What is Osteopathy?

Osteopathy is a manual therapy that allows the practitioner to work with the patients body in order to remove anatomical restriction and facilitate the body's natural ability to heal. When a person becomes sick or injured, it can always be traced back to a structural discord within the body that leads to physiological dysfunction. The job of an osteopathic practitioner is to look at the body as a whole in order to find the underlying structural cause that is leading to the symptoms. This is done exclusively through manual manipulation of the body, without the use of surgery, drugs, or other aids.

Who can benefit from Osteopathic treatment?

Many people from the paediatric, to the geriatric population and everything in between can benefit from osteopathic care. Because osteopathy is a principles-based, rather than a technique-based modality, the practitioner can tailor each treatment to the specific needs of each individual patient.

The various approaches to treatment help to ease pain, reduce swelling, and promote health. Treatment is relaxing and gentle, osteopathic practitioners do not use any high velocity thrust, they work with the tissue to create space and ease structures back into place.

In an osteopathic treatment, the practitioner will do a full assessment of the structural integrity of the body and treat the body collectively as a whole in order to restore health. This means that if you come in with a knee injury, the osteopathic practitioner will of course examine and treat the knee, but they will also look to the collective mechanics of the rest of the body including the hips, spine, head and neck, ect., to determine what pattern is feeding into the injury, creating pathological loading into the joint through abnormal distribution of force through the body.

By examining the body as a whole, the osteopathic practitioner can treat not just the symptoms the patient is currently experiencing, but ensure that the root cause of the problem is addressed so that symptoms do not return over time and re-injury is less likely.

Conditions that may benefit from Osteopathic care:

Acute and chronic pain
Muscle spams
Digestive problems
Respiratory problems
TMJ disorders
Headaches and migraines
Concussions
Sleep disorders
Postural problems
Sports Injuries

The 4 Basic Principles of Osteopathy

The body is a dynamic unit of function

Osteopathy is a manual therapy that allows the practitioner to work with the patients body in order to remove anatomical restriction and facilitate the body's natural ability to heal. When a person becomes sick or injured, it can always be traced back to a structural discord within the body that leads to physiological dysfunction. The job of an osteopathic practitioner is to look at the body as a whole in order to find the structural cause that is creating the physiological symptoms. Whether that presents as pain, illness, fatigue, or a combination of symptoms, osteopathy aims to treat the cause in order to relieve the symptoms. They do this exclusively through manual manipulation of the body, without the use of surgery, drugs, or other aids.

3. The natural flow of the body's fluids must be preserved

The natural, unobstructed flow of blood throughout the body allows all tissues to receive adequate nutrients and oxygen as well as eliminate metabolic waste and toxins from the body. The circulatory system must be kept clear and free from obstruction in order for the body to maintain health.

2. Structure and function are interrelated

The body as a whole is greater than the sum of all its parts, each part must work together in harmony in order for health to prevail. This includes every bone, ligament, muscle, fascia, all blood vessels and nerves, as well as the persons emotional, spiritual, and cognitive systems. Everything is connected and dysfunction in any area will have a knock-on effect on the rest of the body.

4. The body is innately self-healing and self-regulating

When the body is free from obstruction, it has the inherent ability to self-heal and self-regulate..