Legend has it, that even Hippocrates used hands-on intervention with his patients. From records almost 2,500 years old, we do know that he was able to cure injuries and dislocations by applying certain hands-on techniques and grips. Since, of course, a lot has changed. Medical knowledge has grown to have a much wider base, and physicians and physiotherapists are provided with a vastly increased knowledge about process and correlations of movements within the human body.
If you have already experienced Manual Therapy or if you have ever observed the process between patient and physiotherapist, you may well have overlooked the inherent complexity of the treating person's approach, because, at a glimpse, the treatment appears to be just another normal physiotherapy. However, you could not be more wrong. "Manual Therapy" requires a special additional training within the field of physiotherapy. A physiotherapist desiring to acquire this further education has to provide proof of 260 hours training complete with successfully passing the certificate exam.
As versatile as the Manual Therapy's possibilities as far-reaching are its impacts: it is possible to mobilize or stabilize joints (i.e. increase movability and flexibility) or to back them up by building relevant muscles. However, Manual Therapy also intervenes with the patient's perception of his/her body contributing to a more conscious and thereby improved general treatment of the body.

Too small clearance between vertebrae will impede movement!
When the human vertebrae - due to old age or disease - converge because the intervertebral disc has ceased to provide the buffering function, also ligaments and muscles connected to the vertebral bodies become limp and flaccid. This results in an increasing movement between the vertebral bodies causing damage to the intervertebral disc. Manual Therapy can help affected patients suffering from chronic pains in two ways: improving the stability in the affected areas and re-mobilizing of the adjacent areas. In other words: what has become stiff is made flexible again, and what has become limp is vitalized. It goes without saying that this cannot be achieved in the short run, and that success depends to a high degree upon the proactive cooperation of the patient. However, when achieved, the success is quite impressing: alleviation of pain or even elimination of pain.

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