Visceral Manipulation
Visceral manipulation addresses the interrelationship of function and structure among the internal organs and the musculoskeletal system. When the body experiences stress or strain, deep structures tighten up protectively. Traumatic impact can also affect the organs and surrounding tissue as the force moves through the body.

Pain and mobility problems in one region can persist or worsen because the root cause is actually located elsewhere. For instance, neck problems are often related to pleural tension since the ligaments that suspend and support the lungs attach to the cervical vertebra and upper ribs. The ligaments around the liver can have chronic tension affecting the lungs and so on.

Discover Visceral Manipulation

. The Therapeutic Value of Visceral Manipulation
. How Does Visceral Manipulation Help You?
. What is the Origin of the Visceral System and Its Therapy ?

The Therapeutic Value of Visceral Manipulation
Life and motion are intertwined. Although we can have motion without life, we cannot have life without motion. Of particular importance are those motions, not ordinarily viable, that take place within the human body. They are linked to many levels of activity, from cellular pulsations to rhythmic contractions of the heart, diaphragm, even the craniosacral system.

The visceral system relies on the interconnected synchronicity between the motions of all the organs and structures of the body. At optimal health, this harmonious relationship remains stable despite the body's endless varieties of motion.

But when one organ cannot move in harmony with its viscera due to abnormal tone, adhesions or displacement, it works against the body's other organs and muscular membranous, fascial and osseous structures. This disharmony creates fix fixed, abnormal points of tension that the body is force to move around. And that chronic irritation, in turn, paves the way for disease and dysfunction.
Imagine an adhesion around the lungs. It would create a modified axis that demands abnormal accommodations from nearby body structures.

How Pleural Dome Suspension Affects The Neck*
- * Illustrations © 2004 Jeffrey Burch. All rights reserved. Used with permission from Jeffrey Burch.  For more information on his work, visit www.jeffreyburch.com/

For example, the adhesion could alter rib motion, which could then create imbalanced for forces on the vertebral column and with time, possibly develop a dysfunctional relationship with other structures. This scenario highlights just one of hundreds of possible ramifications of a small dysfunction, magnified by thousands of repetitions each day.

Thanks to the dedicated work of Jean-Pierre Barral, an osteopathic physician and registered physical therapist, healthcare practitioners today can use the rhythmic motions of the visceral system as important therapeutic tools. Barral's research and clinical work with the viscera led to his development of a form of manual therapy that focuses on the internal organs, their environment, and their potential influence on many structural and physiological dysfunctions. The term he coined for this therapy was Visceral Manipulation.
Visceral Manipulation relies on the palpation of normal and abnormal forces within the body. By using specific techniques, therapists can evaluate how abnormal forces interplay, overlap and affect the normal body forces at work. The goal is to help the body's normal forces remove abnormal effects, whatever their sources. Those effects can be global, encompassing many areas of bodily function.

How Does Visceral Manipulation Help You?
Visceral Manipulation is used to locate and solve problems throughout the body. It encourages your own natural mechanisms to improve the functioning of your organs, dissipate the negative effects of stress, and enhance general health and resistance to disease.

Today, a wide variety of healthcare professionals perform Visceral Manipulation. Practitioners include osteopaths, medical doctors, doctors of Oriental medicine, physical therapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists and other bodyworkers.

Visceral Manipulation is based on the specific placement of soft manual forces to encourage the normal mobility, tone and motion of the viscera and their connective tissues. These gentle manipulations can potentially improve the functioning of individual organs, the systems the organs function within, and the structural integrity of the entire body.

Pelvic Organ Support Ligaments*
- * Illustrations © 2004 Jeffrey Burch. All rights reserved. Used with permission from Jeffrey Burch.  For more information on his work, visit www.jeffreyburch.com/

Due to the delicate and often highly reactive nature of the visceral tissues, gentle force precisely directed reaps the greatest results. As with other methods of manipulation that affect the body deeply, Visceral Manipulate on works only to assist the forces already at work. Because of that, trained therapists can be sure of benefiting the body rather than adding further injury or disorganization.

