What Is Visceral Manipulation?

Visceral Manipulation (VM) is a light, gentle, specifically placed touch that encourages the normal movement of organs, their connective tissue and other areas of the body where motion has been impaired.  VM is a whole body treatment approach that comparative studies have found this type of treatment beneficial for various disorders such as:  Whiplash, Seat-belt Injuries. Sports Injuries, Concussions, Bloating & Constipation, Nausea & Acid Reflux, GERD,  Anxiety & Depression, PTSD, Bladder Incontinence, Headaches & Migraines, Carpal Tunnel, Sciatica, Neck Pain and Scar Tissue.  It assists functional and structural imbalances throughout the body including musculoskeletal, vascular, nervous (including the autonomic nervous system), urogenital, respiratory, digestive, and lymphatic dysfunctions.

The purpose of VM is to recreate, to harmonize, to re-establish communication between outside and inside stimuli of the body creating movement to improve the body’s functioning to obtain better health.

Movement is the key to life.  An organ in good health has physiological motion associated with it.  All our internal structures are meant to slip and slide against one another.  If our organs, nerves, blood vessels, ligaments and related connective tissue are stuck and lack movement the results are body movement restrictions, pain and bad health.  If a liver, kidney or pancreas can’t move it can’t do its job.  It’s like a pond developed from a spring – as long as the spring moves the water in the pond it and its surrounding banks remain full of life.  If the pond no longer has the spring to move the water, the pond  becomes stagnant and the pond and its banks become lifeless over time.  And so it is the same with the physiological body.  The body and all its components must move to have health and life.

The VM practitioner uses their highly calibrated hands to “listen” to the story the tissues have to tell.  They find the starting point of the body’s greatest tension, in that moment, and with their hand – like a blind person uses their hands to discern details – finds subsequent areas of tension and lack of movement that is contributing to the body’s dysfunction.  If there is not movement in the body there is an increased potential of disease and illness.