William Garner Sutherland

Who was William Garner Sutherland?

William Garner Sutherland, D.O. was an American osteopathic physician and important figure in American osteopathic medicine. Several of his manual therapy techniques are still practiced today by a small minority of practitioners of osteopathic medicine. Sutherland was the first osteopathic physician to conceptualize the cranial approach and teach it systematically. However, Sutherland acknowledged Andrew Taylor Still as the developer of all osteopathy, including the cranial approach. Sutherland was the first person to claim to feel a rhythmic shape change in the bones of the cranium. He later applied this movement to all body tissues and this movement is the agent of change in dysfunctional tissues. He later named this motion the body's "Primary Respiration."