The Berry Method
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The Legacy of Lauren Berry
by Jamie Elswick
"If you understand the force of intelligence in the body, its mechanical operation and structure, you can work on any part of the body you can reach with your hands."
---Lauren Berry
If you had asked Lauren Berry what he did for a living, he would have probably responded that he was a mechanic who worked with the innate intelligence of the human body to bring it back into balance. Lauren's education with the human body began at an early age in Oakland, California, where he was born in 1917. His mother had been ill for some time when Lauren made friends with an elderly osteopath from Finland. Since the physician lived down the street, he would have Lauren come over and teach him techniques to use on his mother, who soon recovered.
She began telling her friends of her recovery and several of them wanted to experience her son's work as well. One of these women was the wife of the town coroner. She brought along her son who had been ill for a long time with a nervous system disorder. As the boy started to improve, his father made arrangements to meet with Lauren. That meeting led to a valuable learning opportunity - to work in the autopsy room with the coroner. It was there that Lauren became fascinated with the structure and intelligence of the human body.
As Lauren became a young man, he studied structural engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and was responsible for many buildings in the Oakland area. He then traveled to Asia where he studied other types of body work and taught in several monasteries. Returning home, he studied physical therapy and began incorporating all he had learned. Instrumental in establishing the first physical therapy laws in the state of California, Lauren practiced under the title of Registered Physical Therapist. Thus, he developed a remarkable system of massage (called The Berry MethodTM) that encompasses a wide range of techniques for treating a wide range of ailments.
Although primarily based on bringing balance into soft tissue such as ligament, tendon, and muscle, the Berry Method also includes visceral components as well as extensive lymphatic work. An observer in Berry's office noted that in one day Lauren treated sinus problems, a frozen shoulder, a hernia and a weak bladder.
Tough cases found their way to Lauren, one of which was written up in Somatics (a magazine that focuses on structural bodywork). It involved the case of a seven year old boy who had nearly drowned two years prior. The boy had suffered brain damage, severe muscle spasms and was unable to speak or hold down food very well. After one session with Lauren, the boy's spasms lessened and several weeks later he spoke the word "mine" while trying to get a toy from his brother. One of the great things about Lauren was that he held very little ego - for him, this case involved looking at the boy's mechanics and working accordingly. There were many such events in Lauren's long career, in which he diverted the credtit from himself, stating that he was not a healer, just a mechanic.
Lauren's work did not miss the attention of some of the Bay Area doctors. In an article in the San Francisco Examiner published in 1982, Dr. Ralph Pelligra noted, "Mechanically it was obvious to me that Lauren knew what he was doing on an instinctual level. He not only feels what is going on in the body but he sees it; this ability is what makes him unique."
What is unique to the Berry Method is the use of muscle or organ positioning. With trauma, tissues such as ligaments or muscle can become displaced (for example, the medial collateral ligament of the knee shifting because of a twisting fall). While rubbing the area might loosen it and cause it to feel better for a while, it would still remain out of position, thus making the knee unstable and prone to further damage. By shifting the ligament back into place, proper mechanics is restored, sometimes immediately. Similar work done very gently can also be applied to the visceral organs, such as a dropped bladder. Lauren believed the body had a memory and, with a litttle encouragement, body organs would want to return to their proper place in the whole of the organism. Lauren also had a good sense of the body as a whole. He likened the pelvis to a keystone in an arch that, if out of balance, affects structures both above and below. Work around a joint could thus not be done without addressing this area in order to give the body a better chance to achieve balance.
After practicing for 55 years, Lauren Berry died of cancer in 1983. Fortunately, he left behind some highly trained students who started the Institute of Integral Health in Berkeley, California, in 1986. Today, the school is still in operation with the original core group now having an average of 25 years of experience each. Lynn Van Norman, who teaches in Anchorage twice a year, is one of the original students.
There are a number of massage students who have taken the weekend workshops that focus on specific injury sites, such as the knee or ankle. The main body of work, however, is taught in Berkeley. It takes a minimum of five years to reach a testing point for certification. There are just a handful of dedicated students in Anchorage and the Valley who are in various stages of completion of the program.
For the client, the Berry Method offers balance and relief from pain and areas of restriction. For the student, the Berry Method offers a classroom that doesn't end after massage school, but goes on continually as desired. Lauren Berry was truly one of a kind, and his legacy carries on in the great body of work he left behind.
Jamie Elswick, LMT, is a practitioner and teacher of the Berry Method.