Ortho-Bionomy is a method which emerged from the mind of the Canadian osteopath Arthur L. Pauls in 1978.

Ortho-Bionomy's main aim is to help clients to relax the tensions that cause muscular pains and joint stiffness. Practically the relaxation maneuvers are based on antalgic positions and light compressions applied by the practitoner in order to stimulate the self-regulating and self-corrective ability in the client's body.

Thus Ortho-Bionomy is not a manipulative method but an act of information and stimulation that allows the physiological mechanisms of the body to regain their natural functions, altered by different causes, like accidents, incorrect postures, unnatural habits.

The body can recover its efficiency depending on the seriousness of the accident that caused the pain or the function's alteration. For example, a serious joint fracture could greatly reduce its functional movements; in such cases the recovery ability could be lost permanently, while in a less serious case it could be totally restored.

Ortho-Bionomy has its roots in Taoist's philosophy and in martial arts. One of the foundations of Taoist thought is the development of naturality allowing events to flow without an outside intervention (a manipulation).

In Chinese it is called WEI WU WEI or "Action without action".The final aim of a warrior is to fight without fighting, and for an Orthobionomist the aim is to refine to such an extent his activity on a client so that it will happen without a visible action.

Flowing water always follows the path of minor resistance: it doesn't collide thus it can flow. Such a possibility is refined by the practitioner through his own personal evolution, together with a progression of classes or phases that prepare the students to measure themselves against these concepts:

hase 4: development of contact and touch's ability on a physical level.
Phase 5: develops a deeper awareness of the energetical movements' patterns, intrinsic to the body.
Phase 6: the refinement of the sensibility towards the auric level of the people, in order to enter in contact with the effects emotion and thought have on the physical and energetical bodies.
Phase 7: brings us closer to the dimension of symbols as archetypes that form the universal laws that constitute the reality in which we live.

In its purest form Ortho-Bionomy is also an attempt to unify western pragmatism of action with the extreme introspection developed by the oriental cultures; the beneficial effects are experienced by the practitioner and the client, both united by the universal principle "by reflex, your wellbeing becomes my well being.