{"id":2731,"date":"2026-08-03T00:05:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/osteopathieherengracht.nl\/de-oorsprong-van-osteopathie-visie-geloof-wetenschap-en-het-zelfgenezend-vermogen-copy\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T00:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:44:16","slug":"mind-matter-motion-wat-pasgeborenen-mij-leren-over-de-intelligentie-van-het-lichaam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osteopathieherengracht.nl\/en\/mind-matter-motion-wat-pasgeborenen-mij-leren-over-de-intelligentie-van-het-lichaam\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind, Matter, Motion: what newborns teach me about the intelligence of the body"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Blog<\/h2>\n

Mind, Matter, Motion: what newborns teach me about the intelligence of the body<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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There is something that moves me every single time: a two-week-old newborn can show me more about how the body works than seven textbooks ever could.<\/p>\n

When palpating* a baby\u2019s little skull you often feel, quite literally, a clear hardening in the membranes and the still unossified bone structures. That hardening is not damage and not chance. It is resistance \u2014 an intelligent protective response to the enormous forces that pass through the tiny body during birth. The body holds firm in order to protect the brain and the vital functions.<\/p>\n

Nowhere do I see the osteopathic principle as clearly as here: the body can heal itself when the structure is in balance. No habits, no compensations, no patterns built up over years. Only a little body that is still completely open \u2014 and that shows exactly what it has been through.<\/p>\n

*Palpation is the diagnostic sensing of anatomical structures. <\/em><\/p>\n

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A truly holistic approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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In recent years this vision has been receiving more and more support from different angles. Psychology looks at how early experiences shape the nervous system and basic safety. Body-oriented and trauma-informed approaches speak of tension that settles when it has not been able to let go.<\/p>\n

Osteopathy does something those other perspectives do not: it makes the concrete, tangible link back to the matter itself. No metaphor, no theoretical construct \u2014 a hardened cranial membrane that you feel under your hands. Where others speak of \u201cstored tension,\u201d osteopathy brings that tension back to the physical tissue in which it actually resides. That is what makes the approach truly holistic: mind, nervous system and matter in one and the same treatment.<\/p>\n

Andrew Taylor Still built his entire philosophy on this insight more than a hundred years ago \u2014 long before \u201cself-regulation\u201d and \u201cthe body keeps the score\u201d became common terms.<\/p>\n

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Mind, Matter, Motion<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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For Still, life arises from the unity of three principles:<\/p>\n