In a world increasingly defined by digital shortcuts and quick fixes, he stands as a deeply grounded exception – a practitioner whose very presence seems to slow time. Where most things move at the speed of urgency and surface, he moves differently. Grounded, attentive, and quietly radical, he has spent his life listening – not just to bodies, but to what moves beneath them.
Meet Boniface Verney-Carron. We sat down with him in his London practice, where he offers not just treatment, but recalibration. His approach is both ancient and contemporary, rooted in the body’s natural intelligence and enriched by insights from neuroscience, trauma work, movement, and community ritual.
This conversation isn’t about wellness trends or quick solutions. It’s an invitation into a different rhythm – a different way of being. Discover what shapes Boniface’s work, what he perceives when he listens deeply, and how presence, touch, and stillness can become medicine. If you’ve ever sensed that true healing involves the soul as much as the structure, this is your entry point. A journey not just into the body, but into the art of truly inhabiting it – and perhaps, of finding your way back home to yourself.
You’ve been an osteopath since 2004 (!) – a path you’ve remained loyal to for over two decades. What initially drew you to this discipline? How has your understanding of its potential evolved through time and experience?
Yes, I’ve been an osteopath for 20 years. I graduated in 2004 from an amazing school called the European School of Osteopathy. We spent the last two years of the program in Maidstone, Kent, in the UK.
The reason I went into this field is really thanks to my parents. They were – and still are – quite unusual, very curious, and open to all sorts of different ways of thinking about the world, especially when it comes to health. As a very sporty kid growing up in France, they took me to try different modalities like acupuncture and osteopathy – which, back in the ’80s, was really not common at all. What’s interesting is that I never questioned it – when you’re a kid, you just do what your parents tell you. So I met all these practitioners throughout my life. I initially went to medical school because I really wanted to become a doctor, but it didn’t work out the way I hoped. At some point, I had a bit of an epiphany. I thought: hang on… I actually love what these osteopaths are doing. That could be something for me. I went to see one of the practitioners I had been going to since I was a child, and he said: “There’s this one school in Europe – the ESO: European School of Osteopathy – you should look into it.” And that was the beginning of my journey.
Studying osteopathy was absolutely fascinating – it’s such an open-minded, holistic approach, not just to medicine, but to life. It teaches you to connect with people in a deeper way: through your hands, your heart, your eyes, and your intuition. It’s about reclaiming your senses. For me, it’s been a constant source of wonder. I feel so grateful for the passion I have for this work – especially over the last 10 years, where it has evolved into something even more meaningful. My main focus now is on trauma – or more accurately, helping the body reorganize trauma. I help people understand where their physical patterns come from, how their history lives in their tissue. Sorry, that is a bit long for an intro — but that’s what happens when you’re truly passionate.
Today, you’re a uniquely multidisciplinary practitioner – drawing not only from a range of techniques, but also collaborating with leading experts in functional medicine, nutrition, neuroscience, and longevity. What kind of legacy are you consciously building through this integrative approach?
That’s a good question. I believe that knowledge and wisdom don’t exist in isolation – they live in the spaces between people, within nature, and within ourselves. If there’s a legacy to leave, it’s about helping others reconnect with the inner wisdom we all carry – in our bodies, our souls, and the way we relate to the world. But the first step is to reclaim a sense of self – to feel, not just think.
Thinking is wonderful – I love thinking. But we’ve become numb in a world that’s constantly noisy. We’re more connected than ever through our phones, and yet more isolated. Somewhere along the way, we forgot how to feel – ourselves, others, the planet, everything around us. That’s why I believe so deeply in community – in living together, thinking together, feeling together. Everyone has this incredible potential to contribute – to bring their stone to the great shared temple of being human, being together. And that’s what I love. I don’t believe we own any of this. None of the techniques I use are mine – they existed long before me. And yet, in today’s world, people often want to claim ownership: “This is mine.” But it’s not. Nothing is truly ours. We’re here to carry it forward and to share it – for the benefit of as many people as possible.
Of course, it’s also a profession. We need to make a living – and it would be untrue to pretend there’s no financial aspect to it. But we’re not doing this to get rich. We’re doing this because we believe in it. Because it feels right. Because the purpose behind it is so inherently nurturing and meaningful. And for that, I feel incredibly lucky – to be able to wake up every day and do something that feeds both others and ourselves.
Your pioneering work in osteopathy and body psychology highlights the deep interconnection between physical experiences, emotional health, and mental well-being. How do you address these three dimensions in your treatments? Are they approached simultaneously, or does one tend to take precedence – often becoming the gateway to the others?
