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ECHOLOCATIONAND THE
RESONANCE OF BONE
KårenElisa Broyles, AOBTA®-CP, Dipl. ABT NCCAOM
When we touch bone in a living person, we are touching living,
responsive tissue. While the bone in our classroom skeleton
may have felt rigid and unyielding, living bone is
flexible and resilient. It's this resilience that supports
bone's piezoelectric properties. It is also this resilience that gives bone its strength. Our
ability to hear is in part due to the flexibility of bone and its
ability to resonate.
Bone is also fluid, containing between five to ten
percent water. This has interesting ramifications for bodywork. When we send a small impulse of movement
through a long bone, it is possible to feel that movement
travel through the bone, encounter an obstruction, and
return. This is a little like water sloshing in a bathtub — there is the initial movement, and there
is the rebound. Sensing this level of movement requires
tuning the palpation to a very fine level, but in our work as
Asian Bodywork Therapists, we tune our palpation to the level
of Ki. So this is a minor adjustment.
The flexibility of bone means also that it can subtly twist, a bit like a branch of living wood.
Because muscles attach to bone, we can change a muscle's tone simply by shifting the position of the bone
to which it is attached.
The fluidity of bone, not to mention the fluidity of the rest of the body, gives us the opportunity to practice a kind of
echolocation as we assess and treat the body, sending out small movement impulses through the body and noting the
speed and trajectory of their return.
TENETS OF OSTEOPATHY
1. UNITY OF FUNCTION2. THE BODY HEALS ITSELF
3. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION ARE RECIPROCAL
4. THE RULE OF THE ARTERY IS SUPREME
Some Basic Principles of Ortho-Bionomy®:
Non-judgmental Presence
Rhythm and Timing
Exaggerate the Pattern
LESS IS MORE
Non-attachment to Results
CONCEPTS:
ACTION EVOKES OPPOSITE AND EQUAL
REACTION.
FOLLOW-ON: RESPONSE AND TIMING
AWAY FROM TENSION, TOWARD EASE
THE THOUGHT IS THE BEGINNING OF THE MOTION.
SOMETIMES THAT IS THE “LESS” OF “LESS IS MORE.”
PAIN AND FORCE CREATE DEFENSIVE
POSTURES
EASE OF MOTION, NOT RANGE OF
MOTION
PREFERRED POSTURE, AWAY
FROM PAIN
FIND NEUTRAL
YOU ARE REMINDING PEOPLE
OF WHAT THEY ALREADY KNOW
(A BASIC TENET OF OSTEOPATHY)
Application
Exercises
Not force, but precision. Like putting English on a billiard shot, it is the light touch, just the right touch, responding to the pattern in front of you.
You can feel a footfall on the other side of the bridge . . .
Gentle traction on the tablecloth can inform us of the location of the objects resting on the cloth . . .
OBSERVE WITHOUT JUDGMENT. IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA OF WHAT IT SHOULD
DO, YOU WILL MISS WHAT IT IS
ACTUALLY DOING.
Recommended Reading:
Arthur Lincoln Pauls, D.O. The Philosophy and History of Ortho-Bionomy®, Revised Second Edition
Luann Overmyer. Ortho-Bionomy®: A Path to Self-Care
Kathy Kain. Ortho-Bionomy®: A Practical Manual
Further Resources:
https://www.ortho-bionomy.org/aws/SOBI/pt/sp/news
https://www.ortho-bionomy.org/aws/SOBI/pt/sp/home_page
BONUS:
Chapman’s Neurolymphatics, Large Intestine Reflex
Charles Owens, D.O., An Endocrine Interpretation of
Chapman’s Reflexes, www.academyofosteopathy.org
