| Patients often understand the unique benefits of cranial
osteopathy through personal experience (as if they are remembering
a long forgotten truth about themselves), yet they may still
have difficulty rationalising how significant changes are
possible with such gentle and minimal intervention. The depths
of osteopathy can be explained by the body’s role in
the healing process. Where possible the osteopath will allow
the body’s own healing mechanisms to create the complex
changes necessary to achieve health.
 Osteopathy
in the Cranial Field (OCF) was originally used to treat the
head (hence the name), whereas today it is used to contact
and treat all parts of the body. OCF was discovered by Dr.
William Garner Sutherland a student of Dr. A.T.Still (The
founder of osteopathy).
In 1899 Dr Sutherland observed a mounted disarticulated skull
(a skull where all the individual bones have been separated
and suspended in anatomical orientation) and noted that the
joints of the temporal bones were bevelled like the gills
of a fish.
 Given
his knowledge of osteopathy, he knew that all ‘structure
of the body must have a related function (and visa versa)’.
It was his assertion that the bones of the skull must have
formed to accomodate some type of breathing or movement: without
movement, such articulating joints of the skull would not
exist: the skull would become solid bone. It is reported that
he approached Dr Still with this observation: Dr Still's reply
was that the articulations of the skull were intended to accomodate
for fluid fluctuations within the cranium. As research and
practice in the cranial field of osteopathy has developed
over the past 100 years, a great deal of knowledge has accumulated
about such tidal forces.
Dr Sutherland spent 30 years researching the mechanical properties
of all the joints and individual bones of the skull (attempting
to disprove the theory that the bones had developed to accommodate
such movement): often experimenting upon himself by forcefully
restricting the movement of various bones and their articulations,
so as to observe the (often unpleasant) results. In 1929 he
began to teach the osteopathic profession those perceptual
skills required to observe and treat the mechanical effects
of trauma to the head (and body) using OCF. Cranial osteopathy
involves harnessing the internal forces generated by the body’s
‘self-healing and self-regulating mechanisms’.
Often people hold onto things longer than they have to. In
the case of trauma, this can amount to an entire life-time.
Changes associated with accumulated trauma create an accelerated
process of aging. We begin to experience a decline in the
functions of biomechanics, fluid drainage, nutrient and oxygen
supply, breathing, digestion, elimination, reproduction, rest
and repair, immunity and cognition. Eventually we can succumb
to the experiences of pain and disease.
In time, we adapt to reduced function. Our experiences of
youthful vibrant health become long forgotten memories of
the past. Osteopathy in the Cranial Field assists in the process
of remembering.
It is in moments of stillness when the mind is quiet and
suspended, that we are filled with inspiration. This is the
experience of Biodynamic Osteopathy. Biodynamic Osteopathy
is a name coined by Dr James Jealous DO, an American osteopath
that continues Dr Sutherland's (and other notable osteopath's)
developing work in the cranial field. Biodynamics documents
a shift away from a structual/anatomical perception of the
body, towards that of a functional perception of health and
the expression of nature and the divine within each patient.
“Be Still and Know”
~ Dr. William Garner Sutherland DO
From within stillness, a person’s vibrant
health and potential emerges.
“It is the objective
of the doctor to find health,
anyone can find disease.”
~ Dr. AT Still
An individual has self healing mechanisms which are able
to resolve the effects of past trauma, and so naturally restore
integrated and harmonious balance to the whole self.
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