Healing body pain with visceral manipulation

Your entire body is always in motion. Even when you’re sitting still, blood is flowing, food is digesting, lungs are expanding. Even your liver & kidneys, which you might think of as mostly static, move around while performing basic daily functions. When you take a breath, for example, your kidneys move anywhere from 1-4 inches from their resting place!

The human body is a unified network, and all the systems - your blood, organs, muscles, tissue, cells & bones - are in a symbiotic relationship with one another.

You can think of the body like an open highway, where one system connects to another with ease. When the lines of connection are open, you’re able to move through life effortlessly. 

When there’s a traffic jam, however, it can cause quite the back up. And just like a real traffic jam, a little fender bender can cause issues miles & miles away.

This is sort of what happens with visceral tension. Your viscera is connective tissue that wraps around and suspends all the soft internal organs - your lungs, kidney, stomach, liver, etc. When there is tension in the viscera or their surrounding connective tissue (fascia), it can cause a “back up” and block the flow of movement, which can create pain & tension in different areas of the body.

This is where visceral manipulation comes in.

What is visceral manipulation?

Visceral manipulation is a gentle hands on technique used to “clear the traffic jam” around your organs. The goal of visceral manipulation is to release any restrictions in the viscera in order to re-establish a healthy flow of movement between your organs, muscles, tissue & bones.

By re-establishing this flow of movement, your body can restore musculoskeletal, vascular, nervous, urogenital, respiratory, digestive and lymphatic health.

So how does viscera & fascia become restricted in the first place? Well, there are many ways this might happen, such as:

• Physical trauma: broken bone, concussion or sports injury

• Emotional distress: chronic stress, anxiety, PTSD or depression

• Illness: virus & infection can cause inflammation in & around the organs

• Surgery: post-operative scarring

• Digestive issues like constipation, IBS or acid reflux.

How does visceral manipulation work? 

Visceral manipulation was first discovered by Dr. Jean-Pierre Barral after he discovered that the body’s organs have lines of connection that run all throughout the body. When the lines of connection are open, the body can function optimally and move with ease.

On the contrary, when there are restrictions in the viscera or fascia, it affects other regions of the body, like the joints or digestive tract. For example, a restriction around the lower intestines can cause pain in the neck & shoulders, even though these regions aren’t near each other.

That’s because the fascia in the abdomen is anchored to the skeletal system, so tension in the abdominal fascia can block the joints from proper movement. By restoring flow of movement in & around the abdominal organs, you can relieve joint pain & stiffness in other regions of the body.  

Is visceral manipulation right for you?

VM therapy is safe, gentle and effective for almost anyone. Anyone can benefit from VM, but you will especially benefit if you:

• Have stiffness in your joints that you’re unable to relieve

• Have recently recovered from a surgical procedure

• Have recently endured physical trauma like a concussion, sports injury, etc.

• Have digestive issues like constipation or IBS

• Experience chronic pain with no diagnosable reason

To book a Visceral Manipulation session, click the link below or send us an email to see if VM is right for you!