There’s a saying I love: You should be able to feel all at once. And that, in a way, is instinct. But of course, it’s not quite that simple. Each modality – each sense – takes a different pathway back to the brain, where it gets analyzed, processed, integrated, and eventually turned into action.
So the first step, for me, is this: you must become a receptor. You open yourself – your heart, your mind, your soul, your senses – completely. When someone walks into the room, you just receive. Let the information come. And instead of analyzing it right away, you simply ask yourself: What do I feel? What am I sensing right now? But you don’t judge it. The moment you start forming judgments, you risk distorting the lens through which you’re seeing them. So – first, observe. How do they walk? How do they open the door? Where do they choose to sit? How are they dressed? What do they smell like? What’s their posture? How do they look at you? How do they speak? All of this is information.
Then comes the second phase: the cognitive connection – brain to brain. You sit down and talk. You ask about their life, their biological history, what they’re feeling, what brings them in today. This is where words and logic start to build the map.
And finally, the third phase: the body. They lie down, and now you can see, touch, examine.
So you have three moments:
- You observe and feel.
- You understand through conversation.
- You explore through touch.
When those three are congruent – when what you see, what you hear, and what you feel from the body align – you’re usually close to a very accurate diagnosis. But most of the time, there’s a small crack between those layers, and it’s within that crack that something interesting often lies. A thread. And if you start gently pulling on it, you may uncover a pattern – something embedded in the nervous system, the history, the trauma, the sociocultural imprint. That’s where many of the core issues live. And that’s when you can bring it back to the person and say:
This is what I feel.
This is what you told me.
This is what your body’s telling me.
What do you think?
It’s not about me knowing. It’s about inviting them into the process: This is what came to me – what does it bring up for you?
And that’s when the real conversation starts – and it becomes fascinating.
Given that osteopathy is firstly preventive, what are the subtle signs or sensations that might suggest it’s time to see an osteopath – before pain or imbalance become more pronounced?
This will be a very quick answer. As you said — preventative. In fact, people like me are best used to help maintain good health. So ideally, you’d come see someone like me when you’re already feeling great – mentally, physically, emotionally. That’s when we can meet and talk about how to sustain that state of well-being.
But what are the early signs of dysfunction if you’re not in that place? It’s important to recall the definition of health – a crucial one: Health is a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being – not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This means that being healthy is so much more than not being sick.
So ask yourself:
- What is your body feeling like – is it how you want it to feel?
- How is your mind?
- What is your relationship with yourself like?
- And third: how is your social well-being?
Are all of these things aligned with what you imagined for yourself? Is this the life you want? Ask yourself: What is a successful life to you? (Not what is success, but: what is a successful life for you?) How do you define that – or redefine it, right now?
And here’s another perspective: If you changed nothing, and you found yourself in exactly the same place 10 years from now, would that feel right to you? Would it feel safe? Grounded? True?
These questions are just tools to help us reflect. Because, as I’ve said before – and will keep saying – many of us no longer know how to feel ourselves. It’s hard to know if we’re truly happy. Hard to know if we’re content. Hard to know if we’re addicts in a high-functioning survival state, mistaking it for thriving. We need to reclaim that inner compass – to be sure of how we’re really doing.
So yes – prevention is key. But we also welcome people in crisis, in pain, in disarray – and what we offer is a return to calm, a glimpse of serenity, and the empowerment to begin understanding what repair and reorganization really feel like.
In your initial assessment, what specific markers or signs do you pay attention to that reveal the body/mind is out of balance? Are there patterns or recurring imbalances you see most often in the modern, high-performing individual?
The answer to this question, I believe, lies in congruence – when those three phases (what you feel, what you hear, and what you see) seem to belong together and flow naturally from one into the other.
It’s when someone moves, speaks, explains themselves – and their body, their words, their presence – all feel aligned. Whatever that “sense” is, it makes sense as a whole. That’s when you know you’re in the company of someone with a strong capacity for resilience and adaptation. They can absorb different kinds of stress and still respond, recover, and reorganize. That coherence is a very good sign.
What often draws attention is incongruence. When something doesn’t quite add up between those three moments – what they say, what they show, and what they feel – you start to wonder: Where is it? What is it? That’s an important cue for me.
But it’s also about how someone feels, what they say, and whether they’re in touch with themselves. Have they done a bit of work around that? Do they reflect on things like: “Oh, yes – my sense of self. My spirituality. My beliefs.” Because we are body, mind, soul, and spirit. What are our beliefs? Do we question our existence? Why are we here? What’s my place in the world?
