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The Benefits
of Visceral Manipulation
by Mike Macy
It's
almost as if all the restriction ever
wanted was a little acknowledgement. |
The client had been in excruciating pain for five years. Neck,
shoulders, and head were seemingly one solid unit. Her jaw was nearly
locked. Headaches were almost incessant. Sleep was elusive. Drugs,
counseling, and massage provided minimal relief. After the first
treatment, she was almost pain free. During the third, her entire body
softened and various other symptoms departed.
Client stories like this are common in the healing professions.
That's why we're here. Often, all that's required is a willingness to
listen or the right words at the right time. But sometimes empathy and
crying aren't enough. Sometimes, there's a mechanical restriction that
won't let go until a therapist releases it.
The techniques used in this case come from Visceral Manipulation,
which seeks to free up restrictions within, or operating upon viscera,
or internal organs, including the heart, lungs, eyes, brains, ducts,
joints, bones, blood vessels, and nervous systems. The manipulation is
extremely gentle. Most of the releases are indirect. In other words, we
allow the elastic tendency of connective tissue to pull us into the
restriction and line up the restriction, whereupon it typically
releases. It's almost as if all the restriction ever wanted was a little
acknowledgement.
It is generally accepted that the body will sacrifice less critical
systems to preserve more vital systems. That's how people end up with
frostbite in extremely cold weather: the body reduces circulation to the
extremities in order to maintain satisfactory operating temperatures for
the heart and brain.
When considered in a hierarchical sense of increasingly critical
systems, many of the most stubborn symptoms start making more sense.
Take the whiplash victim who--despite regular chiropractic and
massage--complains of chronic headaches, tension, and spinal problems.
In all likelihood, the mechanical trauma of the original injury has
affected systems more critical than the spine and soft tissue. Although
the symptoms clamor for treatment, the body may in fact be working
exactly as intended: the seemingly problematic skeletal and connective
tissues have been mobilized (or immobilized) in defense of the
all-important circulatory, nervous, and respiratory systems.
Visceral Manipulation was developed by Jean Pierre Barral. As a
physical therapist, Barral noticed that the effects of tuberculosis
weren't limited to the lungs and diaphragm, but extended to all the
abdominal organs. That led Barral to investigate stories about hands-on
folk healers. Barral readily acknowledges that there is little new to
his techniques, that hands-on manipulation goes back tens of thousands
of years.
After some 55,000 treatments, Barral is convinced that all
restrictions are pathological, impairing organ function and organism
vitality. Now an osteopath, Dr. Barral has made a number of
"discoveries" and validated most of them with advanced imaging
techniques. For example, he has found that in addition to needing to be
able to move freely relative to neighboring structures, each organ has
an active, inherent motion, called motility, around its own internal
axis. On a healthy, relatively-unrestricted liver, for example,
motilities are on the order of 2 to 3 centimeters, with the liver moving
up, back, and out and then in down and forward, with 6 to 8 cycles per
minute. Motilities are readily palpable. Asymmetries can be used to
locate restrictions, and, generally, if you can pinpoint a restriction,
you can release it.
In the initial case mentioned above, the breakthrough came with my
client on her back, her occiput resting in my palms. Gentle traction
felt like a tug-of-war I would never win. Upon abandoning the traction,
we perceived and followed a pull down into her dural tube. Somewhere
around the tenth thoracic vertebrae (T-10), the pull moved anterior and
then inferior along the plane of an abdominal incision. Upon reaching a
transverse hysterectomy scar, the pull followed laterally to an
appendectomy scar, where it stopped. After lining up the tensions, we
both felt the adhesions release and the simultaneous head and neck
softening. Two-months later, my client remains free of pain. Barring new
trauma, and with the occasional tune-up, she should remain that way.
Visceral work is so good for removing or reducing the effects of
infection, mechanical trauma, and restoring the ability to compensate
that osteopathic schools in Europe now require six months of visceral
manipulation training. Visceral work is available from some osteopaths
and an increasing number of Rolfers and Physical Therapists who are
attracted by its gentleness, speed, and effectiveness.
Aside from optimizing metabolic function, freeing internal organs
also provides new receivers for data about one's surroundings. We can
feel our viscera reacting to situations, and we can have more confidence
in our gut instincts. Our mind is increasingly in our body, where it
belongs. When we have room to move, we can give the best we've got.
Mike Macy is an acupressure and CranioSacral therapist who
specializes in Visceral Manipulation in Anchorage.
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It's
a Dance Hall Inside!
The Secrets
of Visceral Manipulation
by Jocelyn Paine
To the
right, well-trained hands
we are see-through after all! |
Until I took a class in visceral manipulation, I didn't know that
we have a dance party going on inside of us. Really! Inside our
torsos, from collarbone to pelvis, everything is moving all the time.
Our stomach is doing a hot cha, cha, cha -- and not just after wešve
eaten. As for the heaving and pumping of the heart and lungs, we all
know that without their movement we'd be past tense. The liver gets
thumped by the diaphragm and wiggles a bit with each breath. And the
intestines -- they get the prize just for size! All these organs are
moving constantly, even while we sleep.
