William Garner Sutherland

William Garner Sutherland (1873–1954) was an American 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 osteopath to conceptualize the cranial approach and systematically teach it. He acknowledged Andrew Taylor Still as the developer of all osteopathy including the cranial approach. The term Cranial osteopathy is a misnomer – cranial means the head and it became known as this as the evolution of the system started with diagnosis and treatment of the soft tissues and bones of the cranium. Sutherland was the first 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 force "Primary Respiration."

Cranial osteopathy is often approached with scientific skepticism and is declared as invalid by those in the osteopathic and chiropractic professions.

A list of techniques and concepts which Sutherland had significant impact on:

• Cranial osteopathy is the source of craniosacral therapy (cranial techniques practiced by non osteopaths)
• Balanced ligamentous tension
• Primary respiratory mechanism

It has been speculated that Sutherland borrowed ideas directly from the 1882 English translation of Swedenborg's writings on brain physiology.