Visceral Manipulation Portland - What It Is and Why It Works

Well, it’s official. After 3 years of deep study into this powerful method I have completed the training. What IS visceral manipulation, you ask? Well, it took me a while to figure it out myself. From here on I’ll refer to it as, VM.

VM is a form of manual therapy that adjusts your organs, yes, your organs! Anything from the soft structures such as liver, stomach, gallbladder, heart, pericardium, small intestine, large intestine, pancreas, spleen, bladder, uterus, rectum, ovary, prostate, etc. to the harder structures such as ligaments, tendons, ribs, spine, etc. Even softer structures like nerves for nerve pain can be addressed!

So why would you need your liver, or stomach adjusted? The answers are quite literally endless, but 90% of people who come in with right shoulder pain, or lack of mobility just need a 1 minute address to their liver and without even touching the shoulder their pain is mostly gone, and a large percentage of their mobility returned. 

I’ve learned that in my ideal world I’d have at least a half hour of time to give a full VM treatment but certain maneuvers (such as above) can also be stand alone.

The therapy is extremely gentle. People who have a lot of interoception, or the ability to feel what’s happening on the inside of their body (often dancers, yoga practitioners, other massage therapists, and the like) are very good at feeling these adjustments real time. It can be akin to being able to feel the present impact of acupuncture. Similarly, people feel the effect afterwards or notice ease in their digestive system, nervous system, and more range of motion or ease in movement. It may be subtle but delivers powerful results!

It took me almost 2 years to understand why the teachers always told me, “You’re still pushing too hard” when I felt like my hands weren’t pushing past the skin! Especially when the bulk of my other work is deep tissue. Believe it or not, the hands and your body are able to detect and sense so much more with extremely gentle touch with depth as the intention.. They’re called mechano-receptors. I’m not going to go into detail about them here, but if you’re curious I highly recommend looking into this. It’s a fascinating world with infinite implications for how we use our bodies and minds. 

So Why does it work?! If I've learned anything in these years of learning the body it's that LIT-ER_AL-LY everything is connected. And that's not hyperbole or some obscure woo. There are neurological connections from your right shoulder to your liver. There are direct neurological wires connecting the part of your brain that expresses anger to your liver (ever wonder why alcoholics are angry?). Barral (the master of this work) teaches, "The body hugs the lesion." So when I put my hand on you I can feel your entire body hugging into and toward the part that is needing the most attention.

A few of the many things I have been able to successfully treat with this work just in the last couple years of learning and using these methods have been:

• Right/Left shoulder pain/injury

• Sciatica

• Urinary Incontinence

• Constipation

• Neck Pain

• Shortness of Breath

• Whiplash

• Post Surgery/Operation

• Scar Tissue

• Post Partum DRA’s (Diastasis Rectus Abdominum)

...and the list goes on. 

If anything above resonates I’d love to work with you! New clients can currently book a 90-minute intro session for just $175.