I like to think of the four pillars of belonging:
- People
- Places
- Empowerment
- Purpose
What’s my purpose? Do I question it? At certain points in life, these questions either emerge or they don’t – but they always have an impact on how we relate to our body, to our mind, and ultimately, to our health. These are big questions – but essential ones.
That’s how I like to approach treatments. I say: Let’s look at your body. Let’s explore how you feel. Let’s check in with how you think. And then, we can begin to ask: Where can we nurture all of this, all at once? Maybe it’s movement. A bit of stretching. Some breathwork. A small nutritional shift. A bit of biohacking.
But also – maybe it’s reading that book you’ve always meant to. Is it philosophy? Schopenhauer? Eckhart Tolle? Indigenous wisdom? Whatever feeds your spirit and makes you feel whole again – those things matter. And that’s what I find most fascinating.
In one of the interviews, you mentioned that physical activity is a non-negotiable part of your daily life. Beyond movement, what personal rituals – nutritional, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise – help you maintain your own physical and emotional well-being?
There’s one good sentence: When your body moves, your mind grooves.
What defines life on this planet? Movement. From the very beginning – from a single archaeobacteria, there was motion. That tiny organism moved through its environment, exchanged with the outside world – and that exchange, that flow, is what made it alive. When things stop moving, we die. There’s a pump in the middle of your chest – your heart – beating roughly 60 times per minute. If it stops, you’re gone in five. Movement is the essence of life.
If you don’t move, nothing works. So yes – exercise. But not as punishment. It has to be fun, playful, a little goofy. Look at how kids move – their bodies are the instruments of their emotions. And emotions? Literally: e-motion – energy in motion. Everything is movement. Curiosity is movement. Speaking is movement – sending sounds out into space, reaching someone. Singing, dancing – all forms of embodied life. So use your body. Move it. Engage with your inner world and the world around you. It’s the key to health.
And beyond that, movement is transformation. As the Temple of Delphi says: Know thyself, and you will know the world and the gods. But this isn’t about being selfish – it’s about being aware. What am I? And how am I changing?
I’m 45 now. I’m not the same body, the same mind, the same self I was at 20. People say we don’t change – of course we change. We evolve in countless ways. And honestly, life would be terribly boring if we didn’t.
So the deeper question becomes: Is this the change I love in myself? Is this change chosen – or has it been chosen for me? That’s what empowerment is to me: Reclaiming the freedom to choose. To do the thing you feel you will thrive from. To move – not because you have to, but because it makes you feel alive.
Alongside your osteopathic practice, together with Dr Tamsin Lewis, you organize Health Retreats. They are described as immersive experiences rather than isolated treatments. What elements – space, rhythm, silence, community – do you consider essential in creating an environment where deep healing and transformation can truly occur?
I started with Catie Miller and Oona series retreats. Oona is sadly no more but Catie runs her own Barre Series retreats now. Retreats are still very important to me – I continue to run quite a few of them. I also attend health summits like the Intelligent Change Summit in Ibiza and the Alma Frequency Festival.
I’m currently partnering in retreats with Dr. Tamsin Lewis (longevity and integrative medicine leader). We work alongside many other incredible practitioners – Rob Rea (breathwork facilitator), Aylie Jolie (somatic psychologist, Chloe MacIntosh (intimacy coach), Rosey Chan (musician and founder of sonic apothecary), Alex Pardhy (integrative doctor), Lisa De Narvaez (consciousness teacher) and more.
What makes these gatherings so powerful isn’t just the schedule – the motion, the body activations, the breathwork, the talks, the immersive experiences – it’s what happens between all of that. It’s the in-between moments, when people connect, share stories, reflect, and exchange perspectives. That’s where the real transformation begins.
You don’t have to walk out saying, “I’m a new person.” But you leave with tools, insights, and new ways of engaging with yourself. That’s the empowering part. You’ve touched something real, and you now know how to return to it – that’s something a retreat can offer in a way that a single treatment often can’t – a space for deep, shared change.
Looking ahead, as the health and wellness landscape continues to evolve – with longevity science, biohacking, and regenerative medicine becoming more mainstream – which future developments do you believe will have the most transformative impact on how we approach holistic healing?
That’s a great question. I’m trying to bridge the very scientific, biohacking world – wearables, machines, IVs, stem cells, exosomes, hyperbaric chambers, and all those potent tools – with more natural biohacking practices, like breathwork, cold exposure, and simply stepping out of your comfort zone. I believe we’re in the middle of a “comfort crisis” in society, which we can dive into another time. But what I’m also trying to bridge, as already mentioned, is the sense of self and our deep connection to the world around us.
