Biodynamic osteopathy

Biodynamic osteopathy is based on the philosophy and practice of three great osteopathic teachers. The first is Andrew Taylor Still (1828–1917), who founded osteopathy in 1874. Still sought to find “Health” in his patients, which he said was always present, however ill they might be. This idea was a central part of Still’s way of treating.

The second teacher is William Garner Sutherland (1873–1954), who developed cranial osteopathy. Sutherland was Still’s student and took on his way of thinking and treating. As a student in 1899, Sutherland began to develop his cranial theory while looking at a disarticulated temporal bone, whose edges reminded him of a fish’s gills, as if part of a breathing mechanism. Sutherland’s early work was based on osteopathy’s biomechanical model, but over time his understanding of osteopathy developed far more widely.

Late in his career Sutherland described “primary respiration” at work in the body, which he saw as arising from the influence of external forces. He observed that patients’ bodies moved rhythmically and subtly under an external, ever-present force he called the “breath of life”. Sutherland described his patients as part of a sea, in which waves move rhythmically through the water, and a deeper tide moves through both the water and the waves. He compared the breath of life to a lighthouse’s cyclic, sweeping beam, which lights the sea but does not touch it. The breath of life sweeps through the patient, gives rise to primary respiration, and activates healing forces already present in the patient. In his last years Sutherland stopped all mechanical motion testing and used no force in treatment. He said: “Do not treat with techniques, but with a gentle touch.”

The third teacher is James S. Jealous (1943–), who developed biodynamic osteopathy. This model of osteopathy has stirred both great interest and controversy within the profession. For decades Jealous has gathered accounts from Sutherland’s students and continues to study Sutherland’s writings. The biodynamic model of osteopathy aims to continue from where Sutherland left off in the last phase of his life.

Jealous took the term “biodynamics” from the writings of the German embryologist Erich Blechschmidt. Blechschmidt stated that the movement of fluid in the embryo creates its form and structure. Jealous concluded that Blechschmidt may have observed the organising force of primary respiration. Blechschmidt emphasised that genes do not act independently; they respond to external forces. Genes can be compared to clay from which a pot is shaped. Clay cannot take form on its own; it needs the artist’s hands. And the artist’s hands cannot work without the artist’s mind. From a biodynamic view, the clay represents the genes, the hands represent the movements of fluid, and the artist’s mind represents the breath of life. In Jealous’s work the idea stands out that the embryo, as an archetype of perfect form, is the model for the body’s self-healing. The forces that organise embryonic development are present throughout our lives, ready to express their therapeutic power. In other words, the forces that guide embryonic development become healing forces after birth.

Osteopathy typically focuses on physical forces and mechanical interactions inside the human body. Within the profession, however, there have been individuals who paid attention to activity beyond the skin’s boundary. Robert Fulford spoke of the space surrounding the patient’s body and focused on disturbance in that field. Rollin Becker often attended to how the treatment room itself organised during the treatment process. In order to interact with the forces that organise the living organism, osteopaths practising biodynamic treatment do not look only at the patient’s body; they also shift their attention to the space around the person being treated; to the whole room in which treatment takes place; and even as far as the horizon.

Applying biodynamic principles gives rise to a unique treatment process that focuses on the whole rather than on isolated parts. The practitioner listens to the whole and aims to reach a meditative “neutral” state of mind, in which the tissues and fluids of the person being treated feel as if they merge into one whole. This phenomenon has been named the “fluid body”. Jealous notes that when the person being treated themselves reach a neutral state, the central nervous system settles and they often fall asleep. The central nervous system steps aside, and the whole person — all fluids and tissues — merge into the fluid body. The motion sensed in the fluid body is purely metabolic, responding freely to the presence of the natural world and the breath of life. The neutral state of mind, and the experience of the body’s fluidity it gives rise to, is at the centre of biodynamic osteopathy; it cannot be conceptualised, only experienced. Here the meaning of “holism” changes from a philosophical concept into a real experience.

Jealous recognised that the practitioner’s awareness has a central role in the depth of therapeutic change that occurs in the patient. He observed that his therapeutic results improved the more he could let go of conscious reasoning. By listening deeply, the practitioner makes contact with “Health”, helping the patient restore their connection with the healing forces that originally guided their embryonic development.