In Europe, Postural Reconstruction is taught in tandem by the INSTITUTE OF POSTURAL RECONSTRUCTION and the LOUIS PASTEUR SCIENCE UNIVERSITY of STRASBOURG where physiotherapists from around the world come to study this new form of physiotherapy. Licensed physiotherapists are granted a specialized university diploma after three years of study.
In terms of research and knowledge-sharing, the world of Medicine and patients themselves have benefited enormously, since 1992, from the credibility and the resources generated by this collaboration.

Françoise MEZIERES, the innovator of Postural Reconstruction, had a strong personality and exceptional charisma. She was so convinced that her method was correct that she did not bother to amass scientific data as proof of its effectiveness, even though she went against all accepted ways in functional rehabilitation. Her obscure discourse was comprehensible only to her students. Her writings, apart from certain injurious satires of the medical milieu, were legible only to a few initiates. From observations of one particular case, she would dare draw conclusions which she applied to the whole human race.
Françoise MEZIERES was allergic to structures and institutions. Her own virulence towards scientists in general and doctors in particular, was matched by the controversy that the very mention of her name would trigger in French medical circles. Any cooperation with the world of Science was unthinkable.
Her method became renowned through word of mouth. Her patients spread the word about her treatment, in best-selling books, authors praised this fascinating woman and her revolutionary method.
She died in 1991, leaving behind an anemic and chaotic school and a brilliant body of work unfinished. Faced with the hostility of an entire profession, her students, excellent therapists for the most part, were defenseless. To pass the acid test of Science, these students were merely armed with convictions which sounded like incantations.

These were the circumstances, in 1991, when Michaël NISAND announced his intention to set up a teaching program which would continue posthumously the work of the master. Surprisingly, this announcement was met with a partnership offer from the Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg. This collaboration gave birth, in May 1992, to the first university course in Postural Reconstruction. With this new name, Françoise MEZIERES’ work was now in a new phase where it could evolve and remain loyal to the original work.
There are three principal players in this new partnership :
- Doctor Michel JESEL, Professor of Functional Rehabilitation at the CHUR (Regional University Hospital Centre).
- Christian CALLENS, Director of the Physiotherapy Training Institute (Institut de Formation en Masso-kinésithérapie) at the CHUR, at Strasbourg.
- Michaël NISAND, former assistant to Françoise MEZIERES.
Several professors from the Louis Pasteur University participate in the program bringing to it their knowledge and their language. They also confer upon the program, ipso facto, a scientific credibility which facilitates controlled experiments in lab settings and the publication of solid scientific research. Papers on prespiration and the H reflex, produced in collaboration with the CNRS (see University Diploma thesis by A. CRISAN), are good examples.
As well, each Postural Reconstruction student must defend a university level thesis at the end of the program.
Besides the obvious advantage of scientifically verifying phenomena which were once merely empirical, the introduction of Postural Reconstruction into the university has prompted progress in the method itself and greater therapeutic effectiveness.

IN THEORY

Anatomic observation shows how certain muscles are organized in chains, a muscle chain being the set of multi-articular muscles oriented in the same direction, overlapping like tiles on a roof.
Under these conditions, all elements of a chain are interdependent making for a very powerful whole. There are 4 muscle chains in the human body which are located mostly posteriorly. Because they are constantly sollicited by daily living, these chains continue to strengthen and to shorten as no natural movement is capable of stretching them.
The shortening of the muscle chains, rather than the inability to stand up to gravity, is the man cause of deformations (scoliosis being the most apparent) and of structural alterations (arthritis, discopathies, etc.).
Therefore, the ennemy that must be overcome is this shortening of the muscle chains. All forms of muscle building are excluded in the pursuit of the normalisation of postural muscle tone.

Since deformation is caused by the shortening of the muscle chains, the only way to relieve pain in the locomotive system and in the spine is by minimizing the shortening. Most spinal problems are expressions of the hypertonicity of the muscle chains. The recovery of a normal morphology is then an essential condition for good functioning of the body and for freedom from pain.
Postural Reconstruction works to recover good functioning through a return to normal postural tone. This entails first and foremost normalisation of the morphology. We can then say that we practice therapy through morphological reconstruction.

Since passive stretching has proven to be ineffective in stretching muscle chains, an active approach to stretching the muscle chains had to be devised. This approach is what we call “active inductive sollicitation”. Precise, localized contractions bring about progressive, durable stretching of the chains and, consequently, a return towards normal morphology.

A Postural Reconstruction session is :
long : approximately one hour; any less than this would make impossible any lasting improvements. durable improvements.
individual : the session involves postures held during free, deep, rythmic exhalations with the mouth open wide. Each posture is constructed and elaborated by the physiotherapist according to the patient’s deformation and defense mecanisms. No two patients will have identical sessions, and no two sessions will be identical for any one patient.

It is extremely precise work. A Reconstructor is a specialist whose training is complete and whose only tools are his/her eyes and hands.
Sometimes spectacular, often effective, always delicate to apply, this form of physiotherapy requires a high level of competence on the part of the physiotherapist.

Postural Reconstruction requires a great deal of patient participation and is contra-indicated only in cases where this participation is impossible.