Ortho-Bionomy and Exploration of Movement for Massage Therapists

Adding new techniques to your massage therapy tool belt is important as a professional. There are many existing techniques for massage therapists to learn and new ones are being developed every day. As a result, therapists should never run out of ways to improve their skill and understanding.

One technique that can be valuable to learn for massage therapists is Ortho-Bionomy.

What is Ortho-Bionomy?

This technique was developed by an osteopath, Dr. Arthur Lincoln Pauls. Osteopathy is a branch of medical practice that emphasizes treatment of medical disorders through the manipulation and massage of the bones, joints, and muscles. He developed it as a way to help the body find balance and heal itself. The theory behind the technique is that by moving the body in certain ways, you can trigger the natural healing abilities of the body. You can also discover areas of the body that are not functioning or moving properly.

How Ortho-Bionomy is Useful in Massage

Massage therapists can use this technique in a variety of different ways. Here are a few of them:

• Find tension: By utilizing Ortho-Bionomy techniques, areas or muscle groups that are holding tension or stress can be discovered. When these areas are found, you can use more movements or other massage techniques to help loosen those muscles. These techniques can be used throughout the massage to help find and loosen tension.
• Stimulate self-healing: As mentioned before, one of the main goals of the Ortho-Bionomy is to stimulate the body’s capacity to balance and heal itself. Incorporating this technique into your massage sessions for clients who would benefit can help make their experience that much more beneficial and individualized.
• Reverse trauma: Repetitive motion, abrasive motion, strong impacts, or other types of trauma can cause the body to tighten and strain itself. Using Ortho-Bionomy can help reverse these types of negative effects and restore the body to a state of comfort.

These are a couple examples, but Ortho-Bionomy can be used to achieve a number of outcomes.

How it Works

The therapist and client will explore movements and postural positions to find what causes irritation. When these movements and positions are found, the therapist will help the client with Ortho-Bionomy movements that will target the areas of discomfort and irritation.

Desired Outcome

As with all massage techniques, Ortho-Bionomy has a set of goals that it can be used to achieve. Some of these include increasing flexibility, circulation, range of motion, and reducing muscle tension. It can also be used to help mitigate emotional and mental stress. These are all things that massage can help with and Ortho-Bionomy can be another tool for therapists to use to this end.

Improvement and Growth

During your time in massage therapy school, you can learn about many foundational techniques and modalities. All of the techniques that are most important and used most frequently are the ones that you will most likely learn during your time in school. To set yourself apart as a great massage therapist, you will need to build upon these foundational techniques with things like Ortho-Bionomy.

So where do you learn additional techniques like these?

One way is to find continuing education workshops like the ones at San Francisco School of Massage & Bodywork. Continuing education is one of the best ways for massage therapists to expand their skill set. The more you involve yourself in learning and becoming better as a therapist, the more individualized experiences you will be able to provide for your clients. Not only can this lead to a more satisfied clientele but more opportunities within the massage industry.

Getting Involved

At San Francisco School of Massage & Bodywork, we consistently have continuing education workshops that you can take advantage of. These workshops are scheduled throughout the month on different topics and are taught by highly qualified instructors. Ortho-Bionomy, Exploration of Movement is an example of the one of the topics. Other topics include cranial-sacral therapy, trigger point release, deep tissue massage and many more.You can also learn many of these skills and techniques in our 600 hour massage therapist program.

Register for the workshop that you think will complement your skills as a massage therapist best or get started on your massage therapy education today!