Beryl Arbuckle’s Cranial Approach
Beryl Arbuckle DO learned cranial work from William Garner Sutherland in 1942. At the time, you would go to his house/office for a week, for $75. If you wanted to stay longer you could. Dr. Sutherland taught what he did in clinical practice, only some years later changing the approach for teaching purposes. One of the things that seems to not have survived in the teaching approach was the idea of “locked” sutures.
Dr. Sutherland had been a newspaper man before going to Osteopathic training. He chose his words carefully. He talked about “membranous articular strains” in the head as lesions, meaning that they did not move as fully as they should. If a suture was really stuck to the point of little to no motion possible, it was called “locked”. When treating the skull locked lesions needed to be treated first, to get the overall motion improved, then the sphenobasilar symphasis, and then any other lesions that were left. This approach is much faster and result in a better moving head, than trying to treat all lesions, or using inhearnt forces only and leaving the lesions. Some of the most commonly locked areas are the occitomastoid, sphenosquamous, parietaloccipital, condyloatlantal, greater wing of sphenoid, and lesser wing of the sphenoid.
Beryl Arbuckle was a pediatrician, working in a University hospital. At the time it was common to perform autopsies to find out why a person had passed away. Dr. Arbuckle performed and assisted in over 200 autopsies on pediatric neurological cases. What she saw was that the endocranial and spinal dura had lines of collagen fibers linearly arranged, with about 20 patterns being common. She found a study by Holland, on 176 fresh fetuses, with 81 tentorium tears, that described many of the same fibers as she saw. The study proposed that many of the deaths were caused by hemmorages, and the tearing of the membranes during difficult and forcepts deliveries. These “ stress fibers’” have been illustrated in anatomy books in France, England, and Germany over the last 150 years. Erich Blechschmidt in Germany found over half of the same fibers.
Dr. Arbuckle started using the “stress fibers” like “guy- wires” to pull the bones into proper position and free up their movement. According to her students, she was able to widen the hard palate in Downs syndrome children enough to make room for their tongue, from the back of the head. She would feel all of the endocranial dura at one time, and treat the whole head this way. She had multiple treatment tables and rarely spent more than 5 minutes on the head.
Dr. Robert Fulford starting studying with Dr. Sutherland in 1946. He realized that he was unable to produce the same results as Sutherland, clinically. When he looked at the other teachers of cranial, Dr. Arbuckle seemed to reproduce the clinical results of Sutherland the best, so he went and studied with her. He did multiple dissections and found that sometimes the stress fibers were so strong, they broke the scalpel rather than getting cut.
Dr. Fulford described the process as:” I place my hands on the head, feel the membranes wind up, then bust loose, sometimes it is so strong, it knocks my hands off the head” After this unlocking, you can treat the one thing that is left. Another approach he used was the Percussion hammer to free up the upper cervical spine, the sphenobasilar symphasis, the hard palate, and the parietals.
Dr. Kenneth Lossing started studying with Dr. Fulford in 1991, and studied with him every chance that was available over the next 6 years, including having Dr. Fulford “unlock” his head.
After some years, he was able to understand, and apply this process.
Topics covered are: History, early diagnostic sequence, the unlocking the cervical cranial junction, unlocking the cranial base ( change to unlocking the sphenoid), unlocking the endocranial dura, sacrum simplified, SBS patterns, buttresses, sutures, embryology, stress bands, and Chapman’s points.
Day 1
09.00-10:30 Lecture/lab History, Early diagnostic sequence
10:30-11 small group discussion
11-1 Lecture/lab: unlocking the cervical/ cranial junction
1-2 Lunch
2-3:30 Lecture/lab: unlocking the cranial base ( change to unlocking the sphenoid)
3:30-4 small group discussion
4-6 Lecture/lab: unlocking the membranes, Head check and adjourn
Day 2
9-10:30 Lecture/lab: unlocking the sacrum and spinal dura
10:30-11 small group discussion
11-1 Lecture/lab: Stress bands
1-2 Lunch
2-3:30 Lecture/lab: stress bands
3:30-4 small group discussion
4-6 Lecture/lab: Buttresses , head check and adjourn
Day 3
9-10:30 Lecture/lab: stress bands
10:30-11 small group discussion
11-1 Lecture/lab: stress bands
1-3 Lecture/lab: Pulling together stress bands, buttresses, SBS patterns, spinal dura, and sutures
Apparaat
Google
Outlook (online)