Discover The Dorn Method
A Brief History of The Dorn Method
The Dorn Method has humble beginnings. It was developed by Dieter Dorn in a small village named Lautrach, deep in the South German region of Bavaria, over 50 years ago. Dieter, a sawmill owner, injured himself at work one day, whilst lifting a heavy log, subsequently suffering very badly with lumbago (called Hexenschuss) in Germany, which is a form of lower back pain.
In keeping with the traditions of rural life at the time, Dieter received help from a local farmer who employed certain techniques to alleviate his lower back pain. Impressed by the results, Dieter decided to learn these special techniques from the farmer to not only help himself but also to assist others, including his wife who suffered from severe headaches. Dieter then began helping many people in his neighbourhood by correcting their unequal leg lengths and aligning their joints. To his surprise, many other ailments, such as knee pain and seemingly unrelated health issues, also showed improvement.
As the saying goes, the rest is history. Today, the Dorn Method has evolved and is widely recognized and respected. It is practiced by thousands of therapists worldwide, predominantly in Germany.
What is The Dorn Method all about?
Although most people will come to the Dorn Method seeking immediate help with Back and Joint pain issues, the Dorn Method is actually a combination of three parts, which together combine to create an excellent Maintenance and Preventative Back and Joint Care system, designed to look after your body over the longer term.
As well as the actual therapy, which focuses on looking for and correcting Imbalances within the body, Dorn promotes the use of better Posture in day to day life as an important step to preventing Back and Joint pain and mobility issues from arising in the first place.
Dorn also teaches a set of simple, easy to learn Self help exercises which are designed to be practiced at home, to keep joints subtle, and to maintain Balance in the body, promoting healthier mobility over the long term.
How The Dorn Method Works
The Dorn Method is a very gentle and safe holistic manual therapy used to correct misalignments of the Spine and other joints without invasive procedures or harsh manipulations. The Method focuses on correcting joint and spinal alignment through gentle self regulated movements in combination with therapist guided pressure. It’s particularly known for its non invasive and gentle approach.
In a clinical practice setting, the Dorn Method therapist applies gentle pressure to the affected vertebrae or joints, while the client moves a specific part of their body, like their leg or arm back and forth in continuous motion. This movement creates dynamic tension, allowing for the bones and vertebrae to slide back into their natural positions without using force or sudden jerking movements.
The correction of a misaligned joint can sometimes prove quite difficult, and a forceful manual correction might cause more damage than good. Displaced vertebrae or joints may be held out of place by muscles, and any attempt to move these joints back into their correct positions will usually end up a fight against these muscles. However rather than forcefully trying to move the vertebrae back into place, simple Dorn techniques are employed which cleverly ‘distract’ these muscles whilst corrections are made.
This muscle distraction is achieved by asking the client to actively participate in the session. This involves the client either swinging a leg, arm or turning the head from side to side, whilst at the same time the therapist guides the joint back into its proper position, using gentle thumb or hand pressure. During the movement the muscles are in a distracted or relaxed state, and it is therefore then reasonably easy to realign joints without having to overcome too much muscle resistance. The dynamic movement provided by the client working together with the therapist enables logical mechanical principles of counter pressure and levering forces to come into play.
The beauty of this technique is that the Therapist is actually working with the Client’s body, and this form of dynamic correction is usually readily accepted by our body. This form of therapy is also completely safe, because it requires only light pressure from the therapist. Furthermore, the Dorn Method does not unnecessarily stress muscles and ligaments through jerky manipulation that could overextend those muscles, and therefore also allows the spine and joints to be adjusted much more frequently.
During or after sessions, clients may also be shown a set of simple self help exercise techniques, which they can take away with them to practice regularly at home. These exercises are meant to simulate the corrections made by the Therapist and to help maintain balance in the body with the aim of preventing re-occurrence of any problems.