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    Melting Bone, Healing Tide: How to Reanimate Inertial Bone Tissue Through Therapeutic Touch
    Melting Bone, Healing Tide: How to Reanimate Inertial Bone Tissue Through Therapeutic Touch
    Melting Bone, Healing Tide: How to Reanimate Inertial Bone Tissue Through Therapeutic Touch
    Ebook194 pages2 hours

    Melting Bone, Healing Tide: How to Reanimate Inertial Bone Tissue Through Therapeutic Touch

    By Scott Sternthal D.O.

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    About this ebook

    "I LOVE this book! Highly recommended." - Karusia Wroblewski, Certified Yoga Therapist

    "A game changer for my practice. I mean life changing." - Greg Bradley Jr., LMBT

    "A groundbreaking perspective." - Dan Sandra, PhD, CST, and Director of the Cranio Research Congress

    "I highly, happily recommend this book for anyone with a manual therapy practice." - Heather Barton, D.O., CAT

    "Straight to the point, well-written, and interesting. Worth the read." - Frank Michaud, D.O.

    "The best instructional book I have read since The Power of Now." - Joshua Brown, D.O.

    "A big book." - Oscar Sanchez Martínez, Ph.T.

    "An incredible read for all manual therapists." - Heidi Garellek, B.Sc., Ph.T.

    "Excellent read for osteopaths and manual practitioners." - Byron Hardie, D.O.

    "A game changer." - Andrea DeMont, CST

    "A gem and a must read." - Vlada S.

    A first publication by Canadian osteopath and teacher Scott Sternthal, D.O., "Melting Bone, Healing Tide" shows us how to reanimate inertial bone tissue through therapeutic touch. This book introduces a simple yet powerful treatment approach called Biodynamic Skeletal Therapy (BST) which integrates the wisdom of biodynamics and structural manual therapy into the same maneuvers and can be applied anywhere throughout the skeleton. The fundamentals of BST emerged from the author's unwavering belief in the indwelling therapeutics of the human body and in the profound intelligence of the natural world. These ideas have the potential to lead us into exciting, uncharted levels of therapeutic dialogue and can help make other bodywork modalities even more effective. "Melting Bone, Healing Tide" outlines, in accessible yet descriptive terms, the evaluation and treatment protocols of BST, including an efficient way to evaluate the skeleton, called Touch-testing, and a comprehensive 6-step treatment plan. Biodynamic Skeletal Therapy can be practiced by all bodyworkers, including massage therapists, physiotherapists, athletic therapists, craniosacral therapists, osteopaths, and chiropractors.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateFeb 22, 2023
    ISBN9781667887227
    Melting Bone, Healing Tide: How to Reanimate Inertial Bone Tissue Through Therapeutic Touch
    Author

    Scott Sternthal D.O.

    Scott Sternthal, D.O. is an osteopath based in Montreal, Quebec.

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      Book preview

      Melting Bone, Healing Tide - Scott Sternthal D.O.

      BK90075066.jpg

      There’s sap in the trees if you tap’em.

      Bill Callahan

      Melting Bone, Healing Tide

      © 2023 Scott Sternthal, D.O.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

      MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the reader’s discretion and is their sole responsibility.

      The words Therapeutic Touch® as referenced in this book are not related to the complementary therapy Therapeutic Touch® as developed by Dr. Dolores Krieger and Dora Kunz. The words Therapeutic Touch are trademarked under trademark # TMA580182. For more information about Therapeutic Touch®, you can visit The Therapeutic Touch Networks of Canada website, at http://ttnc.ca.

      ISBN 978-1-66788-721-0

      eBook ISBN 978-1-66788-722-7

      For Tasha, Frida, and Sarah.

      Table of Contents

      Preface

      Introduction

      Our Living Skeleton

      Bone

      Connective Tissue

      Manual Therapy and Andrew Taylor Still

      William Garner Sutherland

      and the Primary Respiratory Mechanism

      The Ocean Inside of Us 29

      Potency

      Fulcrums

      Biodynamic Rhythms and the Skeleton

      From PRM to Primary Respiration

      Cranial Rhythmic Impulse

      Sills’ Mid Tide

      Becker’s Long Tide

      The Three Bodies and the Holistic Shift

      Biodynamic Skeletal Therapy 51

      BST and Bony Compactions

      The Four Considerations of BST

      Palpation and Visualization

      Sensing Primary Respiration

      Sensing your PR: Part 1

      Sensing CRI

      Sensing Mid Tide

      Sensing Long Tide

      Sensing the Holistic Shift

      BST Evaluation 83

      Touch-testing

      Lower Extremities (Calcaneus)

      Pelvis (Posterior Ilia)

      Lumbar Spine (L5 to L1)

      Thorax (T12 to T1)

      Thorax (Posterior Ribs)

      Upper Extremities (Phalanges and Metacarpals)

      Cervical Spine (C7–C2)

      Cervical Spine (C1)

      Cranium (Occipital Condyles)

      Cranium (Cranial Vault)

      Cranium (Face)

      Sensing your PR: Part 2

      BST Treatment 103

      The Six Stages of BST Treatment

      Local BST Treatment

      Long Bones (Femur)

      Long Bones (Femur/Tibia)

      Short Bones (Cuboid)

      Flat Bones (Sternum)

      Flat Bones (Frontal/Lacrimal)

      Irregular-Shaped Bones (L3)

      Regional BST Treatment

      Thoracic Barrel

      Sensing your PR: Part 3

      Epilogue

      Acknowledgements

      Glossary

      References

      Preface

      Despite everything I thought I knew, I was unaware that bones could melt. In 2012, when I was a bushy-tailed third year osteopathy student at the Collège d’Études Ostéopathiques (CEO) in Montreal, our teacher, Yves Boisvert, D.O., described what it was like to feel a bone melt in his hands, and how it forever altered the lens through which he viewed the human body.

