The Biodynamic Approach to Osteopathy has its roots in the later work of William Garner Sutherland. During the early decades of his research, Sutherland focused primarily on the biomechanical principles of the cranial mechanism. From the 1940s onwards, however, his attention gradually shifted from the mechanics of the cranial mechanism towards the living forces that organise and sustain life. Rather than asking how the body moves, he became increasingly interested in what moves the body.
He described an organising principle that expresses itself through subtle rhythms, motion and vitality—a dynamic expression of Life itself. This understanding later became known as the Biodynamic Approach, a term introduced and further developed by James Jealous, DO.
Within this approach, the emphasis is not only on treatment techniques, but above all on cultivating the practitioner’s perceptual skills. The osteopath learns to recognise the body’s inherent ordering principle and to create the conditions in which the expression of Health can unfold naturally. Treatment becomes less about correcting dysfunction and more about supporting the forces that organise, maintain and restore health.
Starting this year, we are launching a continuing programme in Biodynamic Osteopathy, taught by internationally respected faculty members. The curriculum is organised into consecutive Steps, allowing both newcomers and experienced practitioners to enter the programme at the appropriate level. The Steps have been developed by an international group of teachers dedicated to preserving and carrying forward the teachings of James Jealous.
Step 1
Designed for osteopaths with no previous training in the biodynamic aspects of osteopathy. This course provides a solid foundation and introduces the essential principles, perceptual skills and clinical application of the Biodynamic Approach.
Step 7
Intended for experienced osteopaths who have already completed several biodynamic trainings and wish to deepen their clinical understanding, perceptual abilities and practice.
Further information about the content and objectives of the individual Steps can be found on the PRO website.
This year’s programme will be taught by Elizabeth Caron, an internationally respected teacher of Biodynamic Osteopathy.
The Biodynamic Programme will become a permanent part of our postgraduate educational curriculum. Each year a new course will be offered, with internationally recognised teachers contributing their own experience and perspective. While this year’s programme will be led by Elizabeth Caron, future editions may be presented by Stephen Kisiel or other distinguished teachers from the international biodynamic community.
This annual programme offers osteopaths the opportunity to engage in a continuous learning journey, fostering greater clinical depth, refined perception and professional development while remaining grounded in the core principles of Biodynamic Osteopathy.
We warmly welcome all osteopaths who wish to deepen their palpatory skills, expand their clinical awareness and explore the living dynamics that underlie health, healing and human development.
Step Seven
Principles equivalent to Phase VII
Liquid Light and the Golden Matrix in the Health
Step 7B in the Osteopathic Foundation Series
Elizabeth Caron, D.O.
During our Osteopathic training we learn how to recognize and treat lesions. Phases I thru III explore the interface between different types of motion present, an aspect of the Health, and the lesion. Phase IV thru VI we examine the midline, stillness, and look at embryologic patterns in the healing process. In this course we will explore the principles of the Health as defined in Phase VII in the biodynamic series with further exploration of how the Health relates to our True Selves and how to help identify this in our patients.
The lesions are survival traits; patterning of fractionation from the whole. This fractionization is a separation from the Health. Our training points us to relate to the lesion, the trained survival mechanism; who we are is the Health and our True Selves lay there. A.T. Still said that anyone can recognize disease, the job of an Osteopath is to find the Health. In Phase VII we step into the matrix of the Health, who we are, and move away from relating to the whole via the lesion. It is the letting go of these survival traits that is developed from dysfunction. The creation of dysfunction serves a purpose to preserve the integrity of the whole. At a certain point, one does not need these dysfunctional patterns. The whole is ready to see who it is, the True Self, which is in the Health.
When we relate to these survival traits, or Osteopathic lesions, it actually blocks the relationship with the Tide and therapeutic processes. It muddies our understanding of the whole. The superficial fight and struggle gives way to recognition that there is an underlying organization in the Health, a matrix or blueprint that the therapeutic mechanism is moving towards. This course will explore this motion, the liquid light, and the matrix in the Health, where the sense of motion disappears into beingness; the sense of who we are.
We walk away from the self-betrayal which comes from identifying with who we are as the lesion. This dissociation from the Health is a form of self-betrayal. The healing does not come from a personal insight of one’s self-image but from the Health unveiling one’s own True Self. This unveiling penetrates the physical body, which begins to sense its own nature differently. The sensation of normal shifts towards the true soma, the one suspended in the Health. We shift from “self-image” to the “original image” in the Health.
Suggested prerequisites:
Osteopathic Foundations Steps 1-6, Phases 1-6, BioBasics, Cranial Academy basic cranial course, Sutherland Teaching Foundations basic course or international equivalent.
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