Technic vs Technique: Why SOT Is Called a Chiropractic Technic

Why Dr. Major Bertrand DeJarnette deliberately called SOT a 'chiropractic technic' rather than 'technique' — and what that engineering distinction means for your care.

Technic vs. Technique: The Engineer's Distinction at the Heart of SOT

Patients sometimes notice that the titles of Dr. DeJarnette's books are inconsistent. His spinal books use Sacro Occipital Technic. His cranial books use Cranial Technique. His organ-adjusting books use Chiropractic Manipulative Reflex Technique.

This is not a typo, and it is not a style choice. It reveals something important about how SOT was built and what it means for the quality of care you receive at Pura Vida Chiropractic.

Dr. DeJarnette Was an Engineer First

Before he was a chiropractor, Dr. Major Bertrand DeJarnette earned a degree in engineering. He later added a D.O. and a D.C. — a triple-credentialed career trajectory that was unusual in the early 20th century and still is rare today.

Engineering discipline stayed with him. So did engineering vocabulary. When DeJarnette described the human body, he used the language of mechanical systems: tension members, weight-bearing joints, dural sleeves, reflex arcs, indicators, endpoint tests. He thought like a builder, which is part of why SOT ended up being the most codified and reproducible system in chiropractic.

That engineering mindset also taught him that words matter. In engineering, "technic" and "technique" are not synonyms. They describe two very different kinds of work.

The Two Terms, Carefully Defined

Technic — a defined, reproducible set of procedures that any trained practitioner can perform with the same result. Like a protocol. Like a schematic. The variables are controlled. The output is consistent. If ten competent engineers are handed the same blueprint, they should be able to build the same bridge.
Technique — an individual practitioner's application of skill, knowledge, and judgment. Variable. Artistic. Informed by experience. If ten competent violinists are handed the same sheet music, you will hear ten different performances — all correct, but each with the unmistakable signature of the player.

DeJarnette used these words with care.

Where He Used "Technic"

Dr. DeJarnette titled all of his spinal and pelvic work Sacro Occipital Technic.

Why? Because the spinal-pelvic correction in SOT is a system. There are specific indicators. Specific categories. Specific blocks placed at specific angles. Specific endpoint tests. Two trained SOT doctors examining the same patient on the same day will, in most cases, identify the same category and apply the same correction. The work is reproducible. It is "Technic."

This is also why SOT is one of the few chiropractic techniques that has survived rigorous peer-to-peer validation for nearly a century. Its procedures do not depend on the individual doctor's intuition. They depend on findings. If the Arm Fossa test shows a certain pattern, the category is determined. If the category is determined, the block placement is determined. If the block placement is determined, the correction follows a specific set of steps. It is almost surgical in its precision — and that is precisely what makes it teachable, certifiable, and consistent across the international SOT community.

Where He Used "Technique"

Dr. DeJarnette used Technique — not Technic — in the titles of his cranial and CMRT work.

Cranial work and organ work are different. They require more of the individual practitioner. The contacts are subtle. The tissue response is felt, not seen. Two excellent cranial practitioners may arrive at the same correction through slightly different means. The patient-to-practitioner variability is higher.

A cranial doctor is listening to the cranial rhythmic impulse with his or her hands. A CMRT doctor is palpating occipital fibers and feeling for the softening that tells him the organ's reflex has been addressed. These are not steps you can hand to a novice and expect reproducibility on day one. They require years of refined touch, clinical pattern recognition, and the kind of intuition that only comes from thousands of hours of patient work.

So DeJarnette — being precise — called these Techniques, not Technics. They are done by the doctor, with their hands, with their training, with their judgment.

Why This Matters to You as a Patient

This is not a linguistic curiosity. It tells you something real about SOT care:

The spinal part of your care is systematic. You can expect consistency. The category system works the same way everywhere. A Category II in San Antonio is a Category II in Tokyo. Your correction is based on what your body indicates, not on what the doctor prefers.
The cranial and organ parts are artisanal. They rely more on the doctor's experience and skill. This is why Advanced SOT certification matters — and why not every SOT doctor offers the full cranial and CMRT curriculum. The spinal "Technic" is teachable to any chiropractor willing to put in the hours. The "Techniques" — Craniopathy and CMRT — are distinguishing marks of a senior practitioner.
Both kinds of work are needed. Your body has a mechanical, structural dimension (the "Technic" territory) and a subtler, neurological-visceral dimension (the "Technique" territory). If your doctor only does one, you are getting half the care.

When you see someone billed as an Advanced SOT practitioner, it means they have completed both the Technic and the Technique training. They can do the systematic work and the artisanal work. Dr. Foss is one of a small group of practitioners worldwide at that level — and the only one in San Antonio.

The Lineage of Careful Language

There is a moral dimension here too. A doctor who is willing to correctly use two similar-sounding words to describe two genuinely different kinds of work — even when almost nobody notices or cares — is a doctor who pays attention to detail.

That sensibility runs through SOT. It is why SOT has produced multiple generations of practitioners who take their work seriously, who continue post-graduate study for decades, and who treat their patients as individuals rather than as spines on a table. The distinction between "Technic" and "Technique" is one of the first things SOT students learn — and in learning it, they absorb something about the culture of the work they are entering.

That is the lineage Dr. DeJarnette built. That is the standard SORSI upholds. And that is the standard of care Pura Vida Chiropractic brings to San Antonio.