is of very small amplitude, therefore it takes practitioners with a very finely developed sense of touch to feel it.
Tension in your body disrupts your cranial rhythm. By palpating this disruption in the rhythm, your osteopath can feel the stresses and strains that your body is under at present, as well as the tensions it may be carrying as a result of its past history. It also gives your osteopath an insight into the overall condition of your body, for example if it is healthy, or stressed and tired. Your osteopath works with your body to rebalance your cranial rhythm so that you body can function, through its inherent self-healing mechanism, at its optimum health and wellness.
While cranial osteopathy can be highly effective at relieving symptoms, it aims to treat the whole person not just the condition, so a very wide range of situations may benefit from treatment. These may include back and neck pain; joint pain and sports injuries; headaches, migraines and sinus problems; stress; recurrent infection; period pain and digestive difficulties. Treatment may also benefit general health and well-being.
Biodynamic Osteopathy
Biodynamic Osteopathy is a technique that also works with the body’s inherent motion. It further develops the principals and practice of Cranial Osteopathy. Developed by world renowned osteopath, Dr James Jealous DO, Biodynamics documents a shift away from a structural/anatomical perception of the body, towards that of a functional perception of health and the expression of nature and the divine within each patient.
Typical osteopathic diagnosis and treatment focuses on fragmented parts. Areas of “lesion” or reduced motion are evaluated. An interpretation of “normal” is made, and the treatment process is directed to bring about that "normal." The practical application of Biodynamic principles gives rise to a very interesting and different treatment process. Instead of focusing upon fragmented parts, we listen to the "whole." We simply sit and listen without imposing our sense of what is “right.” We observe the motion present. No barriers are engaged. Rather than focus on disease, we listen to the Health. The Health guides the treatment. Through our listening, we connect with The Health. We allow you, as the patient to re-establish your relationship to Primary Respiration, to the Whole, and to your Health. In this way, we create the possibility for healing.
Your involvement in your healing process.
It is very important that you are intimately involved in your own healing process. Cranial Osteopathy is a very subtle form of treatment that is guided by therapeutic forces already present within you. During treatment, your practitioner will often appear to do very little; this absence of external intervention places greater emphasis upon your internal therapeutic environment. The contribution that you can make in the therapeutic process is to re-define what you have previously known to be the therapeutic experience: that is, your practitioner taking control and “doing, prescribing or suggesting” something to you. By bringing your awareness back to the intelligence and self-healing potential within, you are significantly increasing your own capacity to self-heal. You become the origin of an increased therapeutic and healing potential, and you become the origin of your own health and happiness.