Let me tell you a story. At 25 years old, I was in Peru, where I met a shaman. We walked through the forest together, and he was clearly in connection with something, having a conversation that I couldn’t understand. After a few minutes, I stopped him and asked, “Who are you talking to?” He turned around – probably around my age now, 45 – and looked at me. He said, “But you don’t feel the earth?”
At the time, I didn’t feel it the way he did. Of course, I could touch it, smell it, taste it, but I didn’t feel it. And that realization was strange to me – how could I live without truly sensing the very thing we’re made of?
This is huge because a real down regulator – something that brings you to a state of co-regulation, safety, and anabolic metabolism – is the ability to interact at your core with what’s around you. And what’s around us is nature. We need to reclaim this connection, especially now. Because if we could feel the earth in the way we feel our own bodies, would we treat it the way we do? What if every time we pulled a fish out of the water, we could hear it scream? Or every time we cut down a tree, we could hear the planet scream? Trust me, things would be different.
We are so detached from all of this that it becomes a commodity. We take and use, without giving back. But indigenous cultures understand this balance because regenerative practices are embedded in all of their domains – agriculture, relationships with the land, and so much more. We can do this. We can reconnect. It’s all about reclaiming that sense of self that allows us to interact with nature – and the people and living things around us – in a truly meaningful way.
Are there any experts or figures you personally turn to for inspiration or guidance when it comes to health and well-being?
So many people! First and foremost, there’s an amazing osteopath named Renzo Molinari, who was the principal of the European School of Osteopathy. He now runs retreats in Greece, on the island of Ios. He’s in his 70s and has truly held osteopathy in the best light. He’s been a huge contributor to its distribution and has preserved its core values. He’s an amazing man.
Then there’s Dr. Alain Mestralet, who I absolutely love. He’s a French doctor in his 80s. He started as a war doctor, then became a gynecologist and obstetrician. In the 1950s, he learned classical Chinese medicine and was one of the first to bring it to France. He’s taught it for over 30 years. He’s quite an exceptional man and has written several books. I love taking his courses, and feel grateful to call him a friend.
In London and beyond, there are so many amazing practitioners. Dr. Tamsin Lewis is especially important in my life. She’s incredible. She foudned Wellgevity and also works through the Solice group with Dr. Liza Osagie. Focusing on breathwork, Rob Rea is one of a kind and so is Lisa De Narvaes and Jamie Clements. In terms of nutrition, I had the chance to share talks and panels with the three bests, Dr Federica Amati, Rose Ferguson and Rhian Stephenson (Artah). Two amazing acupuncturists: Archna Patel, Dapeng Zhang.
There are several other amazing practitioners in Ibiza as well. One person I must mention is Chloe MacIntosh, an incredible intimacy coach. She partners with Nick Brewer, for intimacy retreats. Nick started Primal Moves who has now spread to Ibiza, Lisbon, and Barcelona. Nick is an amazing man.
When it comes to doctors, I also admire Dr Jack Kreindler, great physician and extreme environment researcher. Jordan Shlain, an open-minded American doctor who runs a holistic medical concierge. Dr Wendy Denning with whom I had the chance to work since 2004 in London. Dr. Mark Hyman shares some great insights. As for speakers, one of my biggest inspirations is Dr. Zach Bush, who I’m sure you’ve heard of.
I also have an immense appreciation for Catie Miller, an expert in movement, barre, and Pilates. She’s fantastic. I must mention Taryn Toomey as well, who’s an amazing teacher and the creator of The Class in New York City. If boxing and high intensity is your thing, take a class with George Veness at Jab London. Last two secrets, Donna Ryan for gua sha and facial, and Sarah Bradden for facial acupuncture.
I want to shout out to my friends from Sanctum: Luuk and Gab. Sanctum is quite simply an amazing experience. A class takes you through three “voyages” and you will experience a physical, emotional and spiritual lift. I’ve attended their festival in Amsterdam which was extraordinary. They also teach in London. These guys are true, and I love them.
In London I am lucky to share my practice with Julien Boulanger who runs the two Martine de Richeville London Clinics. They combine cellulite treatment with a regenerating massage. Their hands are expert, their touch is intuitive and the movement is deep. The goal is to reduce inflammation and release blockages.
Also: my friends Alex Ikonn and Mimi Ikonn, who run the Intelligent Change Summit. Celine Ivari, who has an incredible brand called Wholy Me. It’s a line of Epsom salts and balms, which is just phenomenal. Finally, Jianne Jamill founder of a great supplement company, Diome.
