Sitting By The Well

About Visceral

We usually think of our innards as what? gurgles and belches. We do not know that the internal organs have inherent motion beyond all the odd feelings and sounds...

Visceral Manipulation could be called "liquid" or "internal massage" for the internal organs.  

The word, "viscera" is another word for "organ" and/or "organs" and used in the science of human biology.

Our Organs have...Motion?

Folk Healers in the Old World are reputed to have been working with moving the internal organs in a gentle hands-on fashion to relieve deep pain for centuries...without surgery.

This gives new meaning to the phrase, "Think from your Gut!"

Visceral is based on the observation that the organs have inherent motion. Each organ moves interdependently with the others much like the pieces of a mechanical wrist watch. Each day the internal organs can move up to 30,000 times.  The organ of the liver itself can move as much as 600 meters.

(Isn't it amazing to consider only the liver as a living "organ"?  Well, it is!)

Simple gravity can restrict this happy motion of the organs and organ ligaments moving around in harmony together. As bodyworkers and massage therapists, using gentle and considered contact, we can encourage this motion.  Sometimes an organ can get a little stuck, just like a car tire in soft sand.  It doesn't help to yell at the organ or at yourself!  We can encourage the tire, and the car, until it gets unstuck.

We suggest to do this using simple good manners.

And why not?  We all respond to good manners.  Why not...an organ?or a whole set of organs? Would you call your pancreas or spleen, "a piece of _____?" (fill in the blank)  Well, how quickly would you go back to work if your Boss kept calling you a "piece of  _____" (you know what!)

This isn't so mysterious. 

This is something you can check out for yourself!

Visceral and the Teeth

Visceral also applies when working with the teeth. It is a little known fact that individual teeth can relate into the organs. When a tooth is tightly wound into the jaw, for example, this tightness resonants into the organ systems. When an organ is restricted it can affect the related tooth. We have also found that there is no set pattern.

It's different for each person which tooth will release up with organ. If I may, ever hear the old saying: "When you pee your teeth float?" Well, this is as true as most folk sayings. (Check it out)

CranioSacral spends a great deal of attention freeing the structures of the mouth jaw from contracture, and the Visceral work greatly assists in monitoring the action of the related organ as the tooth begins to release. The opposite is also true. As a tightly wound organ releases, a tooth or set of teeth may also release providing greater innervation and nourishment into the previously restricted area(s).

Since the organs have inherent physiologic motion and Visceral Manipulation is based on freeing and balancing the organs from adhesions or blockages it allows the organs to move freely again.

Benefits of "Visceral"

The organs relate directly or indirectly to the spine.  Chiropractors know that by reliving subluxations in the spine, improved organ function can result.  Could it also be the other way around?  By relieving the organs, improved spinal function can result? 

Visceral Manipulation is proven to treat and relieve:

• Chronic tensions in the spine

• Chronic tensions in the organs

• Chronic tensions in the ligaments surrounding the organs

• Digestive system restrictions, eg, Liver, Gall Bladder, Sigmoid

• Acute spasms in the Viscera, including ovarian ligaments

• Hemorrhoids, and known to correct Chronic Hemorrhoid

• Chronic shoulder pain, left and right

• Incontinence,with improved urinary function

• Hiatal hernia, and known to correct Hiatal hernia

• Upper thorax, ligaments of the rib cage, eg, for whiplash

• And more!

Simple Good Manners

The great Jungian Analyst, Marion Woodman, published a modest compilation of lectures into a tape set available from Sounds True called, Sitting By the Well. In this tape set she explores the deep feminine and associated archetypes. I enjoy her work though I'm not a Jungian and yet the title of her tape set brings to mind an appropriate image of Visceral Manipulation: The image of the Well.

The touch pressures can vary from very light and gentle to very deep.

When we drop into the abdominal viscera and related structures we drop into a well of deep water and mystery. We do not know how deep the well is but we know it is deep. We approach these areas with utmost consideration and with attention and kindness. We must "hasten slowly" on the way. Mutual trust is paramount. These are areas with the potential for extraordinarily powerful and profound releases. We must respect the living being as we are invited in. And we can only be invited.

