Somato-emotional dysfunction Osteopathy and Focusing. Dino Muzzi D.O.

March 18-19-20 2027

3 days course 9h00 to 17h30 (21 hours)

Course in English translated in German

For registration visite the site of the school at:

www.osteopathie-kolleg.com

Somato-Emotional Dysfunctions in Osteopathy

Integrating Osteopathic Practice with the Focusing Approach

The emotional component plays a crucial role in the success of osteopathic treatment. This three-day workshop is designed for osteopaths who wish to deepen their understanding and clinical management of somato-emotional dysfunctions.

Participants will learn how to differentiate, through refined palpation, between somatic tension and somato-emotional dysfunction. This approach integrates osteopathic principles with the Focusing method, creating a non-directive therapeutic process that allows the deeper meaning and origin of dysfunctions to emerge naturally—without intellectual analysis.

In this process, the practitioner becomes a supportive guide, facilitating the patient’s internal experience and helping them move through their tension-emotion patterns. The approach is grounded in presence, neutrality, and respect for the patient’s internal process. There is no room for interpretation, judgment, or projection from either the therapist or the patient’s analytical mind. Instead, the patient’s deeper, often unconscious bodily intelligence is allowed to express itself.

The Focusing Approach

Focusing is a body-centered psychotherapeutic method developed by American philosopher and psychologist Eugene Gendlin in the early 1970s. It is based on cultivating attentive awareness toward internal bodily sensations, including emotions, kinesthetic feelings, and visceral perceptions.

Gendlin introduced the concept of the “felt sense”, a subtle bodily awareness through which the body recognizes and gives meaning to unresolved emotional or experiential situations. This embodied perception allows individuals to connect directly with underlying tensions and emotions.

Clinical research conducted in the United States has demonstrated that the Focusing approach can significantly reduce symptoms of depression and improve body awareness and emotional integration compared to control groups (Katonah & Flaxman, 2009).

Osteopathy and Focusing: A Powerful Clinical Integration

After many years of clinical practice, study, and reflection combining osteopathy with the Focusing approach, it has become clear that the integration of these two methods provides osteopaths with a highly effective and powerful therapeutic tool.

During this workshop, participants will explore and practice:

• A fascial evaluation method to better identify primary lesions, improve diagnostic precision, and increase clinical efficiency.
• An introduction to somato-emotional dysfunctions within the fascial system.
• Understanding the inseparable relationship between physical tensions and emotional involvement.
• A patient-centered verbalization method based on the principles of Focusing, allowing emotions connected to somato-emotional dysfunctions to emerge in a safe and non-directive way.
• Practical demonstrations on guiding patients during treatment, helping them release the emotional component while maintaining a dynamic osteopathic fulcrum.
• Treatment strategies integrating osteopathy and Focusing, adapted to the patient’s individual capacity and readiness.
• A methodology for treating specific somato-emotional areas.
• Refined palpation skills, emphasizing deep respect for tissue responses during different osteopathic techniques.

This workshop combines theoretical understanding, clinical reasoning, and hands-on practice to provide osteopaths with tools that can profoundly enhance their therapeutic effectiveness.

Instructor Biography

Dino Muzzi graduated in Physiotherapy from the Université de Montréal in 1985 and in Osteopathy from the Collège d’Études Ostéopathiques of Montreal in 1993.

Alongside his extensive clinical practice with a wide variety of patients, he has developed a strong passion for teaching and has been involved in osteopathic education for more than 30 years. He has collaborated with over twenty schools across 11 countries.

Over the years, he has developed particular expertise in the relationship between emotional processes and somatic dysfunctions, working closely with a group of psychologists specializing in trauma. Through this collaboration, he developed a specific osteopathic approach to somato-emotional dysfunctions that integrates osteopathy with the Focusing method.

He was also been involved with the Department of Justice in Quebec, contributing to the regulation and professional supervision of osteopathy.