      It was a fascinating lecture. Curious and excited (and with a healthy dose of skepticism), I began incorporating the treatment principles Boisvert described in class that day, and soon enough, I too sensed strange movements within the bone tissue! Astonishingly, these rigid structures began to shift and change, bending and squirming in my hands. Repetitive tidal patterns emerged, pulsating at various rhythms and speeds, expanding and contracting the bone. And there was more. Often, I noticed a moment during my treatments when I would perceive a type of shift beneath my hands and within myself simultaneously, like a collective sigh of relief passing through me from client to therapist. What did all this mean? In my quest for a more thorough understanding of melting bones, important questions remained.

      First, I leaned on my training for answers. I recognized the rotation-type movements that emerged from bones as the Cranial Rhythmic Impulse (CRI), which I had learned was synonymous with the so-called primary respiratory mechanism (PRM), well-known within the craniosacral healing arts. But I couldn’t explain the other sensations. For example, besides the rotations, there existed a welling-up-and-receding-type pattern, expanding and contracting the bone tissue. In osteopathy school, we called this bone-swell vitality, but was this so-called vitality related to the CRI and PRM? I imagined that it was, but I yearned to know how.

      When I began diving deeper into the world of craniosacral biodynamics, reading the works of William Garner Sutherland, D.O., Rollin Becker, D.O., James Jealous, D.O, and Franklyn Sills, the gaps in my understanding began to fill. Sills, for example, described the welling-up-and-receding sensations as the Mid Tide, an interplay between tissue and fluid motility (Sills 2011, 384). Also according to Sills, the Long Tide, a third biodynamic rhythm, lives as much on the outside of the physical body as it does on the inside, animating our fluids and tissues from a radiant tidal presence extending from the midline of our bodies, out to the horizon, and then back again. The sigh-of-relief-type shift I was perceiving seemed very much like Becker’s holistic shift, which Becker, as cited by Sills, describes as a moment when the rhythms within and around the tissues are perceived to be suspended in one another, signalling a form of tissue wholeness (Sills 2011, 383). I began to realize that while Sutherland’s original description of the PRM was groundbreaking, it did not fully encompass the totality of the human biodynamic ecosystem as ultimately formulated by his students and disciples. After Sutherland’s original discoveries, it took decades of exploration and contemplation by other curious minds and hands to enhance the resolution of his ideas and vision.

      Boisvert’s description of melting bones in class that day was just the spark I needed to join these explorers on their quest to know more. Now, combined with my personal experience and insights, the observations and research of my predecessors have inspired me to develop my own approach to treating the skeleton, which I call Biodynamic Skeletal Therapy (BST). After a decade of clinical practice, and some amount of success and recognition as an osteopath, I am excited to finally be able to contribute to the discussion.

      I believe I first sensed a version of the PRM within and around me long ago, far from any treatment table and long before I knew what osteopathy, craniosacral biodynamics, and manual therapy meant. When I was young, maybe five years old, my dad would take me hiking in the Laurentians. The Laurentian mountains in Quebec are some of the oldest foothills in the world, dating back to the Precambrian age. On the horizon, they are relatively small because they are so darn old, rounded and worn by the elements and time. Some of my earliest memories were from these outings. Dad and I would cross the road and walk up an embankment that would turn from soft dry sand to green moss, transitioning to taller grasses and small trees, as if we were walking from the desert to the jungle in just a few steps. The transitions in the soil and terrain reminded me of a painting with textures bleeding into one another, colors combining and then separating again to become their own once more. Looking more closely at the ground, I noticed tiny mossy sprouts, almost identical to the taller coniferous trees that loomed overhead. Perfect miniature replicas, like furniture in a doll house. Summer air currents blended the scents of wild flowers growing nearby with the briny fumes from the lake across the road. I would close my eyes, basking in these splendid moments, feeling the sun warm my face. On these walks, life was as close to perfect as my young mind could imagine it to ever be. Even as a small boy, I felt profoundly connected to a much larger presence, as if my very existence was being held, supported, by a stabilizing radiance within and around me. I felt at home and utterly whole.

      Those early experiences laid a foundational belief that would always ground me in my life and work, and serve as a constant reminder that there exists a reassuring and balancing force in nature which not only surrounds but permeates us. Today, I rely on this wisdom to guide my treatments and help me connect more profoundly with patients. Trusting the indwelling therapeutics of the human organism, relying on the unbreakable bond we share with the forces of the universe, believing that the body always seeks out an equilibrium, and honoring the refined craftsmanship that began hundreds of millions of years ago, have helped me understand that humans are a never-ending process of evolution and refinement. This ancient intelligence, expressed through human tissue, reminds me each day that everything is unfolding as it should. Like the Precambrian Laurentian mountains, we are inextricably linked to the horizon and to the universe beyond.

      Recognizing these shared forces within and beyond the body, what can be seen and what can only be felt, led to my conception of the BST approach. I am proud to have helped thousands of patients feel better, often when other therapeutic and medical avenues had been exhausted. I have saved people from having unnecessary surgeries. I have even been told that I have the hands of Jesus, and that I have magical powers or a gift from God! Of course, I am grateful and humbled by these testimonials. I mention them not for self-promotion, but to attest to the power of BST.

      The BST approach is designed to complement other forms of manual therapy, and actually works best as an initial application, a first coat meant to prime the skeleton for further treatment. It is important for me to emphasize that the ideas that birthed BST are not new. Perhaps all I have done in this book is assembled bits and pieces of acquired knowledge into a slightly more cohesive system for finding and treating bones in need of help.

      I began using BST soon

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