"Sitting By The Well"

The organs have inherent motion. The move interdependently. Simple gravity can hold this motion in place, or restrict this motion.

Why do I describe these areas as a "well?" When we work with the other systems we also have our attention on the organ systems "down there" or on the "Viscera." Here is where we drop down. 

We make the drop down together into the Well, and deeper into Shakespeare's undiscovered country.

The histories among and between the organs are darkly concealed and packed with memory and feeling: "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." They have not been touched this way or acknowledged in their fullness.

The organs have built up defense after defense and secrets are in these depths. These deeply held secrets must be respected as they arise through the silences. Any organ is to be treated with utmost consideration and deep kindness.

Visceral, or even RolfingŪ for that matter, is not to be performed as a "power trip" or suffered through.  Pay attention.  Done properly, it can be joyous and fun and freeing!

What are good manners?  Does anyone remember?  Good manners are based on respect and putting others at ease. 

We all know this. 

The hard part is to remember...we can all forget. 

Let's learn how to learn to pay attention to the living being, essence beyond the physcial substance.  Let us attend to the Well.

Visceral's Origins

This modality integrates nicely with CranioSacral, and also with Massage, just as working with Energy Anatomy integrates with both. Sometimes I'll call Visceral Manipulation, Liquid Massage. Others might call it, Internal Massage. Usually, it's just called, Visceral. I mean, you have a stomach ache and you touch your stomach, well, that's Visceral. It does actually get a bit more involved than that, but that's the idea.

French Osteopath, Jean Pierre Barral observed that patients of his who were being treated by Folk Healers in the mountains were getting rapidly better. He went and observed the Healers and found they were working with releasing the organs in the stomach and upper chest of his patients. He became intrigued. He went back to the city and later observed the organs have interdepent motion, much like the separate pieces inside of a watch. He tested out his hypothesis by using gentle hand maneuvers on his patients, and found that when one organ goes out of whack or into shock, it can affect the rest of the body.

Here we treat not just the part but the whole.

The Whole and the Part

Is there any such thing as an organ that stands apart from all the others and is independent? Independence doesn't occur in nature or in the human body. Is anything "independent?" Is the tree independent from the soil?  The soil from the sky and its gravity?

What would the heart do without the lungs to bring in new oxygen? The lungs depend on the heart for the flows of blood. What would the liver do without the heart to give it it's nourishment?

Dependence gets a bad rap, but we see that in the human body each part is mutually dependent on the other part. This make the body a whole and not part. And so the body is a whole.

(What's extraordinary is we forget - JN)

Visceral is also, Complimentary...

Visceral very nicely compliments other bodywork and massage approaches.

I often refer to it as "internal massage", or "liquid massage" and incorporate itonly when needed.

"Clothes on or clothes off" depends on the approach that Visceral is incorporated with. With Visceral, "skin to skin" contact is best as with Lymphatic or Massage.

And so with CranioSacral we treat the newly discovered CranioSacral System. With Nurturing Massage, we focus on the cardiovascular, muscle and circulatory systems. With Lymphatic Draináge Therapy we focus on the Lymphatic and Immune system, and now with Visceral Manipulation or "Visceral" we drop to the great organ systems of the abdomen and upper thorax

We make the drop down into the Well....

Self Treatment with Visceral

It's not all that unfamiliar to each one of us. When we are breathing or digesting food, we are also doing Visceral.

Remember what was said about holding your stomach, gently, when you have a stomach ache?

I will admit that I regularly show clients how to perform very gentle Visceral on themselves.  And tears come to their eyes when they make the connection.  "It's so simple."  Okay, perhaps it's not the best thing for the business but the patient wellness and liberation is the bottom line, isn't it?

This Facilitator does not subscribe to scaring people so they must come back.  We are after all, adults here.  Think about it for awhile.

It's Worth A Try

It seems worthwhile to harmlessly dialogue and work in a gentle hands on manner even with the organs before invasive procedures are enlisted, doesn't it?

After all, it couldn't hurt to find out.  All that would be lost would be a few relaxing hours on a massage table.

Thanks for your visit!

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