“I am also so grateful for the students and other instructors that have come into my life because of the relationships that naturally build within the work. It is so fulfilling,” beams Sheri Covey, advanced ortho-bionomy instructor and founder of Rocky Mountain Ortho-Bionomy Center (RMOBC) in Colorado.

As the term indicates, ortho-bionomy (ortho, meaning aligned, and bionomy, relating to physiology), is a neurological and structural practice that works with the body’s ability to self-correct without pain or force.

Sheri Covey

“The best part of ortho-bionomy is the fact that it is a principle-based work rather than an agenda-based or protocol based work. It is creative because it bends to meet each body and honor their personal journey. It is insane that we think that we can treat everyone the same and expect the same result,” Covey explains, “Ortho-bionomy defies that idea by allowing each practitioner to create the right relationship with the body that will allow it to heal in the area that needs support.”

Covey further explains it like this: most bodywork practices only work on one aspect of healing — message targets soft
tissue while chiropractic’s is bone-based. Ortho-bionomy, however, can work in the lymph, endocrine, fascia, soft tissue, visceral (organ) and structural body systems (and all combinations). “It is based on listening and responding to what each body needs,” she shares.

Covey knows first-hand how impactful ortho-bionomy can be. “I fell in love with it rather quickly. It wasn’t hard to believe in the work when it literally changed my foot and my knee in a short amount of time and I experienced no pain. I was fascinated by how the work could meet any system of our body and help the body self-correct in all the relationships that are a part of our patterns of pain,” she says. She had the desire to help people rediscover the fullness of life after pain and injury, but it wasn’t until she was in massage school that her ortho-bionomy journey started — she signed up for a 1,000-hour course and learned that the work was so effective that it resolved long-term issues she had been dealing with that deep tissue massage had never touched. “I was so amazed, I wanted to take more classes,” she recalls.

photos courtesy of Sheri Covey

When she was ready to start working in massage therapy, Covey knew she needed to share what she had learned about ortho-bionomy. However, it took her some time to gain confidence in the practice. She started to mix it into her massage sessions; it was when her clients kept asking for more of the work that Covey realized she was too busy doing both ortho-bionomy and message and she jumped into ortho-bionomy full time. “I was prepared for my business falling apart,” she recalls, “but instead I ended up increasing my business and was booked three months out. It was more popular when I started to own how profound the work was in the healing process.”

Ortho-bionomy is osteopath-based and emphasizes comfort and allowing the body to relax into a new understanding and often opens creates new neurological pathways that assist and speed up the process of healing. A collegiate volleyball
player turned coach, Covey has not only personally experienced the benefits of ortho-bionomy, she has also implemented the practice in her training protocol for her athletes. “It is my dream that more and more sports will embrace the understanding that we are beyond massage, [so] we are able to speed up the healing process for athletes,” Covey shares.

Although, the people groups that may reap the benefits of ortho-bionomy does not end with athletes; it works for spine and neck injuries, athletic injuries, post surgeries, trauma from car accidents, gallbladder issues, digestive, liver, head injuries as Covey shares.

If you’d like to experience the healing benefits on ortho-bionomy and learn how to help others heal from within, RMOBC offers ortho-bionomy certification classes in Grand Junction and Denver. Rocky Mountain Ortho Bionomy Center offers classes in a 10-week program that is spread out over 16 months.

Covey and the team at Rocky Mountain Ortho-Bionomy Center offer a selection of courses throughout a two-year period that help guide students towards becoming a qualified ortho-bionomy practitioner. Students are able to study at both locations Grand Junction or Denver, Colorado.

Covey explains that spending time face-to-face is important for students but she’s proud of the fact that they’ve designed that classes in a modular system so students can study for a week and then return home to practice until the next model.
They return every two to three months and take another week of classes.

As Covey says, “It is an inspiring journey of education and healing.”

rmobcenter.com

Kristen Grace
Assistant Print + Digital Editor
@kristen.grace_