Cross-pollination of principles, continued

Further reading of Thomas Hanna's "The Body of Life" has proven to be very enlightening and is sparking further interest in his form of work. At the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training they offer more information how to study his work. Additionally, a colleague of mine is acquainted with a local instructor who was one of Hanna's early students.

In the descriptions of Hanna's work, one common theme that I have noticed is the gentleness and directness by which he describes the sessions.

"Having him lie down on his side, I proceeded to press on his vertebrae, making
comfortable movements [in the direction of least tension]...After twenty minutes
of movements designed to release the extensor muscles on the sides of his lower
spine, Richard was sound asleep."

This story reminds me very much of Lawrence Jones', D.O. discovery of positional release, which he developed into Strain-Counterstrain. When a long-time patient of Jones' arrived at the office with a bilateral psoas contraction on a busy day, Jones had little time to spare for the man who professed that the pain was so severe that he was having great difficulty sleeping. Jones took the time to find a comfortable position for the man, propped up on his back, knees up. Once in this position of comfort, the man fell asleep. Upon waking later, the man found that his contractions had released and his pain was dramatically improved.

Jones was intelligent enough to pursue the rationale for this event and discovered that he could release tight muscles and bring spinal misalignments back into place by placing the patient into a position of comfort.

Arthur Lincoln Pauls, D.O. studied with Jones briefly and built upon Jones' work, eventually creating Ortho-Bionomy. Arthur continued to teach Ortho-Bionomy in the US, Europe and Australia until his death in 1997. His work is very alive in the Society of Ortho-Bionomy International.