Calgary Centre for Visceral Manipulation
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"We often get called in when
regular medicine can't do
anything. That's when being
an organ mechanic is
a beautiful thing."

Dr. Jean-Pierre Barral speaking
about Visceral Manipulation
to Time Magazine


What Is Visceral Manipulation?


The basis of Visceral Manipulation is that all your organs should be able to move freely, they should be able to slip and slide on each other. If organs are not able to move freely, then they are not able to function optimally.

Our bodies need motion to be healthy.

For an organ to be healthy and have optimal function there needs to be motion. This principle applies to every structure in our bodies including the viscera or internal organs.

Visceral Manipulation is a manual therapy consisting of gentle, specifically placed manual forces that encourage normal mobility, tone and inherent tissue motion of the viscera (internal organs), their connective tissue and other areas of the body where physiologic motion has been impaired.

Tissues lose their normal motion when they become inflamed.

The natural healing process following inflammation involves local disruption of normal tissue fibers and their replacement with relatively inelastic granular tissue that allows the organs to adhere to the surrounding tissues and this puts organs into rigid states, which effects motion and function of that organ. Many factors can cause tissue inflammation including: infections, physical trauma, surgeries, repetitious movement, environmental toxins, heavy metal toxicity, poor diet, poor posture, pregnancy/delivery and emotional stress.

When an organ is no longer freely mobile but is fixed to another structure, the body is forced to compensate. This creates fixed, abnormal points of tension and the chronic irritation gives way to functional and structural problems throughout the body including musculoskeletal, vascular, nervous, urinary, respiratory, digestive and lymphatic.

Visceral Manipulation involves applying specific techniques to treat areas of improper motion and encourage normal movement of the organs. This restores better physiologic motion and improves the function of that organ. The effects can be global, encompassing many areas of bodily functions.



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