Osteopathy is a healing method, that uses special hand movements to improve the functionality and mobility of the skeleton and skeletal muscles and stimulate the body's self-healing powers.

Osteopathy takes a holistic approach and regards the viscerum (organs), musculoskeletal system and connective tissue as one unit. The teaching of cranio-sacral therapy is also part of this. 

More than 140 years ago, the American doctor Andrew Taylor Still developed the principles of osteopathy after intensive research and thus founded a new medicine. Since then, osteopathy has been continuously developed.

Ortho-Bionomy goes back to the Canadian osteopath and judo teacher Arthur Lincoln Pauls (1929-1997). During his training as an osteopath, Pauls got to know the work of the American osteopath Lawrence Jones (1912-1996). Jones had found that by carefully reinforcing certain joint and body positions, a spontaneous relaxation of cramped muscles could be achieved. Based on these pain-relieving positioning techniques, Pauls developed his own treatment method, which he first introduced in 1976 under the name "Phased Reflex Techniques". In 1978 he founded the "Society of Ortho-Bionomy International" in the USA. At the beginning of the 1980s, the first courses in Ortho-Bionomy took place in Switzerland and France, where Pauls spent the last years of his life. Today the method is mainly used in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as Australia and New Zealand.