The first time I felt a stomach in a visceral manipulation class
(it sort of rolls, squeezes and flicks its tail, which is called the
pylorus), my eyes got big. I called over my teacher, Alain Gehin, who
is French, and said breathlessly, "Alain, is the stomach actually
doing this?" I traced a pattern in the air and then blushed as I
realized how suggestive it looked. "Ah!" he said in his
divine accent. "So you have discovered it!" Then I swear he
winked.
The Basic Moves
It turns out that our organs have three separate movements. These
movements are called motility (movement inherent within), mobility
(movement they are designed to do), and motricity (movement
between organs). Take the stomach. Motility is the roll, squeeze and
flick that I had felt. It does that all the time, though the movement
is markedly more subtle when we haven't eaten in a while. When we eat,
the stomach moves into high gear. Mobility occurs as the stomach
receives food, moves it through the system and adds acids to the mix
to aid in digestion. When we take a deep breath and our diaphragm
moves downward to help the lungs take in the air, it presses on the
top of the stomach. The stomach reacts by 'cringing' a little and
that's motricity.
The entire inside of the torso is called the viscera, and
the organs within are the visceral organs. These organs perform
very important functions: the heart pumps blood; the lungs breathe;
and the intestines digest. They regulate all other systems of the
body. The digestive pathology alone represents 70% of the functional
diseases from which we suffer. Most of those problems stem from the
lack of proper movement in some part of the digestive system. When we
say, "we are what we eat," we also refer to the fact that
the health of a human being is reflected by the health of his or her
greater intestine.
In approximately 70 years of life, each of us will process about 12
tons of food. This used to be simple food. Up until about 150 years
ago, people had simple diets because everything they ate they made
themselves. Imagine -- no pickles without a week in the summer of
putting up pickles. No applesauce without 24 hours of cooking down the
apples. No biscuits in the morning without getting out the flour,
eggs, shortening and mixing a batch. No preservatives except natural
ones -- salt, drying, honey. Nowadays, it is much different. Food
comes from the grocery store and is likely to have many additives. In
fact, hundreds of chemicals are used in preserving food for the longer
storage and shipping schedules. In 1999, the food industry placed 198
additives on the list -- without testing them!
No wonder we have occasional problems, sometimes severe ones, such
as acid reflux, ulcers, diverticulitis, gastritis, hiatal hernias! No
wonder our livers, which filter contaminates out of our systems, are
overworked! And no wonder gallbladders are overloaded from excess fat
in our diets! Food should be our friend, not our enemy.
Tuning Into Rhythm
Visceral manipulation can help recover some of our natural
function. Visceral techniques won't perform knife-less surgery, but
when an organ is freed from adhesions and proper mobility is restored,
we have a better chance at health. The rhythms of the body are
interconnected. The heart, respiration and cranial rhythms interact
due to long lines of fascia throughout the torso, from the back of the
head down to the tailbone and floor of the torso, attaching to each
vertebrae of the spine along the way. Fascia is the thin, almost
translucent tissue that protects and coats the muscles and organs and
allows them to slide over each other. When damaged by injury or
disease, fascia 'sticks' the muscles and organs to each other. Then,
the muscles, organs or ligaments can't perform their intended
function.
Most people are not aware if they have minor lesions, though an
individual with an ulcer, hiatal hernia or acid reflux, is very aware
of it. All of these conditions can be helped by visceral manipulation.
Visceral manipulation is not only good for obvious applications,
such as dealing with the organs themselves, but is also important when
dealing with back and neck problems. Our posture is affected by how
the visceral membranes are balanced. These membranes attach all the
way down the inside of the spine. The visceral membranes can have a
posterior (rear) or an anterior (front) balance. In an extreme
example, a person with posterior balance has postural rigidity, a
stubborn character and muscular inflexibility. A person with extreme
anterior balance might be overly flexible, without a lot of energy, a
'go with the flow' personality. Releasing the fascia and creating a
better state of balance can help with back problems resulting from
misplaced tensions.
In the neck, fascial connections can affect the larynx and throat.
There are several bands of muscle that run from the front of the
throat to attachments in the back of the head and down the shoulder
blades. Releasing fascial tensions in the throat relaxes those muscles
too. Performers who use their voice or breath, such as singers or wind
instrument players, benefit greatly from visceral manipulation on the
throat, neck and diaphragm.
The Secret Dance
The mid-section of the body is a wonderful 'chest' that holds many
secrets in its drawers. For instance, only recently has the mystery of
the appendix been solved. It is now felt that the trace enzyme
secreted by the appendix once aided in the digestion of raw meat, a
talent we no longer need. And then there is the tiny cecum, just below
the appendix. That small bump on the intestine is a major source of
the embarrassing gassy by-products of digestion. Amazingly, all of
these organs and their functions can be felt right through the flesh
and skin! To the right, well-trained hands we are see-through after
all!
So, the next time you feel a little down in spirits, just tune in
to the cheerful rhythms of your internal visceral dance. Let's party!
Jocelyn Paine practices cranial/sacral therapy, relieves
back and neck pain, and tries to go ballroom dancing at least three
times a week in Anchorage.
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