Asking the Viscera
An Introduction to Biodynamic Visceral Manipulation
Recorded February 26, 2021
No Prerequisites Required!
This is an introductive course to biodynamic visceral manipulation based on biodynamic and traditional osteopathic principles. Palpation concepts will emphasize that practitioners can palpate, hold, and dialogue with the structural, fluidic, and electromagnetic bodies of the organ (dense organ) and visceral (hollow organ.) The asking of whether the body would like direct or indirect (work with the ease) will be outlined briefly and palpation concepts will be taught to assist the practitioner in identifying and mobilizing an organ/viscera, a surrounding capsule (fascia), fluid, a nerve and a vessel. These techniques may then be applied to any living structure in the body.
This course is excellent for practitioners who are looking to gain a deeper, more biodynamic understanding of visceral manipulation while staying rooted in the anatomy. A foundational understanding of how to position the patient as the ultimate teacher and the primary guide to indication of therapeutic application frees the practitioner of having to make decisions from the hierarchy or from the mind.
This is also a non-obligatory introduction course that will prepare practitioners for enrolling in the definitive Three Bodies Course: The Full Spectrum of Biodynamic Visceral Manipulation that was originally held March 2021.
Hour One:
Brief lecture “The Rule of the Artery as Absolute” outlining on the traditional Osteopathic teachings about the importance of blood flow into the tissues according to Dr. Andrew Taylor Still. Structural, Fluidic, and Electromagnetic Bodies defined. The four different classical approaches to VM according to the traditional Osteopathic philosophies will be outlined.
Hour Two: We will ask the “viscera” to rise, ask “what does it need” (direct or indirect work), and palpate the difference between the three bodies.
Hour Three:
Palpation techniques of the bone vs. fascia, viscera, nerves and blood vessels will be demonstrated and practiced to give practitioners the opportunity to recognize this in their practices.
Close of course: How to begin work online with patients as an advocate.
Your Instructor
Carey Benenson Taussig D.O. (IT) holds dual diplomas in Osteopathy: Osteopathy and Osteopathic Science. She is a “docente” in Italy (professor,) and also teaches post graduate programs privately and individually in the U.S. Carey is a certified graduate of Boston University and the Collège d'Études Ostéopathiques (CAN.) Teaching and working both in Italy and in the U.S., she is also a published writer as well as the communication coordinator for the Tuscany division of the National Italian Society of Registered Osteopaths ROI (Registro degli Osteopati d’Italia.) She first made her mark as an educator when her advanced visceral manipulation course on Osteopathy and Lyme Disease was featured by Bastyr University’s Continuing Education Department in 2016. Soon afterwards, she introduced her full Visceral Program in the U.S. where she was invited to write for a national publication, Massage Magazine, on the importance of VM as a modality for manual therapists. She continues to write for MM and in Fall 2022 they also published her e-book on how to work online. She is now focusing on the subjects including Long COVID, Biodynamic Pregnancy, Reflections of Anatomy in Nature: Anti-stress Techniques to Incorporate into Practice, and Biodynamics in Dialoguing with the Viscera, as well as Dancing with the Anatomy: Movement Work to Stimulate Healing, and How to Work with Clients Online.
Carey is recognized for creating a synergetic fusion between the biodynamics and the traditional philosophies originally established by the late 19th century bone setters and grandfathers of Osteopathy and visceral manipulation including the Founder, Dr. Andrew Taylor Still as well as Dr. Barber and more.
In her teachings she brings in the component of asking the viscera which body the strain is imprinted upon within the three bodies. This three-body concept was originally recognized in traditional Osteopathic teachings of palpation protocols in her college where it is taught that we can apply three different levels of palpation: protocol one: the musculoskeletal structural level, protocol two: the fluids, and protocol three: electromagnetics. She then began to investigate and teach her philosophy of dialoguing with the in between spaces where one can journey between the three bodies to be invited to dialogue with the organism in different phases of life and development and to experience the fracture sites where trauma may bind blockages or trap memory. She began to also recognize the importance of using the frequency of sound with her voice to midwife these areas to lift off the imprints of trauma. This was inspired as well by her exposure to the Native American Church in the early 2000s. Journeying in palpation and sound (when indicated) often creates space to shed the ancestral strains that can be translated through the generations through the ground matter and through the grid of the DNA therefore releasing the messengers of pain or pathology. In this process, she often will then feel structures that call for support, assist, or unblocking through action. She sites how nature is mirrored within us like a forest of organic understanding how we are built. This offers both a place of reference as well as a potent and supportive fulcrum. Carey, as also a Master Instructor Forest Bather, refers often to the poetry in nature as a way to mirror in a true reference point to maintain the fulcrum without exhaust or imposition on the client. She acknowledges the power of the visceral spine being more influential at times than the vertebral spine and lectures on the resonance potential of certain key point structures to maintain the tidal patterns of homeostasis. The lymphatics like the water canals of the tree absorbing health and nutrients through the roots of the capillaries flushing nutrients where needed and bathing the tissues of the organism giving flight and generation of power to the nerves and nervous system.
Her science background helps Carey keep the students' feet rooted in the anatomy offering the possibility to experience the liquid state of the continuum and the constant of energy in her teachings. With this, she stays footed in the anatomy and in her classes, she outlines the influence of the artery, capsule, tissue, scar tissue, vessels and nerves that can have a primary influence on the functionality of the organ (dense) or viscera (hollow organ.) The matter and the position of the structures count in their functionality potential.
Carey is highly intuitive, studied also with grand master physicians and practitioners worldwide and has also studied extensively with the Monks. She is known for her extensive work with some of the most complicated cases involving the brain and nervous system, the heart, autoimmune disorders, chronic and acute pain.
Carey means “joyful spirit.” Based in Florence, Carey sees patients in one of the oldest Medical studios in Florentine history and is a friend to the monks. She is a European-trained Osteopath, partner, a mother of two, certified beekeeper, professor and a published writer. She often mentions that the more she knows, the less she understands which frees her to enter into a deeper listening with the patient and the Creator, pulling out her tools as she is invited to do through the portal of the fulcrum.
Carey Benenson B.Sc Mass Communications, Boston University
D.O.(M.P,) Collège d'Études Ostéopathiques (Dual Degree)
D.O. (IT) Registro degli Osteopati d’Italia ROI
Published Author, Massage Magazine, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023
Post Graduate Professor & Docente (Bastyr University, Centro Na.Me.)
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association, Breath of Life Conference 2022
International Microcirculation Network Institute Conference, 2016
Esalen, Continuum Movement & Nia
Bioresonance Specialist (Chemical & Nutritional Balancing)