Our Founder - Jean-Pierre Barral
Jean-Pierre Barral is a Diplomate of Osteopathy, a Member of the Registre des Ostéopathes de France, and a Physical Therapist. He is the Developer of the manual therapy he calls Visceral Manipulation (VM). Through his clinical work with thousands of patients, he created this modality based on organ-specific fascial mobilization. And through work in a dissection lab, he was able to experiment with VM techniques and see the internal effects of the manipulations. He served as Chairman of the International College of Osteopathy at St. Etienne, France. He was also on the faculty of Médecine de Paris Nord - Université Paris Nord. While on faculty, he was the Chief of the Visceral Manipulation Department—the first time in the world that a VM therapist was part of a medical faculty.
TIME Magazine, citing his development of Visceral Manipulation, named Jean-Pierre Barral, DO one of the Top Healing Innovators to watch in the new millennium.
Based on his ongoing research and clinical work, Jean-Pierre Barral developed additional manual therapy disciplines—Visceral Vascular Manipulation, Neural Manipulation, and New Manual Articular Approach—in collaboration with Alain Croibier, DO.
Barral continues to innovate and we introduce his latest manual therapy discipline that has been decades in the making - Manual Approach to the Brain.
Jean-Pierre states, even after more than 40 years of research and working with patients, as well as educating tens of thousands of therapists around the world, "we know so little; only the tissues know." We can think as therapists we know what to do to help a patient, but it is only when we put our hands on the person, that the tissues then show us what is needed.
Author (books)
- Visceral Manipulation
- Visceral Manipulation II
- The Thorax
- Urogenital Manipulation
- Manual Thermal Evaluation (formerly Manual Thermal Diagnosis)
- Trauma: An Osteopathic Approach
- Manual Therapy for the Cranial Nerves
- Manual Therapy for the Peripheral Nerves
- Manual Therapy for the Prostate
- Visceral Vascular Manipulation
- New Manual Articular Approach; Upper Extremity
- New Manual Articular Approach; Lower Extremity
- New Manual Articular Approach; Cervical Spine
- Manual Therapy Approach to the Brain; Volume 1
- Understanding the Messages of Your Body
- Understanding Messages of Your Joints
Leader and Innovator
Throughout his career as an osteopath and physical therapist, Jean-Pierre Barral has been recognized as an innovator and leading proponent in the investigation of new manual therapies. His development of Visceral Manipulation in particular earned him an international reputation.
During the last four decades of clinical work and studies, Barral has developed additional manual therapy disciplines that are now taught worldwide to healthcare professionals through Barral Institute's educational programs. Barral remains the head of the Barral Institute Academic Leadership, along with Alain Croibier and Gail Wetzler.
Visceral Manipulation Interview with Jean-Pierre Barral
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