If you are nervous about being manipulated and ‘clicked’, she practices the Sacro-Occipital Technique and it is very gentle. It’s weird how effective it is considering how light the touch is. Give it a try!"
Laura D, Epsom
WHAT IS SOT?
Sacrooccipital Technique (SOT) is a highly accurate and effective method of assessing and correcting spinal subluxation and postural distortion patterns in the human body.
SOT is the culmination of the life’s work of Major DeJarnette who was both a Chiropractor and an Osteopath. DeJarnette understood the complexities of the human form. He researched and wrote over 100 books and several hundred papers of his observations. He developed an understanding that the body will distort, adapt and compensate to subluxation patterns in the cranium, spine and pelvis. He created SOT as a way of restoring normal structure to the musculoskeletal body and therefore normal functioning to the brain and spinal cord, which has been affected by such distortion.
SOT is studied postgraduate to basic Chiropractic education. Successful application of SOT has helped many hundreds of thousand people worldwide. Research providing evidence of DeJarnette’s work continues.
How is SOT different?
SOT chiropractors require an in-depth knowledge of anatomy pertaining to the pelvis, spine and cranium. Specific forces are transmitted through the body. Like a suspension bridge our bodies respond to the loads placed on it. When part of the suspension bridge is weakened the entire bridge structure has to respond and adapt to the loads placed on it. The human body also has a “moving architecture” that will adapt and compensate to the strains placed on it.
The stresses we place on the body may be considered normal life; occupational, stress related, posture habits, sporting activities. How well your body responds to such stress is dependant on so many factors; birth trauma, cranio-dental issues, previous injury, posture-type, stress levels, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet.
SOT chiropractors have an understanding of how different layers of the body’s anatomy from muscle to fascia to joints will respond to subluxation patterns. Using a specific SOT category system developed by DeJarnette to identify and treat different subluxation/ postural distortion patterns.
The Category System
This is a method of analysing how your body is adapting to spinal subluxation patterns. Your body will respond to subluxation by adapting or compensating, this is observed as one of three adaptive postures:
Identifying specific clinical findings (indicators) an SOT Chiropractor will analyse your body’s structure and categorize your problem and follow the most appropriate treatment approach for you.
Category One - when the sacroiliac joints of your pelvis misalign or become fixed this will limit the normal movement of the sacrum (lowest part of the spine); this may be experienced as low back pain. If we recognise that the movement relationship between the sacrum and the occiput (base of the skull) creates a pumping action which helps to circulate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which is essential for providing nutrients to the nervous system and removing waste products. Abnormal motion at the sacrum and occiput can affect the fluid motion of CSF. Therefore Category one symptoms may be due to a lack of nerve function, experienced as a multitude of varying symptoms, secondary to a lack of nutrients to the nervous system and build up of waste products.
Category Two - this is a sacroiliac joint (the joints of the pelvis) problem and can be a progression from an uncorrected Category One. This is essentially a sprain of the ligaments that hold the sacroiliac joint together, causing too much movement on the joint (hypermobility). The sacroiliac joint is the main weight-bearing joint of the skeletal system. Your hypermobile sacroiliac joint is creating an unstable base for your spine. This failure to weight bear challenges your body’s balance and can affect all your major joints especially low back, neck, shoulders and even jaw and cranial (skull) system.
Category Three - can be a progression from a Category Two. Discs act as shock absorbers between the vertebrae throughout the spine. These discs may eventually fail to tolerate the load places on them either because the your body is out of balance due to an unstable pelvis or secondary to a one off event such as a fall or lifting and twisting. If the shock absorption between the spinal joints fails it leaves the nerves, that are exiting the spine or spinal cord housed within the spine, more vulnerable to becoming irritated, by traction or compression on the nerve tissue. This may be experienced as low back pain, leg pain (sciatica) or arm pain.