For osteopaths & medical Professionals
Fundamental osteopathy program

Organisation
Program based in Fontenay sous Bois (94120 Paris metropolitan area) and comprising 15 week-ends, organised in 3 cycles of teachings, over 4 years.
Price
The price per week-end session is 600 EUR. For the participants retaking one or multiple sessions that they previously attended, the price is 400 EUR.
Registration
If you are interested in the program, please send a message and you will be contacted to discuss the subscription and the date of the next weekend session.
Schedule
The dates for weekend sessions are determined during the first weekend of each cycle, in consultation with all participants.
FOCUS
The primary respiratory mechanism: what is it and how to use it?

Often, if you have sat with a patient and you really are sure that they have made a change, but the change is not maintained, then that is probably due to the fact that the involuntary mechanism has not made and accepted the change.
All of Rollin Becker's approach hinges around the fact that the voluntary mechanism, that is everything we see, will follow the involuntary mechanism. So we treat from the inside out, from the deepest to the superficial.
That does not exclude techniques, we use plenty. The Involuntary is the power behind the Volontary, the only place in the body that we can purely witness the involuntary mechanism is the cranial sacral axis.
The primary respiratory mechanism
1. The breath of life received by the cerebral spinal fluid.
2. The motricity and the amplification of the central nervous system.
3. Made directional by the membranous attachments.
4. The motricity of the cranial base amplified by these membranous attachments.
5. The Motricity of the sacrum between the two in-nominate bones amplified by its membranous attachments. With reverberation back to the center.
The above five elements are the primary respiratory mechanism and this process is of course one.
We explore the involuntary mechanism, its origins and its manifestations from every angle possible.
Training structure & contents

* Illustration designed by starline - Magnific.com
WEEK-END 1 TO 5
Cycle 1 : The normal primary respiratory mechanism
Study of the normal primary respiratory sytem, how it should be. We have five weekends to study each element in detail as to how it should operate in the whole.
WEEK-END 6 TO 10
Cycle 2: The abnormal primary respiratory mechanism
Study of each element not behaving normally and how to bring it back to normal. That is treatment, techniques and methodology.
WEEK-END 11 TO 15
Cycle 3: Stillness
Study of the primary respiratory system with the embryological approach of Rollin Becker and Jacques Duval, applied to the viscera, new borns, the totality of the body, and the work of Rollin Becker.
First contact
- First discussion and potential subscription.
Week-end 1 - Introduction
- The principles of osteopathy
- Definition
- The primary respiratory mechanism
- The voluntary
- The involuntary
- The involuntary mechanism and its manifestation
- The general principles of the five elements of the primary respiratory mechanism
- Overview of the cerebral spinal fluid and the central nervous system in the primary respiratory mechanism
- The primary health pattern of the primary respiratory mechanism
- Techniques using the fluctuation, transmission, and power of the cerebrospinal fluid
Week-end 2 - Reciprocal tension of the membranes
- The cerebral spinal fluid and the central nervous system revisited and expanded
- Embryological formation of cranial and spinal membranes
- Anatomy of cranial and spinal membranes
- Their positioning in the primary mechanism
- The attachment poles (including the lower pole)
- Their specific role in this mechanism
Week-end 3 - The lower pole
- The fluid and neurological lower pole
MEMBRANOUS PATTERNS, PRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT
- Its place in osteopathic teaching and practice
- The original fundamental pattern
- Primary pattern
- Dominant pattern
- Additional patterns
- Role of the membrane – energetic-membranous patterns
CLASSIFICATION OF CRANIO-SACRAL PATTERNS
- The primary pattern. Its manifestations and its role in diagnostic and treatment
- Flexions/ Extensions
- Torsions
- Side-bending rotations
- Vertical and horizontal strains
- Compressions
Week-end 4 - The osseous mechanism (Part 1/2)
- Place and significance in the primary respiratory mechanism
- Presentation and general considerations
DETAILED STUDY OF ITS ELEMENTS
- The base sphenoid, occipital, the temporals
- The vault frontals and parietal
- The occipital
- The spheno-basilar synchondrosis
- The temporals
Week-end 5 - The osseous mechanism (Continuation 2/2)
THE FACE
- Presentation
- Its shape and function
- Its place in the involuntary mechanism
- The mechanics of facial movement in the involuntary mechanism
- Embryological formation and original development (review of different theories: “classical,” Blechschmidt, etc.)
