When lying completely relaxed during treatment, a patient's body can make a number of subtle shifts. As an example, a one sided release or lengthening of hamstring fascia will result in the nerves supplying that tissue sending information to the brain saying that change has taken place. Under normal conditions, the brain doesn't receive such information without actual body movement occurring: it assumes therefore that movement must be taking place. The brain can interpret this subtle change as a much larger movement: perhaps as a spiralling twist of the whole body. The manner in which the brain interprets information through the nervous system, does not necessarily reflect it's nature or point of origin. About the Treatment Process.

As a practitioner, it is necessary to develop a good working relationship with a patient's inherent healing mechanism. This is an instinctive organism or intellegence, beyond conscious awareness, that is millions of years old. Sitting quietly with awareness of the patient can often be all that is required to initiate a self-healing response . If it isn't then the practitioner needs to ask the right question (from a state of stillness and receptivity). "What does this patient need?", "Where is the fulcrum of activity for this patient's healing mechanism?" or "Where is the central stillness within this patient - the 'eye of the storm'?". ”This extra intention (or direction) is often sufficient to catalyse a therapeutic change. About Change.

Osteopathy in the Cranial Field (OCF) was originally used to treat the head (hence the name), whereas today it is used to contact and treat all parts of the body. OCF was discovered by Dr. William Garner Sutherland a student of Dr. A.T.Still (The founder of osteopathy).

In 1899 Dr Sutherland observed a mounted disarticulated skull (a skull where all the individual bones have been separated and suspended in anatomical orientation) and noted that the joints of the temporal bones were bevelled like the gills of a fish.

More on the History of Osteopathy