top of page

Somato-emotional and Osteopathy

Somato-emotional techniques are not widely used in the world of osteopathy. J. E. Upledger published a book in 1991 entitled "Somato-emotional release and beyond", but despite his international recognition as an osteopath, this kind of therapeutic approach has not been taught or even discussed during our studies. 

 

However, in my very first osteopathy course, I was taught that this practice was a holistic practice, that is to say, taking into account the entire aspect of the individual in order to choose a treatment and guide the patient on the path to balance and health.

I think that objectively, we can all agree that this approach was not taught in any school.

 

We all learn about anatomy, physiology, techniques to analyze and correct either directly or indirectly musculoskeletal, visceral and cranial dysfunctions.

We also deal with nutrition and psychic diseases, but at no time do we deal with the interaction between an event, a situation, how it is experienced by the patient and how this impacts the patient and plays a role in his or her problems.

The biopsychosocial aspect of any problem encountered in our patients is, in my opinion, essential to a definitive and not temporary release.

What happens during a treatment?

Any treatment, whether it is osteopathic, chiropractic, shiatsu, psychology, or with a medication..., we are only giving information to the system which generally takes part of this information to rebalance itself and release the stressful information (blow, argument, infection...). It is completely illusory to think that the therapist can free a patient and cure all the ills.

We see it well in our offices, some patients with pathologies keep them until the end of their days in spite of the treatments of any type received. But on the other hand, we have all heard of cases of people who have been cured of their cancer for example (spontaneous remission), or of their autoimmune disease. What happened to have such a phenomenal return to balance?

We will discuss this topic further below.

What exactly happens when we have a dysfunction under our hands? Where does it come from?

Let's take the example of L5/S1 low back pain that is frequently encountered in our practices.

Very often the medical profession, the patient and even many of us agree that the pain is due to a spinal hernia of the same floor, often objectified by a scanner.

As a reminder, the innervation pathway of the L5/S1 root does not impact this floor...

So we can rule out hernia, if it is present as a cause; in fact it will be more a consequence of primary tensions.

So if we analyze the areas of restricted mobility, we will of course find L5, probably L4, the sacrum and probably a "pelvic tilt".

If we perform a fascial test and look for a line of tension in the fascia starting from each structure, we will most likely find lines of tension going to the sigmoid region and perhaps the bladder.

If we then perform an inhibition test between the 2 ends of the line, we will always find that the visceral area, even deep and close to the structure, takes precedence over the mechanical dysfunction. This means that the spinal or sacral dysfunction is only adaptive. It is therefore not necessary to treat it/them.

Unfortunately, we rarely avoid treating these structures.

However, it is essential to treat upstream in order to reduce the number of techniques.

If we approach our sigmoid colon, we can again perform a fascial test but even if lines appear, including to other visceral areas, the colon will remain primary.

This means that it is the one that holds all these tensions; and it holds others. Imagine that you make a knot in the middle of a sheet, and the sheet will have folds starting from this knot and going in all directions. Think of each line as an adaptation. If you now visualize this in 3D, you are still multiplying your adaptation tensions for one dysfunction. It then makes sense to treat only that dysfunctional node as all or part of those adaptations.

Yet this is what we do in practice. But if you prevent this node from adapting in its periphery, then how does it react? If the treatment is direct, first the tension is removed and the information received is processed by the brain. If the information recorded on this colon is not deep (emotionally speaking), the patient will be relieved, probably temporarily, and the node will put its adaptations back in place.

If the information is deeper emotionally, the brain will receive a wave of information that cannot be assimilated and it will send this information back into the structure, often maintaining the tension and sometimes aggravating and decompensating other emotional memories. This is what happens when we encounter very blocked vertebrae, often requiring several painful trusts for the patient. 

If we analyze our colon in fascia, in fluid or in motility, it will be disturbed. But here again, a correction will not necessarily be efficient.

Let us now analyze in somato-emotional terms what is going on. A test of the anterior cingulate gyrus, a central prefrontal area, indicates that the sigmoid colon is part of the patient's schema. He is therefore likely to manifest emotional suffering in this area. The test then reveals one or two memories about the colon. Their stimulation in the protocol taught allows an instantaneous reduction of the knot and its adaptations, then a definitive liberation in the month that follows. The decrease in tension allows for vasodilatation resulting in an increase in tissue oxygenation and a drainage of toxins and a decrease in inflammation.

If we do not find anything in the first emotional level on this area, we find on the other hand a tension in connection with deeper memories. These will not be treated because the nervous system will not be able to integrate this information and a negative rebound effect will be experienced by the patient.

Nevertheless, the treatment of active memories, the liberation of the dumerian axis (seminar 2) and the rebalancing of the patient as a whole (seminar 3) will allow a decrease in the activity of this memory and therefore a decrease in the tension and pain which will generally be more progressive.

Here we must understand that it is not because we find a dysfunctional that we can treat the area. Knowing what to treat and when, understanding the interaction between the different emotional memories and their consequences is essential in order to find that which can be integrated by the patient and not touch that which will not be, even if it is part of the patient's pain or disorder. It's a bit like learning simple math before doing physics equations. There is a staggering of treatment just as we will have a staggering of teaching these techniques.

bottom of page