SUTHERLAND CRANIAL ACADEMY
OF BELGIUM
The SCAB
The Sutherland Cranial Academy of Belgium is an academic society, incorporated as a non-profit organisation, whose primary objective is to form a working group based on the deepening of knowledge at both the theoretical and practical levels, through the development of palpation skills.
Its aims are:
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To promote therapy, prophylaxis, education and research in osteopathic medicine, particularly in the cranial field.
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To disseminate, update, deepen and evolve the philosophy, principles and techniques derived from the concepts of Andrew Taylor Still, DO and William Garner Sutherland, DO
History of the Sutherland Cranial Academy of Belgium.
During a course of the "Sutherland Cranial Teaching Foundation" (SCTF) in the United States, Belgian osteopaths met John H. Harakal, osteopath, graduated in 1957 from the "Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine".
He was president and teacher at the SCTF from 1980 to 1993. His dedication to the osteopathic cause and the interest he had in its international development made him play a vital role for osteopathy in Europe.
It allowed William Gartner Sutherland's teaching to be exported beyond American borders, particularly to Belgium and Australia.
Coming from the USA, the craniosacral concept in osteopathy contains riches that were insufficiently known and little taught in Europe until the 1990s.
Under the leadership of John Harakal, osteopaths Jean Burnotte, Sophie Hautain, Henri O. Louwette, Jean-Pierre Noelmans and Michel Renier took the initiative to found the SCAB in 1992. They wanted to establish a meeting place, a field of experience, a melting pot where thought, sensation, intuition and feeling could be energized and shared. A society, a place of exchange that can involve confrontation, without mistrust.
Furthermore, the concept could lose its authenticity, hence the idea of forming a teaching team to perpetuate the teaching.
This is how SCAB was born…
Birth of a Logo
The two pterigoid processes of the sphenoid symbolize the two founding columns of the universe; the column of knowledge and the column of life which are also the two fundamental axes of osteopathic medicine.
The winged body of the sphenoid unites these two axes, transforming this duality into a uni-trilogy, "the ark of the covenant", giving it the wings of elevation. These wings, when deployed, take the form of a cup that characterizes the opening, that is to say the capacity to receive and offer of the therapist on the path towards non-duality.
The higher base in its center represents the steps to climb, the obstacle to overcome so that the door of the Ark of the Covenant can open, leading to the middle way.
Jean Burnotte DO
First President SCAB
Excerpt from Thinking Issue 1