History of Ortho-Bionomy

Arthur Lincoln Pauls, while living in England, was an avid student and instructor of Judo.  As such, he recognized that a major principle of Judo was to use the momentum, force, and action of the opponent as leverage to gain the upper hand.  Throughout his twenty-some years participating in Judo, he sustained his share of muscle pains, strains, and injuries.  He noticed that, in many cases, left to its own devices, the body would heal itself.  However, when this did not occur, professional intervention was sought.  Arthur observed that in these cases, he often needed to keep going back in order to get some type of relief.  It occurred to him that the treatment he was receiving was never really addressing the root-cause of the issue, preventing his body from truly healing the injury.  This awareness, blended with the philosophy of Judo to follow the path of least resistance, created a situation and mindset for him to explore alternative methods of treating injuries. 

Arthur went on to study osteopathy and, as an evolvement, created the framework of Ortho-Bionomy.  Since his passing, using the fundamental concepts and philosophy, the knowledge base of Ortho-Bionomy continues to grow, with new techniques and methods being developed constantly.

Fundamentally, Ortho-Bionomy is rooted in the concept that the body has an inherent ability to heal itself when provided the opportunity.  Therefore, the techniques used are focused on bringing awareness to the body's imbalances at either a conscious or neurological level.  In fact, the term Ortho-Bionomy is derived from "ortho" which means correct or straight, "bio" which means life, and "nomy" which means the laws of or study of.  When combined, Ortho-Bionomy translates to the "correct application of the laws of life."

The concept of Ortho-Bionomy is multi-faceted.  In the simplest form, it is a style of bodywork that is gentle, natural, and extremely effective.  It has its basis in osteopathy, and is able to address issues of acute injury, chronic muscle spasm or pain, problematic posture and gait patterns, muscular compensatory patterns, and structural imbalances.  From a more comprehensive viewpoint, Ortho-Bionomy is also a philosophy and conceptual framework that provides a natural paradigm in thinking about the body.  This larger context is what provides substance to the broad nature of the work.  Based on this, the range of Ortho-Bionomy is vast.

Other types of specialized bodywork have similar characteristics, such as positional release, precision neuromuscular facilitation, range of motion movement, unwinding, energy work, passive and assisted stretching, to name a few.  Ortho-Bionomy integrates these types of techniques into a comprehensive model in order to address discomfort and imbalance.  The majority of Ortho-Bionomy techniques involve recognizing and, in some cases, exaggerating the body's "preferred" position or posture, thus letting the body complete its desired movement or muscular contraction, in an effort to allow reestablishment of balance.

Ortho-Bionomy stimulates the body's self-correcting and self-balancing reflexes by way of the proprioceptive reflexes located in our joints, muscles and joint capsules.  The practitioner uses movement and gentle compression to find positions of comfort which allow the body to change the stress and pain patterns that are causing the discomfort.  Ortho-Bionomy also employs the homeopathic concept that what cannot be cured from within cannot be cured from without.  Using gentle positioning and light touch, Ortho-Bionomy stimulates inner awareness to awaken within the individual a sense of natural balance and well-being, both physically and emotionally.  The inner wisdom of the body is recognized and affirmed.  Self healing occurs as the body remembers its natural ability to move away from pain and toward ease.

Ortho-Bionomy is a registered trademark of the Society of Ortho-Bionomy International.  As such, the Society approves usage of the title and also sets the standards for Practitioner certification.  Practitioner level status is awarded by the Society upon completion of a comprehensive program of study (approximately 500 hours).  The Society also offers an Associate Membership for those who have met certain requirements and are in the process of completing their Practitioner level requirements.

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