- Study of its components: ethmoid, vomer, palatines, etc.
Week-end 6 - General review
- The fundamental principle of Dr. Sutherland
- The primary respiratory mechanism
REVIEW OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE PRIMARY RESPIRATORY MECHANISM
- Reciprocal tension of the membranes
- Physiological patterns and lesion patterns
REVIEW, ADVANCED STUDY, AND PRACTICE OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE PRIMARY RESPIRATORY MECHANISM
- Patterns and compressions
- The Lower Pole of the primary respiratory mechanism
- Fluctuations – Part 1 (including: CV4 – compression of the 4th ventricle – the extension of the concept to the whole body)
Week-end 7 - Cerebrospinal fluid
- Practice of compressions
- Palpation and diagnosis
- Sutherland’s fulcrum in practice
THE CEREBROSPINAL FLUID
- Introduction
FLUCTUATIONS
- Central longitudinal fluctuation known as “two and a half / three”
- CV4 – “Compression of the 4th ventricle” (with extension to the whole body)
- EV4 – “Expansion of the 4th ventricle” (+“massive EV4”)
- Double immobilization (Upper and Lower)
- Transmission of the fluid and its power (Fluid drive) and Lippincott Technique
- Lateral fluctuations and lateral fluid axis
FLUCTUATIONS (CONTINUED)
- CV3 – “Compression of the 3rd ventricle”
- EV3 – “Expansion of the 3rd ventricle”
- The long tide of Rollin Becker
Week-end 8 - Lesions and treatment of the sacrum, the lumbo-sacral-coccygeal region and the organs of the pelvic inlet
- Direct and reflex deviations
- Direct and reflex compressions
- Coccyx, perineum, uterus, prostate, etc.
EMBRYOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION
- Preamble to the fertilization–gastrulation period
REVIEW OF PRINCIPLES OF DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT
- Introduction
- “Stacking”: by stacking patterns, by stacking fulcrums, by using a single fulcrum, Sutherland’s fulcrum, etc.
EMBRYOLOGICAL FORMATION OF THE BASE
- Classical conception
- Frank Willard’s conception & practice
INTRODUCTION TO THE INVOLUNTARY, ENERGETIC, AND FUNCTIONAL BASE
Week-end 9 - The pathological cranial base
- The occipital lateral masses
- Occipital squama and endo-osseous lesions
- Lesions of the occipito-petro-mastoid region
LESIONS AND TREATMENT OF THE TEMPORAL BONE, THE EAR, AND THE OCCIPITO-TEMPORAL REGION
- The temporal bone in the primary respiratory mechanism
- Occipito-mastoid junction and endo-osseous lesions
- Occipito-mastoid and parieto-mastoid junctions
- Suboccipital region and atlas–axis
- Obstetrical hinge
- Petrous portion: compressions, distortions, intra-osseous lesions, etc.
