What if manual therapy wasn't exactly what we think it is?

And what if, this time, we relied on what science, neuroscience, is telling us to understand what we are really doing?

"Small diameter sensory fibres provide the feedback from the body that is absolutely essential for the homeostatic control systems that maintain the physiological conditions of the body. They provide the vital signals that indicate that the body is alive. " (Craig, A.D. (2015) How do you feel? An Interoceptive Moment with your Neurobiological Self. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 110)

Why does the CNS need to know exactly what is happening in the body?

No muscle in the body contracts by itself. No bone, fascia or tissue has the will to change itself. All of them, without exception, only respond to motor outputs from the CNS. We cannot change them from the outside. The only way we can do this is to learn how to « talk to the body », dialogue with the CNS, and only the CNS can issue motor outputs to modify tissue tensions, muscle contractions and other homeostatic-type normalisations.

 

We are going to totally put aside the unverifiable theories and those of therapies whose "scientific evidence » are in fact only statistics. It is not a question of knowing that manual therapy is effective and that it brings comfort and well-being: this is an established fact. It is now a question of how it can do so. Neuroscientists can help us understand.

This is AIMTC's mission: to study and teach the essential elements from neuroscience that allow us to truly understand the work of the manual therapist.