Harmony and health exist when motion is free and excursion is full , when motionis not labored, overexcited, depressed or conflicting with neighboring structures and their mobility. Therapists using Visceral Manipulation assess the dynamic functional actions as well as the somatic structures that perform individual activities. They also evaluate the quality of the somatic structures and their functions in relation to an overall harmonious pattern, with motion serving as the gage for determining quality.

What is the Origin of the Visceral System and Its Therapy ?
Methods such as Visceral Manipulation have been part of the medicinal cultures in Europe and Asia since prerecorded times. Indeed, manual manipulations of the internal organs has long been a component of some therapeutic systems in Oriental medicine. So it's no surprise that practitioners in many parts of the world have incorporated manipulations designed to work with the internal organs and their functions.

Working with Dr. Arnaud, Barral followed patterns of stress in the tissues of cadavers and studied biomechanisms in living subjects. This introduced him to the visceral system and the notion that tissues have memory, which was fundamental to his development of Visceral Manipulation.

In 1974, Barral earned his diploma in osteopathic medicine from the European School of Osteopathy in Maidstone, England. Working primarily with articular and structural manipulation, he began forming the basis for Visceral Manipulation during an unusual session with a patient he's been treating with spinal manipulations.
During the preliminary examination, Barral was surprised to find appreciable movement. The patient confirmed that he felt relief from his back pain after going to an "old man who pushed something in his abdomen."
This incident piqued Barral's interest in the relationship between the viscera and the spine. That's when he began exploring stomach manipulations with several patients, with successful results gradually leading him to develop Visceral Manipulation.

Between 1975 and 1982, Barral taught spinal biomechanics at England's European School of Osteopathy. In collaboration with Dr. Paul Mathiew and Dr. Pierre Mercier, he published d "Articular Vertebrae Diagnosis".
Using his work with Dr. Arnaud as a foundation, Barral continued to investigate how the thickening of tissues in the body creates areas of greater mechanical tension that, in turn, pull on surrounding tissues. That discover y led him to the theoretical and practical development of both general and local visceral listening techniques.
Barral's development of manual thermal diagnosis began in 1971 during another treatment session. While turning a female patient, he felt a strong emanation coming from her mammary gland. He learned she had been operated on for a tumor in that area.
Researching this phenomenon with other patients, he discovered just how accurately areas of stress in the body could be located by palpating the associated heat. Consequent research has added manual thermal diagnosis to man y practitioners' diagnostic tools.
With the help of Dr. Serge Cohen, a Grenoble radiologist, Barral documented changes in the viscera before and after manipulation. They employed x-ray fluoroscopy and ultrasound to record changes in position, motion, and f fluid exchange and evacuation. Later they conducted additional research with a team of electrical engineers and technicians using infrared emissions from the body.
Jean-Pierre Barral began teaching Visceral Manipulation in the United States in 1985 through the Upledger Institute, Inc.

Today he teaches the Institute's Advanced II Visceral Manipulation courses. He has also authored a number of textbooks: Visceral Manipulation, Visceral Manipulation II, Urogenital Manipulation, The Thorax and Tubo-Ovarian M manipulations.
Barral continues to research and develop manual medicine while maintaining a full clinical practice. Thanks to his pioneering work, candidates in several European countries must now pass a rigorous test in Visceral Manipulation to earn a diploma in osteopathy. Frank Lowen Ms.T., a Barral protege since 1985, expanded, refined and restructured the original Visceral Manipulation workshops into a comprehensive training program.
Lowen is now The Upledger Institute's Program Director for all levels of the Visceral Manipulation curriculum in the United States. He is also a Certified Instructor for the Institutes's CranioSacral Therapy I course.

- Discover Visceral Manipulation used with permission from The Upledger Institute, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 1-561-622-4334.  For more information on The Upledger Institute and training seminars offered worldwide, visit www.upledger.com.  For courses in the United Kingdom, visit www.upledger.co.uk.