For hosts, schools & institutions.
A single page you can print or save as a PDF and pass to your faculty or events team. For the full picture, see For Practitioners & Institutions.
The Ankrum Method · Functional Bodywork
Leigh Ankrum
Teacher of Functional Bodywork · Founder, Ankrum Institute · Tulsa, Oklahoma
leigh@ankruminstitute.com
918-212-4206
leighankrum.com
A whole-person approach to Functional Bodywork, rooted in osteopathic principles and developed over three decades of practice and teaching — built on one conviction: the treatment plan is already in the body.
Leigh Ankrum teaches experienced practitioners — massage therapists, physical and occupational therapists, osteopaths, and physicians — to treat the whole person, not the part. Her work draws on five modalities under the osteopathic umbrella: craniosacral, osteoarticular, functional normalization, muscle energy, and visceral manipulation. She trained for five years at the Canadian College of Osteopathy and practices under a massage therapy license; since 2016 her school, the Ankrum Institute, has trained practitioners in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She teaches without formulas — her aim is practitioners who think.
Teaching topics
Visceral referral patterns
60–90% of muscle pain originates in the viscera. How to recognize organ-driven pain and trace it to its source.
The body's pressure system & the diaphragms
How the diaphragms organize pressure through the whole body — and what unravels when they can't.
Reading what the body presents
Assessment beyond protocol: letting the tissue lead you to the system that holds the root.
The treatment plan is in the body
Process-oriented bodywork — a treatment sets something in motion that keeps working after the session ends.
Craniosacral work within the osteopathic umbrella
One modality of five, taught from principle rather than sequence.
Treating the whole, not the part
The interrelationships between systems — and why parts-thinking keeps patients stuck.
Credentials & lineage
- 30+ years in continuous practice
- Founder, Ankrum Institute — school of functional bodywork, Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Five-year osteopathic training, Canadian College of Osteopathy
- Biodynamic training with Michael Shea (1990s); Franklyn Sills, Karuna Institute, England (1998)
- Twelve years (1991–2002) as teaching assistant to a leading craniosacral educator — teaching across the US, Canada, and Switzerland
Formats
- Guest lectures — in person or online
- CPD workshops
- Multi-day intensives
- Faculty collaborations
Audiences
Experienced massage & bodywork therapists · Physical therapists · Occupational therapists · Osteopaths · Physicians
Enquiries: leigh@ankruminstitute.com · 918-212-4206
“The treatment plan is in each individual body.”