About Us
Scott Russell & Alison Harvey, BIUK directors
Barral Institute UK is the United Kingdom branch of Barral Institute Inc. based in Florida USA. The Barral Institute is a health education, training and research organisation dedicated to the advancement of Visceral Manipulation, Neural Manipulation and related Manual Therapies.
The Barral Institute works to better understand and validate the therapeutic effect of these hands on therapies and conducts workshops to educate and train healthcare practitioners in these techniques. Alumni include osteopaths, chiropractors, physiotherapists, medical doctors, occupational therapists, acupuncturists, massage therapists and other professional body workers.
The Barral Institute offers its training programme worldwide through its affiliates. The UK affiliate is based in Ayr, south west Scotland and is responsible for its training throughout the United Kingdom, that is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was established by Alison Harvey in 2008 who had already trained extensively in visceral manipulation and felt it was too good not to be made available to practitioners in the UK. Barral Institute UK has grown from its humble beginnings and now Alison together with her husband Scott Russell run an extensive programme of courses both in Ayr and London.
BIUK offers courses and also sells educational material to both the public and our students, facilitates study groups and networking. We can offer you the opportunity to sponsor workshops in your professional association, society, training school or department. Special terms may be available if you organise a group of participants and provide suitable location and facilities. We can also arrange for experienced Visceral Manipulation practitioners to speak to your staff or members, or feature in your conference programme. Please send us an email if you would like more information.
BIUK teaching team
Our Teachers
Barral Institute instructors are trained to high standards to ensure consistency and accuracy of training throughout the world. Many instructors travel internationally and in the UK we use a combination of our own teachers and other instructors from around the world. We regularly have the developers of visceral manipulation, Jean-Pierre Barral and Alain Croibier teaching in the UK for some of the higher level classes.
In the UK we have 3 of our own instructors.
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Alison Harvey
FOUNDER AND INSTRUCTOR OF BARRAL INSTITUTE UK
Alison started training in Visceral Manipulation in 2002 has been teaching for the Barral Institute since 2011. She is a chiropractor and also an Upledger Institute Instructor. She runs a busy multidisciplinary natural health clinic in Ayr, Scotland. While she loves treating patients she is also very passionate about teaching others this amazing work and says “I often think that each class I teach means this work can potentially improve the health of so many more people through all the practitioners that gain these skills”. She teaches Visceral Manipulation, Viscerovascular Manipulation and Listening Techniques and has written a book about Visceral Manipulation “A Pathway to Health”. -
Alex Fugallo
NEURAL MANIPULATION INSTRUCTOR
Alex began training in the work of Jean-Pierre Barral in 2006 and became a Barral Institute instructor in 2018. He has been a practicing osteopath since 1997 and has two busy practices in London. As a former international athlete he has a particular interest in elite sport and has worked in Premiership football, Premiership rugby, on the ATP tennis tour and Paralympics medical team. He has a passion for teaching and in addition to working for the Barral Institute he has taught osteopathic techniques at undergraduate level since 1998 at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine as well as various postgraduate osteopathic and myofascial courses over the last 25 years. Dedicated to providing high quality and innovative treatment he constantly evaluates new approaches and strives to stay at the cutting edge of his chosen field. Alex teaches the Neural Manipulation programme.
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Kirstie Cousins
VISCERAL MANIPULATION INSTRUCTOR
Kirstie has been studying with Jean Pierre Barral and the Barral Institute since 2006, after discovering Visceral Manipulation during her osteopathy training. Integrating Barral’s work in her practice has had a profound effect on her patients’ health and she is passionate about sharing this work with other practitioners. She has previously taught with the European School of Osteopathy, the Rollin E Becker Institute and the North London School of Sports Massage. She teaches Visceral Manipulation and enjoys travelling internationally to teach students around the world as well as in the UK.
Our venue in Ayr, Glasgow
In 2023 we developed our own venue for classes in the seaside town of Ayr. This venue will be used for our Scottish courses other than the largest ones we run. This gives us greater flexibility to organise classes for you and our training space was developed specifically for this purpose so it is better tailored to student needs
Celebrations & Social Events
First Barral Institute UK class – June 2009
Our 100th class, May 2019
Great Barral Pub Quiz!
10 year anniversary celebrations
Alain Croibier and Jean- Pierre Barral, developers of the work partying in Ayr in their national dress
Everyone getting a little bit Scottish at our 10 year anniversary party and ceilidh