Dr. Bill Foley just returned from the Osteopathic Cranial Academy’s Annual Conference in Minneapolis, MN. It was a 4 day conference held from June 15-18. This year the work and teaching of Anne Wales, DO was celebrated. It was a historic event with the highest attendance in OCA history. Dr. Foley was on faculty as a table trainer.
This conference was classic applied Osteopathy as taught by Drs. Still, Sutherland, and Wales. Presenters talked about their experiences with their brilliant mentor, Anne Wales, DO, and present her incredibly precise methods of diagnosis and treatment for the whole body, which she learned from Sutherland, as he learned from Still. Dr. Sutherland recounted in his writings, “Dr. Still has taken my hand in his and allowed me to feel the lesion as it was being exaggerated and then as the natural agencies pulled the bones back into place”. As Dr. Sutherland continued his study, he observes numerous ways to engage and utilize those natural agencies. The philosophy of osteopathy is the basis of this work, an application of original osteopathic thinking. Clinically relevant anatomy and physiology form the foundation through which it evolves.
The legacy of Dr. Wales reaches farther than many people know. She had the privilege of being a close friend and long time student of Dr. William Garner Sutherland. Dr. Wales served as one of his trusted faculty members for many years. She was part of Sutherland’s teaching faculty when Edna Lay, DO and Viola Frymann, DO took his course, and personally taught many current OCF faculty in the US and around the world. She produced and edited both Contributions of Thought and Teachings in the Science of Osteopathy, making Dr. Sutherland’s teachings available to all. Dr. Wales continued to study with Dr. Sutherland until his death in 1954. He charged her, and the rest of his faculty, with passing on his teachings to the next generation of osteopaths. This lineage from Dr. Still to Dr. Sutherland to Dr. Wales, will now be passed from her students to the conference participants.
In the mid 1940’s, Dr. Sutherland invited his faculty to his home in Minnesota to learn “how he approached the rest of the patient’s body,” utilizing the powers within the patient. The work he presented forms the basis of this course, and we will be traveling back to Minnesota for the occasion.
Our faculty was comprised of those who were personally mentored by Dr. Wales and have been actively teaching her work. The conference included table trainers in a ratio of 1:6 so the work can be passed on as Anne intended, “hand to hand.”