Ortho-Bionomy

My own experience of the power of Ortho-Bionomy®:

I found my way to this work through the profound effect it had on my own body.  I have been dealing with chronic low back pain since my son was born over 20 years ago.   During that time I have had phases where I was not able to stand up and was almost non-functional for several weeks at a time.  I have also had phases of minor pain but would always need to be careful about which activities I was able to do.  Then, about 10 years ago, I received my first session of Ortho-Bionomy.  After that one session, I was pain-free for the first time in years.  It literally felt like a miracle to me.

I have received lots and lots of bodywork of different kinds in my almost 20 years as a bodyworker. I had never before received any work that made that much difference in one session in terms of physical pain.  I did not completely stay pain-free; my pain level still goes up and down.  Since that session, though, it has not even come close to the level of pain I experienced on a regular basis before.  And when my back does flare up a bit, it tends to resolve much, much faster. I know what to do now and can apply Ortho-Bionomy to myself. I also continue to receive sessions and other major physical issues in my body have shifted. Because of the extent of change, I have experienced in myself and the lasting effect of it I have immense trust in this work.

More about how Ortho-Bionomy® works:

The term Ortho-Bionomy can be translated as:” The correct application of the laws of life”.

The originator of Ortho-Bionomy, Arthur Pauls, DO, talked about self-corrective reflexes in the body. That means that the body has an innate ability to heal and correct itself.  Just like our skin knows how to heal a wound and our bones know how to grow back together, our whole body knows how to organize its structure and find balance through the nervous system.

Sometimes, though, the body’s ability to stay in balance is compromised by stress, injuries, accidents, surgeries, improper posture, emotional experience or just overload.  When the body is out of balance it adapts as best as it can, but in the process might develop patterns of stress that add to the imbalance.  Ortho-Bionomy works to re-educate dysfunctional patterns and restore balance and normal functioning.

As an Osteopath, Arthur Pauls understood that the natural range of motion in a joint requires balance in the opposing muscles that move that joint. Muscles on one side of the joint lengthen, while muscles on the other side shorten. Sometimes, after an injury, one muscle group becomes over-shortened and cannot respond to the internal signals from the nervous system trying to achieve balance. Then the opposing muscles remain chronically overstretched and this imbalance becomes a habitual pattern.  Range of motion and comfort is compromised.

Often, in an attempt to avoid pain, the body contracts even further and includes surrounding muscles to prevent movement, so the holding is reinforced. Immobilization may solve the pain problem at the moment, but it also sets up compensatory patterns and holding patterns that become more and more limiting.

Arthur Pauls realized that if you remind the body of what it is doing – if you slightly overstretch the overstretched muscle and slightly shorten the constricted muscle, then the body gets to recognize what it’s doing and the habit of the patterns gets disrupted and often the body will move toward self-correction.

Part of the self-recognition comes from the muscle signals of being stretched and shortened and part comes from the proprioceptors in the nervous system.  Proprioceptive nerves inform the body about its position and regulate positioning and movement.  In this way, Ortho-Bionomy can affect profound change by helping the nervous system re-organize and affect the physical structure of the body.

What does an Ortho-Bionomy® session look like?

You will mostly be lying on a bodywork table, fully clothed, and I use gentle positioning and movement of your body to work with specific symptoms. We might also practice some movements sitting or standing and I might give you exercises to do at home.