- Other temporal lesions
- Multiple lesion
SPECIFIC EAR LESIONS AND HEARING PROBLEMS
Week-end 10 - The involuntary cranial base
- Its embryological supports and its functional role in the primary respiratory mechanism
- Meaning of the involuntary base in the primary respiratory mechanism and the involuntary mechanism
LESIONS OF THE VAULT AND THEIR TREATMENT
- Boney respiration, key to the diagnosis and treatment of boney lesions
- Classical approach to lesions in “cranial osteopathy”
- Approach via the involuntary mechanism
- Embryological development of the vault and sutures and resulting treatment
THE FACE
- Its embryological formation
- The treatment of its boney elements
Week-end 11 - Presentation of embryological osteopathy
— Purpose, concept, clinical approach, techniques —
INTRODUCTION OF EMBRYOLOGY INTO OSTEOPATHY
- Foundations of the existence of the human being
- Fundamental pattern derived from embryology
- Persistence and use of the original force
- Return to the origin: “preformation” or “epigenesis”
EXPLANATORY TEXTS FROM
- Erich Blechschmidt (“How Human Life Begins”) : differentiations, formative forces, “movements”
- Rosine Chandebois (“Form and Gene”) : “inductions,” production of lesions
THE EMBRYOLOGICAL LESION
- Definition
- Spatial and temporal location
- Cause
PRESENTATION OF EMBRYOLOGICAL TREATMENT
- Concept, clinical application, practice
CLINICAL STUDY OF COMMON EMBRYOLOGICAL LESIONS
- Diagnosis and treatment.
- Example, failure of cephalo-cardiac uncoiling: the face, the eyes, the ears, the limbs
- Lower part of the body: the lumbosacral-coccygeal region with proposed treatment
THE MIDLINE, SYMMETRY, ASYMMETRY (physiological and pathological – scoliosis)
- Symmetry of the involuntary mechanism
- Dissymmetry in the voluntary mechanism — anatomical, functional, pathological.
- Genes of dissymmetry.
- “Essential adolescent scoliosis”?
INTRODUCTION TO THE CONCEPT OF EMBRYOLOGICAL SCOLIOSIS
WORKING HYPOTHESES
- Scoliosis capitis
- Positional (Arbuckle), Obstetrical (Magoun)
- Embryological scoliosis
- Possible inducing elements: liver, heart, lungs, intestines, etc.
- How to recognize them
- How to treat them
Week-end 12 - Introduction to fundamental "embryological" osteopathy applied to the visceral field
- General concepts
- State of general health
- Use of embryological power and its patterns in treatment
- Specific treatment
- Body cavities
- The diaphragms
- Vascular supply
- Specific techniques
Week-end 13 - Fundamental osteopathy applied to the entire body
- Presentation of the theory and treatment
- Holds and techniques
- Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine
- Upper limbs
- Lower limbs
Week-end 14 - Process of birth
Course presentation; the need to treat children and therefore to understand the processes involved, from embryology to birth.
BIRTH
- Normal expulsion, the forces that control it, and the risks involved.
- The different shapes of the pelvis and the pathologies they may lead to.
- The different possible fetal positions (physiological and non-physiological).
STUDY OF THE FETAL SKULL AND THE BEHAVIOR OF ITS VARIOUS ELEMENTS DURING BIRTH
- The brain, membranes, vault and base — especially the “composite bones” — sphenoid, temporal, occipital, their specific ossification and potential problems.
- The diameters of the newborn’s skull and its importance, whether appropriate or not, at the time of expulsion.
- Interventions that may be involved in the natural or imposed processes (epidural etc.)
- Practical sessions.
THE CRANIAL BASE ITSELF IN THE BIRTH PROCESS
- Summary of the cranial base as presented by Charlotte Weaver.
- Birth pathway described by her and her colleagues.
- Practical sessions applied to three particular techniques inspired by Charlotte Weaver’s concepts and her Embryological Conception
- The sphenoid
- The temporal
- The occipital
- Lippincott’s technique for opening the lateral masses.
- Multiple lesion of the occipito-mastoid “bowl”
- Endo-osseous occipital lesion.
Week-end 15 - Philosophical influences of osteopathy
DIAGNOSIS WITH THE INVOLUNTARY MECHANISM - With texts by Rollin Becker
TREATMENT WITH THE INVOLUNTARY - With texts by Rollin Becker
PATHS OF INITIATION - Teachings of Rollin E. Becker and Jacques Andreva Duval
- Balanced rhythmic exchange
- Stillness
- The silent partner
- Total openness