Visceral Manipulation
Visceral Manipulation / Organ Mobilization
Visceral Manipulation is a gentle and specific manual therapy encouraging normal mobility of the organs and their connective tissue. The therapist is trained to move and release restrictions (using the hands on your abdomen) on specific organs in a gentle and painless way.
All of our organs should be able to move freely. When they can slip and slide on each other, they are able to function at their best. Any time we get inflammation in any organ, as it’s going through the healing phase it will adhere to tissues around it and put the organ in a rigid state, which affects how the organ functions. It will also affect blood flow, lymphatic drainage, and nerve conduction of that organ, as well as the spine, rib cage, neck and shoulders, and low back. For example, frozen shoulder can relate to a nerve irritation stemming from the lungs, chronically cold feet can be related to your small intestine, left sciatica or SI pain can be your sigmoid colon, right medial knee pain and instability can be related to your large intestine, right shoulder pain can be a restriction in your liver, heart burn and reflux can mean your stomach is sitting too high, and left-sided neck pain could be related to the gallbladder due to the phrenic nerve that runs through it. Visceral manipulation of the inflamed organ can reduce and even eliminate the seemingly unrelated pain and/or digestive issues listed above as well as bring the organ back to fully functional. This really shows how everything in our body is truly connected.
How do our organs get inflamed?
Our organs can become inflamed from surgery, injuries, whip lash, chronic infections, direct trauma, environmental toxins, heavy metals, emotional stress, diet, and repetitive movement. The interesting thing is that we do not have pain receptors in our actual organs. We feel pain in other areas where nerves and connective tissues relate directly or indirectly to that organ.
Throughout my 18 years as a licensed massage therapist, I have become frustrated seeing chronic pain areas that appear and feel like they should be able to be healed through massage, chiropractic and stretching exercises, only to be discouraged that the problem keeps reappearing. Visceral Manipulation is the missing link that I have been searching for! I look forward to checking your organs for restrictions and finding out if we can help some of your chronic pain go away for good, as well as bring your organs into balance so you can enjoy more vitality in your everyday life.
You can book a 30 minute Visceral Manipulation session, or add it on to your regular massage session. If you still aren’t sure about it, when you come in for your regular massage, we can discuss VM in your intake and see if it’s something you would like me to spend some of your session time on. Feel free to call me with any questions about Visceral Manipulation. Check this out to learn more about Visceral Manipulation and how it works: https://www.barralinstitute.com/docs/articles/vm-new-frontier.pdf
If you do plan for me to check your organs for restrictions, do your best to NOT EAT for 2 hours before your session. This therapy is done best on an empty stomach!
Pelvic Organs: Visceral Manipulation
All treatments are performed externally by placing my palm on the lower abdomen, sacrum, or adductors of the thighs in a professional and precise way, in order to release adhesions of the ligaments supporting these organs, helping them to function at their best. In my 18 years of massage practice, I have had many female clients struggling with issues such as severe menstrual cramping, pelvic pain, scar tissue from C-sections, and infertility. I’ve always wanted to find a way to help them. When I discovered Barral’s approach to Visceral Manipulation (Organ Mobilization) just over a year ago, I had finally found what I was looking for. Jean-Pierre Barral, French Osteopathic Physician who is the one of the founders of Visceral Manipulation, has spent the last 40 years treating patients using specific treatment protocols, documenting and researching through imaging scans and fluroscopy, and helped hundreds of thousands of people to better health who turned to him after years of conventional medicine letting them down.
Listed below are the Pelvic Organs and the dis-eases associated with them that Visceral Manipulation can help to resolve or reduce symptoms of:
BLADDER: Visceral Manipulation has a great record for helping cases of Bladder incontinence; as well as those who think of themselves as having a “small bladder,” a.k.a. having to urinate only 20-30 minutes after emptying their bladder, interupting sleep waking up to pee throughout the night, or can’t get through a movie without having to pause it and use the restroom again.
UTERUS and OVARIES and FALLOPIAN TUBES:
Women with heavy periods, irregular cycles, fibroids, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, painful menstrual cramps, constipation, pelvic heaviness, abdominal swelling, slight knee pain, edema of the connective tissues and C-section scar tissue tension can get amazing relief with Visceral Manipulation. Also, fertility issues (depending on the cause) can sometimes be helped with this hands-on technique. Not in every case, but it doesn’t hurt to try it! Much less expensive than IVF.
*VM should NEVER be received during Pregnancy or on any woman who has an IUD.
MEN’S HEALTH:
Can help ease symptoms of Chronic Prostatitis by reducing the fibrosity in the tissues around the urethra and restore prostate to it’s normal condition.
*VM should NEVER be received during Acute Prostatitis (signs of pain, redness, sensitivity, and fever).
PAIN IN OTHER AREAS THAT MAY BE CAUSED BY THE PELVIC ORGANS:
Low back pain~ Premenstrual due to uterus pressure on uterosacral ligament needing to be released and stretched
Inflamed Femoral nerve leg and knee pain/ Sciatica ~ Ovarian area may be congested and fibrosed
If you are still reading, you may be starting to feel your modesty get the best of you. This discomfort with receiving care for the organs of the pelvis needs to be addressed in order for you to get the care you need to help heal your body. Jean-Pierre Barral, D.O. Osteopathic Physician, says it best in his book, “Urogenital Manipulation” so I will quote from Barral, the greatest expert in this field for whom this has been his life’s work. “We view the human body as an organic, functional entity. We were puzzled by the fact that the urogenital system often seems to be viewed differently from other body systems (i.e. largely ignored) by medical professionals and patients alike. One obvious reason for this is culturally programmed ‘modesty.’ The early anatomical texts were written by monks. How did they refer to the urogenital system? As the pudendalis system, i.e., the system to be ashamed of! This stigma remained even as medicine became secularized. Many physicians assumed the role of defenders of morality, and their attitude toward parts of the body having sexual or excretory functions was shaped by prevailing social taboos and inhibitions as much as my practical medical considerations.
The true beneficiaries of these techniques are the women who take advantage of them to feel better and, in some cases, avoid surgery. To us, it makes no sense for a practitioner of manual medicine to deliberately avoid the urogenital area. These tissues are some of the most stressed in the body because of the effects of pregnancy, delivery, menstruation, lumbosacral dysfunction, intestinal problems, lower limb restrictions, psychological / emotional phenomena, etc. As health professionals, we have an obligation to help our patients in whatever way is appropriate.”
Feel free to call me (Joanna Dembek LMT) at 970-310-1539 if you have any questions before booking your Visceral Manipulation appointment. Thanks for listening and hope you learned something of value.
To learn more about the benefits of Visceral Manipulation, see the research and case studies, click on this link: https://www.barralinstitute.com/therapies/
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