Jean-Pierre Barral, D.O. is the developer Visceral Manipulation as we know it today. He has spent the last 40 years developing, refining and teaching his work and I have been fortunate enough to study with him.
VM is one of the most useful modalities I’ve come across; the work is wholistic taking the whole body into consideration and zooming in on the restriction that your body can no longer compensate for.
In concrete terms, our viscera are attached to our back body wall by fascial tissue or bridges, I use VM to assess and treat restrictions in that fascia. An example might be a client who comes in with right sacral iliac joint pain, the organ that crosses the joint is the cecum. Often the cecum can get a little sticky and will restrict movement of the psoas muscle which can refer pain to the joint. Sometimes we can treat the joint and get some relief but treating the fascial restriction will often bring lasting resolution.
is excellent for the following conditions:
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
- Chronic pain
- Bladder dysfunction
- Constipation, Bloating
- Dysmenorrhea (painful periods)
- Scar adhesions
- Whiplash
- Nausea and Acid Reflux
- Sciatica
- Anxiety
Visceral Manipulation (VM) has been around in many forms for centuries. From the “laying on of hands” on the abdominal area, through abdominal shiatsu to other meridian based therapies to help tone or sedate the organs. We even perform traditional infant massage to help with colic.
Jean-Pierre Barral an Osteopath and Registered Physical Therapist recognized that visceral spasms or fascia restrictions could lead to organ dysfunction and restricted movement of the bony and/or muscular systems. Through time and testing he developed an approach to deal with these restrictions and called it visceral manipulation. He began teaching VM in the US in 1985 and has continued to develop the technique. Currently in Europe 25% of the course work done by an osteopath student is visceral manipulation.